PEOPLE

CAROL PUGH

Designated Broker, Co-Founder

Carol started her real estate career in residential sales, achieving the status of Million Dollar Salesperson her very first year in the business. She was consistently a top salesperson year over year for over a decade before transitioning to commercial real estate. In 1991, she joined Sandy at West Coast Commercial Realty and has been instrumental in the development of our high standards for practice management, operations, client relations, transaction management and business development. Carol is the backbone of our high production brokerage practice, ensuring we maintain the highest level of professionalism, education, ethics and client service. She has been awarded the CoStar PowerBroker® award numerous times and she is a key factor in the success of each individual broker in the company. 

AVERY CONNELL

Associate, Broker

After graduating from the University of Oregon in 2020, Avery joined WCCR as a marketing manager, strengthening our social media and online marketing presence. In this role, she had the opportunity to learn about our clients, sites throughout Washington State, and the commercial real estate industry as a whole. This opportunity gave her a good foundational understanding of WCCR, which sparked her interest in exploring the brokerage side of the company. In the Fall of 2020 Avery joined the family business as a licensed associate broker.  Born and raised in NE Seattle, Avery has deep roots in the community and is excited to play a new role in community development through retail brokerage. She has already jumped in and is working on client management, and she is looking forward to interfacing with existing and new WCCR clients and industry colleagues.

ANDREA LERUM

Broker, Sales & Leasing

A longtime South Puget Sound resident, Andrea spent a considerable part of her 12+ year commercial real estate career overseeing a combined total of nearly two million square feet of investment properties, many of them in the South Sound market, including large retail power centers, strip and grocery-anchored centers, and medical and mixed-use properties, including small office. As a broker, leasing manager and portfolio/asset manager, she skillfully managed large operating budgets, developed strategic leasing and management plans, and curated vital relationships internally and externally. In all of her roles, Andrea demonstrates a collaborative and focused approach, backed by strong market and experience intelligence, which is a huge asset to her clients and to the WCCR team. Andrea focuses on retail and office properties in South King County, and Pierce and Kitsap Counties.

LARA TREPANIER

Managing Director, Brokerage Operations

With over 25 years of operations management in leadership roles at Grand Central Bakery, Sur La Table, Eddie Bauer and Briazz, Lara has rich experience in specialty retail and restaurants. Originally from Santa Monica, CA where her family owned and operated multiple restaurants, Lara moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington. She chose a career in hospitality and quickly found her niche in operations management by building the infrastructure that supports front-line teams while focused on growth and maximizing profitability. Along the way she has led the opening teams for hundreds of retail and restaurant locations around the country for start-ups, large retailers, and family businesses. She last worked as the Retail Director for Grand Central Bakery where she managed retail team members in Portland and Seattle and all café operations including the real estate site selection, negotiation and leasing of new locations. Lara uses her experience as a client and professional business manager to support the WCCR family of brokers, clients and vendors.

SANDY PODY

Broker, Co-Founder*

Sandy moved into commercial real estate after a diverse career owning restaurants, a sporting goods retail store, and holding various sales positions early in his working life. He was a pioneer in retail landlord representation in Puget Sound, making an early name for himself by being one of the few brokers listing retail properties and working on behalf of the owner's interests. Sandy was a well-respected leader in the industry for over three decades. He completed several million square feet of retail leasing and sales, and was awarded the CoStar PowerBroker® award every year that it was given for retail brokerage, up until his death. Having thrived through several cycles of growth in the Puget Sound commercial real estate market, Sandy was a vital player in the heartbeat of retail in our market. 

*We are sad to share that Sandy passed away unexpectedly on November 1, 2017. 

BAYLOR GORDON

Senior Vice President, Investment Sales

Baylor brings over 15 years of CRE investment sales experience and has been involved in transactions totaling over $400M. This includes early years as a SVP with a multi-national firm securitizing raw land into an investment vehicle, and managing a national sales team. Since 2008, he has focused exclusively on investment sales in the PNW. Throughout his career, he has skillfully navigated complex transactions and negotiated innovative deal structures addressing issues such as environmental contamination, 1031 exchanges, debt pre-payment clauses, tenant ROFR options, adding value by renegotiating leases and rezoning prior to marketing properties for sale, working through assemblages, and other nuanced sales scenarios. He has also worked with investors and owner/users to find creative opportunities, often off-market, that meet challenging acquisition criteria.

AMEER LOWE

Broker, Sales & Leasing

Ameer came to WCCR from a diverse background including investment management and finance on Wall Street, IT consulting, and real estate leasing, sales and advising in New York before transitioning out to WA State, where he served as a business management consultant for several years. After getting his WA real estate license, he started working with retailers and retail landlords throughout the greater Seattle area. He brings a high level of professional acumen and a deep understanding of the financial and operational concerns related to the client's commercial real estate acquisitions, dispositions and leasing. As was customary in all of his prior professional experiences, he excels at developing ideas and cultivating resources while implementing result-based strategies that are rooted in relationships, data and research. His focus on a commitment to integrity, community, leadership and professionalism is directly inline with WCCR core values and we are grateful to have his expertise and energy as part of our team

BLAKE TAYLOR

Broker, Sales & Leasing

Blake began his real estate career over a decade ago, spending the early days in property and asset management. Since that time, he has gained extensive experience in tenant and landlord representation, disposition and acquisition of commercial properties, as well as identifying redevelopment opportunities for a diverse client base including small partnerships, owner/users, traditional retailers and investment groups. The creative approach and personal energy that he adds to the marketing and transaction process has lead to results that clients, new and existing, continue to respond to. Blake has established himself as a valuable resource for his clients, leveraging his unique experience with management in helping to foster positive landlord/tenant relationships from the outset. 

