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No nails have been driven yet at the master-planned Con-way site in Northwest Portland, but it’s already casting a luminous glow over the neighborhood. That warmth is reaching the 17-acre property’s southern edge, where a concrete warehouse is about to bloom.

Guardian Real Estate Services and Andersen Construction are working together to convert the 36-year-old structure at 2140 N.W. Quimby St. into a modern mixed-use building. The approximately $32 million development – named Q21 – is expected to infuse 160 market-rate housing units, 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, and 12,000 square feet of office space into a city corner destined for growth.

“Once we started getting into what the Con-way master plan was really about, and what their intent was, we saw our building and site as a missing piece,” said Alex Yale, a principal at Portland-based YBA Architects and the lead project designer for Q21. “We understood that our building had a great responsibility and role to play in that transition, and really help the Con-way district be reinforced.”

The Q21 property is between Northwest 21st Avenue and Quimby and Pettygrove streets – a stone’s throw from where a New Seasons Market store, a 185-unit apartment building, a public plaza and a streetcar line are in the works. Today, only asphalt surrounds the warehouse.

Andersen Construction built the 43,000-square-foot building for itself in 1978. The goal now is to preserve a piece of its industrial legacy, and expand upon it by adding three sections along the north, south and east elevations. Yale said he was unaware of anything like it in Portland, or even along the West Coast.

The project team recently applied for design advice from the Bureau of Development Services. As planned, the keystone, so to speak, would be a four-story glass and metal facade that cantilevers over the northeast corner of the site, with a roofline seven stories above ground. That’s where the group plans to locate luxury apartments with condo-level finishes.

A similar addition would step down along the northern elevation, as would the size of apartments there. An existing 35-foot setback would be set up like a boardwalk in front of the ground-floor retailers.

On the southern side (Northwest Pettygrove Street) Guardian and Andersen would plop a row of two-story townhomes to try and weave the building into the existing residential fabric. Those units would be the smallest.

“The idea is to be able to diversify your risk,” said Adrian Boly, vice president of acquisitions and development for Guardian. “You’re really renting to multiple ranges of profiles within the project itself.”

All three sections would wrap around the existing concrete warehouse, which would house two stories of garage parking with room for 111 vehicles. That exceeds the city’s minimum requirement, but Yale said that’s because parking is in short supply in the neighborhood.

“Bike parking requirements have increased, which is great, but the reality is people need to park their cars,” he said. “Whether there’s a minimum requirement or not, it’s an important feature, not only for livability but for sustainability and the longevity of our occupants.”

Additionally, a major design element would be punched holes in the warehouse’s concrete facade, and added layers of glass and metal to contribute to the modern aesthetic.

“As you can see from the design renderings, there is a serious attempt not to do the mainstay, or not to do another vanilla project there,” Boly said. “I think there’s an opportunity to add another unique element to the fabric of the neighborhood.”

Obviously, scrapping the warehouse and starting from scratch would be easier, Boly said, but preservation provides benefits in terms of land-use approvals and architecturally interesting design.

Yale noted that the existing roof would provide needed shelter in the winter months – the group hopes to begin construction in October or November.

“It’s very complicated to do what we’re doing,” he said, “… but concrete has a huge carbon footprint, so if you can keep it whenever possible, you’re effectively reducing the carbon footprint of the building.”