Division manager | general construction
Jon-Michael Freese has been promoted to division manager, general construction, for Deacon Construction’s Portland office. In his new role, Freese will lead the firm’s GC division in the Oregon and Southwest Washington markets, overseeing operations, supporting project teams, strengthening client relationships, and driving continued growth.

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Multnomah County is set to invest up to $101.6 million in the planned renovation of the Moda Center. The county’s Board of Commissioners on Thursday adopted a resolution with conditions for the investment, including a deal with the city of Portland and the state of Oregon. The approximately $600 million project is intended to keep the Portland Trail Blazers playing in the arena for the long term.

The resolution’s terms will serve as guideposts for the county and the city as they negotiate a formal agreement with one another as part of final negotiations with the Trail Blazers, a Multnomah County press release states. The city delivered its own draft term sheet to the Trail Blazers last month.

“I’ve heard and agree with the desire that we enter negotiations with strong terms that ensure that this deal is a benefit for our entire community,” Chair Jessica Vega Pederson said during the six-hour board meeting on Thursday.

The county’s terms include the Blazers making a commitment to stay in Portland for at least 20 years, a funding clawback allowing the county to recoup its investment if benchmarks are not met, a project labor agreement for construction, community and neighborhood commitments such as equitable treatment of the Portland Fire in the renovated facility and development rights for parcels adjacent to the Moda Center going to Albina Vision Trust, a revenue stream for the governments contributing to the renovation, protections from cost overruns tied to the renovation or initial ongoing capital costs, and more.

The county’s proposed commitment is for renovation and some initial ongoing capital expenditures. As amended, it removes any county contribution of Business Income Tax (BIT) revenues received from the recent sale of the Trail Blazers. Instead, the county will explore other alternatives such as Motor Vehicle Rental Tax revenue or possibly even increasing the tax rate.

“I appreciate this (option rather than) using the BIT,” Commissioner Meghan Moyer said.

The funding source has been the biggest issue for the commission, Pederson said, adding that she’d like to see more specifics in that regard.

Moyer and Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards expressed concern about the investment amount.

“I hope at the end of the day we end up at a low number,” Brim-Edwards said, adding that the resolution lists the investment as “up to” $101.6 million.

Moyer, who said the resolution was improved, ultimately voted no.

“I’m not going to be supportive of this package because it’s too much and I don’t want the county subsidizing a building we don’t own when we can’t afford to maintain the buildings we do own,” she said.

After the resolution passed, the county’s chief financial officer was directed to bring to the board funding proposals that prioritize using the Motor Vehicle Rental Tax, including the county’s 2.5 percent surcharge, and other tourism tax revenues.

The resolution also has three conditions. These include an updated economic analysis of market conditions, tax revenue projections and long-term costs and benefits; a complete workforce audit of direct and contracted employees for the Trail Blazers and Rip City Management; and a detailed renovation and maintenance plan covering scope, timeline, budget and risk management.

Negotiations between the county, the city and the state of Oregon for an intergovernmental agreement are expected to take place through October. The Multnomah County board is set to vote on the final agreement and related tax code amendments in December.

The Portland City Council will vote on its operator lease term sheet on Wednesday.

The county has hired a professional negotiator to act on its behalf and provide the board with regular updates and reports during the negotiation process.

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Portland’s latest code amendment package to improve land use regulations received the City Council‘s approval on Thursday. The Regulatory Improvement Code Amendment Package (RICAP) 11 is intended to streamline zoning across the city. The changes will take effect Nov. 1.

“RICAP projects are intended to identify technical corrections, clarify existing regulations, remove unnecessary barriers and improve the overall functionality of our code,” Housing and Permitting Committee Chair Candace Avalos said during a committee meeting in June. “The package includes dozens of relatively small amendments, but together they create a more predictable, efficient and user-friendly system.”

RICAP 11 is part of an ongoing series of code amendment projects. The previous one, RICAP 10, was adopted by the city council in June 2024 and took effect that October. Its amendments focused on housing production, economic development and regulatory reduction.

In the next year or so, other projects will be presented to the committee and the City Council, Bureau of Planning and Sustainability Director Eric Engstrom said. They include possible reform of the design review process, a Central City-focused package, and the Code Alignment Project (CAP) 2.

“Collectively, we’ll be looking at things like parking and frontage issues, repurposing existing buildings, elements of the tree code, continued work on middle housing codes and a lot more,” Engstrom said during the June committee meeting.

