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Brad Malsin, principal of , sees potential for Portland because of what happened in Minneapolis.

A number of years ago, he said, the Midwestern city decided to invest in its small, entrepreneurial startups. Today, it is home to one of the nation’s largest agglomerations of Fortune 500 companies.

鈥淭heir main thing is not one of them moved there,鈥� Malsin said. 鈥淓very one was grown there. So you tell me, with all this creative talent coming to Portland, we don’t have the nursery to grow our next Fortune 500?鈥�

Malsin believes Portland does, and for the past 10 years he has worked on a plan to stimulate growth. It’s not a matter of building buildings, he said, but rather building creative communities of companies able to inspire each other.

Beam started by renovating the 80,000-square-foot Eastbank Commerce Center. Then it developed the 60,000-square-foot Water Avenue Commerce Center and the 172,000-square-foot Olympic Mills Commerce Center. The firm’s latest project involves the 105,000-square-foot Convention Plaza at the Burnside Bridgehead.

Beam announced earlier this month that it had signed a lease with Portland-based industrial energy management company to occupy 25,000 square feet of the Convention Plaza. The agreement was the missing link Beam needed to secure financing for a nearly $17 million renovation of the building.

Jonathan Malsin, Beam’s general manager, said the company anticipates closing on financing within the month and that construction 鈥� after years of on-again, off-again status 鈥� could start as early as June.

The lease reflects Beam’s plan to bank on creative technology, which could become profitable. In the past four years, Cascade Energy has grown from 20 employees to more than 80.

鈥淲hich is interesting because it coincides with the big recession,鈥� said Dan Brown, Cascade’s vice president of corporate energy management. 鈥淏ut energy efficiency as a business is pretty recession-proof. We’re helping people save energy, which helps them save money and in recessionary times companies are really looking for ways to save money.鈥�

Brown said he recently came across data suggesting that the industry is expected to grow 21 percent annually over the next nine to 10 years, from approximately $900 million to $6 billion.

鈥淪o that’s a very nice wave to ride,鈥� he said.

With Cascade on board, Beam plans to concentrate on attracting a core of smaller creative startups. Jonathan Malsin said he has received letters of intent from four other prospective tenants to occupy a total of 17,000 square feet at the Convention Plaza.

鈥淚n our willingness to do business with early-stage companies with little to no credit, then we’re tapping into a market that potentially some other landlords are not willing to go into,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd so when you do that you essentially have a very strong flow of prospective tenants coming to you.鈥�

Brad Malsin pointed out that more than 80 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product comes from small businesses with fewer than 20 employees.

鈥淚 mean, why aren’t we paying attention to that?鈥� he said. 鈥淧ortland is a small-business kind of town. And you know what? We’re going to have trouble competing for IBM and Google. We’ll get a little bit here and there, but we can grow those.鈥�

Jonathan Malsin cited the success story of , a social commerce solutions company in Portland. He said the company started by leasing a 650-square-foot space in Beam’s Water Avenue Commerce Center. Now ShopIgniter leases upward of 5,000 square feet in the Automotive Building in downtown Portland.

Jonathan Malsin said another benefit of Beam’s business model, from a landlord’s perspective, is that even when a small company fails 鈥� which, he said, has been rare 鈥� the challenge of filling the space is less daunting. Beam maintained occupancy in its buildings at 95 percent or greater during the recession, he said.

鈥淲e have a lot of other early-stage, high-growth companies that are ready to take that same space, and we don’t have to spend a lot of money to turn over the space,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o it starts looking a little bit like an apartment model.鈥�

The idea, Brad Malsin said, is to create communities for like-minded businesses to network.

鈥淲e have people asking us when our next building is going to be available and (saying) they would like to be a part of it,鈥� he said.