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With a slightly revised design that converts condos into apartments and adds a bit of height to the 30-story tower, Park Avenue West is once again rising to take its place in Portland’s skyline.

TMT Development announced this past October that it was resuming construction of the 546,000-square-foot, mixed-use tower at Southwest Park Avenue between Morrison and Yamhill streets. Park Avenue West will feature 13 stories of Class A office space, 15 floors of residential units, and two floors of retail space.

At 460 feet tall, the tower will offer amenities to residents and office tenants that include a state-of-the-art conference center, secured bike storage and lockers, operable windows, a club-quality fitness center, and easy access to MAX and bus transit. Beneath the tower are six stories of underground parking, providing 260 spaces in an area that serves Nordstrom, Fox Tower and Director Park, among other downtown draws.

Vanessa Sturgeon, president of TMT Development, said that as the economic recession generated uncertainty and stalled the tower’s construction, the firm knew that it needed to begin again last fall.

“This market is small enough and the cycles are predictable enough, so you have to wait until there are major leases rolling,” she said. “We knew that in order to hit the market for a late 2015 or early 2016 opening for tenants, we needed to have construction under way by the third quarter of 2013.”

The project team for Park Avenue West includes TVA Architects, which designed the original and modified versions of the tower; Hoffman Construction Co.; KPFF Consulting Engineers and Interface Engineering.

Park Avenue West Tower gained a pre-construction LEED platinum rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. The building was designed to reduce potable water by 40 percent, cut energy costs by 32 percent and feature Portland’s first 40,000-gallon rain harvesting tank.

When TMT Development announced this past fall that the project would resume, Sturgeon said it was expected to create about 2,880 jobs for local construction workers, suppliers and related businesses.

“The main thing that is really fulfilling about the project starting again is that the construction workers are back at work and getting healthy, living-wage paychecks,” she said.

She noted that postponing those jobs during the project’s shutdown “was the hardest part in the first place.” – Melody Finnemore