Thursday night, the Bellevue Downtown Association celebrated their 35th annual celebration at Meydenbauer Center. Keynote speaker and mountaineer extraordinaire, Ed Viesturs, spoke about the parallels between mountain climbing and the business world. He also spoke about his recent venture with Downtown Bellevue based Eddie Bauer and their new sub-brand, First Ascent.
One of the highlights of the night was the awards for the companies or people that have been strong contributors throughout the year. This years’ categories and winners were as follows:
Civic Partner: City of Bellevue Parks
Lease of the Year: Microsoft at City Center
Move of the Year: Expedia Inc.
Community Treasure: Bellevue Regional Library
Skyline Award: Bellevue Towers
Commute Champion: Symetra Financial
John Boespflug City Builder Award: Suzanne Baugh
Leslie Lloyd, president of the Bellevue Downtown Association, gave her remarks during the night, and a very impressive statistic stood out: There were 18 million visitors to the Bellevue Collection in 2008. In comparison, there were only 9 million visitors to the Pike Place Market in the same year.
