Seattle’s Retail Landscape: Strategies for Resilience and Growth

Prime Locations, Leasing Trends, Tenant Demand Drivers, and the Future of Consumer Engagement

• 

  Patrick Foley

  Patrick oversees development for the company, focuses on placemaking in our projects, is active in the entitlement process, maintains investment partner relations, and is responsible for management of the company.

  Lake Union Partners

  Managing Partner and Co-Founder

  Patrick Foley

  Managing Partner and Co-Founder

  Lake Union Partners

• 

  Ethan Stowell

  Ethan Stowell is the CEO and Founder of Ethan Stowell Restaurants in Seattle. His highly acclaimed restaurants include Tavolàta, How to Cook a Wolf, Cortina, Staple & Fancy Mercantile, Ballard Pizza Company, Rione XIII, Mkt., Red Cow, Frēlard Pizza Company, Bosco Pasta & Panini, Wolf located in Nordstrom’s flagship store in midtown Manhattan, as well as Goldfinch Tavern in the Four Seasons Hotel Seattle. His food philosophy is all about keeping it simple, using fresh ingredients, and allowing the food to do the talking. In 2010, Stowell began consulting for the Seattle Mariners. His work with the Mariners helps to bring local products into the stadium for fans to enjoy. Ethan Stowell’s New Italian Kitchen was released in September 2010 from Ten Speed Press. Stowell was named one of the Best New Chefs in America by Food & Wine in 2008 and chosen as a Best New Chef All-Stars in 2013. He was one of the recipients of the 2016 Richard Melman Innovator of the Year Award. Stowell sits on the Board of Directors of the Woodland Park Zoo and he was a co-chair of the United Way of King County 2020 Annual Campaign. Other philanthropic partnerships include Seattle Children’s Hospital, Mary’s Place, Rainier Scholars, and the YWCA. Deeply devoted to his hometown, Stowell is a fervent advocate committed to seeing that Seattle is recognized nationally as a culinary destination. He lives in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. To learn more, visit www.ethanstowellrestaurants.com.

  Ethan Stowell Restaurants

  CEO and Founder

  Ethan Stowell

  CEO and Founder

  Ethan Stowell Restaurants

• 

  Kemper McQuaid

  Kemper McQuaid has a diverse work experience ranging from business development to financial planning. Kemper started their career in 2014 as a Business Development Assistant at Freestone Capital Management. Kemper then worked as a Financial Planning Assistant at Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. in 2015. In the same year, they also served as an Analyst at 3xEquity. In 2016, they became the President of The 17th Ave House. Kemper then joined Kemper Development Company as a Rotational Intern in 2017 and later returned to the company in 2019 as the VP of Retail Leasing. Prior to that, they worked as an Analyst at OneAccord from 2018 to 2019. Kemper McQuaid attended Bellevue Christian High School from 2011 to 2014. Later, from 2015 to 2018, they pursued a degree in Finance and Information Systems at the University of Washington. Additionally, Kemper obtained a certification called the Foster School of Business Excel Credential from the University of Washington's Michael G. Foster School of Business.

