Published February 2005

CRS Corporate Centre
opens after remodel

Photo courtesy of CRS Financial Services MILA Inc., a wholesale mortgage firm, moved into the third floor of the CRS Corporate Centre in Lynnwood in January after buying the building last year. Three other tenants already occupy the building, which had sat vacant after being vacated by the Boeing Co. during the 2001-2003 recession.

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

MILA Inc., headquartered in Mountlake Terrace, took a major expansion step in mid-January with the opening of its newly remodeled CRS building in Lynnwood, where hundreds of the wholesale residential mortgage lender’s employees will settle in this year, most of them new hires.

The company opened the year with 581 employees, but by the end of 2005 it will employ around 800, said MILA spokesperson Michelle Homes, due to the company’s rapid growth and expansion into new national market areas.

In business in the county since 1984, the company moved its corporate headquarters in 2003 from the Fisher Business Center in Lynnwood to the former Safeco building in Mountlake Terrace. Buying the six-story, twin-tower office building in the former Quadrant I-5 Center in Lynnwood last year, MILA spent $5.5 million to remodel the structure and build-out offices for itself and other tenants.

The expansion to the new building, now known as the CRS Corporate Centre, is a major part of the firm’s growth plan, which anticipates 1,200 employees nationally by 2007.

Layne Sapp, managing member of CRS Financial II LLC and chief executive and founder of MILA (Mortgage Investment Lending Associates), said the business anticipates expanding its 27-state service area by 13 more states and hundreds of new broker contacts in 2005.

With 30,000 square feet of space, the entire third floor, MILA Financial Center is the anchor tenant for the 176,000-square-foot CRS Corporate Centre, owned by Sapp and contractor David Schueller.

Other new tenants include Davis Schueller Inc., the firm that remodeled the CRS Corporate Centre’s lobby, offices, tenant suites and common areas, with 3,000 square feet; an online mortgage services company called Next, leasing 13,000 square feet; and CRS Financial Services, manager of the property, with 2,200-square-feet of space.

CB Richard Ellis leasing agent Ric Brandt said there is nearly 40,000 square feet available for lease in the building.

The Mortgage Bankers Association is projecting $2.4 trillion in mortgage obligations to be processed this year nationally, even with rising interest rates.

According to the National Mortgage News, MILA ranked in fourth place in the first quarter of 2004 among the nation’s top 20 subprime residential lenders. MILA’s proprietary software programs — DecisionPoint and AccessPoint — give the company a high-tech competitive edge in the marketplace, Sapp said.

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