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Hoyt Street Properties is pulling the trigger on construction of Portland’s next skyscraper.

Tiffany Sweitzer, president and partner of Hoyt Street Properties – the Pearl District‘s largest landowner – confirmed this week that the company is planning to break ground on the 28-story condominium tower at Block 15 (between Northwest Overton and Northrup streets, and 10th and 11th avenues) by Aug. 1.

Hoyt Street Properties has weighed carefully whether to start its hundred-million-dollar-plus project since announcing it in December 2012. That’s because six years ago, as the Great Recession took hold, Portland had a serious glut of condominiums. Developers of condo projects like The Wyatt, the Ladd Tower and The Ardea in the South Waterfront District converted to apartments as the bottom fell out of the housing market.

Today, that market is experiencing consistent double-digit price increases, record sales and low inventory; pressure is affecting even the high-end condos in the Pearl District. Kathy MacNaughton, a longtime Pearl District broker specializing in condo sales, attributes a lot of that activity to in-migration and empty nesters trading their suburban houses for high-rise residences.

“That kind of disappeared over the Great Recession, and it’s back now,” she said. “It’s hot. It’s hot … The Pearl is hot in any price range up to about $1.1 million, and then the buyer pool really thins out.”

MacNaughton said the average sales price for Pearl District condos is up significantly from a year ago to $554,500, or $460 per square foot. The average listing price is closer to $716,000, or $515 per square foot.

For Block 15, the plan is for entry-level prices of $650 per square foot. Hoyt Street Properties in February was nearing agreement with Wells Fargo on terms for an approximately $108 million loan for the project, having already ushered the development through design review.

Sweitzer confirmed via email the target date for the start of construction. She said more information would be available next week.