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Real estate activity on the North Williams Avenue corridor is heating up, and a local development company is providing some shade.

North Rim Partners, a commercial brokerage and real estate development company in Portland, is renovating five attached warehouse buildings on the northwest corner of North Williams Avenue and Shaver Street. The former home of an interior construction company is being transformed into as many as nine “re-flex” (retail and flex) units for light industrial and manufacturing companies.

Jeffrey Weitz, North Rim Partners’ president, said he wants to create opportunities close to downtown for production-oriented businesses. That is why he is leasing the spaces for less than what is being charged for comparable ones in the area.

“I don’t know – maybe I’m naive, but in my small business sense of the world the way we get out of recession is providing more jobs, and more opportunities,” Weitz said. “And businesses need spaces to occupy to have those opportunities. On Williams, we’re not the first guy to the party. Nor are we building the most beautiful building at the party. But we were able to get in and purchase at a reasonable enough rate so that we can offer a reasonable product in a steaming hot corridor.”

North Rim Partners purchased the property in 2012 for $1.35 million. Weitz said development of a relationship with the previous owner took years. Construction also has required considerable work.

The five buildings that total approximately 16,000 square feet were built at different times starting around 1920. Renovation required a full seismic upgrade as well as new roofing. To achieve economies of scale, the property will employ common restrooms and meeting space, as well as efficient energy strategies. Deca Inc. provided pre-development services; Stewart Gordon Strauss is the project’s architect.

Most retail space along the North Williams corridor is going for $20 to $25 per square foot, which can be expensive for a small manufacturing company that needs a tiny amount of retail frontage, Weitz said. He plans to lease out the re-flex spaces for $12 to $18 per square foot.

Weitz said the building is 50 percent leased up, though he couldn’t name any of the tenants except the anchor – Roseburg-based TeSóAria Vineyard & Winery, which will operate a tasting room.

“What attracted us to North Williams is we love the vibe of that area,” said Jeff Tefelske, a managing partner at TeSóAria. “There are restaurants and lots of walking and lots of biking … We wanted to be part of that up-and-coming neighborhood; we really thought it was a neighborhood on the rise.”

Bicyclists pack lanes along the road during the evening commute, a 30,000-square-foot New Seasons Market opened recently, and numerous multifamily projects (with more than 500 units combined) are either under construction or in the works.

Tefelske said TeSóAria has more than 900 wine club members, and about half of them live in Portland. He said that although the wine country near Dundee and Carlton appeals to many Southern Oregon wineries looking to open tasting rooms, TeSóAria wanted to be closer to its customers.

The company also identified with North Rim Partners’ vision to cater to a unique mix of companies, and not just those able to pay the most, Tefelske said.

Weitz said construction can be a bit of a finesse dance when trying to keep rents low, but the North Williams Avenue project isn’t North Rim Partners’ first development either. The company has been developing niche projects for 15 years, and recently completed a 14,000-square-foot office building with light industrial kitchen space at Southeast Third Avenue and Clay Street. It’s also doing a similar project at Southeast Water Avenue and Hawthorne Street.

Weitz is calling the North Williams project the Mount Shasta Building; he is a longtime ski patroller, and names all of his projects after mountains.

North Rim Partners is acting as its own general contractor, and is about two weeks away from buttoning up the exterior. Weitz is hoping to finish in about 60 days. Tefelske said TeSóAria is looking forward to settling in.

“It’s just a neighborhood that invites you to explore it,” he said.