Hotel construction is red-hot in Portland these days, and one of the projects under way is the sizable Hyatt Centric Portland in the West End of downtown, at the corner of Southwest 11th Avenue and Alder Street.

The 15-story, 215-room hotel is being built on a quarter-block parcel that formerly held a three-story office building occupied by the United Way of the Columbia-Willamette. Mortenson, the design-build contractor and lead developer, purchased the property in 2017 after it was declared surplus by United Way.

Construction has moved quickly since demolition of the office building in March 2018.

“It doesn’t feel like it was that long ago, no,” Mortenson Construction project manager Angie Helfert said. “We’re topped off, we’ve got enclosure basically run up through 13 and we should be enclosed on three through 15 in the next week and a half or two.”

Now, the construction site is swarming with up to 80 craft workers daily, Helfert said. Substantial completion is expected in approximately six months.

“We’ve got our elevators starting in the next month, we’ve got curtain wall starting in the next month, and the GFRC (glass-fiber-reinforced cement panels) on most of the elevations of the building, those are starting next month as well,” she said. “Rough-in is in pretty much every phase from starting tile and all the way through. It’s all over the boards; some of the (mechanical) equipment is already set, so we’re moving.”

On nearly all floors as well as the rooftop, where a mechanical penthouse is being constructed, carpenters from Anning-Johnson, Mortenson’s crews and workers from other firms are installing metal framing. Meanwhile, ironworkers are installing steel staircases and other elements, and electricians, plumbers and HVAC technicians are installing mechanical equipment. Also, glaziers are installing windows on floors 13 and higher.

SERA Architects designed the hotel to hold more than 131,000 square feet, including some 3,000 square feet of meeting space. The Hyatt Centric is intended to appeal to younger businesspeople interested in exploring the city instead of hunkering down in their rooms.

A destination restaurant will operate on the ground floor, in a space facing Alder Street.

“There’s an operator on board, but they’re probably about a month out from announcing,” Helfert said. “We are super excited once the restaurant operator announces. They’re a local, and we finished the design for that space, so that will open at the same time as the hotel.”

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Samaritan Health Services is on a coastal building spree.

Over the past year, significant progress has been made on a pair of large hospital construction projects – one in Newport and another in Lincoln City. Crews at the former site recently completed the first of two major phases of work, while crews at the latter site are tackling rough-in, framing and mechanical, electrical and plumbing work. That new, 52,000-square-foot building will replace an existing wood-framed hospital.

The $42 million Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital project is on schedule to finish in October, within the planned budget, according to spokeswoman Mary Jo Kerlin. Following a switchover of personnel and other resources from the old building, the new hospital is set to open to the public in February 2020. The Lincoln City project was designed by HGA Architects. Skanska USA Building is serving as construction manager/general contractor.

Recently, Skanska’s crews of carpenters, laborers and cement masons were busy finishing sections of the single-story building’s roof slab, while Anning-Johnson carpenters were installing both interior and exterior metal framing. McKinstry has been tasked with MEP work, while Carr Construction performed the steel erection work. Knottworks Construction, one of the few Lincoln City-based contractors involved, carried out civil work and site concrete; later, it will perform additional concrete landscaping.

“The construction of our replacement hospital building has been a wonderful experience, largely due to the skill and professionalism of our design-build team,” said Dr. Lesley Ogden, CEO of both Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital and Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport. “I had the opportunity to be part of this project from the beginning, so I saw how our staff and community members were encouraged to provide valuable input and insight. This allowed the architects to design a building unique to our special needs in Lincoln City.”

In addition to constructing a new primary hospital, crews will remodel the existing Health Professions Education Center building to provide administrative space and physical rehabilitation services. The project also includes demolition of the existing hospital building, creation of a new main parking lot, half-street improvements on the campus’ west and south sides, as well as smaller campus improvements.

Both the front and back portions of the new hospital will have offer greater operational efficiency than those in the existing building. This will improve workflow and patients’ privacy, Ogden said.

“The number of dedicated patient rooms will be fewer than what we have currently, but the number of flexible-use spaces is greater,” she said. “The overall effect is more clinical space for better patient care.”

The new hospital is being built with sufficient seismic strength to allow immediate occupancy following a major earthquake. This is standard today for a critical care facility, according to Todd Predmore, a Skanska USA Building vice president and account manager.

In Newport, meanwhile, a $57 million project is under way for Samaritan Health Services. The team of Colorado design-build firm Neenan Archistruction and Corvallis-based T. Gerding Construction is carrying out a rebuild of Pacific Communities Hospital.

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