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After selling the Emery cargo airline to UPS in 2004, Con-way Inc. no longer needed to maintain its large inventory of property in Portland’s Northwest Industrial District.

鈥淥ther than organic growth there really wasn’t a plan to grow the company wildly, so we had this excess property and the value of real estate was taking off,鈥� said J. Craig Boretz, vice president of the Michigan-based freight transportation and logistics services giant.

Con-way’s leaders began discussing their ideas for the 15-acre parcel. The vision that emerged was a mixed-use neighborhood with a distinct feel and sense of community. Parks, retail stores, housing and open spaces would replace the parking lots that filled the space between Northwest 18th and Northwest 22nd avenues and Pettygrove and Upshur streets.

鈥淲e started thinking about our employees of the future, and we wanted to create a live-work-play environment that will attract and retain the best and the brightest,鈥� said Boretz, who also serves as Con-way’s chief tax officer and vice president of corporate development.

By 2008, though, Portland’s real estate market was in a tailspin, which temporarily grounded Con-way’s plans. A couple of years later, with the market stabilizing a bit, the company’s leaders revisited their concept, hiring GBD Architects to capture their ideas in a master plan that gained city approval this past August.

The neighborhood’s new moniker, Slabtown, is a nod to the area’s rich legacy of lumber production and the blue-collar force behind it. A melding of the historic and the contemporary will play an integral role in the area’s redevelopment, as evidenced by the New Seasons Market that will become one of its first new tenants.

With a design created by a GBD/Holst Architecture joint venture, New Seasons is converting an old, 28,000-square-foot freight warehouse into a full-service market at 21st Avenue and Raleigh Street. The design showcases existing wood trusses, large sawtooth skylights and an open, daylighted space. The market will open onto a 40-foot-wide pedestrian plaza that links Raleigh and Quimby streets and features space for outdoor seating and events.

New Seasons will anchor the Slabtown Marketplace, which C.E. John Co. is developing as 17,500 square feet of additional shops and restaurants. Construction is expected to begin later this year and be completed in early 2015.

Boretz said the Northwest District Association has been an invaluable partner in the planning process.

鈥淭hey really entered into it with the idea that this was their chance to influence what goes on in this big area of Northwest Portland,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey looked at it as an opportunity, got fully engaged and spent a lot of their time working with us.鈥