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Development of Rockwood Rising in east Multnomah County has been a long slog.

But now that construction is finally under way some 15 years after planning began, progress seems to be happening at a rapid rate.

In fact, crews recently topped out the first of three buildings at the Gresham site between East Burnside Street and Southeast Stark Street, and Southeast 185th and 187th avenues.

General contractor LMC Construction is building the project, designed by YBA Architects, for developer RKm Development. The Gresham Redevelopment Commission owns the property and is responsible for implementing the plan for the city’s Rockwood-West Gresham Urban Renewal Area, and Rockwood Rising is a key part.

Many sets of eyes are on the project at present, and LMC Construction is on track to substantially complete work by July 2020.

鈥淚t’s going well; we’re meeting the schedule,鈥� April O’Neal, a project engineer with LMC Construction, said during a recent site visit. 鈥淚n December we’ll start putting the windows in and doing the roofing.鈥�

A redesign of ground-floor storefronts has delayed some work briefly, but temporary walls will allow the building to be dried out as roofing takes place this month. Framers from Timberland Inc. are working near the top of the four-story building, which will have a structural system of glulam beams and columns.

Other subcontractors currently working on the project include Polaris Electric, Centurion Fire Protection and Tapani Plumbing. All are performing rough-in work on the building’s ground floor and second floor.

鈥淲e’re just waiting for the third floor to get a deck on it so they can move up safely,鈥� O’Neal said.

All underground utility work for this portion of Rockwood Rising is done, and the parking area for the office building was paved just before Thanksgiving.

鈥淲e’ll start doing the landscaping (soon) and go ahead and put everything in and make it pretty,鈥� O’Neal said. 鈥淎 lot of the plants do better when they can winter over.鈥