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Despite some challenges, crews are approaching completion of the mixed-use Sky3 tower in downtown Portland.

Workers of various trades 鈥� around 150 on Monday 鈥� added exterior siding and interior finishes and framing to the 15-story prefabricated steel-framed building at Southwest 11th Avenue and Jefferson Street. Absher Construction project executive Blaine Wolfe said the $42 million project, which began at the start of 2015, should wrap late this year.

The quarter-block mixed-use building employs a unique modular frame system. The structure is the tallest ever to feature steel framing by Innovative Green Business System, Wolfe said, though Absher does have experience using IGBS on a larger (but聽shorter) project in Ballard, Wash.

鈥淭he system just being as tall as it is, and the fact that it’s the first of its kind, has been a bit of a challenge,鈥� he said.

But 鈥渂y far鈥� the biggest challenge faced by the Puyallup, Wash.-based contractor has been a shortage of skilled workers, Wolfe said. Crews lately have been working Saturdays and select trades have been staying late.

鈥淭here’s just not enough labor to go around,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e’ve been challenged with subcontractor participation, and also maintaining a workforce. It’s a finite resource, and there’s infinite opportunity. Some of the key subs are able to keep up with us, but some of the smaller trades are having trouble.鈥�

The good news for Absher is that it has almost completely eliminated hand injuries on the project, safety manager Tyler Robinson said, by requiring all employees to wear gloves. The company reduced annual payouts related to hand injuries from $80,000 to $7,000.

鈥淲e haven’t seen a hand injury out here in a long time 鈥� over a year,鈥� Robinson said.

Sky3 is Absher’s largest Portland project to date. It was designed by Ankrom Moisan Architects and developed by Molasky Group of Companies, the Las Vegas-based developer of the FBI Portland building. With amenities like a library, a game room, a large bike area, a rooftop 鈥渟ky lounge鈥� with an indoor-outdoor fireplace and a test kitchen, and car stackers in the two-level garage 鈥� Molasky hopes to provide 鈥渁 little bit of everything,鈥� Wolfe said. The developer is even designing a wine room to go above the garage in a space originally planned as a stock room for retail tenants.

鈥淭hey have a level of quality that they expect to hit,鈥� Wolfe said. 鈥淪o I think this is going to be a pretty cool project when all is said and done. And the views are amazing.鈥�

Sky3 has 196 residential units, including three penthouses, and ground-floor retail space. One tenant, Coava Coffee, has signed on.

Subcontractors include Steel Panel Supply Inc., Bergelectric, J.E.T. Plumbing, Hunter-Davisson, Cascade Acoustics, Corona Steel, Insulpro Projects, Marion Construction, Coffman Excavation, Snyder Roofing and Innotech Windows. Innotech supplied unique windows with multiple tilt-out functions.