A Top Partner At Wright Runstad Leaves The Firm
BELLEVUE
One of the top partners at Wright Runstad & Co. - the man in charge of the yet-unbuilt Seattle building that could become Aldus Corp.'s headquarters - has quit the development company to start his own firm.
David Victor, a Wright Runstad senior vice president also in charge of the developer's Sunset Corporate Campus office building, along I-90 in Bellevue, said his decision to step down had nothing to do with the fact that Sunset remains only 25 percent full five months after it was completed.
Some in the real estate community had suggested Sunset wasn't filling up quickly enough.
"That's hogwash," Victor said. "I made a personal decision to leave the firm. It was driven by a decision to go into business for myself," he said.
Wright Runstad President Jon Runstad said he was "disappointed" by Victor's decision.
Executive Vice President Jon Nordby will take over responsibility for Sunset, and Victor's other duties will be split among the company's senior executives.
Wright Runstad had planned to fill Sunset in 12 to 18 months. "Our expectation (now) is we'll have the building full before the end of the year . . . And it's only been five months," Runstad said.
Victor said Wright Runstad, which built the 150,000-square-foot Sunset before any tenants were lined up, has filled the top floor of the four-story building. An additional 10,000 square feet are either committed or being held off the market for one of the existing tenants.
Also, some new tenants may be announced "in the next couple of weeks," Victor said.
If our leasing momentum continues, he said, construction could start later this year on a second building, which will be nearly identical to the four-story, 150,000-square-foot first building. The second building would be ready for tenants in the third or fourth quarter of 1993, he added.
Victor also said Aldus has not made up its mind about which of four Seattle locations, including its current Pioneer Square address, it might move into. The Seattle software company previously nixed a move to the Eastside.
Victor, who expects to leave the firm by Labor Day, said he plans to form a partnership with another former Wright Runstad principal, Steve Trainer, who left the company at the end of 1991. Trainer had been in charge of much of Wright Runstad's development in Seattle's central business core, including the Second & Seneca Building and the Washington Mutual Tower.