Created quantifiable savings to PATH in excess of $5.5 million.

Applied Expertise
• Strategic Visioning • Internal and External • Team Development • Comprehensive Decision Support at the Executive and Board Level • Tenant Representation

Challenge
PATH is an international non-profit organization that creates sustainable, culturally relevant solutions, enabling communities worldwide to break longstanding cycles of poor health. In Fall 2006, Chris Elias, then President and CEO of PATH, conceived a global health center that would house not only PATH’s dynamic workforce, but also key collaboration partners. Roy Mann, then at CBRE, and Doug Palm, PATH’s Director of Facilities, were tasked with engaging in a series of conversations with key collaboration partners, civic, and business leaders – all with an eye to landscaping how PATH fit into the broader community environment. As discussions evolved, PATH directed its vision toward a solution that would demonstrate the best possible stewardship of its resources.

Solution
During the unprecedented changes in global financial markets in late 2008 and the resulting impact on availability of financing for new construction, the PATH team elected to evaluate new, but existing, construction only. Concurrently, the termination of a commitment by Microsoft to lease 2201 Westlake in South Lake Union presented a unique and previously unattainable opportunity. The negotiation with Vulcan Real Estate, the building’s owner, enabled PATH to relocate to the center of Seattle’s global health community.

Results
PATH figured out what really mattered early. Through an original visioning session lead by Mann, PATH developed a focus on Stewardship, Talent Attraction, and Brand — the lens through which PATH evaluated each of its real estate decisions. As a result of its careful diligence, the PATH team mobilized quickly, seizing an unprecedented market opportunity in a lease for 112,500 square feet which created quantifiable savings to PATH in excess of $5.5 million.