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Key Development‘s follow-up to Yard will have little in common with the controversial Burnside bridgehead tower.

Instead of an imposing building envelope and black exterior panels, Yard‘s sibling will be much smaller and feature warm, reddish-brown bricks.

鈥淲e’re trying to make it more of a classic Central Eastside building than a striking, contemporary project, which we’ve kind of already done with Yard,鈥� said Claudia Munk-von Flotow, chief operating officer of Key Development, the developer of Yard and the new project on Block 76 West. 鈥淚t’s really not the little sister to Yard as we once concepted it to be.鈥�

The mixed-use project was known in planning as SideYard 鈥� a play on it being a smaller neighbor to the 21-story project built first. Now that Yard has sold to an institutional buyer 鈥� the largely residential building was snapped up by a Thailand-based investor for $126.68 million in December 2016 鈥� the SideYard name no longer made sense, Flotow said.

The Block 76 West building will rise to five stories and include 23,569 square feet. It’s being designed by Skylab Architecture, which also designed Yard. Andersen Construction, which previously built Yard and Guerrilla Development‘s Fair-Haired Dumbbell nearby, recently broke ground on the new project.

The program for Key’s building at 365 N.E. Couch St. hasn’t been finalized, but it’s likely to be two floors of retail space and three floors of office space, Flotow said. The retail spaces will likely face Northeast Couch Street and Third Avenue.

No vehicle parking will be provided. However, the development will include bicycle-friendly features such as 鈥渞olling curbs.鈥�

Key Development, based in Hood River, has a lead on a potential ground-floor tenant: Ferment, a brewery that is opening a production facility and small taproom in Hood River. The company may be interested in a Portland location, Flotow said. Ferment is led by Dan Peterson, a former head brewer at Hood River brewery pFriem.

Block 76 West’s structure will set it apart: Key opted to use cross-laminated timber. The structure will be a CLT diaphragm with brick cladding. The CLT materials will be provided by D.R. Johnson, a timber manufacturer based in Riddle.

鈥淲e have done lots of conventionally framed, heavy-timber buildings,鈥� Flotow said. 鈥淲e’ve never done a CLT project. For us it’s both an aesthetic thing and time efficiency, especially with such a heavy building push and a labor market that’s not super available to do heavy-timber construction projects.鈥�

Using CLT materials with precut holes and connections accelerates the building schedule, Flotow said.

鈥淚t makes for a really efficient construction process,鈥� Flotow said. 鈥淵ou can just fly your structure a lot quicker.鈥�

Flotow said she is not concerned by the recent delamination of CLT subflooring during construction of a building at Oregon State University in Corvallis. CLT is a proven technology with an established safety record in Europe and Canada, she said.

鈥淭here’s piles of literature of test results from both a structural and a fire-protection point of view that is giving us some confidence,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 don’t think we’re putting ourselves at a huge risk by going for a CLT diaphragm.鈥�

Andersen Construction even sent a manager to Germany to learn about CLT, Flotow said. Andersen’s experience building in the cramped Burnside bridgehead area factored into its selection as general contractor, she said.

鈥淭hey have efficient ways of staging and scheduling to stay on schedule and on budget,鈥� she said.

The building is on track to open in spring 2019.