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New & Notable

2023
  1. San Francisco Catholic Archdiocese parishes: St. James (San Francisco) and Our Lady of Loreto (Novato) retained AllWest in January to conduct Property Condition and Seismic Assessments (Novato only) on their parish buildings. PCA reports evaluate the systems and components that comprise buildings, in this case: school facilities, rectories, assembly halls, etc. and forecast items from boilers to roofs that may require capital reserve related expenditures in the next several years. Seismic Assessments predict the likely damage to site buildings from a code level earthquake. Both parishes will use AllWest reports for budget planning efforts.

  2. Also in January, AllWest provided Seismic, Environmental and Property Condition Assessment reports to Intel on their 25 acre, 4 building, 501,000 sf office property on Innovation Drive in San Jose, CA. The property is being marketed for disposition by the Colliers team of Bob Gilley and Kevin Moule with best and final offers expected towards the end of March 2023.

  3. We provided environmental, seismic and property condition evaluations in conjunction with CCIG's purchase of 1350 Treat Blvd in Walnut Creek. CCIG has been especially active in the past 18 months primarily in the beat down office sector. The Treat Boulevard property is a 130,447 rentable square foot (sq ft) office building, a five-level structure over a two-level parking garage.

  4. Although the economy petered along AllWest clients were somewhat active in the spring months. Sutter Health purchased sites in Oakland and Brentwood and retained AllWest for Phase I reports. The Canadian Consulate in Los Angeles retained us for a property condition assessment of their ambassador’s residence. JMA Ventures made a run at the historic Sonoma Mission Inn retaining AllWest for the usual trio of reports but was unable to close the transaction due to several factors.

  5. Khanna Enterprises, an aggressive growth hotel company, purchased the Double Tree by Hilton in San Diego’s Mission Valley in June. AllWest staffed the project PCA with a 4 person team consisting of an architect, elevator and exterior envelope consultants and a MEP engineer to assess the 231,200 square foot (sq ft) eight-story hotel with partial basement and a five-story parking garage (Garage) with 102,660 sq ft. The Hotel provides 219 rooms, a fitness center, meeting rooms, the Spyglass restaurant and bar, and an outdoor pool with a whirlpool within a patio. We also reviewed seismic and environmental issues as part of our services.

  6. AllWest hit the road to Calexico, CA and Nogales, AZ in the late spring on behalf of client, Meuchadim, Duty Free Americas, to perform ALTA surveys, enviro, PCA and seismic reviews. ALTA surveys are particularly challenging in border towns and land use related documentation tends to be sketchy.

  7. While most of AllWest's work is in northern California we have legacy projects in Socal resulting from our longtime office in OC which we closed during Covid. Dry cleaner related assessment projects in Los Angeles and Fullerton occupied our professional geologist staff with semi- annual sampling requirements and the never ending task of trying to get the regulatory agencies to be reasonable in their project demands. AllWest also manages dry cleaner related projects in Los Gatos, San Mateo, Napa and Petaluma.
2022
  1. Finally, a successful dry cleaner closure without a million dollars in fees! When AllWest was retained by Sacramento based Fulcrum Properties in 2019 our strategy was to characterize the PCE release at their Petaluma CA retail center, enter DTSC’s voluntary clean-up program and sell the property with a reasonably confident estimate of remedial expenses. This actually occurred in early 2022! The site’s elevated PCE IAQ levels were mitigated by sealing the floor slab and increasing HVAC capacity. DTSC agreed to a Site Management Plan for the property accompanied by long term monitoring program. AllWest remains the project consultant.

  2. Dry cleaners dominated our environmental business in 2022 as real estate transactions were dampaned by the Ukraine – Russo War, inflation and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate actions. In April AllWest designed and oversaw the injection of 16,444 gallons of microbial agents to reduce PCE groundwater contamination within an interior tenant space in San Mateo, CA. The remedial efforts were highly successful in reducing PCE groundwater concentrations as indicated by quarterly monitoring.

  3. Property Condition Assessments were performed for both acquisition and disposition purposes during the year In March, Goodman a multinational real estate firm specializing in logistics related properties, retained AllWest to provide hazmat and PCA reports for a 3 building, 3.5 acre site in San Francisco’s Bayshore District. We provided similar services for Goodman later in the year for another, almost adjoining, 7 acre, 4 building (200,000sf) site.

  4. In April, AllWest provided Property Condition and Environmental Assessments for the Pavillions Retail Center in Scottsdale, AZ. The site is developed with a forty building, 1,212,949 sq ft mixed-use complex constructed between 1988 and 1993. Site owner PCCP planned to sell the property but is still marketing the site.
2021
  1. Charles Bucher Jr., California licensed architect, joined AllWest in late June to bolster our in-house Property Condition Assessment staff. Charles was formerly with Knapp Architects who specialize in historic preservation. His interests in architecture are diverse, from preservation to vernacular architecture to modern design.

  2. Klaudia Barberi, a California Professional Geologist, joined AllWest in August. Klaudia had been providing environmental site assessments and peer reviews for AllWest since 2013 while raising 3 children with her husband Ian. Thinking it time again to work full time, it is AllWest’s great pleasure to welcome Klaudia to our full-time staff.

  3. Also and incredibly sad in August, Alexander W. Cunningham, passed away due to an opiod overdose. Alexander was 32 years old and grew up arm in arm with AllWest arriving in San Francisco to his mother Karen and father Marc in June of 1989. The company name is partly derived from his initials. As a child he earned spending money with his brother Oliver adding labels and postage to AllWest’s famous transaction postcards. Alexander was everyone’s favorite and left an indelible impression on his family and friends. More info can be accessed HERE. Thank you to those who attended his services in Westerly RI and memorials in Austin, TX and San Francisco, CA. Thank you to all that contributed almost $40,000 to Opiod Research via a Go Fund Me page and to the Warm Center, also in Westerly RI.

  4. In October Marc Cunningham tied the knot with long time paramour Mary Folzman at San Francisco City Hall in front of approximately 100 guests. Their reception was held at the Golden Gate Yacht Club where a grand time was had by all attendees. M&M made their first public appearance the following day at Cinnebar Hills Golf Club in San Jose at the Silicon Valley NAIOP inaugural annual golf tournament after which they headed to Mendocino on their honeymoon.

  5. A very busy October as AllWest was retained to provide environmental, property condition, seismic assessments and an ALTA survey on a prominent Napa Valley golf and spa facility. AllWest’s efforts assisted in the property’s acquisition. In November AllWest was retained to assist Khanna Enterprises with due diligence assessments of the Westin San Jose, formerly the St. Clair Hotel originally constructed in 1926.

  6. Also in November AllWest held our 16th Holiday Open at Sequoyah CC in Oakland, CA. The tournament format is 9 holes and then an all participant Horse Race. This year’s winning team, after a one hole playoff, was comprised of Mitch Kirkorian (HO 2016 Horse Race Champ), longtime tournament friend Ken Gaitan of Verus Finance and Patrick McGaughey of Paragon Commercial Group.
2020
  1. 2020 rang in loud in clear when AllWest was retained by Obermeier – Sheykhet Architects (Denver) in late January to run the physical due diligence point on Harrah’s Reno - two city blocks (5.5 acres) at Virginia and Commercial Streets Reno, NV. AllWest’s opinions were needed because the new owner will change site land use from gaming focused to residential/office and retail. Miguel Enguidanos did a superb job coordinating our usual team including MCA/VDA/ECCM and SGH as we conducted Property Condition and Seismic Assessments of 11 buildings with 1.25M sq of gaming/lodging space.

  2. Not long after we completed our Harrah’s assignment Covid reared its ugly head and essentially shut down the world including our consulting practice. Marc Cunningham continued to work at the office to answer mail, sign checks and otherwise keep the paper moving while the rest of the staff was dispersed to CA EDD or learned how to work from home. Environmental investigation and remedial project revenues in SF, LA, Petaluma, Hayward and Campbell, CA supported AllWest during this period as did a PPP loan. Staff returned to work on staggered 2 or 3 day office schedules in early mid-summer.

  3. In July AllWest was retained by Ridge Capital and the Carlyle Group to provide opinions on environmental, physical and seismic conditions for separate office building transactions in San Francisco and Burlingame CA. Both transactions cratered.

  4. The US seemed to be getting back in the swing of things in the late summer and early fall only to stumble again with Covid and the US presidential election dominating attention spans. Notable transactions were few and far between but AllWest continued to earn fees attributable to soil, soil vapor and groundwater remedial and assessment projects.

  5. The most propitious development in the fall occurred when the principals of local environmental firm, Geologica, decided to retire and recommended their clients retain AllWest to continue their projects. AllWest gained the service of a stellar CA Professional Geologist, Dan Mathews, who now works for AllWest from a Seattle location and two dry cleaner PCE release sites in mid-stream site characterization.

