Because of our diversified economy, strong job base and well-educated work force, investment dollars by the billions are pouring into the Puget Sound region right now.

Yes, Washington is for sale-- -and you might be surprised to learn just who is buying!

Rising on a city block in downtown Bellevue is a billion-dollar mix of retail, office and condos called The Bravern. When completed, it will include 450 luxury condos and high-end retailers such as Louis Vuitton and the only Neiman-Marcus in our region.

"You know, the brands you'd see on Fifth Avenue in New York, that you'd see on the Miracle Mile in Chicago, that you'd see on Rodeo Drive in California."

Dan Ivanoff is founder of Schnitzer-West, The Bravern's developer. He says thanks to strong job generators such as Microsoft, Amazon and Boeing -- and an educated, highly-paid work force -- there is plenty of demand for luxury developments like The Bravern.

"Great quality of life here, very significant wage growth, very significant earnings growth, very significant in-migration that makes it, as an investor--those are all the kinds of variables that you're going to look for," said Ivanoff.

But like many new developments in our area, most of the investment dollars for The Bravern didn't come from Bellevue or even Wall Street in New York. Most of the billion-dollar investment originated in, of all places, Bahrain, in the Middle East.

Last year, foreign investors poured a record $414 billion dollars to buy up U.S. companies. That's up 90 percent from just the year before.

Dr. Debra Glassman of the University of Washington's Foster School of Business says that's largely due to the high value of oil and the low value of the U.S. dollar.

"Middle East, even Norway, oil producers are accumulating lots of dollars, and now they're looking for places to invest them," said Glassman.

Including Washington State. According to the Urban Land Institute, only Manhattan attracts more foreign investment than the Puget Sound region. But at what cost to our cities and neighborhoods?

Dan Lewis, 71, was forced to leave the South Sound apartment where he's lived the last 15 years. Because of rising property values -- -in part fueled by foreign investment -- his apartment building was converted to condos, and he can't afford to buy.

"It isn't just us, there're a whole lot of people in the same boat," said Lewis. "When you're old and on a fixed income, it gets to be a little difficult."

John Fox of the Seattle Displacement Coalition is a longtime advocate for the poor and homeless. He admits global economic forces can't be stopped, but says that's why it's important for the region's political leaders to provide for those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder.

"This region lost 12,000 apartments to condominium conversions in the past two years," said Fox. "Whether it's the investor in Bahrain or a group of local investors forming a limited liability corporation, it's the responsibility of local officials to step in and to mitigate the effects and be sure the public interest is served when this growth occurs."

And then there is the concern that foreign investment may mean foreign control. Right now a Canadian/Australian group is applying to buy Puget Sound Energy, a major Northwest utility.

And you'll remember the firestorm two years ago, when port authorities of Dubai tried to take over management of several East Coast ports before finally bowing out under fierce protest, including here at the Port of Seattle.

Dr. Glassman says foreign investment hasn't undermined local control in the U.S. -- at least not yet. But it has happened in poorer parts of the world.

"In the case of foreign investment in developing countries, there certainly is a history of where foreign investors have some impact on the sovereign decisions of a national government. So I guess it depends on whether you're thinking about conspiracy theories," said Glassman.

The Bravern's Dan Ivanoff admits there can be trade-offs to foreign investment in Washington state, but he believes that, overall, the investment dollars help everyone, from the worker to the wealthy. And anyway, he says, global market forces will continue to bring foreign dollars to our region, like it or not.