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Downtown Development Group had expansive aspirations for a project to renovate the building at Southwest 12th Avenue and Alder Street in Portland.

But the historic structure dictated that those aspirations stop at three floors.

A major renovation of the building that includes the addition of a third floor is a key project for Downtown Development Group, Chris Kopca, senior vice president of real estate, said last week during a presentation before the Portland Design Commission. The company owns an adjacent lot and several other downtown properties 鈥� including a majority share of Indigo, apartments in the Twelve | West building 鈥� and sought to build up at 12th and Alder.

鈥淭he project (team) had ambitions to have an additional (fourth) floor and a green roof,鈥� said Agustin Enriquez, a associate principal, at the meeting with the design commission.

However, a weak structural foundation will limit the work that can be done to upgrade the 1920s-era building. The quarter-block building at 1135 Alder St. is constructed of unreinforced concrete with a wood frame, Enriquez said. The team soon realized that if it wanted to keep existing structural columns, then it wouldn’t be able to add more than one story.

The design calls for a complete upgrade of the building’s second-floor structural diaphragm, senior project manager Paul Riso said. That new system will help support the addition and improve seismic stability.

Enriquez added that the size and placement of the additional story will be limited by the location of the structural columns. The third floor will be set back, but the design calls for one to two wood decks as outdoor space. The addition will have glass on three sides.

The building’s use and appearance will change significantly. Presently, the building houses one 3,000-square-foot retail tenant 鈥� a dry cleaning business 鈥� and 50 parking stalls. After the renovation, the property will hold two or three retail spaces, 26,000 square feet of office space and a few parking spaces. The building’s exterior will be painted, windows will be replaced, and a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold rating will be sought, Enriquez said.

The design also will allow possible construction of a taller building on the site.

鈥淭he owner owns the property to the north and may develop it into something similar to Twelve | West,鈥� Enriquez said.

The tight, downtown site will challenge the construction team, Riso said. The contractor will have a staging area on a gravel lot to the northeast of the building, and plans to rent the parking spaces surrounding the building after the holiday shopping season.

Riso said that construction will start around the start of 2012, but at the design commission meeting, Kopca told commissioners that the team needs to be ready to move forward at the beginning of December to accommodate an incoming tenant.

Lease Crutcher Lewis is a tenant in the Galleria Building, which soon will house a new Target retail store, Kopca told the commission. Work needs to start soon at 12th and Alder so that the construction firm can move in before it’s forced to vacate the Galleria Building, he said.

鈥淲e need to literally start at the beginning of December,鈥� Kopca said. 鈥淲e are tightly tied to that timeline.鈥�

Neither Riso nor another Lease Crutcher Lewis official would confirm the firm’s potential tenancy of the building, but they confirmed that it would be the contractor for the project.

After receiving an OK from the design commission, the team can begin preparing documents for permitting.

鈥淚t’s going to be an amazing project that will do a lot for the neighborhood,鈥� Riso said.