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Developer Mark Madden is skeptical of calling micro-apartments a trend in Portland.

Madden, owner of ekoHAUS Apartments, has built 20 projects around the city with micro-studios as small as 225 square feet. Madden says building the ultra-tiny efficiency units, which are typically defined by developers as less than 300 square feet, is more of a niche that he and others have found to meet the community’s needs.

In the case of the Couve, a 22-unit development in North Portland completed in April, Madden built 12 225-square-foot studios and priced them to the affordability level of individuals making 65 percent of the Portland metro-area’s median income. Each of the units has a kitchen, Madden said.

鈥淲e built the Couve starting at (rents of) $749,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t worked. It filled up quickly.鈥�

While the units are small, rents for the units are 75 percent of what market rates are in the area around Williams and Vancouver avenues for studio apartments, he said.

Developers are pitching micro-units as an affordable option for working class housing in an apartment market where rents in the metro area have increased by an average of 11 percent over the last year, according to Multifamily NW, which tracks rental housing throughout the region. By offering sustainable living features along with efficient floor plans, developers hope to coax renters into spaces as small as 168 square feet.

Craig Weicker, a developer with Geary Street Ventures LLC, says micro-studios are 鈥渘ew territory鈥� in Portland, driven by changing market tastes.

鈥淚t might not work everywhere,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut in an urban environment, I think it does.鈥�

Weicker is converting the Arthur Hotel building in downtown Portland from former student housing for the Portland Art Institute into a mix of 168-square-foot micro-studios and 330-square-foot studio units.

鈥淚t’s new territory,鈥� Weicker said. 鈥淚 believe in the philosophy of it 鈥� there’s a better utility of space and there is a demand for this type of housing. I’m hoping it pencils out. I don’t know for sure.鈥�

He’s banking on a philosophy that a better use of space will attract professionals 鈥� young and older 鈥� who are looking for an urban experience and are willing to pay more per square foot for a lower overall price.

When completed, each of the units in The Arthur will feature specially designed wall-beds that fold out into desks. The building also will feature space in the basement for storage of up to 50 bicycles.

The smaller units in the building each will have a kitchen sink, but not any kind of cooking surface. For that, residents will have to head to the basement, where there will be a communal kitchen. Rents will start at $850 for the smaller units, Weicker said.

Smaller, with limits

While Madden thinks going smaller has advantages, he also cautions that developers can go too tiny when designing and building micro-units.

鈥淲hen you start to lose components of what a home is, it starts to get dangerous,鈥� he said. 鈥淎s long as you have a bathroom, bed, kitchen, you’ve got a home. It’s difficult when you start to share a kitchen. It becomes something else.鈥�

The shared living-space approach has been tried in Seattle by Snohomish, Wash.-based Footprint Investments, which has 19 micro-unit buildings in that city.

Footprint now is bringing the concept to Portland with a micro-unit project currently under construction at 2250 N. W. Thurman St., said Cathy Reines, the firm’s president and CEO. Price points have not yet been determined for the 54-unit building, which will have individual units averaging 170 square feet and a common 鈥� or shared 鈥� kitchen.

Footprint has proposed a similar project at 1525 N.E. 41st Ave. in Portland’s Hollywood District. That project is still in the plan review stage, Reines said.

鈥淲e’re looking forward to doing additional projects in the Portland area,鈥� she said.

Footprint based its entrance into the Portland market on demographic factors that included the number of singles in the city, the average age of renters in Portland and vacancy rates, she said. Both Seattle and Portland shared a strong need for more affordable, workforce housing, she said.

The millennial generation of 20- and 30-somethings is driving the change toward smaller, more efficient housing types that serve effectively as a place to sleep, rather than a space to live and spend time, according to Reines.

鈥�(Millenials) are minimalists and that is coming back in a big way,鈥� she said.

Footprint Inc. encountered initial resistance on both its Portland projects from neighbors who saw a need for structured parking. However, city code did not require parking because the projects were not considered 鈥済roup living arrangements,鈥� rather than regular dwelling units.

Footprint has since told neighbors it would find offsite parking where building tenants will be able to park, said Maura White, executive director for Mother & Child, a neighboring business nonprofit.

鈥淭here were parking issues and a fear that it was going to change the demographics of the neighborhood,鈥� White said. 鈥�(The neighborhood has) bars, a Trader Joe’s and restaurants. I think it’s made for (Footprint’s project). It’s going to do fine.鈥