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‘s hush-hush plan to open a store in downtown Portland was finally unveiled last month, but one local construction company knew about it from the beginning.

Crews from are at work today in the Galleria Building, prepping the space for the future City Target. But the general contractor also rents approximately 12,000 square feet of the space that is set to house the popular big-box retailer, so it is literally building itself out of its own offices.

鈥淚’ve been involved in situations where you have to ask a tenant to move, but not where you have to ask (it) to move out of (its) own space, then gut it and rebuild it for another tenant,鈥� said Bill Barendrick, CEO of , which owns the Galleria Building.

So Lease Crutcher Lewis was faced with a rare combination 鈥� the excitement of working on a high-profile, downtown renovation project, and the stress of losing the space where it operates.

鈥淲e’re working our way out of our own offices,鈥� said Bart Ricketts, president of the company’s Portland branch.

Before the Target deal became public, Ricketts was talking to other Lease Crutcher Lewis clients about options for new office space, ideally in the West End area of downtown, where the company has had offices since 1996.

Lease Crutcher Lewis needed little time to land new office space 鈥� and a new job 鈥� in the Culver Building at Southwest 12th Avenue and Alder Street. Greg Goodman, developer and president of , owns the property and was planning an approximately $7.5 million adaptive reuse project.

Prior to construction, which began in January, the Culver Building was a run-down, 1920s-era building that housed only a dry cleaning business and parking stalls. But a design by rejuvenates the two-story structure and adds a modern, third-story penthouse.

Lease Crutcher Lewis plans to move into the upper two floors in August. The dry cleaning business will relocate within the building, and Goodman is courting Naomi Pomeroy to bring her successful Northeast Portland restaurant, , into the renovated building.

鈥淲e’re not leaving a single stone unturned 鈥� we’ll have a whole new storefront, big glass sliding windows on the ground floor (and) a walk-around patio outside of the penthouse,鈥� Goodman said. 鈥淚’m really excited what it’s doing for the West End; there’s just a ton of stuff happening there.鈥�

While the renovation involves new structural columns and other intricate seismic work, the biggest challenge for Lease Crutcher Lewis was timing. The whole deal required coordinating several lease negotiations along with complex construction timelines, and the plans did not come together as smoothly as Ricketts had hoped.

Because the renovation of the Culver Building will not be far enough along when crews start to get in the way of their own colleagues in the Galleria Building in May, Lease Crutcher Lewis will have to operate out of temporary office space in Northwest Portland for three months.

鈥淭here’s a lot of moving parts,鈥� Ricketts said. 鈥淲e didn’t anticipate how long it takes to do a major lease agreement and get construction documents ready for a large company like Target 鈥� it took longer than any of us anticipated.鈥