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Kevin Cavenaugh, designer and managing member of Guerrilla Development, has colorful plans for the east Burnside bridgehead.

“We can do a lot of neat stuff with whimsical colors,” he said. “I want you to wonder as you drive by if it’s actually gift-wrapped.”

Guerrilla Development is in the early stages of design for a six-story office and retail building on the eastern half of Block 76, which is bordered by the Couch Street couplet and East Burnside Street. The project is one of a handful expected to elevate the east side’s skyline.

The Fair-Haired Dumbbell, as Cavenaugh calls it, will feature five stories of offices above ground-floor retail space. Like a dumbbell, the office space will rise in two separate geometric masses and connect via the ground floor. Cavenaugh envisions painting those masses different colors – perhaps one bright orange and one yellow – and “rewrapping” them every few years.

Guerrilla Development has a nine-month memorandum of understanding with the Portland Development Commission to purchase Block 76 East. Geraldene Moyle, a senior project manager for the PDC’s Urban Development Department, said the goal is to move from due diligence to an approved disposition and development agreement within that time. While Guerrilla works on design and financing, the PDC will work on a draft appraisal of the property’s fair market value.

“You are really starting to see this part of East Burnside or the central eastside ignite, which is really what we wanted to do when we built the framework plan,” Moyle said of the 2010 Burnside Bridgehead Framework Plan.

After a large-scale development by Opus Northwest fell through in 2008, the PDC adopted the framework plan so that its Burnside Bridgehead blocks could be redeveloped in smaller increments by multiple developers. Last week, the PDC’s board of commissioners approved a deal to sell Block 75 (due north of Block 76 East) to a partnership between Beam Development and Urban Development Partners for $2.26 million.

The first phase of that project will likely include a seven-story, 100,000-square-foot building with ground-floor commercial space, live-work units and apartments. The second phase involves construction of a seven-story, 60,000-square-foot building with commercial space, offices and apartments. Beam Development, known for its creative office projects in the Central Eastside, is finishing up redevelopment of the former Convention Plaza building slightly west of Block 75.

On Block 67 (due west of Block 76 East), Key Development is planning an even larger project. The design has not been finalized, but in April the vision was for a 19- to 21-story podium tower with up to 224 units. Moyle said the project previously received accolades from design commissioners, and added that developers are prepping for design review and permitting.

Meanwhile, on the south side of the east Burnside Bridgehead, a group recently purchased the RJ Templeton Building with redevelopment in mind. At Southeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Ash Street, Venerable Properties has the former Salvation Army building in escrow for an unnamed Seattle developer.

The PDC also has issued a request for information for Block 76 West – the tiny spit of land divided by the Couch Street Couplet. Lew Bowers, central city division manager for the PDC’s Urban Development Department, said the commission has already received interest and is optimistic that development will follow.

Greg Frick, an HFO Investment Real Estate partner who is involved in a multifamily development at Southeast 10th Avenue and Ankeny Street, said it’s questionable how many of the nearly 14,000 units in the pipeline citywide will be built. But the east Burnside bridgehead, he said, appears to be in the right place at the right time.

“I mean you’re right on the 50-yard line, so to speak,” he said. “And for that demographic that doesn’t want to be in the South Waterfront, or in a tower in the Pearl (District), that’s an option.”

Cavenaugh believes in the area’s potential.

“I think the bridgehead is going to be successful because it’s going to have Beam Development’s creative office, and Key Development’s … housing,” he said. “So I want to have some strong retailers and office as well. Programmatically, it’s going to be pretty rich, but not because of any one building.”