Originally published: bizjournals.com

PJ Santos on Monday posted on LinkedIn that he is the new senior managing director of development at Seattle-based Timberlane Partners.

Santos, who has worked in commercial real estate in the Seattle region for 25 years, previously was senior managing director of development and acquisitions at Gemdale USA Corp. This spring, Gemdale closed offices in Seattle and other cities amid reports that parent company Gemdale Corp., a Chinese state-backed developer faces debt of over 10 billion yuan, or $1.4 billion.

Timberlane has been one of the most active local buyers of apartment properties. This spring it announced the successful closure of a multifamily acquisition fund with over $100 million in equity, which is designed to acquire institutional-grade assets in the West Coast and Mountain West regions.

Timberlane’s website said it has built a track record of “forward-looking investing, leveraging markets as the evolve.” The result has been “strong returns” mostly through value-add strategies “but also with new construction, commercial and hospitality projects.”

This spring, Timberlane opened Sumner Mill, a 162-unit apartment project in Sumner, according to the company website, while two years ago it broke ground on a 262-unit project in West Valley City, Utah.

Among Santos’ projects are the mixed-use Stadium Place apartment project in Seattle; Bremerton Harborside, a public-private partnership project with a conference center and hotel, and The Cabins at Tumble Creek in Roslyn, Kittitas County. These projects were done when he was a senior real estate director with Opus Northwest.

He also worked on the new Skyglass apartment tower, the Seattle tower which sold in July for nearly $174.8 million to a joint venture of Goldman Sachs and Virtu Investments, five months after opening.