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The city of Portland is gearing up to enter into a development agreement to construct up to 3.5 million square feet of office, retail and residential space 鈥� along with accompanying infrastructure to support it 鈥� in the South Waterfront District.

Construction on the first phase of development of the 33-acre parcel known as Zidell Yards 鈥� slightly south of the Marquam Bridge between Moody Avenue and the Willamette River 鈥� could start as soon as June 2016.

The Portland Development Commission‘s board on Dec. 11 received a draft of the agreement with ZRZ Realty, a subsidiary of Zidell Marine. Shawn Uhlman, spokesman for the PDC, said adoption of the agreement should come in January, after some slight content tweaks are made.

Matt French, managing director of ZRZ Realty, said via Kathleen Mazzocco of Clear PR that the holdup on an agreement is on the PDC’s end, and that he’s waiting until one is reached to make a statement to the media.

The draft agreement outlines three phases of project development, including construction of a new portion of Southwest Bond Avenue, which will run parallel to Moody Avenue and eventually extend from River Avenue south to Gibbs Street.

Phase one includes development at four locations, including one that will hold Oregon Health & Science University‘s Schnitzer Campus buildings two and three directly north of the Collaborative Life Sciences Building. The other three locations 鈥� identified as Block 1, Block 4 and Block 6 鈥� will gain projects developed by ZRZ.

Block 1 includes The Emery 鈥� a $20 million, seven-story, mixed-use building completed in October 2013. A 90,000-plus-square-foot, mixed-use building directly south of The Emery is planned to complete Block 1.

Block 6 is slightly south of and adjacent to the South Waterfront/Southwest Moody Avenue MAX orange line station. The draft agreement indicates that ZRZ will construct a building or buildings with at least 250,000 cumulative gross square feet of commercial and/or residential space. If the city and ZRZ agree to terms, ZRZ will be obligated to begin construction on Block 6 by July 1, 2017.

ZRZ’s receipt of a building permit for Block 6 will trigger the start of the Bond Avenue Moody Connector Project, according to the draft agreement. Uhlman said the city has committed $8.4 million to that effort.

Block 4 will wrap up the first phase of Zidell Yards development. The property is directly across Moody Avenue from The Emery, adjacent to the Ross Island Bridge. Upon completion, the project is expected to inject at least 100,000 additional square feet of commercial, retail and residential space. If ZRZ and PDC sign the draft agreement as written, work on Block 4 will begin no later than June 30, 2025.

Phase two of the Zidell Yards project, according to the draft agreement, is slated to begin Jan. 1, 2018 and end June 30, 2025. During that time, ZRZ will construct buildings totaling 1 million gross square feet anticipated to include commercial (2,500 jobs) and residential (1,000 units) space. ZRZ will also design and construct the 鈥淧hase 2 Greenway鈥� segment of the Willamette River Greenway. Plans call for this segment to stretch from the Marquam Bridge south to the Ross Island Bridge and west to Moody Avenue.

The draft agreement indicates that the third phase of Zidell Yards will begin on June 30, 2025 and end Dec. 31, 2035. In the agreement, plans for this phase are less detailed than the other two, but indicate a financial partnership between ZRZ and the PDC.

PDC Executive Director Patrick Quinton indicated to the board via a Dec. 11 memo that staff anticipates requesting formal approval of the draft agreement at the Jan. 11, 2015 staff meeting.