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Thomas Moyer, the founder of TMT Development, has taken his fair share of beatings.

As a welterweight boxer, Moyer won 145 of 156 amateur fights before going undefeated in 22 professional bouts; however, the losses were the ones that held his attention. Now, some 60 years later, his granddaughter, TMT President Vanessa Sturgeon, is taking that lesson to heart as the firm resumes one of the largest developments in Portland history.

“While (Moyer) won far more fights than he lost, it was the fights that he lost that served as valuable learning experiences for him,” Sturgeon said Friday while addressing a crowd of professionals at Director Park to ceremonially restart Park Avenue West construction. “His ability to come back after a setback; to keep punching no matter how tired you are or how many times you’ve been hit; his spirit of toughness and tenacity is what made my grandfather a great fighter. That spirit has been and continues to be a great source of inspiration for me and all of my colleagues at TMT.”

Park Avenue West, a planned 30-story tower, became a symbol of the recession when it stalled in 2009. But with new financing in place TMT is resuming its $175 million project.

TMT isn’t the only firm planning a high-rise; at least seven other聽projects are in the works in Portland. Institutions are pursuing opportunities, and lenders are recognizing the market’s strength.

“We have been ramping up our investments as the economy recovered and have been relatively proactive about finding opportunities,” said Erik Flynn, senior vice president of San Francisco-based PCCP, which is providing the construction loan to TMT for Park Avenue West. “We’ve been very bullish on Portland, specifically given the growth dynamics that you see in this market.”

PCCP, a real estate finance and investment firm with $6 billion in assets, also is an equity partner in Capstone Partners‘ $60 million Grant Park Village, and its $30 million PDX Logistics Center. Flynn said PCCP has closely followed Portland’s fundamentals 鈥� decreasing vacancies, increasing rents and strong job growth.

This week, the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis reported that private-sector employment in Portland has grown as much as 3 percent (20,000 jobs) over the past year. The high-tech industry, in particular, is attracting younger, higher-paid workers who are likely to rent.

According to the Oregon Employment Department, the state’s high-tech sector (90,000 jobs in 2012) is expected to grow 20 percent between 2010 and 2020. More than 20 percent of those workers are between the ages of 25 and 34, with an average annual salary of $94,000.

“There’s a high propensity to rent 鈥� so you’re really pushing that demand,” said Seth Heikkila, senior vice president for investment sales at Jones Lang LaSalle‘s Seattle office. “And with those 25- to 34-year-olds, they want to be in and around the action, and that’s in the Pearl.”

With rents as high as $2.70 per square foot in some parts of the Pearl District, three high-rise projects are now on tap there.

Proceeding with caution

Two of those projects belong to Hoyt Street Properties.

On block 17, Hoyt is partnering with聽Wood Partners, a national firm, to build a 16-story, mixed-use residential building next to a five-story one. On block 15, Hoyt is planning a 28-story condominium project.

Tiffany Sweitzer, Hoyt’s president, said the $80 million project on block 17 already has a construction loan lined up through PNC Bank, as well as a mortgage lender through Prudential. The team is likely to break ground in January, but Sweitzer is being vigilant.

“From our perspective we are still a bit shy about the market and we continue to analyze what happens from week to week,” she said. “Sometimes we take a few steps forward only to take some back 鈥� I can tell you I’m not just a little cautious about 16 stories, 280 units that need to approach $2.70 to $2.90 per square foot or more. That’s a hurdle and 鈥� something we’ll look at: How can we make the project better?”

High-end apartment high-rises are not time-tested developments in the Northwest. Wood Partners has built luxury apartments throughout the United States, but its first high-rise in the Northwest is a 27-story apartment tower under construction in Seattle.

Meanwhile, Sweitzer isn’t quite ready to pull the trigger on the condominium project. She said condo sales have increased this year and the 16-story Encore is down to its last seven units. She also has seen demand increase for larger units, which shows that buyers and lenders are willing to spend more money.

Hoyt this week is hosting a series of focus groups featuring high-rise residents, brokers and investment partners to gauge their appetite for the project. Hoyt has backing from Joe Weston and a proven development record; nevertheless, a $100-million-plus investment is a commitment that Sweitzer doesn’t take lightly.

“I think if we hear a lot of positive feedback it will be good for us moving forward,” She said. “鈥� Hopefully I will be able to make an announcement in the new year 鈥� but I want to feel a bit more confident that people are willing to take on a new project.”

Fishing for investors

One advantage for Portland is that even with the high rents needed for a high-rise project, the cost of living pales in comparison to other major metro areas.