KEENAN VAN GAVER

Broker, Sales & Leasing

With a diverse background in foreign property investment management, finance, consulting and biotech sales, Keenan has a long history of exceeding client's expectations and company goals, working at companies such as Merck, Washington Mutual and Accenture. In 2009, she founded a real estate investment agency in Paris, France, specializing in assisting foreigners with residential and commercial property purchases, sales and management. She grew the company to include over 40 properties under contract management. In late 2017, she came back to Seattle full-time and joined West Coast Commercial Realty in early 2018. With her experience and expertise, she offers her clients exceptional real estate brokerage and transaction services, designed to meet shareholder goals including investment value, tenant mix, property positioning, marketing and strategic planning.

TIFFINI CONNELL

Managing Broker, Principal

After an early decade-long career in marketing and public relations, Tiffini moved into commercial real estate in 2004. Starting in 2006, she has been  named a CoStar PowerBroker® 14 times, consistently recognizing her as a top retail broker in our market and nationally. In September of 2016, she was named as a Bisnow Power Woman in the digital media company's first-ever Seattle edition of influential women in commercial real estate. She is currently serving as the Immediate Past-Chair of the Board of Directors for the Commercial Brokers Association, and has been on the board since 2016. In November of 2020, she received Connect CRE's 2020 Women in Real Estate award, honoring her role in helping guide her clients through the pandemic and for strategically shaping the future of the company. As of year-end 2020, Tiffini has worked on nearly 1,000 completed transactions including anchor, junior anchor, shop space, ground leases, build-to-suits, mixed use applications, stand-alone, new construction, and investment sales, and represents more than 3 millions square feet in the retail sector. 

CHRISTIAN DECKER

Broker, Sales & Leasing

Christian came to West Coast Commercial Realty through a long affiliation with his family's business — a real estate development and holding company with assets around Puget Sound. After graduating from college in Virginia, Christian moved back to the Northwest and officially joined the family business where he actively worked on the development, acquisition, leasing and property management of multi-tenant commercial and residential assets. This direct hands-on experience, coupled with a lifetime of being immersed in the real estate world, has given Christian a comprehensive understanding and a unique outlook on commercial real estate that is an asset to his clients.  Christian focuses on owner representation in retail and office disciplines.

JAXSON MAURER

Broker, Sales & Leasing

As a former retail business owner and corporate sales & marketing leader, Jaxson brings a unique mix of business and real estate experience to WCCR. Jaxson spent over 12 years in the travel and hospitality industries, during which time he enjoyed building teams and forming strategic partnerships. Early in his career, he managed marketing programs for 19 locations across the west coast with hospitality giant, Wyndham Destinations. Later, as an Expedia franchise owner, Jaxson opened three retail travel agencies and reached profitability for each store in record time. After selling his travel business, he found that real estate was the perfect fit for his service-first approach and earned quick success as a broker, exceeding $10M in residential and commercial transactions in 2020, before transitioning to WCCR. Continuing his success by joining with us, Jaxson is committed to helping each one of his clients realize their business goals and will stop at nothing to see them succeed.

SUSANNA TRAN

Senior Associate, Broker

Susanna came to commercial real estate from a dynamic background as a small business owner/operator in the beauty, restaurant and fashion industry, including owning a high-end optical retail boutique, holding strategic positions in the family restaurant business and owning several spas. She primarily focuses on tenant representation, leveraging her experience as a former retailer and business owner to help her clients achieve their location and expansion goals. Additionally, she holds several key positions in community development, such as South East Effective Development (SEED) and Mercy Housing Northwest where she is Vice Chair. She is also a founding member of the Ethnic Business Coalition and she serves on the Celebrate Asia Committee with the Seattle Symphony. 

CONSTANCE WILDE

Vice President

With over 30 years of experience in retail commercial real estate, Constance brings an enviable acumen to her work as an advisor and broker in leasing, investment sales, land sales, development and re-development of retail properties. As a CCIM designee, she brings unique expertise to investment sales; experience includes the sale of numerous multi-tenant retail centers from $40 million to $2 million in value. She has been a key strategic partner in the planning, development and pre-leasing of over 40 new shopping centers including two of the region’s most notable lifestyle centers.  As a retail tenant representative, she is skilled in site selection analysis, negotiation and successful positioning of her clients in key markets and projects, playing a prominent role in several notable tenants being able to achieve their ambitious expansion goals in competitive trade areas. For corporate and private clients, her transaction experience also includes portfolio disposition, ground leases, build-to-suits and pad sales.  To assist clients in planning and achieving more environmentally friendly projects she completed the Green Broker certification sponsored by the Commercial Brokers Association (CBA).