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After four years of inactivity at the Park Avenue West project site, builders are back.

“There’s guys out there right now working,” said Vanessa Sturgeon, president of TMT Development, which is building the 30-story tower in downtown Portland.

The project stalled in 2009 in the wake of the recession. TMT on Friday announced that it secured a construction loan (Sturgeon declined to disclose the amount) from Pacific Coast Capital Partners LLC for the $175 million project. Sturgeon said TMT pitched the project to lenders throughout the country and received considerable interest. That was a clear indication, she said, that the time was right to restart construction.

“Real estate fundamentals are back,” Sturgeon said. “That’s the takeaway to me. Good, quality projects are receiving funding. Projects that never should have made it through the long process pre-2009 were getting funded. At this point the lenders are being much more selective about projects they choose to fund, but if the fundamentals are there, there’s capital available.”

The revised Park Avenue West will be 460 feet tall, and include 15 floors of apartments, 13 floors of Class A office space, and two floors of retail space. TMT has already signed an office anchor tenant (Sturgeon declined to name it) – and received calls from people interested in the apartment units.

The tower is already pre-certified Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum; a 40,000-gallon rain harvesting tank is among the planned building features.

The project is expected to create 2,880 construction-related jobs, and Sturgeon noted that all of the major team members are based in Portland. Those companies include general contractor Hoffman Construction, project designer TVA Architects and engineers KPFF Consulting Engineers and Interface Engineering.

TMT has a construction permit for a 26-story version of the building, but on Nov. 21 will seek design commission approval for the 30-story iteration.

Meanwhile, SEIU Local 49 is appealing the project’s lack of affordable housing. Sturgeon said the people behind that action made it clear to TMT that their goal was to force the company’s hand into hiring its union for janitorial services. Sturgeon said TMT already relies on SEIU for building security, and that hiring it for other building services would create a conflict of interest. TMT plans to let the appeal play out through the design review process.

At least five other high-rise projects have been proposed in downtown and inner-city Portland. Time will tell if those move forward.

“That’s the exciting thing about being in real estate development,” Sturgeon said. “It ebbs and flows. Right now projects that have good, solid real estate fundamentals are getting funded.”