  6. A request from Oracle Corporation in December to assist them in selling several of their Redwood Shores/Belmont CA buildings considerably brightened AllWest’s prospects for 2021. Subsequently AllWest provided our usual suite of Environmental, Physical, Seismic and Surveying reviews on properties to be marketed in 2021.
2019
  1. AllWest was retained in early January to provide environmental services related to the $100 million structural shoring of the Millennium Tower in San Francisco. AllWest collected and assessed soil and groundwater data per SF Health Code Article 22A & SF Bldg Code Article 106A.3.4.2) requirements commonly referred to as the Maher regulation. Due to exacting downtown urban logistics the project took approximately 7 months to complete.

  2. In April AllWest was retained by the Zachs, Freedman & Paterson (ZFP) law firm to assist them understand potential environmental issues associated the development of Seawall 330 as a Navigation Center by the City of San Francisco. ZFP was working with a local neighborhood group opposed to the Navigation Center.

  3. In May AllWest was retained by PCCP and subsequently The Evergreen Company in their acquisition of 300 Capital Mall, a 19 Story, 435,542 square foot office building in Sacramento CA. The asset also included a 2 story annex and 7 story parking garage. AllWest provided Physical Due Diligence expertise utilizing MEP, Elevator, Exterior Envelope, Seismic, Architectural and Environmental professionals.

  4. Teaming with the Colliers SF Investment group AllWest hosted a spectacularly successful fishing expedition for 18 people aboard the New RayAnn leaving from Sausalito before the crack of dawn on July 19. Trolling approximately 8 miles west of the Golden Gate we landed 26 King (Chinook) salmon up to 18 lbs. Dan Sachs of Deca Co took the big fish award for $190.00. Brad Cordon of Stockbridge was named best guest in light of the multiple cigars and Tequila that somehow found their way on board. Why does Tequila taste so good at 7am? Other notables included Bay Area real estate all-stars and fine fellows Bob Gilley of Colliers, Greg Pasqualli (Carmel Partners), Dave Kingery (Carlyle), Arun Toor, John Paul Peterson (Hanover Financial) and Don Rea of the East Bay YMCA. Special shout out to guests Nadav Kariv (NGKF) and Steve Hood (Millenium Partners) who managed to smile through their pain and vowed always to take Dramamine before venturing forth on the salty seas.

  5. In August AllWest assisted AIMCO, a long-time client, in providing inspections and developing flexible permit documents to comply with California’s updated balcony inspection regulations (SB-721). AIMCO was in the process of renovating units in a 246-unit Pathfinder apartment complex when progress was halted by the City of Fremont to address concerns regarding balcony structure integrity. AllWest was able to immediately visit the site to assess the situation and coordinated with our structural consultants to provide the required inspection documentation. In addition we worked with the client and engineer to develop a set of construction documents that addressed the immediate needs while planning for the eventual inspection and repair of the entire development.

  6. The Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) retained AllWest in September to conduct Seismic, Property Condition and Environmental Assessments on a site destined to become their new headquarters. The 10 story, 244,287 square foot office building sits on 0.60 acre site at the corner of Webster and 22nd Street in Oakland CA.

  7. September and October were very busy months for San Francisco commercial property transactions. As part of the disposition process and working with the CBRE Taquino – Kovac team AllWest provided Seismic/Property Condition and Environmental Assessments on the former Federal Reserve Building at 301 Battery Street purchased by Columbia Property Trust, on 353 Folsom Street, 200 Kansas Street and 222 Sutter Street. On the acquisition side AllWest provided due diligence reports to Flynn Properties for 222 Kearny Street, to Brick and Timber for 450 Pacific Ave and 900 Kearny and to Morgan Stanley for 745 Front Street.

  8. In November AllWest was retained by Greystone Hotels to provide seismic and environmental reports on a portfolio of 9 hotels located across CA in La Jolla, San Diego, Los Angeles, Los Gatos, Palo Alto, and San Francisco.

  9. Celebrating our 30th year providing physical due diligence services to the west coast real estate market, AllWest revived the AllWest HOLIDAY OPEN. Exuberant sunshine greeted thirty-nine golfers on November 18 as they teed off in 10 foursomes. The tournament has two parts – a qualifying 9 holes where the gross strokes and number of putts are combined and after a poolside lunch, a four hole Horse-Race where the each foursome played a single ball. Without further adieu the 2019 Holiday Open (HO) champs were The Quid Pro Quos! Mary Folzman, Bruce Del Fante (HO rookie), Sage Sudbury (HO rookie) & Mitch Kirkorian (HO Rookie). 2019 HO 2nd Place winners- The Higgenbothems. - Gabe Roldan (HO rookie), Jim Korinek, Tom Christian and Clarke Miller. HO - 1st place in 9 hole qualifier - The Hairline Fractures- Henry Bose, Sam Calloway (HO Rookie) and Marc Horodas. Low Gross - 37 - Issac Abid who won a 15 lb turkey for his stellar efforts. Low Putts - 13- Brian Muller. Best Dressed - Clarke Miller. Father - Son Champs Mitch and John Kirkorian won on a card off. The next Holiday Open is scheduled for 2021.

  10. Moving into 2020 AllWest’s backlog of soil and groundwater related projects is very healthy. We have former dry cleaner sites in Napa, Petaluma, Hayward, Campbell, Fountain Valley and Los Angeles in various stages of site characterization through remediation. We have 5 Maher Zone projects in San Francisco on Green, Shipley, Mission, Leavenworth and 24th Streets in progress as well.
2018
  1. January 2018 – Before diving headlong into the New Year, a look back at 2017 reveals AllWest conducted 50 Phase I reports and ESA updates, 69 Property Condition Assessments, 35 Seismic Risk Assessments and 13 ALTA surveys. We also conducted 22 Phase II assessments assessing soil, soil vapor and groundwater concerns. Company revenues were slightly off 2016 levels but that was almost to be expected with the long real estate cycle waning in its velocity.

  2. January 2018 was notable in that our environmental department remained busy with soil and groundwater investigations reflecting the development part of the cycle we are in. We assisted Republic Metropolitan review potential remedial costs associated with a residential construction site in South San Francisco and conducted a remedial investigation in SF prompted by the Maher Regulation for an office property rehab.

  3. Spring 2018 – soil and groundwater assessments and the usual assortment of physical due diligence reviews for both buyers and sellers abounded. In San Francisco, AllWest assisted the CBRE team of Taquino and Kovac dispose a three acre industrial site in San Francisco’s eastern waterfront Dogpatch neighborhood by providing Enviro, PCA, SUL and ALTA surveys. The property sold in August to Chicago based DECA Holdings.

  4. In Napa, AllWest provided similar services to San Carlos based Black Mountain Properties during their acquisition of Caneros Commons, a two building, 77,000 sf office park. In West Los Angeles, AllWest was retained by a family office to conduct concise form PCAs on 3 medium size apartments subject to disposition.

  5. In El Segundo AllWest assisted Swift Realty partners with environmental issues in their purchase of two 11-story commercial buildings and one 10-story parking/office structure developed on approximately 6 acres.

  6. Summer 2018 – Transactions slowed markedly and the dreaded R word was thought to have been heard. AllWest and Bob Gilley of Collier’s SF investment office entertained 10 guests on a fruitful salmon fishing expedition just outside the Golden Gate. All agreed that transactions would pick up and they DID!

  7. AllWest was retained by Millenium Partners in July to conduct an extensive Phase II assessment of a likely residential block (now industrial) in West Oakland. We conducted a similar scope of work for Swift Realty partners for SF Jewelry Center on Utah Street. Ensemble Realty of Long Beach retained us to conduct Phase I, II and ALTA surveys on an assemblage of properties they intend to develop in Santa Clara. Fremont Bank retained AllWest in the acquisition of back office property in Livermore CA to conduct property condition, seismic and environmental risk assessments. Steelwave and PCCP retained AllWest to provide a PCA report for their disposition of a 4 building office complex in Alameda.

  8. Most notably in the Fall, AllWest provided Accessibility reviews to comply with San Francisco’s Accessible Business Entrance Program which requires offices, hotels, stores, health clubs, repair shops, restaurants, theaters, private schools, etc. be accessible by persons with disabilities at all primary entries and path of travel for properties at 2nd, 18th, Carolina and Indiana Streets. The Ordinance’s original compliance date was June 1, 2018 which was then extended until January 1, 2019. There should be lots of compliance assessments in the interim.
2017
  1. 2017 began much like it ended for AllWest in 2016; quietly! Focus on the new Presidential administration and deal fatigue may explain the slow pace of play. Nevertheless we were retained by the FAA to conduct hazmat assessments on five antenna related buildings in Livermore, Manteca, Burbank, Van Nuys & El Cajon, CA.

  2. In February - March AllWest assisted longtime client, the Kor Group, in their acquisition of the Custom Hotel that serves LAX travellers by conducting environmental and property condition assessments as well as an ALTA survey. AllWest’s Phase I identified an inadequately assessed former dry-cleaner at the property. After several subsurface investigations the seller provided a credit to Kor for expected remedial related costs. The facility will be significantly remodeled and rebranded as a Proper Hotel opening in 2019.

