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The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners has backed up an expert panel’s recommendation to transform the county-owned Morrison bridgehead properties into an indoor public market and high-rise office building.

The commission today voted to create a disposition and development agreement (DDA) with Portland-based Melvin Mark Cos., and the nonprofit James Beard Public Market, the team pitching the concept. The DDA will layout the conditions that must be met in order for the team to acquire the 3.1 acres of land being used currently by the county as surface parking.

In the proposal, the project team said it would pay $10.03 million for the four parcels, nearly $2 million more than the $8.2 million Gerding Edlen, the other firm that submitted a proposal, was willing to pay.

Melvin Mark plans to spend $120.6 million to convert one of the parcels into a 17-story, Class-A office building with 327,713 square feet of office space and the three other parcels into a 110,000-square-foot indoor public market.

A DDA is expected to be complete by the end of the year. Once signed, officials at Melvin Mark said the project would likely take about five years to complete.