In 1995, William founded The Justen Company LLC, a real estate consulting and development company which is very active in the greater Seattle area. Prior to that, he was the Senior Vice President for Seattle developments with the Koll Company where he developed several award winning projects such as City Center Bellevue, Market Place Tower, Zymogenetics Campus in South Lake Union, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Campus in South Lake Union. Prior to that, he was Director of Seattle’s Building and Planning Department, currently named Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI).
William is a graduate of the University of Washington and has been registered in Washington State as a Professional Engineer in civil and structural engineering. He has been an auxiliary faculty member at the University of Washington for twenty years in the College of Architecture and Urban Planning. He is past chairman of Puget Sound Chapter of Lambda Alpha International (the honorary land economics society), on the Board of the Downtown Seattle Association, a member of the Seattle Community Development Round Table, Urban Land Institute, and the National Eagle Scout Association. In November 2006, William was among Seattle Magazine‘s list of Seattle’s twenty-six most influential people.
William is passionate about urban living and his in-city homes have been in feature films and publications including Architectural Digest. He has been a resident of downtown Seattle since 1977, serving on the condominium HOA board of 4 of the condominiums he has lived in, including his current home which he helped develop, the elegant 38 story residential condominium tower he named Fifteen Twenty-One Second Avenue. William and his colleagues also developed the exclusive waterfront Bella Mira Condominium Estates in Issaquah, Washington.
In 2012, Leon joined the Justen Company adding strong construction management capacity to the team. He is an expert construction and general manager with more than 35 years of experience leading the development and construction of multi-million dollar projects encompassing commercial, residential, municipal, historic renovation, institutional and defense complexes. His exceptional experience-based construction management techniques along with on-site innovation adds great value to the Justen Company team and its clients.
Since joining the Justen Company Leon has been a key player in Construction Management working on variety of projects including a $45 million mixed-use project on Mercer Island, feasibility for $60 million potential renovation of the Seattle Macy’s building, construction defect remediation of a high-rise condominium building in downtown Seattle, five-story new student housing project near the University of Washington and currently working on five apartment sites in Seattle with a construction start of 2016. Prior to joining the Justen Company team Leon has managed the construction of several large condominium projects, numerous commercial buildings and hundreds of major renovations.
Leon grew up in a construction family where his father founded Mountain Pacific Company that built numerous commercial and multifamily projects in Washington and Alaska. Leon has the dual role of both property owner/client of the Justen Company and the team’s Construction Manager for mixed-use 47 unit luxury condominium above 24,000 ft.² of commercial space on Mercer Island currently going through a rezoning process.
Leon is a Seattle native and has had his home on Mercer Island since 2001. Leon enjoys boating and is a serious musician has three adult children, accomplished professional musicians involved in symphony teaching and film score industry with the other seeking his electrical engineering degree.
Chris, a New Jersey native and graduate of the University of Virginia, moved to Seattle in 1981 to join the real estate appraisal and advisory firm of Shorett and Riely. He was drawn to assignments involving unusual/complicated properties ranging from the Space Needle to the Central Waterfront to oyster beds and those involving complex ownership structures, including air rights, easements, long-term ground leases, historic covenants and tax credits, multi-tiered partnerships, Local Improvement Districts and public/private joint ventures. Extensive work with large institutional investors, not-for-profit boards and management, municipal entities, high profile/complex litigation counseling and expert testimony. Trusted advisor to families with a real estate foundation to their fortune on subsequent generation management and investment options, estate planning and relationship issues. Chris was awarded the professional designations of MAI and CRE, founded Wronsky, Gibbons and Riely in 1994, and served as board chair of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research, now part of the Runstad Center at the University of Washington.
In 1999 Chris relocated to New England to pursue a long-held desire to be involved in secondary school education. This encore career/mid-life shift into the management and development side of education included the position of director of alumni affairs and development at Salisbury School in Connecticut and director of planned giving at his alma mater, Phillips Exeter Academy. In his nine years at Exeter Chris was deeply involved in the school’s comprehensive capital campaign of $350m, the largest campaign (on a dollar per student or dollar per alum basis) of any secondary school or university. He also developed a program allowing investment of Charitable Remainder Unitrust assets with the school’s $900m endowment.
After achieving empty nest status Chris and his wife abandoned rural New England and its winters and returned to Seattle in 2011 to enjoy urban living in a high rise Condominium building and serving on the HOA board. He worked at The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington and is now engaged in providing advice and counsel to individuals, for profit, and not-for-profit entities on developing and executing strategies for real estate holdings.