  3. Several projects highlighted the spring - summer months including Simeon Properties (backed by Lionstone Investments) acquisition of the Wind River Campus in Alameda, CA. The facility consists of 4 Class A buildings containing 275,000 sf on 36 acres. AllWest provided property condition and seismic expertise in the transaction. We were also retained by the Canadian government to assess their residence building in Los Angeles, our first contract with the Queen of England! Lastly, we oversaw asbestos abatement activities at a building soon to be occupied by Zoox in Foster City, CA. Zoox is a robotics company pioneering autonomous mobility as-a-service by developing a breakthrough, fully automated, electric vehicle fleet and the supporting ecosystem required to bring the service to market at scale.

  4. The retail transaction market was active in August as AllWest assisted the owner of the Diamond Heights Shopping Center in San Francisco prepare their property for sale by conducting Phase I & II Environmental Assessments, Property Condition, Seismic and ALTA surveys for the 5 acre, 4 building, 76,000sf property.

  5. September saw the essential completion of a major seismic retrofit project to comply with San Francisco’s soft story ordinance: Mandatory Seismic Retrofit Program for Wood Frame Buildings (SFEBC Chapter 34B). AllWest was initially retained by AIMCO in March 2014 to assess 164 buildings for compliance with the soft story structural ordinance promulgated. AIMCO subsequently retained AllWest to provide engineering services for soft story seismic upgrades on 14 buildings.

  6. October was San Jose hotel month as AllWest provided expertise to clients purchasing the Fairmont and DeAnza hotels. The Fairmont contains almost a million square feet with 835 rooms for lodging. Built in 1931 the DeAnza Hotel is on the national historic register and provides 100 rooms for overnight stay. Unfortunately this transaction was not consummated but the Fairmont will close in January 2018.

  7. November continued its active pace with AllWest again retained by Eagle Canyon Capital to assess potential physical, environmental, hazmat and seismic issues at the Pacific School of Religion (PSR) in Berkeley, CA. Located on Holy Hill (so named because of the concentration of seminaries in the area) in a quadrangle between LeConte, Virginia, Scenic Avenue and Arch Street, the facility contains 5 major classroom/worship facilities and 11 small multifamily buildings for student housing. Approximate building square footage 82,000 on 5 acres.

  8. December closed the year as the busiest ever in AllWest’s 28 years of business. We were very active on the Property Condition, Seismic and Hazmat fronts as AllWest conducted PCA/PML reviews on four 100,000 sf, grocery anchored retail centers in the Seattle metro area for Donahue Schriber Retail Group of Costa Mesa CA. The project had a rigorous schedule whereby AllWest was authorized to conduct the assessments on Thursday, December 6th with report due dates for the 8 reports on Dec 22nd, the Friday before Christmas (Monday). Never again! Back in California, AllWest was retained by Highbridge Properties to conduct asbestos and lead paint assessments on approximately 20 residential structures in Davis scheduled for demolition prior to construction of private student housing for university students.
2016
  1. In January AllWest was retained by Sleepy Hollow Investment Company (SHIC) to provide Environmental, Property Condition and Seismic Assessments on their twelve building, 874,000 sf, suburban office portfolio. SHIC properties range in locale from Santa Clara east to the Dublin-Pleasanton corridor and north to Santa Rosa. Marketed by Cushman Wakefield's investment group of Eric Fox ↦ Steve Hermann, the portfolio will be divided among several buyers with various closing dates throughout the year. AllWest was subsequently retained in April 2016 to provide ALTA surveys for each of the SHIC assets.

  2. February was a busy one on the asbestos/hazmat abatement front as AllWest provided industrial hygiene related services to Millennium renovation of the historic Aronson building at 706 Mission Street in San Francisco which is being remodeled to house the Mexican Museum of SF. AllWest provided similar services to the Kor Group which is redeveloping the Renoir Hotel at 7th and Market into a trendy LA style boutique lodging facility.

  3. March was another portfolio month as AllWest was retained by Interland LLC to assess their 17 building, 305,000 sf Office ↦ RD park in Davis, CA. AllWest provided eight "short-form" PCA reports and two Phase I Assessments to aid the property's disposition. The property sale is being spearheaded by Russell Ingrum of CBRE.

  4. The spring found AllWest busy with a soil remediation project at 7th and Folsom, also in San Francisco. An existing two-story warehouse building on the southeastern portion of the subject property at 1140 Folsom Street was demolished in late February/early March 2016, in preparation for a new six-story mixed commercial/residential building to be constructed over the entire subject property. AllWest conducted an extensive soil characterization study to assist planning project site excavation and grading. Approximately 32,000 tons of soil were removed from the site and forwarded to appropriate disposal facilities.

  5. In April and May the Santa Ana office conducted several asbestos surveys for City Constructors for rehab projects in downtown Los Angeles with subsequent abatement related monitoring services. The office also conducted an extensive two-phase soil, soil vapor and groundwater assessment project at a retail site in Fountain Valley for potential dry-cleaning related contaminants.

  6. Also in April, Aimco retained AllWest to assess exterior appurtenances on four major apartment complexes in San Francisco's Bayview District to comply with San Francisco Housing Code Ordinance 604.

  7. Rescore/Presidio Development Partners retained AllWest to comply with San Francisco's Health Code Article 22A ↦ SF Bldg Code Article 106A.3.4.2 environmental requirements for the former Flax art supply store at Valencia and Market. In 2013 the City of San Francisco enacted legislation enlarging the area where mandatory soil and groundwater testing is required prior to site redevelopment. Commonly referred to as the expanded Maher Zone, properties throughout the City that were formally industrial in use, sites that were gas stations, sites with other uses associated with underground storage tanks, sites located within 100 ft. of any properties containing underground storage tanks, and/or properties located within 150 feet of freeways must comply with the ordinance by preparing a land use history (Phase I ESA) and submit the findings to the San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH) for review. DPH requires a soil and/or groundwater investigation whenever more than 50 cubic yards of soil will be excavated.

  8. The year ended slowly with deal fatigue and fascination with the Presidential election’s stunning outcome. AllWest was retained for several East Bay acquisitions by Black Mountain Properties to provide comprehensive physical due diligence expertise. We also travelled to Bend, Oregon to conduct ESAs on two hotel properties owned by Greystone Hospitality of San Francisco, CA. Perhaps the most interesting project we worked on in latter 2016 was a 155,000 sf building in Morgan Hill, CA where our client mandated the lessee bring the facility back to its original prior to vacating the premises. AllWest lead a team of IH, HVAC, Roof Consultants and Architects to evaluate impact of high tech manufacturer on base building condition. We then provided a remedial cost estimate to return building to original condition for a new tenant. Incidentally both tenants were engaged in the same high-tech manufacturing process.
2015
  1. The City of San Francisco recently expanded its Maher Ordinance (SF Health Code Article 22A) significantly enlarging the regulated area. The original Maher Ordinance applied primarily to the City's historic eastern shoreline and known areas of historic fill soils and required soil testing and mitigation of contaminated soils prior to the issuance of project permits. The expanded areas now include sites zoned or used/formerly used for industrial occupancy; sites that have a current or former presence of hazardous substances or underground storage tanks (USTs); sites within 100 feet of USTs; and those sites located within 150 feet of elevated freeways. All properties with the expanded area require DPH review as a condition of issuing a building permit.

    In the last 18 months AllWest has provided Maher driven soil and groundwater consulting expertise to development projects at 270 Brannan (SKS Partners), 615 Front Street (Walnut Street Properties) at 1170 Harrison Street (Hoeck Iron Works) and in January 2015 at 1140 Folsom Street (Belrich Partners/ Pillar Capital). The Folsom Street subsurface assessment consisted of approximately 56 soil borings to 18 feet below the ground surface attempting to characterize as much of the soils scheduled for excavation as "clean".

  2. In February AllWest closed a series of groundwater monitoring wells at 600-790 Dubuque Ave. in South San Francisco culminating a multi-year saga with a local county regulatory agency that was finally resolved by the CA State Water Quality Control Board. Essentially the county agency required AllWest's client to study ad naseum and propose costly remedial solutions to mitigate residual diesel and motor oil beneath an 8 inch concrete slab that formed the foundation for a recently constructed, large retail building. After numerous efforts to resolve the case with the county agency AllWest petitioned the CAWQCB to close the site under the state's Low-Threat Closure Policy. Case closure was granted by the State in late January. The case summary can be found via Geotracker by searching the site address.

  3. AllWest was retained by Garaventa Properties of Concord CA in mid - March to assist in their disposition of a 21 building, 663,000sf office/retail portfolio with properties in Folsom, Fairfield, Concord and Walnut Creek CA. Working with DTZ brokers Bob Gille and Steve Hermann, AllWest initially provided Property Condition and Seismic Assessments. Essential data from the PCAs was included in the broker's Offering Memorandum. AllWest's scope was eventually enlarged to include ALTA surveys and environmental assessments. The portfolio sale is expected to be completed in late 2015.

  4. In concert with Verde Design AllWest was retained by the City of Concord CA to provide physical assessments of their park and recreation facilities including tennis/basketball courts and water spray park. Forty facilities were visited by AllWest in January and February with a written report provided at the project conclusion. Miguel Enguidanos of AllWest presented our findings to the City Council in March.