  Kemper Development

  EVP, Development and Leasing

  Kemper McQuaid

  EVP, Development and Leasing

  Kemper Development

• 

  Inger Johnson

  VP, Real Estate

  Pine Street Group

• 

  Maria Royer

  Maria has over 30 years of diverse commercial real estate experience in disciplines ranging from development, sales and leasing, to asset management and finance. Maria and the Real Retail team exclusively represent over three-quarters of a million square feet of urban mixed-use centers and new community and lifestyle centers in the greater Seattle area including past and present notable projects such as Amazon’s World Headquarters, Rainier Square, Kirkland Urban, Ballard Blocks I & II, Everett Riverfront, The Meridian, 7th & Pine and TwoPine. Maria’s past experience also includes the successful lease-up of ground up developments including of Green Lake Village, Grand Ridge Plaza in Issaquah, Kent Station in Kent, and Bella Bottega in Redmond where she played a leadership role in pre-development, pre-marketing and transaction phase of the development cycle on each project. Maria’s present and past experience is also comprised of facilitating several specialty retailers and restaurants in their expansion strategies in the Pacific Northwest including: Equinox, Soul Cycle, Shake Shack, Sephora, Athleta, Old Navy, William Sonoma, West Elm, Trader Joe’s and The Container Store. Using the knowledge and expertise she acquired while working on a wide range of projects of all sizes throughout the region, Maria provides her clients with extensive information and awareness about the unique retail environment in the Pacific Northwest. Maria approaches each assignment as a partnership to ensure long-term project and tenant success. While working at Wright Runstad & Company Maria provided retail leasing, operations and property management services for their Class A office portfolio. This experience gives Maria valuable insight and lends a holistic approach to the challenges of leasing. While at Teranomics Retail Services, Maria was a strong contributor to the Seattle Office’s overall success and helped instigate the Teranomics merger with Federal Realty. Maria later acquired the rights to the Seattle Office of Teranomics which she parlayed into a partnership with Blatteis Realty for several years. In 2004 Maria formed Real Retail and has since maintained a dominant role in the retail landscape in the Greater Seattle Region. Prior positions include a Sales & Marketing Associate with Colliers - The Seeley Company in Los Angeles. While earning a degree in Business Administration, with a dual emphasis in Finance & Marketing at the University of Southern California, Maria also held a variety of internship positions including an advertising and marketing internship at New World Pictures in Los Angeles, an industrial brokerage internship at Grubb & Ellis Brokerage firm in Torrance, and also worked as a retail sales associate at Ann Taylor in Century City where she was a top producer selling to entertainment industry wardrobers. Maria is a past member of the Board of Directors for Plymouth Housing Group, where she served as Co-Chair for three years for Seattle Dances, a high-profile event where local celebrities and professional dancers perform in support of Plymouth Housing Group. She is on the President’s Round Table of the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) and a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). Maria grew up in Seattle where she attended Forest Ridge Girls School and Seattle Preparatory School.

  Real Retail

  Principal

  Maria Royer

  Principal

  Real Retail

• 

  Meaghan McDonald

  Meaghan McDonald is a Principal at GGLO and a leader of the firm’s Hospitality practice. A licensed architect in Washington, Idaho, and Montana, and an NCIDQ- certified interior designer, her 20+ year career spans the country. Originally hailing from New England, she moved west and began her professional career in High-End Residential and Commercial design in Wyoming and Montana. With a cross-disciplinary foundation, Meaghan brings a unique ability to merge architecture and interior design into cohesive, story-rich environments. Since joining GGLO in 2011, Meaghan has led transformative work throughout the region in Hospitality and Mixed-use design, contributing to properties such asVia 6, The Allison Inn & Spa, and The Benson Hotel, Hilton Curio collection. GGLO is an award-winning multidisciplinary design firm with locations in Seattle, Boise and Los Angeles focused on Mixed-use, Hospitality, Housing, and Urban Planning.

  GGLO

  Principal

  Moderator

  Meaghan McDonald

  Principal

  GGLO

Seattle Hotel Insights: A Destination for Tourism and Travel

Exploring Market Performance, Development Trends, Renovations, and Design Innovations Enhancing Guest Experience

• 

  Matt Hagerman

  As EVP, Matt focuses on business development, including planning and execution of pre-opening technical services, new property construction design and development consulting. Matt’s background has been focused on opening and managing full service, independent, unique hotels and restaurants. A Seattle native, Matt is a University of Washington graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the Foster School of Business. Matt is a past board member of the Seattle Hotel Association and teaches the certificate of commercial real estate at the University of Washington. Matt is a husband, father of two, a Husky alum, an avid cyclist (including a ride from Prague to Budapest), golfer, outdoor enthusiast, recreational surfer, and enjoys travel of all kinds. The best way to describe Matt is: eternal optimist, family guy, and enthusiastic.

  Columbia Hospitality

  President, Hotels & Resorts

  Matt Hagerman

  President, Hotels & Resorts

  Columbia Hospitality

• 

  Gregory Steinhauer

  Gregory L. Steinhauer is a graduate of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (1984) with a Bachelor of Science in Economics. He has spent his entire working career in all facets of construction and real estate development. He has been responsible for the design, development and construction of over 2.5 Billion dollars of vertically integrated urban large-scale development. He is a past Chairman of the Seattle Police Foundation and currently serves on the ASU, WP Carey School of Business real estate advisory board. He and his wife Debbie support numerous charitable causes.

