91ÊÓƵ

The final predevelopment funds are in place to begin the long-discussed Burnside Bridgehead project.

At a Wednesday commission meeting the Portland Development Commission approved additional funds for a loan to Beam Development to get started on the Convention Plaza redevelopment, the first phase of the Burnside Bridgehead project. The commission increased a predevelopment loan of $200,000 that it had authorized earlier this year to $456,000. The no-interest loan can be used for engineering and design costs, as well as structural improvements and street design.

According to Trang Lam, senior project manager with the PDC, the Burnside Bridgehead project consists of the redevelopment of five city blocks at the foot of the Burnside Bridge on the eastside of Portland. These include blocks 67, 68, 69, 75 and 76.

Beam won the right to develop 20 percent of the Burnside Bridgehead properties after the firm served as an adviser to the PDC in the development of a Bridgehead Framework Plan. Beam chose to redevelop the 96,000-square-foot Convention Plaza building, a parcel known as block 68 located at 123 N.E. Third Ave.

Brad Malsin, principal with Beam, has said the firm would transform the building, an old warehouse converted into office space, into historically restored office space for creative industries.