  5. Trico Realty of Costa Mesa, CA retained AllWest in the spring of 2015 to assist them address residual soil contamination at one of their buildings in Fountain Valley, CA. AllWest was engaged to provide a Current Conditions Report and Facility Investigation Workplan per DTSC guidelines. The site was closed by the DTSC in November 2015.

  6. AllWest conducted ALTA surveys for Duty Free Americas, Inc. (DFA) in Nogales, Arizona, and Calexico & San Diego, CA. DFA is the largest duty/tax-free retailer in the Western Hemisphere, operating more than 150 duty free stores in the United States and internationally. AllWest has been providing services to DFA via the attorneys the LA office if Greenberg Traurig for several years. Through September AllWest has conducted 20 ALTA surveys in 2015.

  7. Waterton Associates of Chicago, Il retained AllWest in June 2015 to advise them on environmental, physical, seismic and hazmat issues in conjunction with their acquisition of Sunset Plaza, a four building, 171 unit apartment complex in West Covina, CA. In September Waterton subsequently retained AllWest to advise them on similar issues related to their acquisition of two adjoining Los Angeles apartment buildings: The Victor and Mark on Wilcox Ave.

  8. The summer months were especially busy for AllWest as we were retained by CBRE Global Advisors for our environmental expertise in their acquisition of 5 Sunnyvale, CA R&D buildings from Lane Partners. In July and August AllWest provided environmental, physical and seismic assessment reports for CBRE in their purchase of the new Netflix headquarters in Los Gatos, CA and for their acquisition of Solar City's manufacturing and headquarters in Fremont, CA. The Netflix site consists of 2 Class A office building containing approximately 263,000 sf on 16 acres. The 9.3 acre Solar City property is developed with two highly improved structures containing approximately 200,000 sf.

  9. The fall began with a bang with longtime clients, The Kor Group (Venice, CA), Grosvenor (San Francisco), Ensemble Investments (Long Beach) and new lender client ACORE Capital retaining AllWest for a variety of due diligence services.

    The Kor Group made a strong run at the Metropolis Hotel in downtown San Francisco; an interesting play to purchase a boutique hotel and redevelop a mid-Market parking lot into residential use.

    Grosvenor paid $160 million for the 432 unit Waterstone Apartments in San Jose. ACORE was interested in financing the acquisition and repositioning of the Sixty Hotel in Beverly Hills. In each instance AllWest provided ESA/PCA and Seismic expertise.

    Ensemble Investments tied up an industrial site near Levi's Stadium re-zoned for residential and required AllWest's assistance to sort out environmental issues.

  10. The end of the year was highlighted by the 14th AllWest Holiday Open held at Oakland's historic Sequoyah Country Club in December. Top seeded in the horse race, the Bad Santas team of Bob Eaton, Brad Cummings, Mary Folzman and Brian Muller won the tournament convincingly over the Squigleys: Marc Herodas, Marvin Lam, Alexander Cunningham and Darren Kiuper.

    Next year's HO will be held on November 14th and will feature a cross- country Horse Race. View photos of the 14th AllWest Annual Holiday Open.

  11. Looking back over the year AllWest completed 86 Phase I Assessments including updates, 16 subsurface investigations, 65 Property Condition Assessments including updates and 35 Seismic Assessments.

    Company revenues increased by approximately 8% and were neatly divided by Environmental—49%, Building Related Services—44% and ALTA surveys—7%.
2014
  1. AllWest kicked off 2014 by assisting the Flynn Real Estate Group of San Francisco with their acquisition of the Carneros Inn, a 27 acre resort property located in the Carneros Wine District of Napa CA. The facility includes 3 restaurants, a spa facility and meeting rooms as well as 86 stand alone cottage units. The Inn was listed on the Conde Nast Traveller 'Gold List' in 2013, as well as the Travel + Leisure '500 World's Best Hotels' list for 6 of the past 7 years. AllWest completed environmental, physical, seismic reviews for Flynn and assisted in the evaluation of domestic and waste water in this transaction.

  2. Also in January 2014 AllWest provided environmental consulting services to Mesa West Capital's NYC office on an 11 property portfolio transaction for sites in properties in Westchester County, New York. AllWest peer reviews both environmental and property condition reports submitted by MWC borrowers to ensure they meet the industry standard of care.

  3. AllWest was retained by AIMCO in March to assess 164 buildings for compliance with the soft story structural ordinance promulgated by the City and County of San Francisco, CA. AllWest's process in evaluating the properties included reviewing the procedures for implementation of the Mandatory Seismic Retrofit Program for Wood Frame Buildings (SFBD Chapter 34B), discussing the specific issues relating to the AIMCO properties with the plan administrators at the building department, visiting the sites to access each structure, meeting with each property service manager to discuss the structural configuration of the buildings and obtaining access to the target stories. Lastly, we documented the structures for reference during the completion of the survey forms. AIMCO subsequently retained AllWest to provide engineering services for soft story seismic upgrades.

  4. AllWest was retained to conduct building condition assessments on Town & Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California in April by American Assets of San Diego. The subject property is developed with approximately 50 structures; fourteen of which are transient lodging buildings with 448,373 square feet (SF) of building area in the guestroom buildings. The resort contains approximately 954 guestrooms in 9 and 10 story buildings as well as in casitas, a Convention Hall, Ballrooms and Exhibit. Aggregate area of all structures is approximately 906,504 sf on 40+ acres.

  5. After what seemed like interminable delays AllWest's client, Kirkorian Enterprises, received notice of site closure from Monterey County Department of Health for the former White Cleaners in Salinas. AllWest completed site remedial activities consisting of gross removal of soils in 2012 and diligently pursued a NFA status for a period of almost 2 years.

  6. Summer projects included a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment for Lionstone/Orchard Properties' acquisition of Tasman Tech Park, a 9 building site in Milpitas CA; comprehensive DD for The Kor Group's acquisition of the Flats, a six-story, 205 unit apartment building in LA and a property condition report for Seattle's Goodman Real Estate disposition of the iconic Smith Tower 42-story mixed-use building 264,074 SF constructed in 1914. Please see the Post Card section of our website for other transactions that AllWest participated in.

  7. In August 2014 AllWest was retained by a world renowned Biotech firm to conduct a water intrusion investigation at their Vacaville, CA facility. Mr. Kevin Reeve performed the assessment utilizing a moisture meter and infrared camera. AllWest was able pinpoint the areas with elevated moisture content and assist in the determination of area to be removed and replaced. The water issue had stopped the production of FDA approved medicines.

  8. In September AllWest was retained by Shimmick Construction to provide an Air Quality Plan (AQP) for San Francisco's TransBay Terminal, currently under construction in downtown San Francisco. The AQP provides a framework for the site contractors to minimize potential public health impacts to sensitive receptors associated with exposure to respirable nuisance dust (PM10) generated during the project and attain the goal of No Visible Emissions for the project.

  9. AllWest celebrated our 25th anniversary year on October 23rd with a knock out party at Thee Parkside in San Francisco. 100 plus attendees enjoyed comedian Steve Mittleman who made the trip up from LA and the Blooms, a SF based band that got everyone out on the dance floor. Earlier in the day AllWesters, friends and family enjoyed a two hour SF Bay Cruise on the Ruby departing from the Ramp.

  10. AllWest was retained in November by the County of Santa Clara to provide Property Condition Assessments on their Civic Center administrative buildings in San Jose. The three buildings contain approximately 425,950 square feet and were constructed in 1961 and 1976. AllWest was also tasked with assessing a Facility Cost Index (FCI) and Facilities Needs Index (FNI) for the complex.

  11. The 12th AllWest Holiday Open (affectionately known as the HO) was held at Oakland's historic Sequoyah Country Club on December 1, 2014. Thirty-two top real estate professionals, friends and family engaged in an epic 9 hole qualifying tournament for top seedings in the very popular HO Horse Race. The 4th place seed, "Low Growlers" comprised of Brian Muller, Jake Lemkuhl, Paula Parisi and Zach Haupert, hustled up the 18th hole in a light drizzle to capture the title in a victory waltz worth $200 to the team. Team "Casa Mananas": Scott Carlberg, Ryan Schierberl, Dan Mittenberger and Seth McKinnon took home second place. 2014's Best Dressed was Will Thatcher. Mary Folzman and Tom Christian were medalists in the low putts/most fairways. Larry Gandelman won low gross. Look back in wonder at our 2014 HO photos on AllWest Environmental's Facebook Page.

  12. AllWest concluded our silver anniversary year with late November -mid December tight deadline engagements by Time Inc. (Magazine)/Embarcadero Capital Partners and the Carlyle Group. For Time AllWest prepared environmental, physical and seismic risk assessments on Sunset Magazine's historic property on Willow Road in Menlo Park, CA. For Carlyle, their purchase of a 7 building R&D site in Campbell from Hines, required AllWest to peer review seller provided DD reports and walk the site to confirm report contents. Peer reviews are a must on seller provided reports especially on high ticket items such as Elevators, Fire Life Safety and HVAC.
2013
  1. AllWest wrapped up January 2013 completing a soil remediation project at Edgewood Plaza in Palo Alto. The property was redeveloped by Sand Hill Property Company which needed to address residual soil contamination from a former dry cleaner prior to moving site buildings and re-energizing the property with new retail structures and ten residences. The site should receive a NFA status in 2014.

