In a blockbuster deal three years ago, Touchstone was acquired by another Seattle-based company, Urban Renaissance Group. At the time, Touchstone was in various stages of developing multiple office and hotel projects, and Hurd, a vice president with Touchstone, was named head of the company.
Under her leadership Touchstone built about 2 million square feet of office, hotel and residential space with a total value of nearly $2 billion. A trade group named Touchstone national developer of the year in 2016.
With the bulk of that work done and some of Touchtone’s new buildings leased to Amazon.com Inc. and Tableau Software, URG said it is more fully integrating the Touchstone business into its other work. In a statement, URG said its priorities are a bit different than they were when the company acquired Touchstone.
“Given the status of the Touchstone projects and the near-term shift in approach, Hurd and URG/Touchstone are parting ways as friends who have created considerable value together,” the companies said in a joint statement.
“In her nearly 10 years with Touchstone, A-P was central to making the company a respected national leader, known for elevating sustainability standards and bringing a holistic, community-based approach to urban development,” added Pat Callahan, URG’s founder and CEO.
Hurd said she is most proud of the team she built at Touchstone. Now she’ll take time to consider what’s next for her. Touchstone’s remaining team members will be integrated into URG to support both the URG and Touchstone brands.
In the near term, URG said it will focus on three development opportunities: the Press Blocks in Portland, the Bellevue 600 project in downtown Bellevue, and the Lincoln Executive Center. Information about URG’s plans for Lincoln Executive Center, a suburban office property in Bellevue that sold last fall for just over $80.5 million, was not immediately available.
Among Touchstone’s projects recent projects are the new Thompson Seattle hotel with high-end apartments; the Tilt49 and Troy Block office complexes, both in Seattle and both leased to Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN); and NorthEdge, an office building Touchstone developed on Lake Union in Seattle for Tableau Software (NYSE: DATA).
Marc Stiles, Staff Writer, Puget Sound Business Journal
