Seattle Boat Sales Jumping

Seattle Boat Show 2012

The Marine Industry Association announced (5/16/12 Sport Fishing Magazine) the first jump in annual boat sales and boating participation since 2006. 2011 U.S. retail sales for boats, accessories and services jumped 6 percent to $32.3 billion, according to the organization’s latest Recreational Boating Statistical Abstract. In addition, boating participation increased 10 percent to 83 million (or 34.8 percent of adults, the highest since 1997). “The data signals the beginning of a recovery for the U.S. recreational boating industry,” the NMMA press release states. 2012 sales are running ahead of 2011.

Seattle area boat dealers are also seeing a major increase in sales and activity. The fastest growing segment of the recreational boating industry is pontoon boats. Pontoon type boats have evolved dramatically over the past years. They have come from spartan, low-performance, low cost water transportation and fishing platforms to high performance trimarans with a flat deck, very comfortable seating and luxurious features. These are the most versatile, stable and economical runabout boats. The top-of-the-line trimaran design provides outstanding performance with reduced water resistance and low fuel consumption. These boats are perfect for activities ranging from high speed (up to 50 mph) water sports (water skiing, tubing, etc.) to relaxed cocktail cruising and dock parties.

Dykstra’s Happy Hours

My boat, Happy Hours, is a new super-luxurious Avalon tri-toon boat. It includes an upper deck with seating, a sunbathing area and a water slide. The main level includes luxurious seating for 14, 2 drink and appetizer tables, multiple cup and drinking glass holders, a wine and storage cellar, a privacy (porta-potty) station plus a wet bar with a blender, an electric wine and glasses rack and a refrigerator. We, our family and our friends are having fantastic great times with it.

Avalon Paradise Sandbar

Tom’s Boats, the area’s leading pontoon boat dealer stated: “The increase in sales this year is amazing. It’s across the board from $14,000 easy to trailer runabouts and fishing boats to the $90,000 deluxe party and water sports boats.” He is currently showing over 50 listings on Boat-Trader.com.

Obama Mercer Island Advisor Joseph Schocken

Joseph and Judy Schocken’s Mercer Island Mansion

This modern mansion, 0.4 miles north of Paul Allen’s (12/28/10 post for viewing guide) campus/compound, is 5,400 sq ft on 0.87 acres with 200 feet of waterfront and a private beach. An information and viewing guide for the neighborhood is in a 2/27/12 “Cruising South Lake Washington” post.

President Obama selected Joseph Schocken from Mercer Island as an advisor for the Administration’s JOBS Act signed into law last month. A 4/7/12 feature article in The Seattle Times by Jon Talton has more information. Schocken attended the Rose Garden bill-signing ceremony.

Back in 2004 a 7/27/04 feature article in The Seattle Times by David Postman highlighted Schocken’s rise to the Democratic Party’s elite. Joseph and his wife, Judy, have raised millions of dollars for the Democratic Party. This includes fundraisers at their beautiful Mercer Island waterfront mansion. They have personally donated close to a million dollars over the years. They personally know the last three Democratic presidential candidates and spent weekends on Nantucket with John and Teresa Heinz Kerry during the Edwards-Kerry campaign. He is a member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and attends dinners with the Committee’s high-level National Advisory Board. The Board has about 30 members that are at the highest level of the Party. The Schocken’s four children are also political activists.

Joseph is president and founder (1987) of Broadmark Capital, LLC, a prominent Seattle investment bank. The firm has raised more than $1 billion for investment in more than 75 (and growing) regional businesses. Most of these are technology related and the investments can be for start-up or secondary stages. Bennett Environment, Optiva and Universal Access are some of the firm’s client companies. Joseph is on the boards of numerous companies.

Ballmer Worst CEO - Forbes

Steve Ballmer’s Hunts Point Mansion

“#1 – Steve Ballmer, Microsoft. Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today.” This is the first sentence about Steve Ballmer in a 5/12/12 Forbes article by Adam Hartung titled: “Oops! Five CEOs Who Should Have Already Been Fired (Cisco, GE, WalMart, Sears, Microsoft)”

The article continues: “Not only has he singlehandedly steered Microsoft out of some of the fastest growing and most lucrative tech markets (mobile music, handsets and tablets) but in the process he has sacrificed the growth and profits of not only his company but “ecosystem” companies such as Dell, Hewlett Packard and even Nokia. The reach of his bad leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to destroying shareholder value – and jobs.

“Microsoft peaked at $60/share in 2000, just as Mr. Ballmer took the reins. . . only rarely made it back to its current low $30s value. . . execution of new rollouts were constantly delayed, and ended up with products so lacking in any enhanced value . . . as Apple took the leadership position in personal technology.

“So today . . . Microsoft is a PC company, nothing more, as demand for PCs shifts to mobile. . . An insane bet for any CEO – and one that would have been avoided entirely had the Microsoft Board replaced Mr. Ballmer years ago . . .