  Steinhauer Properties

  President

  Gregory Steinhauer

  President

  Steinhauer Properties

• 

  Bashar Wali

  “My People used to say, when a stranger appears at your door, feed him for three days before asking who he is, where he's come from, where he's headed. That way, he'll have strength enough to answer. Or, by then you'll be such good friends, you don't care.” Bashar Wali is a founder, a father, and a hotel fanatic. He’s a pragmatist—hungry to experience life not as it is packaged and sold, but as it is. His vested interest in hospitality, culture, and design, is cut with curiosity of what’s possible, beyond the status quo. Bashar is always looking for that spark—that perfect symmetry of an idea and its physical manifestation—to make human experiences as we know them, better. He’s the consummate Host of the Soirée—ever in pursuit of a shared humanity among friends, colleagues, and total strangers. This is perhaps his greatest gift: bringing together a group that’s more inspiring than the sum of its parts. As founder and CEO of This Assembly and Practice Hospitality, Bashar draws upon expertise honed over a 30-year career in hospitality. An expert in the lifestyle space, Bashar is known for pushing limits in his philosopher-meets-hotelier kind of way. Whether helming the TEDx stage, hosting a Global YPO event, or collaborating on Clubhouse, Bashar’s message is unwavering: service is what you deliver, hospitality is how you make people feel. Bashar has done every job in a hotel—from frying an egg to negotiating a deal—working for Starwood Hotels before leading acquisitions and development globally at Grand Heritage Hotels. Prior to launching This Assembly and Practice Hospitality, Bashar served as President/CEO of Provenance Hotels, where he remains a partner, for 15 years, growing the company from five to 15 hotels, 1,500 team members, and expanding the collection from the Pacific Northwest to an award-winning national brand, with annual revenue in excess of $150 million. When Bashar isn’t traveling to 50+ countries and 45+ states, he’s home in Portland, Oregon with his wife and kids, dreaming up the hotels of tomorrow.

  Practice Hospitality

  Founder & CEO

  Bashar Wali

  Founder & CEO

  Practice Hospitality

• 

  Vince Stroop

  Vince Stroop is an award-winning architect, designer, and photographer. Prior to founding the stroop design studio, he served as Partner & Executive Design Director at the renowned New York firms of Jeffery Beers International and Stonehill Taylor and additionally held the role of Principal at BBGM and Partner & Co-Founder at A2 Studios. Over the past 30 years, he sharpened his design expertise working across wineries, libraries, restaurants & bars, exhibitions, hotels & resorts, and all levels of residential developments. He has directed projects for major hospitality brands including Raffles, Rosewood, Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, One&Only, IHG, Equinox, NoMad Hotels, The Sydell Group, JLL, Chef Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park, and for several boutique ventures. Always looking to explore creative outlets, he has led exhibition design for installations at Fuorisalone in Milan, Seattle Design Festival, Hotel Interiors Experience (HIX) in London, and an award-winning pop-up hotel concept featured during the Independent Hotel Conference in Amsterdam. He has been a featured speaker and panelist at industry events, most notably for Architectural Digest, The New York Times, Design Milk, Apartment Therapy, and NPR. He is a licensed architect in New York, California, Washington, Oregon, Texas, Connecticut, Massachusetts, & Georgia. NCARB certified and a member of NAIOP. Vince travels extensively, is an avid baker, loves the outdoors, is a runner, a skier and has recently taken to cold water swimming.

  Stroop Design

  Founding Partner

  Vince Stroop

  Founding Partner

  Stroop Design

• 

  Stephanie Deshaies

  Stephanie Deshaies is a visionary dedicated to the Interior Design profession. She is an NCIDQ certified interior designer with experience in all vertical markets. In 2005 she joined Architex Textiles in the Pacific Northwest and quickly turned the PNW into a top performing territory where she became known as the Textile Maven and an expert in performance textiles. In 2021 her role was elevated to Managing Director of Strategic Accounts for Architex establishing partnerships and preferred vendor programs with Brands. Deshaies's commitment to the advancement of the interior design profession is evident through her active involvement in prominent industry organizations. She has held leadership positions within the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) and the Network of Executive Women in Hospitality (NEWH), notably serving as the NEWH Director of Brand Programs. Her contributions extend to the educational realm, where she has served as a site visitor for the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA), evaluating and upholding educational standards within the field. Furthermore, her role as Past President of the Interior Design Coalition of Washington underscores her dedication to advocating for the profession at the state level. A passionate and vocal supporter of interior design, Deshaies consistently champions the critical role that interior designers play in safeguarding public safety through their specialized knowledge and expertise. Her advocacy efforts highlight the importance of qualified interior design professionals in creating safe, functional, and accessible built environments for all.

  Architex

  Managing Director of Strategic Accounts

  Moderator

  Stephanie Deshaies

  Managing Director of Strategic Accounts

  Architex