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Barry Cain, president of Tualatin-based Gramor Development, has spent more than 30 years transforming Portland-area neighborhoods. But at a former mill site in Vancouver, Wash., he is preparing to transform a community.

The Waterfront, a $1.5 billion development planned on 32 acres fronting the Columbia River, is expected to include approximately 1 million square feet of office space, 250,000 square feet of retail space, 3,300 residential units, a 180-bed boutique-style hotel and 10 acres of parks and trails. Some buildings are expected to open in 2016, but the total build-out may require 10 years.

Cain is a partner in Columbia Waterfront LLC, which is nearly ready to kick off the giant effort.

“After almost nine years, we’re finally at a point where we can tell potential users” what is ahead, he said. “We can seriously start marketing it.”

Interest has been strong, said Cain, noting that Columbia Waterfront has been working on a purchase agreement that would create a block for a hotel. Also, negotiations with several potential restaurant tenants are under way. Meanwhile, investors are being sought.

“We’re not going to build all the buildings,” he said. “It’s really more of a subdivision deal for us. We bought the land and will build two or three of the first five buildings. After that, I don’t know. Other developers will probably pick up the rest.”

Some hurdles remain, including a proposal for an oil terminal that would bring through the vicinity up to four additional trains per day. The Tesoro-Savage Vancouver Energy Distribution Terminal, at the Port of Vancouver USA, would handle daily up to 360,000 barrels of crude oil, which would then be shipped to refineries mostly on the West Coast.

The Washington State Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council is reviewing the Tesoro-Savage proposal; Gov. Jay Inslee‘s approval also is required before the project can move ahead. Vancouver City Council opposes the project, and Cain says that approval could lead to the Waterfront development – at least its residential portion – being downscaled.

“We own the property; we’re all in on this deal,” he said. “It’s not so much a matter of would we go ahead, but would it still be possible to do the things we were going to do?”

Construction of the main road connecting the development site and Columbia Street is slated to start this fall. Site connections to Esther and Grant streets are expected to be made by spring 2015, Cain said.

A train trestle that improved access just to the north of the project, already has been reconstructed, Cain said. The city of Vancouver, the state and federal government and the developer collectively paid $45 million for it, he said.

Another major improvement, the $18 million Waterfront Park, is in the permitting process; construction is anticipated to begin in 2015. The half-mile-long park will give Vancouver residents access to that stretch of the Columbia River for the first time in more than a century, said Jane Jacobsen, a Jacobsen Works principal who is involved in the fundraising effort. She also is working with the city and Vancouver, B.C.-based landscape architect PWL Partnership to ensure that the park connects to others along 18 miles of the waterfront and the city.

Stabilization of the shoreline that fronts the property also is scheduled for next year, Jacobsen said. The improvements will give the property and the city more of a “river-town feel,” she said.

“This whole development … will really help turn people’s attention to the water,” she said. “We are a waterfront community. Vancouver is here because of the Columbia River.”

Two years from now, the Waterfront is expected to be up and running with at least a few buildings constructed and the park in place, said project team member George Diamond, a principal broker with Real Estate Investment Group. He is talking to prospective market-rate and affordable housing developers as well as several high-end retailers and restaurateurs. Columbia Waterfront also is looking to sell blocks to other interested developers, he said.

Prices would start at $100 per square foot. By comparison, property in Portland’s Pearl District sells for about $300 per square foot and property in downtown Portland sells for about $250 per square foot, he said.

Diamond compared the development to Portland’s South Waterfront District, which is on a riverfront with links to parks and trails. Similarly, the Vancouver project will essentially expand the downtown and open up the riverfront, he said.

“You just don’t find 30-plus acres on the river,” he said. “It just doesn’t exist.”

The project has the potential to be transformative for Vancouver in the way that the removal of Harbor Drive in favor of a waterfront park was for Portland 40 years ago, said Kelly Love-Parker, CEO of the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce.

“This can become the signature feature for downtown Vancouver,” she said. “I would say that we are a modern-day, beautiful city with every amenity. It would bring bodies into the downtown core.”