“Although he’s #19 on Forbes list of billionaires, Mr. Ballmer should not be allowed to take such incredible risks with investor money and employee jobs. Best he be retired to enjoy his fortune rather than deprive investors and employees of building theirs.”

Steve joined Microsoft in 1980 for a percentage of the company, a $50,000 annual salary and stock options. He was Microsoft’s 24th employee and first manager other than Gates and Allen. The Hunts Point mansion of Steve and Connie Ballmer is pictured above. They purchased the estate in 1987 for $1.3 million and extensively renovated the buildings, but maintained their charm, in 1991. The mansion and property has a $10 million estimated value. The main house is 4,175 sq ft and the property is 2.09 acres with 160 feet of waterfront. It is adjacent to the south of Craig McCaw’s (formerly Kenny G’s) mansion (4/30/12 post). The neighborhood is covered in a 2/16/11 Lake Washington Cruising post.

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.

Kenny G returns home to Seattle

Craig McCaw’s – formerly Kenny G’s – Hunts Point Home

Kenny G (Gorelick) returned home last week for eight performances at Seattle’s Jazz Alley. A review of his performances was in The Seattle Times on 4/27/12.

He used to live on the Hunts Point property, with two mansions, pictured above. He was born in Seattle and went to Franklin HS where he played in the jazz band and played on the golf team. He is now one of the top celebrity amateur golfers. On summer evenings when he lived in Hunts Point he would sometimes sit on the end of the dock and play his saxophone. His beautiful music would resonate throughout the cove.

Kenny G won the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition Forever in Love. He is best known for his saxophone playing. He is the best selling instrumentalist in the world with over 70 million singles and albums sold. His album Breathless sold 12 million copies. Songbird was his first number one singles hit in 1986. His other popular singles include Forever In Love, Sentimental, Silhouette and The Wedding Song. He composes and writes most of his songs along with songs for others.

This property is now the home (LW 130 Homes page 152 and 153) of Craig and Susan McCaw. It was purchased in 1999 from Kenny G in a private transaction estimated at more than $20 million. The two mansions have 15,810 sq ft on 4.3 acres with 327 feet of waterfront, 8 bedrooms and 10.5 baths.

Susan is a former U.S. Ambassador to Austria. Craig was the leader or the world famous McCaw brothers, Bruce (1946- ), Craig (1949- ), John (1951- ) and Keith (1953-2002). Keith and John formerly lived in Madison Park (4/16/12 LW Cruising post) and Bruce recently sold his Medina estate (2/13/11 post). The brothers grew their deceased (1969) father’s, Elroy’s, businesses into the 20th largest cable carrier in the U.S. In the early 1980s they started in the fledging cellular phone industry. They founded Kirkland-based McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. in 1984. In 1986 they sold the cable business for $750 million and bought MCI’s wireless operations for $122 million. McCaw Cellular went public in 1987 raising $2 billion. In 1994, with Craig as CEO, McCaw Cellular was sold to AT&T for $11.5 billion. Following the sale Craig’s net worth was $2.6 billion and each of the brothers’ was slightly less.

Kenny G is a friend of the McCaw families and performs at family weddings and other events. It is rumored that he stays in the 4,760 sq ft guest house in the lower left (partially obscured by trees) of the bottom picture when he is in the Seattle area. After selling the Hunts Point property he purchased a Malibu, CA compound on the oceanfront from actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

$9 Million Seattle WF Sale 2011 – Richard Robbins

This Harrison/Denny-Blaine mansion is on page 35 of LW 130 Homes and is 7,060 sq ft on 0.8 acres with 120 feet of waterfront. This is the former home of Richard J. and Bonnie Robbins. The mansion was purchased 7/11/11 for $9 million by LD and LAI LLC whose members are Aileen Dong and Alice Shen.

Richard Robbins was President of Kent-based The Robbins Company from 1958 to 1993 when it was acquired by Sweden-based Atlas Copco AB. The Robbins Company (Richard is now a Director) invents, engineers, develops and produces tunnel boring machines. It now operates as a subsidiary of Atlas. Richard’s father, James S. Robbins, founded The Robbins Company in 1952. Richard took over at the age of 25, two years after earning his engineering degree and upon the untimely death of his father. Richard and the company are noted for innovative designs that have enabled projects such as the English Channel tunnel and many aqueduct and hydro power tunnels. Richard holds 67 U.S. and foreign patents. He is now President of Seattle-based Robbins Group LLC which focuses on research and product development for The Robbins Company. In 2009 he received the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Engineering from the Philadelphia-based Franklin Institute.

