Under the leadership of a man named Dan Ivanoff, development firm Schnitzer West invested heavily in Seattle at the worst possible time, building hundreds of condos that are now sitting empty. Schnitzer, the namesake venture of a wealthy steel-industry family, is also finishing a 36-story office tower that, when I wrote this piece about the company's tribulations last month, had no tenants. Nobody ate more shit in Seattle's devlopment bust than Schnitzer West. At the time of that photo on the right taken by Kello O—when Ivanoff wouldn't return calls—people in the industry speculated "there is going to be a shake-up high up in the company." It now appears the Schnitzer family no longer trusts Ivanoff to make the big decisions on his own. From the DJC:

Ken Novack is returning to Schnitzer West to work with company founder Dan Ivanoff to devise a game plan for the next development cycle. Novack was formerly chairman and CEO of Schnitzer Investment Corp. ... Ivanoff said Novack has come back to Schnitzer West to co-develop a strategy for the Seattle-based firm for the next wave of development and investment, including what it will build, buy or sell and in what markets.

It will be interesting to see how Novack excavates Schnitzer out of this litter box. Will the company turn condos into rentals like Vulcan is doing, reduce prices on condos to sell them and stop the hemorrhaging, fire all marketing contractors, or just sit on the property (losing money with every passing month of vacancy) and hope the market rebounds soon enough to make up the losses? Lot's of developers are looking to Schnitzer to see how it handles this colossal fail.