Thursday’s direction amends Title 32 (signs and related regulations) and Title 33 (planning and zoning). RICAP 11 includes 56 zoning code amendments focused on minor parking updates including access to bike parking areas, rules for setbacks and screening for mechanical equipment, regulations for outdoor shelters to align with what the city has allowed through its housing emergency, and allowances for larger signs in parks and open spaces, among others.

The council passed several amendments to the package late last month. These include allowing residential use in the Campus Institutional 1 zone and removing screening requirements for detached mechanical equipment.

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The first project within the OMSI District has a green light. The Portland Design Commission on Thursday approved the design of a five-story, 100-unit affordable housing development, Los Colibris, on tract A of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry campus.

Holst Architecture designed the approximately 86,500-square-foot building planned at 1701 S.E. Water Ave. The project is being developed by Hacienda CDC and Edlen & Co. OMSI is the landowner. The project team also includes civil engineer KPFF, landscape architect PLACE, and Colas Construction.

Portland Permitting & Development values the project at $36 million. No specific construction schedule exists at this time, Holst Architecture principal and owner Dave Otte stated in an email. The project team will next look to secure funding.

Previously, the project team received design advice during a hearing in November 2025.

The site’s primary challenge is its location adjacent to Interstate 5. A large, multiuse courtyard on the east side faces away from the freeway to give residents a space shielded from traffic noise, the project’s narrative states.

Landscaping will be intense closer to the building, Holst Architecture senior associate Dustin Furseth said, adding that color will also be a key component.

“We think something bright and colorful next to OMSI adds to the beauty of that area,” he said.

The building’s name, Los Colibris (“The Hummingbirds”), ties into the design, Furseth said.

“Hummingbirds have a neutral palette often with highlights of color, which I think is a nice way of thinking about how to add color and vibrancy to a project,” he said.

Overall, the building will have a neutral color with hints of color at the windows and more vibrancy on the massing at the courtyard and entry.

Building materials will include primarily fiber cement with options for texture and paneled direction. Metal panels might have deeper texture folding like chevrons able to reflect color, Furseth said. The design team is exploring custom accent colors for fiber cement.

Layers of glazing are planned at the front entrance and the community room.

The roof will hold heat pumps and mini splits. Most of the rooftop equipment will be relatively low in sightlines, Furseth said.

Commissioner Brian McCarter added that he’d like to see a buffer around the children’s play area.

The commission’s approval came with five design modifications and 12 master plan amendments. One condition requires a landscape buffer of at least 10 feet maintained for the length of the building’s south elevation, at the northern side of the western half of the Bull Run pathway. Alternative configurations would be considered through a staff-level type II design review. This will preserve existing trees to screen the ground-floor units as the Bull Run pathway develops.

Modifications were approved for zoning code standards. These include providing approximately 57.5 percent of frontage and a wide courtyard to create active public space, creating an arcade along the east façade, modifying window standards and uses on the ground floor, and using 50 percent of the roof area for solar panels.

Master plan amendments include changing the timeline of development of open space 2, reducing the extent of the Bull Run improvements associated with tract A, removing the 20-foot building setback above 50 feet in height for tract A, removing the building pass-through at tract A and shifting vehicle access to the north, relocating the private wastewater treatment plant to a location to be determined, delaying provision of the OMSI identity framework, transferring 2,000 square feet of floor area to tract A from other tracts, removing the building line requirement from the north side of tract A, reducing the ground floor height requirement for tract A, and adjusting the Southeast Old Water Avenue right of way.

The wastewater treatment plant will likely be relocated to the south on tract A or tract F, according to OMSI.

Artwork will be included in the project; OMSI plans to be involved in the process.

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A weekly compilation of the largest winning bids in the Pacific Northwest, according to the Daily Journal of Commerce Project Center.

1.

Winner (intent to award): Emery & Sons Construction of Salem

Amount: $5,597,970

Project: Willamette Heights Tank No. 4 (Springfield)

Owner: Springfield Utility Board

Cost estimate: not available

Project team: The Satre Group, OS Engineering, Peterson Structural Engineers, Consor

2.

Winner (contract awarded): Umpqua Roofing Co. of Eugene

Amount: $1,437,100

Project: State of Oregon Data Center Roof Replacement (Salem)

Owner: Department of Administrative Services

Cost estimate: not available

Project team: not available

3.

Winner (intent to award): HP Civil of Stayton

Amount: $1,299,900

Project: Primary Clarifier Rehabilitation Project, Phase 2 (Bend)

Owner: city of Bend

Cost estimate: $808,800 to $1,213,200

Project team: Keller Associates

4.

