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Haithem Toulan was destined for a career in the automotive industry from an early age.

“I blame my parents on that one,” he said. “I think I was on a motorcycle when I was six or seven (years old), and then in a go-cart by eight or nine. So I’ve always had something to do with a motorized vehicle.”

Toulan’s parents weren’t gearheads – his father was an urban planner, and his mother was a political science professor – but they supported his budding interest, he said. In college, he began racing cars and selling parts online through one of his sponsors. When he graduated, colleagues suggested he open a car shop in Portland because it was a relatively untapped market.

The idea grew into an 18,000-square-foot garage in Northwest Portland for Vollgas Motorwerks (vollgas means “full throttle” in German). For the past 10 years, the company has been building high-end custom racing vehicles for clients around the world.

Now, Toulan is preparing to elevate Vollgas Motorwerks’ profile by moving it to a larger site along the Willamette River’s eastern shore. The property, wedged between the river and Ross Island Sand & Gravel Company‘s cement production facility, boasts sweeping views of the South Waterfront District. Toulan purchased the 2.9-acre parcel in 2012 for $1.8 million for that very reason.

However, the approximately $12 million project promises to be a challenge.

“What we’re standing on is nonstructural concrete fill,” said Nolan Lienhart, an urban designer at ZGF Architects, which is working with Toulan to prepare the site and design the development. “You can’t build on top of it. You have to take it all out first. So there’s quite a lot involved just in getting the site ready for any kind of development.”

For the past 150 years or so, the property has served as a dumping ground for industrial businesses. Countless layers of timber, asphalt and construction refuse are visible on a riverside, graffiti-laden wall that stands 20 feet above the water.

Also present is a remnant from Portland’s $1.4 billion Big Pipe project: a large, muddy ramp that carves through the site.

Lienhart said the wall and much of the site’s fill will need to be removed and replaced.

This week, ZGF participated in an early assistance meeting with the city to discuss development ideas and allowable future uses for the site zoned for heavy industrial use. Because it’s along the Willamette River, another challenge will be fulfilling a city requirement to extend the greenway. Designers also hope to connect the property to the Springwater Corridor trail.

The development plan calls for an approximately 55,000-square-foot building that would include service, repair and storage facilities for cars and motorcycles, as well as meeting and event space. Overgrown weeds and mud puddles would become landscaped areas, and the river could be opened to marine fueling and boathouse uses.

Toulan, a nephew of late urban planners Nohad and Dirce Toulan, paused his auto racing career three years ago after a wreck. It happened during a wet and slippery, “test and tune” day on Portland International Raceway. Toulan lost control at about 90 miles per hour, and ended up fracturing a vertebra.

He’s still waiting for his doctor’s approval to get back behind the wheel; in the meantime he’s focusing on the business expansion. He formed a new company called Osb2lan Management to spearhead the effort, and is now working with lenders to secure a construction loan.

Toulan is hoping work will begin in July, but much of it will be constrained to in-water windows.

Development has a long way to go, but Toulan can already picture the finished product.

“The location, the view … just being on the river,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to beat in Portland.”