Kemper Freeman runs what he claims is the most-visited retail destination in the Pacific Northwest, lucrative enough to make him a billionaire. What it hasn’t done is make him particularly popular in the Seattle area.
The 75-year-old Freeman has vigorously opposed a $54 billion light-rail project, pitting himself against environmentalists, local government and even a business group his father established back in the ’70s. He’s also a Republican and a Donald Trump donor. None of this goes over well in a county that overwhelmingly voted for Hillary Clinton.
“He’s kind of a lightning rod with some groups,” observed John Stokes, mayor of Bellevue, where Freeman’s real estate sits. “You say Kemper is for it and then they’re against it, and then you have people where if Kemper’s for it, then they are, too.”
Love him or hate him, it’s hard to avoid Freeman’s presence in Bellevue, a well-off city of about 130,000 people directly across Lake Washington from Seattle. He operates 4 million square feet of retail, office towers, hotels and luxury residences that have anchored the city’s transformation from a sleepy hamlet into one of America’s wealthiest enclaves, with Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos among the billionaires living nearby.
In the past few decades, Freeman’s property value has exploded as Microsoft Corp. added tens of thousands of well-paid jobs at its headquarters in nearby Redmond. Now, he’ll soon open a $1.2 billion expansion that includes restaurants, luxury apartments and a 31-story office tower. Among the future tenants: Steve Ballmer, on the top office floor, and Gabe Newell’s gaming company, Valve Corp., taking at least nine floors.
$2 Billion Value
Remarkably, all of his holdings are concentrated along just six blocks -- and their worth makes Freeman a billionaire, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His family’s property holdings are valued at about $2 billion, of which Freeman and his two daughters own a majority stake.
“We don’t operate anywhere else in the world,” said Freeman. “We’ve had every opportunity known to mankind, but we’ve got more than we can do right here.”
Freeman is reluctant to discuss his wealth -- not so his opposition to Seattle’s expansion of light rail. A referendum to begin the project passed on Nov. 8 with a 58 percent yes vote. Design work is underway, and construction is expected to start in 2020.
Rattling off droves of statistics and studies, he argues that public funds would be better spent on roads, highways and buses to relieve the area’s congestion more quickly and cheaply. He resigned in 2011 from the Bellevue Downtown Association, a group his father helped found in 1974, over its support for the proposal, though he’s since rejoined.