  2. In February 2013 AllWest completed our role as engineer of record for the seismic upgrade of Green Manor, a 13-story reinforced concrete building providing affordable housing for seniors in San Diego. The project's scope included retrofitting the corridor shear walls at the first floor level, vertical boundary flexural reinforcing of the wall piers on five floors of both corridor and north and south end shear walls and repairing existing horizontal cracks of the stair wells.

  3. Our new company website launched early in 2013. Thanks to Arthur Bloch at Hypersphere Design (www.hypersphere.com) and our own Debbie Camacho, our web presence reflects all that is remarkable about the internet.

  4. 2013 began in earnest when AllWest was retained by California Pacific Commercial Corp. of Palo Alto to prepare environmental, property condition and seismic assessments on a 21 acre, seven building, 200,000 sf office building portfolio near San Antonio Rd, also in Palo Alto, CA. The project was to be sold by Cornish & Carey broker Erik Doyle and his team. The due diligence work was complicated by tenant security concerns as the properties were primarily occupied by Loral Space Systems, an active US government contractor producing satellites and other related items. Due to historic tenant activities AllWest also conducted a soil and groundwater assessment of the property. The portfolio was purchased by Google in August 2013.

  5. In April AllWest was retained by The Kor Group to perform an environmental site assessment, ALTA Survey and asbestos consulting on a 10-story, 119, 270 SF Class A office building in Long Beach. The building will be converted from office use to residential. AllWest will oversee building asbestos abatement activities in 2014.

  6. AllWest was retained by Grosvenor Americas to assist in their acquisition of a 195 unit, eight building apartment complex in Belmont, CA. The AllWest team performed environmental, property condition and seismic assessments on the property. Grosvenor acquired the 11.5-acre garden apartment community with plans to renovate the apartment interiors and common amenities to a modern standard. This was Grosvenor's first apartment acquisition in the Bay Area.

  7. Late July 2013 saw AllWest move from our twelve year SOMA residence at 530 Howard Street to San Francisco's Mission District. The move invigorated the entire SF staff with newly built office space, neighborhood vibe and amenities. See our Facebook page for photos of our new digs.

  8. In August AllWest headed to Bothell, WA as our team was retained again by Grosvenor America this time to assist with providing property condition, environmental and seismic assessments on 712, 460 SF of Class A suburban office space. The project included 11 buildings in the North Creek business park just northeast of the City of Bothell, in King County, Washington. Grosvenor Americas purchased the property for $167.5 million, its first office acquisition in the region.

  9. Also in August 2013 AllWest assisted Supermicro Computer Company (www.supermicro.com) a Fortune 500 Company with their purchase of the 37 acre San Jose Mercury News newspaper production facility in San Jose. AllWest peer reviewed existing site environmental documentation, conducted a Phase II soil and groundwater assessment, conducted a land use review and ALTA survey. Supermicro will be redeveloping the site over the next 36 months for their corporate campus.

  10. In late summer AllWest assessed the historic Mayer and Bricker buildings along West Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue in Los Angeles. The Mayer Building, constructed in 1928, was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1988. The Bricker Building, built in 1924, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. Today the buildings are home to retail, office and residential apartments.

  11. AllWest's biggest project of 2013 occurred in October when we were retained by Lane Partners of Menlo Park to assist them evaluate environmental, building condition and seismic issues associated with their acquisition of a 16 building, 520,000 office/R&D portfolio in Sunnyvale, CA commonly referred to as Peery Park. The $100,000,000+ transaction closed in early December 2013.

  12. AllWest welcomed Gregg Lossing, AIA, as our CA licensed architect in November. Gregg brings 25 years of experience in the architectural field with a focus on the hospitality sector gained from employment with Hornberger + Worstell (2001-2006), BSA Architects (2006-2008) and Stantec (2010- 2012).

  13. The 11th AllWest Holiday Open (affectionately known as the HO) was held at Oakland's historic Sequoyah Country Club on December 2, 2013. Thirty-six top real estate professionals engaged in an epic 9 hole qualifying tournament for top seedings in the first ever HO Horse Race. The 9th and last place seed "Mellow Yellows" comprised of Dennis Williams, Dan Amend, Kathleen Houlihan and Henry Bose marched from last place to the top of the heap in a remarkable victory worth $240 to the team. Team "Last Minutes" Kevin Chow, Dion Campisi, Chris Whittel and Bob Eaton were silver medalists. 2013's Best Dressed was Brad Krouscup. Mary Folzman and Pat Calihan were medalists in the low putts/most fairways and low gross category. Look back in glee at HO Photos at https://www.facebook.com/pages/AllWest-Environmental/302481116525217?sk=photos_albums.

  14. December 31, 2013 completed AllWest's 24th year providing physical due diligence and remedial services to the California real estate community. It was a stellar year.
2012
  1. January 2, 2012 marked the beginning of AllWest's 23rd year providing physical due diligence services to the commercial real estate industry. Marc Cunningham, president, shared his business philosophy and illustrated AllWest's comparative advantages in a short video on the company's web site.

  2. AllWest was a primary sponsor of the Silicon Valley NAIOP chapter March 2012 Capital Markets Panel Breakfast held at the Stanford Faculty Club. Panel members included Walton Street Capital's Perry Pinto a long standing AllWest client. In May AllWest marked our 20th year as a sponsor of the San Francisco NAIOP Chapter Cal - Stanford challenge. AllWest is the Challenge's longest running sponsor.

  3. AllWest welcomed Dennis Dornan, AIA, LEED AP, to the firm to lead the company's efforts in Property Condition Assessments. Dennis was associated SF's Field Paoli architects for ten years. He received his degrees from University of Cambridge, UK - Masters in Architecture, 1981 and University of Cambridge, UK - Bachelors in Architecture, 1978.

  4. AllWest was retained by Rockport Mortgage to conduct an ASCE -31 Tier 2 seismic review on a 1964 vintage seven-story reinforced concrete structure and a 1982, four-story concrete block masonry (CMU) structure. Both structures are senior living facilities in Seattle WA. The scope of work included: determination of the seismic demand ; three dimensional (3-D) lateral analysis using a finite-element computer analysis program; determination of seismic shear distribution to the building shear walls; determination of existing shear wall strength and their capacity to resist calculated shear forces. The analysis suggested one of the buildings be retrofitted.

  5. Westport Capital of El Segundo, CA retained AllWest to conduct desktop reviews of available environmental documents for 14 west coast properties whose mortgages were being sold by a national lender. AllWest used internet resources to view and characterize environmental risk at each property. The lender then released additional environmental documentation including Phase I Assessments which AllWest evaluated on Westport's behalf.

  6. In late June AllWest was retained by the Rockefeller Development Group to assist them with their first San Francisco acquisition, 50 Beale Street. The 23 story, 663,440 sf building was originally occupied by Bechtel when constructed in the late 1960's. AllWest conducted a seismic assessment and PCA for the acquisition. AllWest's PCA team included Orchard Commercial's HVAC services group, McGinnis Chen Associate (exterior façade) and ECCM for the MEP- Fire Life safety element. The work was completed in an extremely tight time frame that coincided with the July 4th holiday.

  7. In September AllWest was retained by Ho Holdings to assist them mitigate soil contamination stemming from a dry cleaner release. Ho Holdings purchased a Palo Alto site in 2006 and waited patiently for the market to turn and to attain necessary development entitlements. During the course of the project AllWest interacted with the DTSC and Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health to provide the necessary data to enable to development to proceed and to remediate residual soil contamination.

  8. In late November AllWest was retained by Prudential Real Estate Investors and Ellis Partners in their acquisition of 255 California Street, San Francisco a 14-story 183,000 square foot, Class A mid-rise office building located at the corner of California and Battery Streets. AllWest provided PCA expertise in the transaction which was conducted by a 7 person team composed of AllWest, Forel-Ellsessor, SGH, Battalion One Fire Protection, ECCM, Hesselberg Kesee and Bingham Taylor Roofing. AllWest provided a tailorized cost estimate spreadsheet for the project so that our evaluation could explicitly be compared to the seller's disposition PCA spreadsheet.

  9. AllWest welcomed Miguel Enguidanos to the firm in December. Miguel is a CA licensed architect # 23358 and LEED AP. Prior to joining AllWest Miguel was the Director of Architecture at AAI where he managed their Pleasanton office providing expertise to clients such as Embarcadero Capital Partners and LBA.
2011
  1. AllWest was retained by Four Corners Properties to assist them abate asbestos containing materials from their property on Bowers Avenue in Santa Clara prior to significant tenant improvements. AllWest was tasked with preparing abatement specifications and identifying the abatement contractor. AllWest will provide industrial hygiene services during the demolition project and provide project documentation.

