323 N.W. 13th Ave.
Aaron Spencer//May 12, 2010//

The Pearl District, the beau ideal of Portland urban renewal, is still only in its infancy as an uptown neighborhood. Only a decade ago, when redevelopment caught stride, did the district pick up its name – for the small art galleries inside old warehouse buildings, like pearls in an oyster.
, at 323 N.W. 13th Ave., is a model of that industrial-turned-urban chic aesthetic that permeates the Pearl. The redeveloped building opened in 2008 with new tenants, but it has one commercial space left to lease.
“It feels very Pearl-ish,” said Denise Razzeto, a broker with Norris & Stevens.
Originally a pharmaceutical warehouse when it was built in 1939, it was known as the Meier Building in honor of Portland’s Meier family, which co-founded the Meier & Frank department store.
A later tenant of the building was printing company Reed Harris, which operated in the building until 2006, when co-developers Jim Gillespie and Don Vallaster started the project to redevelop it into a mixed-use building.
Gillespie and Vallaster assembled a group of nine investors, Pearl Condominiums at Block 90 LLC, which now owns the building.
The building covers about 60,000 square feet over four floors. The three lower floors are used as commercial space, and the top floor is made up of 11 luxury condominiums, eight of which are sold. Three commercial tenants moved in after the building’s opening: 50 Plates restaurant, a Sherwin-Williams paint store and an Aveda Salon school.
The space currently for lease is 5,851 square feet on the third floor. The space has smooth concrete floors and 11-foot ceilings.
“The open look and feel of the space would work best for a more creative user,” Razzeto said.
Outside, the building is olive green with perimeter windows. The building’s front loading dock, like others on 13th Avenue, still exists but has been reconstructed. Block 90 is in the Pearl’s warehouse district, which established Portland as a regional goods distribution center in the early 1900s. During renovation, internal parking space was carved out under the building.
The leasing rate for the space is $18 plus $4 per square foot, per year, triple net.
For details on leasing Block 90, contact Razzeto at 503-225-8462 or [email protected].