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A Seattle-based multifamily development firm with a handful of properties in the Portland area is planning to build a new one in the corridor including North Vancouver and Williams avenues.

Security Properties has purchased the one-block property occupied by the Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs, at 4134 N. Vancouver Ave., and is planning to build several buildings. They’re expected to include three-story townhouses and five- to six-story apartments with ground-floor commercial space. An existing office building, approximately 40,000 square feet, would be demolished.

Security Properties recently scheduled a pre-application conference with the Bureau of Development Services for July 17. Initial designs call for constructing 260 units and below-grade structured parking for 280 vehicles.

“It’s just a bustling little neighborhood,” said Jeanne Muir, founder of Seattle consulting firm Urban Relations, and a longtime community outreach specialist for Security Properties. “As a neighborhood it’s been exceeding Portland really in real estate values, so I’m sure we’re not the only ones interested in it as a neighborhood.”

The corridor has drawn attention from developers in recent years. Muir said Security Properties’ chief development officer, John Marasco, grew up near the Albina neighborhood and has targeted it for development for a long time. The company came across the OAME site when it was put up for sale, Muir said.

Security Properties has acquired and/or developed across the country approximately 453 assets that together represent more than $3.2 billion in investments. Muir said the company builds to properties to hold rather than flip.

Recent projects include the 132-unit Epicenter Apartments in the Fremont neighborhood, and the 268-unit On the Park Apartments in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. Both have grocery stores on the ground floor.

Muir said the new project on North Vancouver Avenue will likely be built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards, though a LEED rating probably won’t be pursued. She said the company strives to make its projects neighborhood specific.

“We have gotten a great reception,” she said of initial neighborhood meetings. “People have had really interesting comments to make, and we (made) some changes. They wanted us to move a mid-sized retailer off the corner of Mason (Street) and North Williams, so we moved it more to North Skidmore (Street) … We’re working through those sorts of issues with them. You really want the face to be pedestrian friendly.”