A renovation under way at the historic Meier & Frank Building in downtown Portland will transform the former Macy’s department store space into one the most unique creative office spaces in the city. When completed next year, the building will feature office spaces with 40,000-square-foot floor plates and ceiling heights up to 19 feet.

The renovation is a joint development between Chicago-based Sterling Bay and KBS Realty Advisors of Newport Beach, California. The owners purchased the space from Macy’s last year for $54 million. It includes the building’s first five floors and 84,000 square feet of basement space; the building’s upper floors are occupied by The Nines hotel.

General contractor Turner Construction began interior demolition in May, and is now performing core and shell improvements. The scope of work includes installing a new lobby on Southwest Morrison Street, new and re-opened retail entries, and tenant amenity space on a below-grade floor that will include a lounge, private conference room, a catering kitchen, and bicycle commuter facilities. It will also feature a full-service fitness center with towel service, classes, and personal training.

The building was designed by A.E. Doyle, and is notable for being the first of many white glazed terra cotta structures to be erected in Portland. Bora Architects took inspiration from the ornamentation on the face of the building and brought some of those design ideas to the interior.

“We definitely were trying to borrow from this really beautiful history of the building in some of the details, and to add something modern but to make sure that it fit in with that context,” said Bora principal Amy Donohue.

New brass mesh screens that will be incorporated into several common areas in the building’s interior were derived from the patterns of exterior terra cotta, and match brass detailing around the elevators and inlays in the poured terrazzo flooring. An oversized clock that was synonymous with the old Meier & Frank store is being relocated from the center of the ground floor to the elevator lobby.

A pair of historic entries to the building – one each on Southwest Fifth and Sixth avenues – will be re-opened, and a canopy along Southwest Alder Street that has regularly been struck by delivery trucks will be reduced in depth from 12 feet to eight feet. Non-historic fabric awnings around the perimeter of the building will be removed, providing a better street-level view of the terra cotta façade and the ornate metal canopies.

Storefront improvements include taking window film and display windows away from the building’s edges, allowing light to penetrate into the retail spaces, and giving pedestrians a view inside for the first time ever.

On the building’s upper floors, light penetration will be increased thanks to the removal of multiple mechanical louvers that were installed during a 2006 renovation. They will be ganged together on the north side of the building so that as much vision glass as possible can be installed in their place.

With the unique offering of such large open floor plates, the owners are looking to ideally lease to tenants looing to take entire floors. The office spaces are being marketed a $37 per square foot, triple net. Core and shell work is slated for completion by April 2018, with tenant improvements to follow and office occupancy by next summer.

The post Getting creative: ex-Macy’s space gets makeover appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A photo of the Bank of California Building on its opening day in 1925 tells a story of the era.

A well-dressed bank manager, kerchief in his breast pocket, stands in the middle of a large, marbled and mausoleum-like lobby. Men in white shirts and ties stand behind caged, teller windows, and bob-haired women in shin-high, fringed dresses look on from a rear doorway.

Today, the building, at 330 S.W. Sixth Ave., still is held in high regard. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, and on its nomination form it was described as “one of the most elegant buildings in the metropolitan area of Portland.” Now, the three-story structure is available for lease.

It was one of the last buildings designed by noted architect A.E. Doyle, who died in 1928. Doyle designed many downtown Portland buildings, including the Benson Hotel, Meier & Frank Building, the U.S. Bank Building and early buildings at Reed College.

The Bank of California Building features Italian-Renaissance Palazzo style, which was popular in the 1920s. Two sister buildings are the 10-story Pacific Building, at 520 S.W. Yamhill St., and the Public Service Building, at 1120 S.W. Fifth Ave.

Banks and investment companies have occupied the Bank of California Building over the years. Presently, Picoco LLC, based in Newport Beach, Calif., is leasing the building. Company representatives did not return calls seeking comment.

Block by Block is a weekly look at commercial real estate around Portland. Send suggestions for properties to BlockxBlock@djcOregon.com.

The post Historic Bank of California Building for lease appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A Portland office building designed by notable architect A.E. Doyle celebrates its 100^th birthday this month.

The Selling Building has been owned by the Schlesinger family since 1966 when the father of Paul Schlesinger, owner of real estate company The Schlesinger Companies, purchased it from Ben Selling. The Schlesinger’s continue to own the building today and this month held a party with tenants, architects and contractors who have come into contact with the building at 610 S.W. Alder St. over the years.

“Usually buildings like this get a fifty-year time span,” Schlesinger said. “When a building lasts one hundred years, it’s fairly noteworthy.”

Built in 1910, the steel frame structure has a glazed terra cotta façade made from bricks that were hand pressed by Gladding McBean & Company of California. Renamed the Oregon National Building in 1967 after its major tenant, Schlesinger in 2009 changed the name back to the Selling Building in 2009, recovering and reinstalling the original brass letters that spelled out the building’s name.

The post Portland office building turns 100 appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Three banking buildings in one block of Portland’s downtown may be historic, but they nevertheless possess the infrastructure to attract the city’s creative technology industry.