Winner (contract awarded): Brumfield Construction of Aberdeen, Washington

Amount: $974,000

Project: Theler Wetlands Boardwalk (Belfair, Washington)

Owner: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

Cost estimate: $853,000

Project team: not available

5.

Winner (intent to award): Petra Design Build LLC of Wilsonville

Amount: $899,980

Project: Merkato Ethiopian Market Tenant Improvements (Portland)

Owner: Prosper Portland

Cost estimate: not available

Project team: Salazar Architect, JBK Consulting and Design, MFIA

Do you want to be the winner of an upcoming Top Bidders project? Then join the 91��Ƶ Project Center to find, track and bid on your next project. For a free tour, or more information on monthly and annual rates, contact Sharlene Richard at 503-802-7252 or srichard@djcOregon.com.

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Borrowing money to buy stocks is as old as the stock market. Every era dresses it up in new clothes. In 1929, an American could buy $100 of stock with $10 down, and everyone from chauffeurs to senators did. This summer’s model made its debut in South Korea. The wrapper was new. The ending was not.

Once again, the monthly scoreboard belied the turmoil underneath. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1 percent to close at 7,490. The Dow rose 0.3 percent for its fourth straight winning month. The Nasdaq fell 3.2 percent. Under the hood, it was one of the wildest months in years. A $45 billion American hedge fund was forced into liquidation. The world’s hottest stock market, South Korea’s, fell almost 11 percent in a single day. American semiconductor stocks dropped 20 percent while their businesses reported unprecedented orders, profits and backlogs.

The KOSPI, Korea’s version of the S&P 500, was until July the best-performing major market, roughly doubling in a year. Two companies, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, make most of the world’s memory chips (the foundation of the artificial intelligence boom) and together represent roughly 60 percent of the KOSPI index. In late spring, Korean brokerages began marketing funds that borrowed money to double the daily moves of those two stocks, and margin debt hit all-time records. The average small investor was carrying about three borrowed dollars for every one of their own.

An investor who owns shares outright can ride out any storm. An investor who borrows to buy shares cannot, because when the price falls far enough, the lender wants its money back. That demand is a margin call, and investors who cannot pay have their shares sold for them at whatever price the market offers. Here is the vicious part: the forced sale pushes prices lower, which triggers the next investor’s margin call.

Memory chip prices cooled only modestly in early July, but that was enough. By late July, 1.2 million Korean accounts had received margin calls, and some 360,000 were sold out entirely. That’s roughly one working-age South Korean in 30. On July 28, the KOSPI fell 10.8 percent in a single session. Regulators banned new leveraged funds and tripled the cash required to trade the old ones, arriving, as regulators usually do, after the horse had left the barn.

A crash in Seoul may sound like somebody else’s problem. It is not. Most diversified American portfolios hold these companies through international funds, and the world’s investors treat the entire AI supply chain as one trade. Samsung and SK Hynix chips fill American data centers, so when forced sellers in Korea dumped those shares, traders worldwide marked down everything related: Micron, Intel, Nvidia, the equipment makers — all of it. That is how the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index of American chipmakers lost 20 percent in a month. Anyone who owned a technology fund, or a plain S&P 500 index fund, absorbed a sliver of Seoul’s margin calls without ever placing a trade.

The month’s other casualty was homegrown. A 24-year-old former AI researcher ran a $45 billion hedge fund called Situational Awareness, which owned the AI build-out in concentrated form: chipmakers including SK Hynix and Micron, data center operators, and the power companies that feed them, hedged with bets against software companies such as Adobe. The fund reportedly held about four dollars of stock for every dollar of its investors’ capital. In July the trade failed at both ends: the chip and infrastructure holdings fell 35 percent to 47 percent, dragged partly by the Korean unwind, while the software stocks the fund bet against rallied. The fund’s banks issued margin calls, and on July 30, Citadel, the firm founded by Ken Griffin, bought the entire public portfolio to keep the wreckage contained. John Maynard Keynes gets credit for the warning that “markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.”

The Federal Reserve added its own tension. The committee held rates steady on July 29 over three dissents in favor of an immediate hike for the sharpest split in years. Chairman Kevin Warsh cut the policy statement to 130 words, offered no guidance, and declared the Fed has “no tolerance for persistently elevated inflation.” The bond market took the hint and tightened, driving the 30-year Treasury yield above 5.2 percent — its highest since 2007. The data pulled both ways: growth slowed to 1.5 percent, employers added just 57,000 jobs in June, and core inflation sat at 3.4 percent. A central bank staring at weak hiring and hot prices has no good move, so Warsh made none.

