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After seven years of work in fits and starts, the $25 million first phase of redevelopment of the former Boise Cascade mill site in downtown Salem is set to move forward.

The catalytic project is expected to bring housing and jobs to a blighted part of the city. It has not been without its challenges and still has a lot of moving parts, said Jason Tokarski, vice president of developer Mountain West Investment Corp.

“It’s a game changer for downtown – for the landscape of downtown,” he said. “It’s significant physically, but also from an appeal standpoint. This project will draw residents to downtown at a volume never seen at this scale.”

The former mill site, across from City Hall and adjacent to the Salem Convention Center, is divided into four parcels named North, South, Park and Slough. It’s bordered to the east by Commercial Street and to the west by the Willamette Slough, and it’s dissected east to west by Pringle Creek and north to south by Burlington Northern short freight line railroad tracks.

Numerous issues have included access, the railroad, creek restoration and historic preservation. The site may have Native American-related artifacts, according to the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office. Also, the economic crash derailed the project, Tokarski said.

“The list goes on and on,” he said. “There has not been one thing that has been easy about this project.”

Development of the South parcel, bordering Commercial Street south of Pringle Creek, is furthest along, Tokarski said. The firm is planning to build 115 residential units and 15,000 square feet of either commercial or office space, and then add 60 residential units later, he said.

The project’s general contractor, Andersen Construction, has completed most of the demolition needed atop the former paper supply warehouse, which will provide the foundation for four levels of apartments. Seismic work is finished.

“Whenever you’re dealing with an existing structure, there are always challenges because you have to coordinate with what’s there,” Andersen Construction senior project manager Gene Archibek said. “There are a lot of holes to fill in. You just have to locate as you go.”

The building formerly served as a storage area for giant rolls of paper, Archibek said.

“Had it not been for that use, you could never get a building on top,” he said. “The walls are so thick and so strong, it’s able to support loads on top of it. It’s a cool project because you almost never see something like this.”

Noise from passing railcars was considered. Each balcony on the four stories of apartments will be configured so that noise is deflected, said Kirk Sund, project architect for Salem-based CB | Two Architects, which performed master planning and design work for the Pringle Square campus.

Locating utilities on site also was a challenge, Sund said.

“There was only a small portion of the property to do site infrastructure because the property line on Commercial Street side was only a foot or two from the existing building,” he said. “You’ve got the railway on one side and the creek, so you’re dealing with a proximity issue. We had to shoehorn it all in there using the existing footprint.”

 

Pringle Square South Block

Location: Salem

Cost: $25 million

Construction start date: August 2014

Anticipated completion date: August 2015

Developer: Mountain West Investment Corp.

Architect: CB | Two Architects

Landscape architects: Simp.L Landscape Design, DeSantis Landscapes

Engineers: KPFF Consulting Engineers, Black Oak Engineering, Northside Electric, MultiTech Engineering Services

General contractor: Andersen Construction