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A three-story building with self-storage space and ground-floor retail space could be coming to the Lloyd District next to Benson Polytechnic High School.

Developer PacTrust is proposing a building with a 37,500-square-foot footprint at Northeast 12th Avenue and Irving Street. The building would have a 350-foot-long fa莽ade facing Benson High along Irving Street. It would reach to 40 to 45 feet in height.

The design is by Mackenzie. The project team received design advice from the Portland Design Commission on Thursday.

The project comes amid strong growth in Northeast Portland’s multifamily market. Projects such as American Assets Trust‘s Hassalo on Eighth have added thousands of apartments to the area.

As a result of Portland’s growing population, the self-storage market is booming. Several new proposals call for self-storage facilities, including U-Store Pearl under the Fremont Bridge in the North Pearl District. That project is from local developer Joe Weston and Hoyt Street Properties.

鈥淚t seems that storage is the new multifamily housing, and we’re going to see a lot of it,鈥� Design Commission Chairwoman Julie Livingston said. 鈥淚t would be good to have some examples to point to.鈥�

The PacTrust project would offer a coffee shop and a small courtyard at Northeast 12th Avenue and Irving Street to activate the streetscape. Brick and metal panels would form the exterior.

Livingston asked Mackenzie senior associate Adam Solomonson why the building’s exterior couldn’t be completely brick. 鈥淚 didn’t want it to be so similar to Benson High School as to make it look like a portion of Benson High School,鈥� he replied.

Commissioner Andrew Clarke seconded the notion that an all-masonry building would better meet design guidelines.

The building would be visible to drivers on Interstate 84, just north of the project site, as well as neighboring surface streets.

Design commissioners said some of the exterior materials needed refinement.

鈥淚t seems to me this is a building looking for a concept,鈥� Commissioner Don Vallaster said. 鈥淚t’s not there yet.鈥�

PacTrust purchased the parcel for $5.6 million in February 2016, according to public records.

Weston owns to the east of the site a neighboring 4-acre parcel that he purchased for $28 million in September 2017. In a letter to the Design Commission, Weston asked why he wasn’t notified of the PacTrust project. He asked the commission to reschedule Thursday’s meeting, but wrote that he didn’t oppose the project. 鈥淚 offer no objection if a self-storage facility goes on the subject site if the zoning will allow it,鈥� Weston wrote.

As Thursday’s meeting concluded, PacTrust Vice President for Asset Management J. Benjamin Chessar declined to comment on the project’s economics, saying it’s too early in the design review process.

The project is scheduled to return for another design advice hearing on March 1.