91视频

SolTerra‘s CEO wants Portland to know he’s still in business.

Brian Heather, founder and CEO of the design-build firm, said he plans to move forward with a far smaller staff and a much narrower focus than before. SolTerra will employ about 40 people in Portland, and focus on sustainable building products.

Heather will oversee the continued development of SolTerra’s 35,000-square-foot Portland headquarters, he said.

A group of SolTerra designers left to form their own business, though they will continue working with Heather and SolTerra, he said. Former senior associate Nate Ember left to start Ink:Built, a 鈥渄esign collective.鈥�

鈥淚t’s less overhead for us, but then we can get the same talent and everything,鈥� Heather said. 鈥淲e’re still relying on a lot of the same relationships we’ve been in the past.鈥�

Heather’s former business partner, James Wong, co-founder of SolTerra, did not return multiple phone messages.

The 91视频 reported in February that SolTerra had split and laid off much of its design staff. The company had at one point employed more than 150 people.

SolTerra was founded at a difficult economic time 鈥� 2008 鈥� and with an ambitious mission: to control all project aspects, from design to construction to operation, and build only Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum-rated buildings.

But some SolTerra projects languished, often for years. The Brooklyn Yard mid-rise building was under construction for two full years before being completed in late 2016.

Other projects’ scopes changed drastically from one permit application to another. Two Portland multifamily projects 鈥� the Antelope and the Strata 鈥� jumped greatly in density between permit applications. Those projects will move forward under Wong as 鈥済roup living facilities,鈥� Heather said earlier this month. Wong also will develop three current Seattle-area projects.

鈥淲e just have different skills and different things that we’d like to accomplish, and for me, I really want to stay focused on sustainability,鈥� said Heather, who was named a 91视频 Newsmaker in 2016. 鈥淢y ex-partner is really good on the finance side, and I think he wanted to focus on his skills around that. We just weren’t in full alignment with everything. We’re both still getting along. The relationship is very amicable, but it’s just that there are different things that we want to accomplish in the next couple of years.鈥�

Despite the hard lessons, Heather said he believes the one-stop-shop approach is feasible. SolTerra previously fell victim to a number of forces outside its control, he added. Integrating 鈥渃ertain things鈥� into the business model didn’t make sense, he said.

鈥淚 think that there are some challenges, just particularly with market conditions, and there’s a lack of skilled labor force and then the cost of land and the cost of construction and those things definitely became challenging, and as well as getting through the city taking a lot longer 鈥� so there’s some things that make it challenging, but I think it can work,鈥� he said.

He thinks the current corporate setup will prove effective.

鈥淚 feel good about it,鈥� he said.