Unico was formed in 1953 when their founder, Roger L. Stevens, and his investment partners, Alfred R. Glancy, Jr., Ben Tobin, and H. Adams Ashforth, were selected by the University of Washington to lease, manage, and develop the University of Washington’s 10-acre Metropolitan Tract in downtown Seattle. Over the next few decades, they developed many million square feet of high-rise office and retail space on and adjacent to the Tract, including the iconic Rainier Tower and award-winning Two Union Square. The developments were structured as part of a lucrative ground lease with the University; this lease expired in 2014, however they retain their long-held management assignment for the portfolio. In the mid-1990s they began a deliberate evolution from downtown Seattle-focused owner/operator to a real estate investment firm actively buying and developing properties throughout the Northwestern and Western United States.