PRESS RELEASES

Hines, HCG and Washington Capital Celebrate Tower 333 Grand Opening

Tower 333 is First LEED-CS Pre-Certified Office Tower on West Coast

4/17/08

(BELLEVUE, WA) – The Seattle office of Hines, the international real estate firm, and joint venture partners California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) and Washington Capital Management, held a celebration today to commemorate the opening of Tower 333, a new 20-story, 415,000-square-foot Class A office tower prominently located at the intersection of 108th Avenue NE and NE 4th Street, in the heart of Bellevue’s central business district.

Guests in attendance included city officials, project partners, tenants, brokers and Hines employees.  Since Tower 333 was the West Coast’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – Core and Shell (LEED-CS) Pre-Certified office tower (soon to receive a Certified designation), a “green” theme prevailed.  The event itself was planned to take place a week before Earth Day, catering featured an organic menu including a signature green beverage, and lavish landscaping was incorporated into the décor.

Tower 333 is currently 96 percent leased to the following roster of prestigious tenants:  Expedia, Pokemon, Nortel Networks, Core Business Bank and Caffe Ladro.  The only remaining office space available for lease in the building is located at the northwest corner of the building’s top floor and is comprised of approximately 8,600 rentable square feet featuring spectacular unobstructed views of Lake Washington, downtown Seattle and the Olympic Mountains.

“This is an exciting day for us,” said Hines Senior Vice President Colin Shepherd.  “We are thrilled with our phenomenal tenant base and our spectacular new office environment.”

“Tower 333 holds the distinction of being the first project funded by the Hines CalPERS Green Fund (HCG), a fund dedicated to developing high performance, sustainable office buildings in the U.S. that are certifiable through LEED-CS,” said Dan Rashin, senior vice president and fund manager.

Designed by LMN Architects, Tower 333 is clad in highly transparent glass maximizing the site’s views west to Lake Washington and the Olympics, south to Mt. Rainier, and east to the Cascades.  Full-height windows and 10’ finished ceiling heights, a first for Bellevue, allow for extensive natural light in tenant spaces.  The building also includes flexible 23,000-square-foot floor plates, some of the largest in Bellevue, state-of-the art, energy-efficient operating systems; an inviting, half-acre outdoor plaza; as well as an eight-level, below-grade 960-stall garage.

“Collaborating with Hines on Tower 333 has been a terrific experience from the very start," said Walt Niehoff, partner with LMN Architects. "We were asked to design the building around today’s knowledge worker, and enjoyed exploring innovative ways to integrate sustainable features like taller ceiling heightsfor maximum natural light, or planning the building on less than half the site footprint to create agenerouspublic plaza space that will itself become a destination. The final product and full-leasing status speak to the team’s success.”

The General Contractor for Tower 333 was LCL; Magnuson Klemencic was the structural and civil engineer; ME Engineers was the mechanical engineer; and McLeod Record provided landscaping services.  Jeff Watson and Joe Razore of the Broderick Group are the marketing representatives.

Hines CalPERS Green Development Fund, a joint venture between Hines and California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), was formed in 2006.  It was capitalized with more than $120 million of committed equity and with leverage has the ability to invest up to $500 million.  HCG concentrates on developing high performance, sustainable office buildings certifiable through the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Core and Shell Program (LEED-CS).  The fund’s main focus is on developing office projects throughout the United States.

Washington Capital Management, Inc., founded in 1978, is an independent,employee-owned investment advisory firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with branch offices in Spokane, Portland, San Diego and Anchorage.Starting in 1987 with contributions from several Taft-Hartley pension trusts, an investment strategy was created to invest in construction and permanent mortgages for union-built projects.In 1996, Washington Capital Management initiated investment in real estate equity projects. Washington Capital Management now manages over $1.8billion in real estate mortgages and for Taft-Hartley and other institutional pension trusts. In 2006 Washington Capital Management was named among the 50 largest US Real Estate investment advisors ranked by institutional tax-exempt real estate assets under management, by Pension & Investments. Total assets under management exceed $3.25 billion in stocks, fixed-income securities and real estate.  More information on Washington Capital Management can be found at www.wcmadvisors.com.

 LMN Architects provides comprehensive planning and design services to createoffice buildings, cultural arts venues, convention centers, higher education facilities, mixed-use developments, interior environments, and urban plans that celebrate and enrich communities.  Founded in 1979, LMN specializes in managing highly complex projects and delivering integrated economic, environmental and social sustainability approaches. For more information, visit www.lmnarchitects.com.

Hines entered the Washington state real estate arena in 1981 with the development of the Seafirst Fifth Avenue Plaza in Seattle (now Bank of America Fifth Avenue Plaza), and Seafirst Financial Center in Spokane.  In 1999, Hines opened its first Eastside project, Cedar Court in Redmond, followed in 2001 by One Twelfth at Twelfth in Bellevue.  In 2002, the firm developed the 40-story, IDX Tower at Fourth & Madison in downtown Seattle, and in 2003, developed the Evergreen Plaza in Kirkland.  In 2005, Hines acquired 1001 Fourth (now Safeco Plaza) and in 2006, the firm acquired 720 Olive Way, both in downtown Seattle.  In 2007, the firm acquired the Daytona and Laguna office complexes in Redmond as well as the Seattle Design Center and Fifth & Bell office projects in downtown Seattle.

Hines is a privately owned real estate firm involved in real estate investment, development and property management worldwide. The Hines portfolio of projects underway, completed, acquired and managed for third parties includes more than 1,000 properties representing approximately 416 million square feet of office, residential, mixed-use, industrial, hotel, medical and sports facilities, as well as large, master-planned communities and land developments.  With offices in 69 U.S. cities and 15 foreign countries, and controlled assets valued at approximately $22.9 billion, Hines is one of the largest real estate organizations in the world. For more information, visit www.hines.com.