Oil made everything harder. The ceasefire with Iran collapsed, attacks on tankers resumed, and brent crude climbed toward $98 a barrel — up more than 30 percent for the month. Energy stocks (the best sector by far) surged 12.8 percent, as money rotated into banks, industrials and health care. Buried in all this is good news: the equal-weight S&P 500, which gives the 500th biggest company the same vote as the first, hit record highs in late July. The average American company is doing fine.

The companies paying for the AI build-out kept paying. Microsoft held its spending plans steady, grew its cloud business 43 percent, and gained nearly $450 billion of market value in a day. Alphabet grew its cloud business 82 percent and fell 7 percent anyway; its spending pushed free cash flow negative for the first time in decades. Meta’s free cash flow shrank 91 percent and its shares sank with it. The market stopped paying for promises about artificial intelligence and started paying for cash produced by it. That discipline is overdue, and it favors exactly the kind of company worth owning.

Used wisely, debt is one of the great tools of prosperity. Families buy homes with it and companies build factories with it. What precipitated July’s casualties was a particular kind of borrowing: a loan secured by a stock price. A mortgage lender cannot call the loan because a home’s value dips this month. A margin loan is remeasured constantly against a price that moves by the second, and can be called at the worst possible moment. July’s casualties pledged their stocks as collateral, surrendering an advantage the ordinary investor holds: the freedom to wait. The investor who owns stocks of good businesses outright, in sensible variety, keeps that freedom, and can be early, unlucky, or temporarily wrong and still come out whole and even ahead.

William Rutherford is the founder of Portland-based Rutherford Investment Management. Contact him at 888-755-6546 or evaluation@rutherfordinvestment.com. Information herein is from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. Investment involves risk and may result in losses.

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed in the preceding commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Daily Journal of Commerce or its editors. Neither the author nor the 91��Ƶ guarantees the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein.

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The application period is now open for Oregon’s Regional Infrastructure Fund, a $10 million grant pool that is intended to go toward small community and tribal projects.

The program is open to local governments and tribes with populations of less than 25,000. The funding was created by House Bill 5204, an economic development package that was passed by the Legislature and then signed into law in April.

Construction grants will range from $100,000 to $1 million. They can be used for site acquisition, infrastructure construction and related improvements.

Planning grants are also available, from $25,000 to $250,000. They can be used for land-use planning, engineering, feasibility studies and project research.

“The Regional Infrastructure Fund is designed to meet our small, rural, and tribal communities where they are, whether that means supporting the engineering work that gets a project shovel-ready or helping move construction forward.” Gov. Tina Kotek stated in a news release issued on Monday.

The program is administered by Business Oregon, the state economic development agency. Grant applications are due by 5 p.m. on Sept. 16. Notices of awards are expected to be issued on Oct. 30.

Applications will be evaluated on criteria such as project readiness and alignment with regional community and economic development priorities. A scoring matrix and eligibility details are available in the Request for Grant Applications.

An informational webinar for applicants is scheduled for Aug. 18. Details will be posted on the Business Oregon website.

To learn more and submit grant applications, visit .

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The former host of “Rehab Addict,” a show that HGTV canceled earlier this year, is clapping back more than a week after the city of Detroit filed a lawsuit against her and her company, Detroit Renovations LLC, alleging they failed to renovate a blighted house.

On Sunday, Nicole Curtis shared a lengthy — and, at times, grammatically challenged — Facebook post capturing the essence of her work, while pointing out that crews would be in action by 7 a.m. on Monday, to “save historic homes” in the city. Her statement comes after a nuisance abatement lawsuit was filed July 22 in Wayne County Circuit Court alleging that a home her company owns at 451 E. Grand Blvd. in Detroit has remained a public nuisance, despite a 2021 court order requiring renovations.

Detroit Renovations obtained ownership of the property in 2021 after litigation with the Detroit Land Bank Authority, according to the lawsuit. In granting ownership to Curtis’ company, Wayne County Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny ruled that the house was a nuisance and danger to the community and ordered it to be renovated.

Inspectors found issues that included missing permits and compliance certifications, failure to register the building as vacant, trash and overgrown vegetation, and deteriorating structural features such as the roof, gutters, exterior walls, windows, fences, porches and stairways. Detroit’s Buildings Safety Engineering and Environmental Department also issued correction orders in September 2022, November 2023 and April 2026 after finding code violations. The owners faced 25 violation tickets after failing to comply.