The U.S. National Bank Block, at 309 S.W. Sixth Ave., includes three buildings integrated as one, so tenants can walk from one building to another without stepping onto the street. The block has about 44,000 square feet of class B office space available.

The buildings include the U.S. National Bank Building, the Wells Fargo Building and the Motor Bank Building. John Beardsley, a Portland developer with a sizable portfolio of historic buildings, owns the block.

“People had a different attitude toward building when these were built,” Beardsley said. “These buildings were built by artisans, which are a combination of contractors and artists.”

The U.S. National Bank Building was built in two stages in 1917 and 1925 in the neo-classic, Italian Romanesque style. The Wells Fargo Building, built in 1906, was Portland’s first high rise – at 12 stories. Both buildings were constructed for their namesake banks and designed by Portland architect A.E. Doyle. The Motor Bank Building was built in 1956 and includes a parking garage shared by all three buildings.

“There are no two buildings that are alike,” Beardsley said. “People can have their own unique identity in a historic building.”

Beardsley considers the block the crown jewel of his portfolio; of his 18 buildings, the block makes up his largest and most prominent holding, he said. Last year, Beardsley’s company that owns the block fell behind on the loan and filed for bankruptcy, but that loan has since been reorganized.

Beardsley remodeled the block extensively after he bought it in 1999. The buildings, constructed for banks, were originally overbuilt. But the steel frame on the U.S. National Bank Building is now an asset to its telecommunications infrastructure.

The secure infrastructure was a necessity for datacenter company Lightpoint; its datacenter occupies 22,000 square feet in the Wells Fargo Building and is growing. There, the company provides space for servers, which attracted creative and technology firms enticed by the convenience of being close to their servers. Those firms include e-mail marketing software company Yesmail, consulting firm Ecos and online schooling company Insight Schools.

High-tech company Tripwire moved out of its third-floor space last year. That space, about 30,000 square feet over the entire block, is available. About 14,000 square feet of smaller spaces also is available.

The asking rate for space in the block is about $20 per square foot, per year, full service. Occupancy of the 210,000-square-foot block is approximately 80 percent.

For details on leasing space in the U.S. National Bank Block, contact Tiffany West with CB Richard Ellis at 503-221-4857 or tiffany.west@cbre.com, or Trevor Kafoury at 503-221-4896 or trevor.kafoury@cbre.com.

The post U.S. National Bank Block appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

One of downtown Portland‘s architecturally notable buildings has space available – and for a bargain.

The Terminal Sales Building, at 1220 S.W. Morrison St., is one of a handful of art deco buildings in Portland. And at 13 stories and 155 feet, it is the tallest art deco building in the city. More than 50,000 square feet of space is available in the building, starting at $15.50 per square foot.

The building, constructed in 1927, was one of the last designed by famous Portland architect A.E. Doyle. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

The building is reminiscent of taller East Coast skyscrapers of the period. Smooth piers extend up its length and frame each side. Art deco detail adorns the top floor.

Inside, the building is lackluster but mostly functional. The spaces are “Class B or Class C office space,” said Doug Lindholm with American Property Management.

“You get what you pay for,” said Dorothy Kemp, who is satisfied with the location after working in the building for 10 years with the career counseling office Rondone Kemp.

Asking rates for space in the building run from $15.50 to $16.50 per square foot, per year, full service gross, depending on the length of the lease. The rate is below the average Class B rate in the Central Business District, for the second quarter by real estate adviser CresaPartners.

A comparable deal is the $16-per-square-foot rate at the next-door Mayer Building, a six-story building also built in 1927. Both buildings are on the edge of downtown with easy access to Interstate 405. But the Mayer Building’s largest space available is 2,658 square feet. The Telegram Sales Building has three entire-floor offices of more than 10,000 square feet available, plus a dozen smaller spaces.

Nevertheless, vacancy in the Terminal Sales Building is at 43 percent, well above the Central Business District’s 12 percent average for the second quarter . Many tenants are seeking moderately-priced Class A space with build-outs, according to the firm’s quarterly report.

But those looking for Class A space in an art deco-inspired building won’t find it in Portland, which makes the Terminal Sales Building a good bet for architecture buffs on a budget.

For details on leasing space at the Terminal Sales Building, contact Justin Vernon with American Property Management at 503-281-7779 ext 251 or jvernon@apmportland.com.

The post Terminal Sales Building appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Riverdale School District received a conditional use permit Monday to replace and update the Riverdale Grade School. The 1920s-era main school building was torn down earlier this month to make way for a new, larger building.

Riverdale’s permits had been held up as a historic preservation advocate asked for more time to present evidence to a city hearings examiner looking at land use issues. District officials, worried that preservationists would seek a historic designation for the A.E. Doyle-designed school that would block their plans, tore down the school.

The decision keeps Riverdale on its tight construction schedule, which has classes starting at the new building in the fall of 2010. Classes will be held in nearby Smith Elementary School for the next school year.

The post Riverdale has permit in hand … finally appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.