“If you look at New York it’s something like 70 percent; in San Francisco it’s like 50 percent; and in Seattle and Portland it’s more in line with 30 percent,” Heikkila said. “So, even with new product we’re still more affordable than other cities, which means there’s a lot of room for that number to grow. That doesn’t happen overnight, but it just indicates that there’s a runway there.”

Indeed, Flynn said that’s one of the reasons PCCP is investing in Portland. Getting the company’s backing on Park Avenue West, however, took a ton of legwork.

Casey Davidson, a managing director at the Portland office of HFF, started seeking financing for the project in May, and approached more than 50 capital sources (including international banks, insurance companies and investment management firms) before PCCP.

“You name it, we went to everyone,” he said.

The international banks shied away because Portland isn’t a tier-one market. American banks were interested, but couldn’t take on the entire loan. PCCP, Davidson said, was on a short list of institutions that had sufficient flexibility and fluidity to issue the entire loan (he declined to provide the amount, but said it’s large).

Flynn said TMT’s strength also was a critical ingredient for Park Avenue West, but the presence of Stoel Rives as an anchor tenant was the linchpin.

鈥淵ou can get construction financing for purely multifamily properties in today’s market, but you cannot get financing on office buildings, at least in this market, unless you have a considerable amount of preleasing,鈥� Davidson said. 鈥淪o what made this project financeable is really Stoel Rives. Without Stoel Rives we would not have been able to get this done.鈥�

Lenders, meanwhile, are a lot more liquid these days. Davidson said that the recession led lenders like life insurance companies to pull out of the market; when their balance sheets started to grow, they needed to find avenues for investment.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, commercial and multifamily mortgage origination volumes during the second quarter of 2013 were 7 percent higher than 12 months before. Apartment originations were up 31 percent, and commercial mortgage-backed security issues through the first half of 2013 totaled $41 billion 鈥� slightly less than the $44 billion issued throughout 2012.

Rich Hubbard, senior vice president and regional manager for Oregon and Southwest Washington at Wells Fargo Commercial Real Estate, said lending activity at his company this year is approximately double that of 2012. When it comes to lending for high-rise projects, he said the price tag isn’t as important as the market fundamentals.

“To some degree it’s irrelevant whether it’s $30 million or $300 million, frankly, because it’s all about the specifics relative to that project in its particular market 鈥� It’s well-documented that the Portland market is improving, with rents increasing and vacancies decreasing, which makes for better market fundamentals. Those fundamentals have everything to do with why you’re seeing more activity in commercial real estate.”

For Sturgeon, Park Avenue West’s resurrection is a comeback story.

“This project has gained national attention for good reason,” she said on Friday. “The revival of Park Avenue West dramatically symbolizes economic recovery.”

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High-rise developments in the works in Portland

鈥� Park Avenue West, 728 S.W. Ninth Ave. 鈥� 30 stories (two floors of retail, 15 floors of apartments, 13 floors of offices, and underground parking); approximately $175 million; developed by TMT Development.

鈥� Block 15 (between Northwest Overton and Northrup streets, and 10th and 11th avenues) 鈥� 28 stories (two floors of retail/parking; 26 floors of condominiums); approximately $100 million-plus; developed by Hoyt Street Properties.

鈥� Block 17 (between Northwest Quimby and Overton streets, and 11th and 12th avenues) 鈥� one 16-story building and one five-story building; approximately $80 million; developed by Wood Partners/Hoyt Street Properties.

鈥� 12 Overton, 1301 N.W. 12th Ave. 鈥� 26 stories (274 residential units, ground-floor retail and three levels of underground parking); developed by Unico Properties.

鈥� Block 67 (between Northeast Couch and North Burnside streets, and Northeast Second and Third avenues) 鈥� 21 stories (276 residential units and five-story commercial podium/parking garage); developed by Key Development.

鈥� Hassalo on Eighth (between Northeast Multnomah and Holladay streets, and Seventh and Ninth avenues) 鈥� One 21-story building, one six-story building and one five-story building (657 residential units, 58,000 square feet of retail space, and more than 1,200 underground parking stalls); approximately $192 million; developed by American Assets Trust.

鈥� Tower at 1101 S.W. Jefferson St. 鈥� 15 stories (196 residential units and 96 parking spaces); developed by the Molasky Group of Companies/E&F Properties LLC.

鈥� Proposal for the former Pendleton Building site, 202 S.W. Jefferson St. 鈥� 23-stories (300-room hotel, with 24 apartments and 6,000 square feet of retail); WDC Properties is in escrow to sell the property to an undisclosed buyer.