  2. AllWest assisted in the acquisition of three San Francisco hotel properties: The Stanford Court Hotel on Nob Hill and Westin Hotel on 3rd Street purchased by Westbrook Partners and the Hotel Renoir purchased by The Kor Group (LA). AllWest provided the full suite of physical due diligence services: Seismic, Building Condition and Environmental Assessments.

  3. AllWest added two new professional employees: Michael R. Tom Registered Architect (State of New York) and Christopher Houlihan, environmental project manager. Michael graduated from UC Berkeley and the Pratt Institute. Chris has degrees in English and Geology from Sonoma State.

  4. AllWest was retained by Eagle Ridge Partners to assist them with two significant Silicon Valley acquisitions: Montague Oaks Business Park in San Jose (8 buildings, 262,000sf on 18.5 acres) and three 45,000 sf buildings in Santa Clara on Jay Street. Prudential was the seller on the first transaction; RREEF was the seller of the second. AllWest provided environmental, building condition and seismic expertise in both transactions.

  5. Metropolitan Life Insurance company retained AllWest to conduct ALTA surveys on former Washington Mutual bank branches in Vallejo, San Leandro, San Jose, Santa Clara, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Santa Monica, Montebello, Riverside, Costa Mesa, Torrance, Ramona & San Diego. MetLife purchased the properties several years ago from the former Home Savings and is in the process of selling them.

  6. AllWest also provided the ALTA survey for the Shorenstein Company's recent purchase of 1355 Market Street in San Francisco, the apparent new corporate headquarters for Twitter.

  7. Travelling to Seattle AllWest reviewed seismic and environmental issues at 705 Fifth Avenue South for Pacific Coast Capital Partners who is purchasing an eleven story building at Union Station. The project was interesting on the structural side as the building occupies an air rights parcel and founded on a MTA tunnel and privately owned parking garage, neither of which are involved in the acquisition. To provide the seismic risk assessment involved not only the analysis of the subject building (Amazon's former headquarters) but of the two underlying structures as well. This transaction is expected to close in early May 2011.

  8. AllWest provided environmental, seismic and property condition expertise to Sandhill Properties of San Mateo for their acquisition of a ten building industrial park in Los Gatos, California. The property is scheduled to be redeveloped as corporate campus of Netflix.

  9. In Palm Springs, CA, AllWest assisted Fowler Property Acquisitions with their purchase of two apartment complexes. Financed by Wells Fargo via HFF (Texas) the properties were built in the early 1970's and contained approximately 270 residential units (total). AllWest provided Property Condition, Seismic and Environmental due diligence. AllWest also assisted Fowler with seismic issues on two apartment complexes they acquired in Hayward, CA .
2010
  1. AllWest was retained by Westbrook Partners to review environmental, building condition and seismic issues at the 36 story, 314,780 square foot, Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco. Westbrook took an equity position in the property, recapitalizing Millennium Investors' original interest in the transaction.

  2. Marc Cunningham attended the Environmental Bankers Association annual meeting in San Diego, CA in January 2010.

  3. Management of the Fountainbleu Apartments in Palo Alto CA secured AllWest's services to provide technical expertise related to the seismic upgrade of six apartment buildings with tuck-under-parking.

  4. Jim Burns, CA Architect, joined AllWest to provide expertise on building condition assessments. Jim was formerly employed by SCB Architects and was in charge of construction administration for the 60 story Rincon Tower, located at the west anchorage of the Bay Bridge. Prior to that Jim was served as the Director of Pre-Construction for the Olson Company, San Ramon, CA.

  5. AllWest assisted Divco West with their purchase of the prominent Oakland retail landmark: Jack London Square. The acquisition consisted of 7 buildings constructed between 1920 and 2009 containing over 848,000 sf. AllWest advised Divco on other acquisitions in 2010 including sites in Cupertino, San Diego and Mt. View, CA. At the Cupertino site AllWest provided a professional opinion letter concerning indoor air quality rebutting another consultant's opinion that saved Divco approximately $50,000 as their insurer dropped a requirement to install a passive remedial treatment system.

  6. AllWest assisted Lane Partners of Menlo Park, CA with perhaps the most creative 2010 real estate deal in the SF Bay: the KLA - Tencor - Maxim Integrated Products transaction in San Jose and Sunnyvale. Essentially KLA (via Lane and Jeff Arrilaga {Cornish & Carey}) sold their 434,000 sf campus in San Jose to Maxim who then sold their 7 building 275,000 sf campus in Sunnyvale to Lane Partners and their equity partner: Walton Street Capital. AllWest provided advisory services relating to environmental, building and seismic issues on both legs of the transaction which is thought to be the largest R&D sale in Silicon Valley since 2007.

  7. AllWest was retained by Westport Capital Partners of El Segundo, CA to assist them evaluate ADA, Seismic, Building Condition and Environmental issues at three San Francisco hotels: the Vertigo, Hotel Frank and Hotel Metropolitan. Visiting the properties over a weekend AllWest provided critical insight on renovation costs and code issues. Westport ultimately was not chosen to purchase the properties.

  8. AllWest assisted Hudson Pacific, a newly formed Los Angeles based REIT, evaluate environmental issues on 3 large San Francisco acquisitions in 2010: 1 Rincon Center (581,000 sf office element) 1455 Market Street (1,000,000 sf Bank of America data center) and 222Kearny/180 Sutter Street (152,000sf office).

  9. Marc Cunningham was sworn in for a 2nd three year term on San Francisco's Code Advisory Commission (CAC). Marc serves on the structural and MEP subcommittees. The CAC oversees all additions and amendments to San Francisco's building codes.

  10. The 2010 AllWest Holiday Open was held on December 6 at Sequoyah Country Club With the format of total putts and fairways the low net was Steve Levy of The Shorenstein Company. Thirty - eight golfers participated in the ninth annual event held under sunny blue, chilly skies in Oakland, CA
2009
  1. AllWest was retained by Children's Hospital of Oakland, CA to review seismic issues in their acquisition of an office/outpatient building in the Shadelands Business Park of Walnut Creek, CA. The purchase of the facility was delayed when AllWest identified unaddressed issues in the building's year 2000 seismic retrofit project. After fairly intense negotiations between buyer and seller, the transaction was completed in April 2009.

  2. Anshutz Entertain Group (AEG) of Los Angeles retained AllWest in January to provide on call services related to water intrusion events during the construction of the 54 story high rise hotel element of LA LIVE. Anticipated to open in early 2010 the building will contain the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Los Angeles, the JW Marriott Hotel and The Ritz-Carlton Residences.

  3. AllWest has been engaged by a major Los Angeles based private real estate equity fund to evaluate environmental issues in performing and non-performing real estate loans. AllWest will provide proprietary desk-top and internet document reviews to assess environmental financial risk associated with the purchase of failed bank real estate loans throughout the country.

  4. AllWest was retained by Actelion Pharmaceuticals USA in July 2009 to assist in the evaluation/purchase a 143,000 square foot office building in South San Francisco (Sierra Point) CA. AllWest was added to the acquisition due diligence team after MEP, HVAC and Seismic consultants had completed their reports. We conducted a site reconnaissance, peer reviewed other discipline reports and issued a summary assessment including cost estimates to cure property deficiencies for the Actelion Board of Directors. The transaction is scheduled to close in August 2009.

  5. In late September AllWest was retained by GLL Properties to provide advisory services related to structural, physical and environmental issues in their proposed acquisition of 530 Terry Francois Blvd., in San Francisco, CA. The site building contains approximately 280,000 square feet of rentable space, was constructed in 2002 and houses the corporate headquarters of Gap/Old Navy.

  6. Silverado Country Club and Resort retained AllWest in October to conduct assessments for seismic, property condition and environmental issues on their facility in Napa CA.

  7. AllWest was retained by the Felson Company of Hayward, CA to provide technical services during the seismic upgrade of the Crestview Apartments in Hayward, CA. Five buildings with tuck under parking will be strengthened. AllWest previously provided design services for the project.
2008
  1. In January AllWest provided Property Condition and Seismic Assessments to the Branson School detailing their 14 building campus in Ross, California. The school will use AllWest's review as baseline documents to plan major capital improvements over the next 10 years.

  2. AllWest was retained by AIMCO in February to provide engineering services related to the seismic upgrade of the Pathfinder Apartments in Fremont, CA. The complex has twenty residential structures which will be seismically upgraded in both longitudinal and transverse directions. The work is being conducted to comply with Fremont's soft story seismic ordinance.

  3. AllWest continued our role as industrial hygienists at Los Angeles Center Studios in downtown LA. The former headquarters of Union Oil, the property is comprised of a 12 story office tower, two 5 story "wing buildings and two 20,000 sf sound stages. Facility tenants are generally movie and television entities. In the summer of 2008 AllWest oversaw asbestos removal activities on the 11th and 12th floors.

