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A nine-story office building will be going up in the Pearl District now that an agreement has been reached for the sale of a 0.80-acre vacant lot from the Portland Development Commission to Williams & Dame Development for $7.4 million.

The triangular lot, a 34,808-square-foot parcel, is bordered by Northwest Ninth Avenue on the north and west, by Northrup Street on the south and by railroad tracks on the east. The PDC acquired the vacant lot in 1987 as part of a larger 30-acre Union Station purchase that was later divided into separate parcels. The property has been fenced and maintained as unimproved by the PDC over the years. But the land was contaminated by industrial activity in the past, and in 2003, the state Department of Environmental Quality outlined remedial actions to lower unacceptable levels of arsenic, lead and benzopyrene in the soil. The PDC will pay for the cleanup, estimated to cost $700,000.

Williams & Dame this week made a request to the city for early assistance with design advice. The request identifies Phillip Beyl of GBD Architects and Nick Hodges of THA Architecture as applicants.

According to the PDC, the office building will be 204,000 square feet and have retail on the ground floor. Williams & Dame made an unsolicited offer for the property last year, and the PDC board approved it in April.

Plans for the new building will be great for the area, PDC spokesman Shawn Uhlman said.

鈥淭hat’s nearly $7.5 million that will go back into the River District Renewal District and will allow us to further reinvest,鈥� Uhlman said. 鈥淭his will create construction jobs, engineering jobs and have a longer-term impact.鈥