President Obama at Blumes’ Seattle Mansion

President Obama returned to the Seattle area last Thursday for a lavish fundraiser at a prominent waterfront mansion. The event was covered in a Seattle Times 5/10/12 article. The $35,800 per plate lunch was at the mansion of Bruce and Anne Blume in the Denny-Blaine neighborhood of Seattle on Lake Washington waterfront. The article reported the Blumes are major Democratic donors, who have given more than $118,000 to federal Democratic candidates and committees since 2008, including $50,000 they gave to help finance Obama's inauguration party. President and Michelle Obama have attended previous lavish Lake Washington waterfront mansion fundraisers at the homes of Costco Co-Founder Jeff Brotman (12/18/12, 2/9/12, 10/24/10 posts), former Microsoft President Jon Shirley (10/5/11 post), and RealNetworks Founder Rob Glaser (9/27/10 post).

This $20 million mansion was built over a period of three plus years for the Blumes by Charter Construction. The mansion is on page 37 in Lake Washington 130 Homes. The neighborhood includes numerous prominent mansions including two that formerly belonged to two of the famous McCaw brothers. Neighborhood information is in LW Cruising 4/19/12 and 4/24/12 posts.

The Blumes’ former residence in Broadmoor is listed for sale for $3 million. Bruce is a prominent commercial real estate developer. His firm, The Blume Co., is a major developer in the South Lake Union and University of Washington districts. He founded the company in 1982. The company owns 16 buildings on 10 acres in 6 centers. The centers are Yale Campus, 1100 Eastlake, Eastlake Center, University Center, 45th Street Place and Northlake Place.

The mansion is 13,300 sq ft on 1.0 acres with 160 feet of waterfront. This is the former site of the Canadian Consulate. Blume acquired the property from Canada 1/18/05 for $7.8 million and, in 2006, demolished the consulate and started construction on the current mansion. The seller is listed as “Her Majesty Elizabeth II – Queen of Canada.” This is the way Canada lists its foreign properties but the Queen was never here. Some tours incorrectly tell their groups this was the site of the Seattle vacation home for the Queen. The Canadian Consulate is now located in downtown Seattle in the 30 story Century Square building at the corner of Pike and 4^th Ave.

Barry Ackerley (1935-2011) Mansion

View From Dock

This is the former Denny-Blaine home of Barry and Ginger Ackerley. The mansion was purchased from the Ackerleys 6/11/2008 for $13.3 million by Dr. Frederic Hutchins Moll. The property was listed for sale for $15.0 Million in 2009 (Betsy Terry, Ewing and Clark) and later taken off the market.

Barry Ackerley (1935-2011) is a former owner of the NBA Seattle SuperSonics (aka Sonics). He purchased the Sonics in 1983 from Sam Schulman, who founded the team in 1967. The team won the NBA championship in 1979. During the 18 years of Ackerley’s ownership the team reached the playoffs 13 times. From The Seattle Times obituary: “Mr. Ackerley sold the Sonics in 2001 to a group of investors led by Howard Schultz [page 21 LW 130 Homes]. Mr. Ackerley was saddened when the team relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008.” The team made the playoffs only once after it was sold by Ackerley in 2001. The Times article also noted “Ackerley came to Seattle and became its baron of billboards.” He was the founder and former Chairman/CEO of The Ackerley Group. The Ackerley Group owned television and radio stations that were purchased by Clear Channel Communications in 2001.

Dr. Moll graduated from Seattle’s Lakeside HS in 1969. (Other LW 130 Homes graduates of Lakeside include Charles Pigott ’47, Craig McCaw ’68, Paul Allen ’71 and Bill Gates ’73.) Dr. Moll received his MD from UW Medical School. He was a surgeon at Virginia Mason in Seattle. In 1989, Dr. Moll co-founded Silicon Valley based Origin Medsystems, Inc., a medical device company, which was acquired by Eli Lilly in 1992 in a $150 million deal. In November 1995, Dr. Moll co-founded Intuitive Surgical Inc., another Silicon Valley medical device company, and served as its first CEO. The company raised $6 million in a 2000 IPO. He co-founded Silicon Valley CA based Hansen Medical in 2002. The company designs and manufactures medical robotics. He was CEO from inception to 2010 when he was named Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors. He resigned in 2011 and joined the BOD of Focused Ultrasound Surgery Foundation in Florida. Maybe he is moving back to this home.

The mansion is on page 33 of LW 130 Homes and has 6,580 sq ft on 0.46 acres. It is a prime lot on a point with 146 feet of waterfront and two docks, a tennis court and swimming pool.

Obama – Murray Fundraiser at Glaser Mansion

The major Seattle fund raiser for President Obama and U.S. Senator Patty Murray on August 17, 2010, was at the new 7,300 sq ft mansion of Rob and Cori Glaser. 60 prominent Democratic donors attended the $10,000 per late luncheon. Rob, a former Microsoft mega-millionaire, started RealNetworks in 1995. He recently retired from his CEO position at the company.

RealNetworks produces music, video and other software for PCs, smart phones, and portable music players. Some of its best known products are RealPlayer and RealRhapsody.

Rob and his wife, Cori, are major Democratic contributors and fund raisers. They were strong financial supporters of Obama’s 2004 U.S Senate campaign.

Glaser owns two similar looking side-by-side mansions in the Madison-Park/Denny-Blaine/Madrona area. The 5,240 sq ft mansion on the left/south was built in 1980 and had a major renovation completed in 2008 when the new 7,300 sq ft mansion on the right/north was completed. This compound was not included in Lake Washington 130 Homes. It is between the McCaw and Rose Mediterranean villas on pages 38 and 40 in the book.

Ragen Seattle Mansion Sells for $9.6 Million

This estate in the Denny-Blaine neighborhood of Seattle (page 30 in Lake Washington 130 Homes, http://www.hundredhomes.net/) sold for $9.6 million in December 2009. This is one of Seattle’s fine old waterfront mansions that has not been torn down for a modern home. The home buyer is listed as Janis Cunningham, a partner with the Perkins Cole law firm. She may be acting as a trustee for an anonymous buyer. The former owner and seller was Brooks Ragen.  He co-founded Seattle-based Ragen Mackenzie Group, a full service brokerage firm.  The firm grew to 300 employees with offices in Washington, California, Oregon and Alaska managing over $11 billion in assets when it was acquired by Wells Fargo in 2000.  Nearly simultaneously Brooks left the firm and co-founded McAdams Wright Ragen in Seattle and the firm is now one of the region’s largest brokerage firms. The estate has 4,020 sq ft of living space on 0.6 acres with 153 feet of waterfront.