  4. AllWest was retained by Capital Investment Network of Huntington Beach in December 2008 to evaluate a potential release of the dry cleaning chemical PCE at a retail site in Newport Beach CA. AllWest defined the vertical and horizontal extent of soil and groundwater impact at the site as well as evaluated soil vapor concentrations. Additional work included remedial cost estimates and interaction during all project phases with the Orange County Health Department.

  5. Also in December, AllWest welcomed California Professional Geologist (PG) and Certified Engineering Geologist (CEG), Leonard Niles, back to the company. Len was employed by AllWest in the late 1990's through 2001. After several years at URS, Len will lead AllWest's subsurface and remediation team for both San Francisco and Santa Ana offices.
2007
  1. AllWest was retained in February to conduct Property Condition and Environmental Assessments on a six site (Big Sur, Sonoma Mission Inn, Beaver Creek and Denver CO, Houston and Austin) hotel portfolio purchased by Walton Street Capital of Chicago, Il. The seller was Dallas based Crescent Real Estate Equities.

  2. JMA Ventures of San Francisco retained AllWest to provide comprehensive physical due diligence in conjunction with their acquisition of Alpine Meadows ski resort in Lake Tahoe, CA. The resort is located on 644 acres with incredible views of the lake and Sierras. In September AllWest assisted JMA with their purchase of Red Mountain Lodge and Resort in Montana. Red Mountain is nestled at the base of the Beartooth Mountains, a gateway community to Yellowstone National Park.

  3. In June and July AllWest was retained by Eagle Real Estate Holdings of Anaheim, CA to provide environmental assessments on eleven apartment complexes in Houston and Dallas, TX.

  4. AllWest was retained by Lowe's Home Improvement Store in July to assist them with environmental issues encountered during the development of their new store in South San Francisco, CA. Services provided included soil and groundwater assessments, UST removal oversite and regulatory compliance.

  5. AllWest was retained by Noteware Development/Goldman Sachs to assist them in their redevelopment of 5800 3rd Street, San Francisco. The site was formerly a Coca Cola bottling plant being transformed into a mixed use facility including residential and retail (Fresh & Easy). AllWest's services included regulatory agency coordination (SFDPH), Soil and Management Plan, Voluntary Clean-up Plan, building demolition, UST removal and hazmat disposal matters.

  6. AllWest was named for the second consecutive year by the SF Business Times to their 2007 100 Fastest Growing Companies List. AllWest was ranked 79th with a gross revenue increase of 66.4% between 2004 & 2006.

  7. Marc Cunningham was appointed to the Code Advisory Commission (CAC) which operates under the jurisdiction of the City of San Francisco's Building Department. The CAC consists of 17 members who are qualified by training and experience to deliberate and make recommendations on matters pertaining to the development and improvement of the content of the San Francisco Building Code, Mechanical Code, Electrical Code. Plumbing Code and Housing Code as well as related rules and regulations or proposed ordinances that the Director of the Building Inspection Department determines may have an impact on construction permits. Specific recommendations of this Committee are directed to the Building Inspection Commission for their further action. Marc will serve a 3 year term on the Fire and Life Safety Subcommittee.

  8. Louis (Trey) Whitehead III joined AllWest's environmental staff in July as a project manager. Trey was formerly employed by Vulcan Materials Company of Los Angeles as an Environmental Specialist overseeing Vulcan's CA, AZ & NM facility compliance with applicable regulations. Trey is working towards his MS Environmental Science and Engineering, at the University of Arizona. His thesis is entitled: Risk Assessment of Biosolids Application to Land. He received a BS in Biology and Chemistry, University of Alabama- Birmingham, 1997.

  9. AllWest was retained by the Felson Company to design seismic upgrades for apartment complexes in Hayward and Fremont California. Construction permits were issued for both properties in December with construction scheduled for 2008.

  10. The 2007 AllWest Holiday (Cha, Cha, Cha) Open was held at Sequoyah Country Club in Oakland for the 6th consecutive year on December 11. Twenty eight major domo golfers were treated to crisp clear weather and sparkling views of the Bay from the Oakland Hills. The "Multiple Offers" team of Bill Sawyer ( NAIBT), Ken Gaitan (JCAP Express) Mike Yancy (Crown Capital)and Brandon Royale (SCC Asst. Pro) walked away with the $200 prize money.
2006
  1. Jorge Berdin and Susan Nielsen, both registered California Architects, joined AllWest in January. Jorge has a Master of Science in Planning & Development Studies from USC and was formerly employed by Boeing as a facilities project administrator. Susan was formerly the principal architect of Cowan Design of Mill Valley, CA which specializes in health facility planning for medical and dental offices. Susan's degree is interior design from San Diego State University.

  2. In January AllWest was retained by Fowler Property Acquisitions to review environmental and engineering issues in the acquisition of two, 300 unit apartment complexes in Houston TX and Lake Oswego, Oregon.

  3. AllWest was retained by Greystone Hospitality in February to assist them in their purchase of the Griffon Hotel on the Embarcadero in San Francisco. AllWest provided environmental, physical and seismic reviews on the historic, 5 story, 62 room property.

  4. William Holland joined AllWest in early 2006 as senior project manager for asbestos and microbial services. Bill has a Masters of Public Health from UCLA (1989), is a California Certified Asbestos Consultant and Certified Microbial Consultant. Formerly employed by ATC Associates and Golder, Bill will oversee AllWest's industrial hygiene projects.

  5. AllWest was retained to engineer seismic improvements to St. James Manor, an assisted living facility in Los Angeles, CA in May. The 3 building property contains provides 65 residential units. AllWest previously provided a FEMA 310 seismic review appropriate for HUD underwriting for the property.

  6. Marc Cunningham accompanied Tom Spencer of PNC MultiFamily Capital to Louisville, KY in May to visit Churchill Downs and enjoy Derby Week festivities. PNC's affordable housing lending group is headquartered in Louisville.

  7. AllWest sponsored the AllWest Birdie Challenge at the annual Bay Area Mortgage Associations (BAMA) golf toonament held at Orinda County Club. AllWest has been a BAMA sponsor for the past 17 years.

  8. AllWest was retained by Page Mill Properties/CALPERS to assist them in their acquisition of more than 30 apartment complexes in East Palo Alto, CA. AllWest provided environmental, physical condition and seismic reviews.

  9. Licensed architect, Neil Parnes, joined AllWest to manage our PCA practice. Neil was formerly the CEO of Ten Star Industries, Ltd., in Tianjin, China, a manufacturing, wine making, and import/export corporation. Prior to Ten Star Neil was employed by Aotani Far East, Japan, as chief architect where he managed an architectural department designing residential, commercial, corporate, hospitality, and military projects in the Pacific Basin. Neil also worked for several years at Parsons in Honolulu where he project architect and planner for several hotels in Maui and Oahu.

  10. AllWest was named by the SF Business Times to their 2006 100 Fastest Growing Companies List. AllWest was ranked 71st with a gross revenue increase of 75.5% between 2003 & 2005.

  11. AllWest mourned the tragic death of Karen Cunningham in late December 2006 due to surgical complications. Although not directly employed by the firm Karen was a Board Director and instrumental from day one in the company's success.
2005
  1. Marc Cunningham was a panelist on San Francisco Urban Development held at UCSF's Genetech Hall on January 26. The private roundtable discussion was later published in the Mach 7, 2005 edition of the California Real Estate Journal. Other panels included Bruce Spalding, Vice Chancellor of UCSF and Jesse Blount, Director of the San Francisco Mayor's Office of Economic Development.

  2. Mark Schmidt, registered California Asbestos Consultant and DHS certified Lead inspector/monitor joined AllWest in January as a project manager. A 1993 graduate of Cal State - Long Beach with a Bachelor's degree in geography , Mark was previously employed by Mactec.

  3. AllWest continued our management of asbestos related materials at Los Angeles Center Studios in downtown LA. The former headquarters of Union Oil the, property is comprised of a 12 story office tower, two 5 story "wing" buildings and two 20,000 sf sound stages. Facility occupants are movie and television entities. In 2005 AllWest oversaw asbestos removal activities from the 3rd and 8th floors.

  4. AllWest was retained by Nu Urban Strategies (NUS) to conduct Phase I and II assessments of approximately 180 acres of land in Fresno, CA in March 2005. NUS intends to entitle the acreage for residential development.

  5. CB Richard Ellis retained AllWest in April 2005 to conduct environmental assessments and asbestos reviews of 6 surplus properties containing over a million square feet of rentable space. The properties, all located in San Francisco, are owned by a major telecommunications firm and scheduled for disposition.

  6. AllWest assisted Blackstone Real Estate Advisors in their purchase of the Wyndham Hotel Group by peer reviewing environmental and engineering due diligence reports for 42 properties. AllWest identified major physical and environmental issues at the hotels which were then assessed via site inspections by other members of the Blackstone team.

  7. AllWest assisted Walton Street Capital in their acquisition of 4 class A office buildings in Seattle, WA from the Benaroya Company with environmental, seismic and architectural reviews. Debt for the 1.2 million square foot portfolio transaction, which closed in November 2005, was provided by Greenwich Capital.