“I got 2 full crews starting at 7 am tomorrow (8/3) in Detroit. Not out to make a buck, not out to make a name for myself, not out to rob and pillage (as some say about me), just out to save historic homes from being demolished and/or ruined by flippers,” Curtis stated on Facebook.

The city claims the owner owes $4,200 in blight-related fines and $1,331 in inspection and registration fees, and asked a judge to declare the property a public nuisance, order repairs and payments, and place the property under the control of a court-appointed receiver if the owners fail to fix the violations.

Curtis began by sharing that she saves “old houses” as a passion, on top of being a mother “wearing the same darn outfit you’ve seen me in for 20 years and just doing my best to ensure that my legacy is being great mom that loved rather than” that chick who had that show” (sic) when I die.”

She added that she earned the money to buy her first house by cleaning homes in Detroit.

“I didn’t use bank loans, no one would finance me. I saved it all, I sold garbage finds on Craigslist. I wasn’t an ‘influencer’ (there was no social media),” Curtis stated, adding that she took a small opportunity to build “Rehab Addict: Detroit” at 35 years old.

“Over the years, my stamina and determination built a solid foundation, a hit show, global recognition and enough money to breathe and then some, but it, also, built me a list of enemies. I’ve been sued, blackmailed, extorted, betrayed, you name it and not just by the usual suspects, but by ‘friends’ and loved ones that I trusted with my soul. It’s a grief that is hard to explain if you haven’t gone through it, but, also, one that does the opposite of what your enemies intentions were …. it builds you right back up,” Curtis stated.

She continued by thanking those who stood by her.

“So, I’m just continuing being me unapologetically Nicole Curtis — the mom that prefers under the radar, hiding in plain sight, working on an old house,” she added.

Curtis also took her thoughts to social media nearly a week prior on Tuesday, July 28, with a photo of her in Greece, stating that she thought she would “feel the urge to be back at work” but instead felt otherwise.

“You may have ran across more headlines about me — allegedly the Detroit Land Bank is suing me, again. (I went 3 years in litigation before and was the victor) The only comment I have is the media is running a fabulous photo of me 9 proud months pregnant with the story so it brings a feeling of happiness when I read things like ‘EX HGTV STAR IN MORE TROUBLE’,” Curtis stated. “The truth is ‘Nicole Curtis is enjoying her life and just checked Greece of her list’ is the accurate headline.”

Editor’s notes: Detroit Free Press reporter Nour Rahal contributed to this story.

This article first appeared in the Detroit Free Press and then was distributed on the USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect.

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A weekly list of highlights from commercial land use review activity in Portland by Permitting & Development in the prior week.

Type 2 procedure (design review) – pending                                     
Address: 632 N.E. Weidler St.
Applicant: Dwane Carver of Ambrosia QSR Burger LLC of Vancouver, Washington 
Owner: Weston Investment Co.

Plans call for remodeling the exterior and interior of a Burger King restaurant. Plans call for using sandbag inlet protection for stormwater management.

Type 2 procedure (design review) – pending                                   
Address: 10010 S.E. Stark St.
Applicant: Dwane Carver of Ambrosia QSR Burger LLC 
Owner: Weston Investment Co.

Plans call for remodeling the exterior and interior of a Burger King restaurant. Plans call for using sandbag inlet protection for stormwater management.

Early assistance – pending                                   
Address: 2928 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd.
Applicant: Frank Stock of WDC Construction LLC 
Owner: Mark R. Madden Revocable Living Trust

The proposal calls for removing the existing building and constructing a 31-unit apartment building with commercial space on the ground floor.

Pre-permit zoning plan check – pending                                     
Address: Northeast 72nd Avenue (within the 97218 zip code)
Applicant: Risa Boyer Leritz of Risa Boyer Architecture 
Owner: Daniel Durham of Portland

Plans call for construction of two separate fourplex buildings connected by a central staircase. Each wood-framed building would hold four units: one studio and one one-bedroom unit on the ground level, and two two-bedroom units on the second level. A dry well is proposed for stormwater management.

Design advice request – pending                                     
Address: 1314 N.W. Irving St., unit 101
Applicant: Evan Lommasson of Finnmark Property Services of Clackamas 
Owner: Essex Investments LLC

The work would involve waterproofing of a below-grade parking garage, sidewalk removal and replacement, and associated repairs. This is a contributing resource in a historic district.

Source: Portland Permitting & Development 

See also:

• $2.4 million office renovation in Portland building permits | Aug. 3, 2026

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