The property was listed for sale for $10.8 million (Bob Bennion and Bob Deville, Windermere): “Exquisite 1932 Tudor Revival home with lake and mountain views, privately situated on .9+/- acre lot w/ beach house and 120' waterfront w/ dock. Available for first time in 40 years! Elegant dayrooms with pine-paneled walls; 2005 kitchen designed by Nils Finne and built by Schultz Miller; view terrace; 5 bedrooms; 5 baths; 4 fireplaces; office; rec room; wine cellar; 2-car garage. Beach house with kitchen, fireplace and 2 baths. Lovely grounds with sweeping lawns, mature plantings and tram.”

Up the hill above this home, Kurt Cobain, a famous Seattle musician, rented a house in the 1990s. He committed suicide in the house’s greenhouse April 5, 1994 and afterwards the greenhouse was torn down. A bench in Viretta Park also just above this home, is host to a makeshift shrine to Kurt. Thousands of fans of the music of Cobain’s band, Nirvana, have come here to pay tribute and guidebooks list the park as the “Kurt Cobain Park.”

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.

Paul Allen’s Yachts

The 414 ft $200 Million Octopus

octopus-eventective.com

The 302 ft $162 Million Tatoosh

tatoosh-panoramio.com

The 199 ft $80 Million Meduse

meduse-yacht1-boatinternational.com

Paul Allen is known for many things and one of them is his luxury yachts. His largest ones are pictured above. He is reported to own over fifteen 50 ft+ luxury yachts. Two of them are tenders on the Octopus. The Octopus was in the national news, including The Associated Press/Seattle Times 4/4/12 article, for the yacht’s use in a South Pacific search for a missing U. S. pilot. The pilot was involved in an official pursuit of illegal fishing operations.

The Octopus when it was launched in 2003 was listed as the largest and most expensive privately owned yacht. The mega-yacht has two helipads with enclosed hangers, seven boats used as tenders and runabouts, two submarines, several personal watercraft (PWC – sometimes improperly called jet-skis), a pool, a basketball court, 13 staterooms and 26 crew cabins on seven levels with more than 50,000 sq ft under roof. The Bornrich site now has it listed at number nine and his Tatoosh at number ten in its list of the 16 top privately owned super-yachts. The top ranked private yacht is the $485 million 558 foot long Eclipse owned by Russian multi-billionaire, Roman Abramovich.

The price of the Octopus and Tatoosh are each more than the estimated and appraised $150 million value of his 10 acre, 100,000+ sq ft under roof, campus/compound on Mercer Island. This compound with a viewing guide was featured in a 12/28/10 post. More information on Allen’s super-yachts can be found by clicking on the links for the Octopus, the Tatoosh and the Meduse.

Nordstrom Waterfront Park – Mercer Island

 

This is the site of the Nordstrom family private waterfront park. From 1999 through 2009, James F. Jr (Jamie) and Lisa Nordstrom purchased, for $9.1 million, 4 parcels from the George W. Clarke estate and family. The last 3 undeveloped parcels, with 300 ft of waterfront on 1 acre, were acquired in 2008 and 2009. The mansion, up the hill, is 5,140 sq ft. The waterfront has a park-like setting with a recently erected “cabana with deck” structure that looks like it is for parties and picnics. There are docks for multiple yachts and watercraft. It is an ideal setting for family gatherings including Seafair.

Jamie (age 38) is the great grandson of John W. Nordstrom, the founder of Seattle based Nordstrom, Inc. He is EVP of the company and President of Nordstrom Direct. Numerous Nordstrom families reside on Mercer Island. They have generously contributed to and supported many community causes.

George W. Clarke was a well-known and respected community and family leader. He served in the Washington state House and Senate from 1966 to 1985. He died in 2006 at the age of 100. He had nine grandchildren, 22 great grandchildren and 3 great-great-grandchildren when he died. This was previously known as the Clarke family private waterfront park. Clarke families still reside in the immediate area.

LW Waterfront Welfare Mansion

A Lake Washington waterfront welfare recipient, who is living in a $3 million mansion, has been in recent local and national news. ($3 million is my estimated value of the mansion. The appraised value is $1.2 million.)

A 12/7/11 KING 5 News post by Chris Ingalls has the most information and a video of the home and story. According to KING 5, Lyudmila Shimonova, who has received $135,000 in government (Seattle Housing Authority and HUD) housing assistance, has lived in the mansion since 2003. The mansion is owned by Seattle doctor David Silverstein. The KING 5 article stated, “ . . . Shimonova identified [Silverstein] as her landlord when she filed for housing and cash assistance and food stamps. Government investigators believe Silverstein and Shimonova are actually married and that they live together in the lakeside house. . . . [government] Inspectors [annual inspections] . . . never reported any suspicion about fraud, according to the Seattle Housing Authority. . . Neither Shimonova or Silverstein has been charged.” The mansion has 53 feet of prime waterfront with a dock, boat and fantastic views of Mount Rainier.

View from Mansion