  8. Richard Garlow, a California Professional Geologist (2003), joined AllWest in November 2005. Rich received his MS from San Jose State and was previously employed by Green Environment of San Mateo, CA.

  9. In December 2005 AllWest completed its 16th year providing due diligence expertise to the real estate industry. AllWest was retained for more than 400 assignments. Revenues increased 70% reflecting a robust real estate market.
2004
  1. AllWest was retained by Sonnenblick - Del Rio of Los Angeles in January to conduct environmental and property condition assessments of government buildings in Minnesota, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri and Home Depot logistic facilities in Florida, Texas and California.

  2. AllWest was retained by Doerken Properties of Santa Monica, CA in February to assist them understand potential soil and groundwater contamination from a dry cleaning establishment at a retail center in San Jose, CA. AllWest conduct two phases of subsurface sampling and provided cost estimates for site characterization and closure activities. Doerken completed their purchase of the property in May 2004, with financing provided by Greenwich Capital of Los Angeles, CA.

  3. R. Dave Bierman of AllWest anchored the environmental panel focusing on mold at the 5th Annual Western HUD Lenders Conference held on March 29-31 in Las Vegas, Nevada. A copy of Dave's engaging and insightful presentation "Molds & Moisture" can be provided upon request.

  4. Walton Street Capital of Chicago, IL retained AllWest April to provide environmental services in their acquisition of the office building at 425 Market Street, San Francisco, CA. The 39 story, 980,000 square foot structure was built in 1973.

  5. ScanlanKemperBard Company of Portland, Oregon retained AllWest to review structural issues in concert with their acquisition of the Sunset Tower Building in Los Angeles, CA. The 14 story welded steel moment frame building was constructed in 1968 and performed well through both the San Fernando and Northridge earthquakes. This transaction closed in June 2004.

  6. In May AllWest continued our support of the SF NAIOP's 15th Annual Cal/Stanford Real Estate Challenge held this year at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco, CA. The Challenge was established in 1990 as a competition between UC and Stanford RE grad students to experience a near "hands-on" development project. The winning team takes home the Jim Brecht Memorial Shovel. AllWest has participated in and sponsored the event since 1993.

  7. Ms. Perdeep Bhui joined AllWest's staff in mid June as a site manager. A 1997 graduate of Cal State - Northridge with a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Health & Occupational Safety, Perdeep was previously employed by Tetra Tech and UPS.

  8. During the spring and summer of 2004 AllWest was retained by the Bay Area Smart Growth Fund for physical due diligence expertise related to the acquisition and condominium conversions of apartment complexes in Lodi, Vallejo, Fremont and Sacramento, CA.

  9. In May and August 2004 AllWest provided environmental assessments for 2 adaptive reuse - rehabilitation projects to the Kor Group of Los Angeles, CA. Project locations were both in LA at 808 Spring Street and 1645 Vine.

  10. AllWest's registered geologist, Mike Siembieda, attended "Investigation & Remediation of Dry Cleaner Release Sites" a day long program sponsored by the CA Groundwater Resource Association in Long Beach on November 10, 2004. Jim Koniuto traveled to Las Vegas to attend "Advanced Perspectives in Mold Prevention & Control" a symposium sponsored by the university of Tulsa, Brigham Young University, AIHA & ASIAQ on November 8 & 9 while Marc Cunningham attended the CA DTSC sponsored "Successful Brownfields Redevelopment - Achieving Clarity on Regulatory Requirements, Processes and Options held at USC on November 17, 2004.

  11. AllWest completed ALTA surveys of properties in Los Angeles, Campbell, Milpitas and San Jose, CA. Lenders included Woodman of the World, Thrivent Financial, Prudential Insurance and Business Partners, LLC.
2003
  1. AllWest was retained by the County of Santa Clara General Services Agency, Capital Programs Group, to conduct an asbestos and lead based paint assessment of the Moorpark Avenue Santa Clara County Health Center. The facility will be demolished and rebuilt in 2004. AllWest will oversee all asbestos abatement activities on behalf of the county.

  2. AllWest has been retained by Los Angeles Center Studios (www.LACENTERSTUDIOS.COM) to manage the removal of asbestos containing materials from the 9th floor at their building. The structure, a unique combination of office space and film studios, is located at 1201 Est 5th Street, Los Angeles, CA.

  3. AllWest has been retained by Orange County Developer, the Hopkins Group, to assist in the redevelopment of the Redlands Town Center, a retail complex, in Redlands, CA. The center will be partially demolished and rebuilt with a mixed use facility including hotel, residential and retail space. AllWest will provide structural and architectural reviews on the Gottschalk's building.

  4. Mike Siembieda, RG, recently attended a one day California Groundwater Resources Association seminar "Subsurface Vapor Intrusion to Indoor Air: When is Soil and Groundwater Contamination an Indoor Air Issue".

  5. AllWest has been retained by PNC MultiFamily Capital to provide Physical Condition Needs Assessments and FEMA 310 Seismic reviews on senior living facilities in San Diego and Lemon Grove, CA. Both properties are being re-financed through HUD's Multifamily Accelerated Processing (MAP) program.

  6. AllWest has been retained by Careage Development Company of Gig Harbor, WA to provide an ALTA survey of a 20+ acre site in Bakersfield, CA. Careage develops skilled nursing and assisted living facilities throughout the west coast.

  7. The second AllWest Open will be held at Sequoyah Country Club (www.sequoyahcc.com) in Oakland CA on December 9th, 2003.

  8. AllWest has been retained by United Dominion Realty Trust of Dallas, Texas to conduct Property Condition and Seismic Assessments on a portfolio of 9 apartment communities containing 1700 units in Salinas, California in conjunction with their acquisition of the properties.

  9. Marc Cunningham and Chris Marinescu attended the 4th Annual Western HUD Lenders Conference in Las Vegas Nevada held on May 12- 15 2003. Both received certificates of attendance for the HUD sponsored MAP training session on "PCNA Preparation for Acquisition or Acquisition with Moderate Rehabilitation" and "Architectural and Cost Activities in New Construction or Substantial Rehabilitation."

  10. AllWest has been retained by Levin Menzies of Walnut Creek, CA to assist them with environmental issues in their acquisition of the former Coca Cola syrup plant at 5800 3rd Street, San Francisco, CA. The 6.5 acre site was being considered for a mixed used residential and retail development.

  11. David Bierman of AllWest presented "Spore Patrol: Effective Management, Investigation and Remediation" at Novogradac & Company's workshop on "Mold: A Growing Concern", held in San Francisco on April 2, 2003.
2002
  1. Marc Cunningham presented "Understanding Environmental Due Diligence and Anticipating Closing Issues Problems" at the California Mortgage Bankers first annual Closing Issues Forum. The half day seminar was presented in Santa Ana and San Francisco, CA on September 13 and 20, 2002. Other presentations addressed Legal Issues, Title, Escrow and Seismic concerns.

  2. Michael Siembieda, RG, attended the fall meeting of the Northern California Chapter of the Society for Risk Analysis. The half day seminar, "Challenges of Emerging Chemicals" included papers and discussions on topics such as "Naphthalene, Ethylbenzene - The Times They Are a Changin. Now What"?, and "Consumer Chemical as Indicators of Waste Water Contamination" among others.

  3. AllWest was retained by Walton Street Properties of Chicago Illinois to conduct Environmental Due diligence and Mold Assessments as part of their acquisition team in the purchase of a 39 story office building at 445 S. Figueroa Street in Los Angeles, CA. The property is locally known as the Union Bank Plaza. The purchase was financed by Lehman Brothers and Capital Trust of New York City and closed in mid October 2002.

  4. Michael Siembieda, RG, attended a August 2002 workshop at the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board on the development of Risk Based Screening Levels (RBSLs). The focus of the meeting was the rapid identification of potential environmental concerns at contaminated sites, preparation of environmental risk assessments, the use of RBSLs outside of the Bay Area and the upcoming state Peer Review of RBSLs.

  5. AllWest was retained by F&F Partners of Larkspur CA, to provide project management services for the removal of asbestos, lead based-paint and mold impacted construction materials at the Capital Towers Apartments in Sacramento, CA. Abatement and demolition activities occurred between January and June 2002 with approximately 206 garden style apartment units prepared for a major site rehabilitation project. The complex held a grand opening open house on September 17, 2002.

  6. AllWest sponsored the "closest to the hole" contest at the Rhodes Ranch golf outing at the recent "Emerging Trends" 5th Annual Western States Commercial Real Estate Finance Conference. The two day event was held at the Bellagio Hotel between September 29 and October 1, 2002.

  7. In December 2002 James Koniuto attended a mold workshop, "Microbial Contamination Workshop: Sampling, Laboratory, Remediation and Health Issues." The workshop addressed the basics of fungal identification and quantification , health effects of mold, sampling equipment selection and demo, building engineering and moisture intrusion, sampling techniques, data interpretation and remediation techniques. Mr. Koniuto recently completed his yearly AHERA refresher course for Asbestos Inspectors and completed AHERA training requirements for Building Inspection and Management Planning for Asbestos.


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Celebrating Our 35th Year in Business!
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