After delivering two prominent Pearl District high-rises, developer Bob Ball is back with a $4.2 million mixed-use project in the Alphabet District.

“This is going to be a beautiful boutique project – a very high-end, high-quality project,” said Ball, builder of the upscale Wyatt (2007) and Parker (2014) apartment towers. “It’s going to be a great-looking building.”

Ball purchased the land for his latest project at 915 N.W. 21st Ave. prior to the completion of the Parker. Plans call for two ground-level retail spaces totaling 4,000 square feet, 31 parking spaces and 27 apartment units on floors 2-4.

The architect is FFA Architecture and Interiors, and the contractor is LCG Pence. Ball said both retailers have been selected, but declined to name them.

For Ball, who lives near the site in the West Hills and got his real estate start nearby, the project is personal.

“I felt very privileged to get the site,” he said. “That’s always been a neighborhood that feels like my home. I think this is really going to add to the neighborhood.”

Though Ball has been active in the local real estate market for years through his firm Astor Pacific, he is reforming operations under a new business heading: Robert Ball Company, which he says will have more of a focus on investment. That business will be launched formally on Feb. 11 – Ball’s 50th birthday. The new company has entered a long-term lease to rent a Northwest 23rd Avenue space that Apple.

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Lorentz Bruun Construction is nearing completion of the , a 177-unit project in the Pearl District, for developer Astor Pacific. Work on the project, designed to have an art deco theme by FFA Architecture and Interiors Inc., is slated to wrap at the end of this month. As interior work winds down with installation of appliances, floors and finishes, crews are putting the finishing touches on the building’s white brick façade and constructing planters, fireplaces and barbecues in the courtyard.

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General contractor Lorentz Bruun is building The Parker, a six-story, 177-unit Pearl District apartment building for Astor Pacific. The project encompasses a full block bounded by Northwest 12th and 13th Avenues and Pettygrove and Quimby Streets. Work on the site began last January with the demolition of a former warehouse building on the site. Work on the FFA Architecture and Interiors-designed project is slated for completion in July 2014.

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Development is driven by demand, and Astor Pacific‘s latest project in the Pearl District is no exception.

Company officials are hoping to break ground in September on a six-story, 177-unit apartment building called The Parker. Approximately 25 percent of it will be junior one-bedroom units roughly 500 square feet, 50 percent will be one-bedroom units around 600 square feet, and 25 percent will be two-bedroom units between 1,000 and 1,100 square feet.

“For this building, I’m trying to do what I believe the market is, so that’s why I have these units at these sizes,” said Robert Ball, principal and CEO of Astor Pacific.

Bigger spaces translate to higher rents, and Ball, like many downtown developers, is pursuing smaller units to keep them affordable. Many tenants, he said, are willing to forgo floor space in order to live in the core. However, some downtown residents are concerned that smaller units will impact diversity and push families out of the city.

“We really don’t want to be pigeonholed as a young 20s, wealthy neighborhood,” said Kate Washington, communications chairwoman for the Pearl District Neighborhood Association. “We feel like people who have invested early in their lives shouldn’t have to leave because they want to have a family.”

For many such couples, upgrading to a two- or three-bedroom apartment would likely mean moving out of the downtown core. Sam Rodriguez, managing director of Mill Creek Residential Trust, said the going rate for a two-bedroom apartment in downtown Portland is roughly $2,000.

“If you’re going to live downtown, unless you are an incredibly, incredibly rich person, you’re going to live in a small space,” he said.

Mill Creek is building a 179-unit apartment building called the Savier Street Flats near The Parker; only a few of the units will have more than one bedroom. Rodriguez said that for many people, a downtown apartment is becoming merely a jump-off point rather than a place to host large groups.

At a certain point, developing multi-bedroom apartments doesn’t make sense.

“We’ve never really seen a demand for three-bedroom apartments mostly because they just get too expensive,” said Tom DiChiara, vice president of development for C.E. John Co. “Suddenly you start competing with what people could rent a house for.”

C.E. John is constructing a 24-unit complex and a 40-unit complex on Northwest Raleigh Street, and a 92-unit building on Northwest Lovejoy Street. He said that while a few more two-bedroom units were included in one of the Raleigh Street projects, anything larger just doesn’t pencil.

Patricia Gardner, vice president of the Pearl District Neighborhood Association, said that situation is one that all developers face in the Pearl District. While The Parker is no exception, Ball said he believes residents will be pleased with the completed plans.

“We really have made significant strides in putting all the comments together and responding to the neighborhood’s and the design commission’s comments,” he said. “We’re really pleased with it and I think they’re going to be very happy with the results.

In an attempt to blend some of the Pearl’s industrial past with its more modern, residential uses, the building features a neoclassical/art deco facade of bright white brick, dark black glass and fixtures that shoot long, vertical stripes of light down the side. One major revision was the removal of a raised band that had wrapped around the top floor. The result is a cleaner, more vertically focused design.

Another revision came in response to neighborhood suggestions that the fence for the interior courtyard – a lush space with numerous fire pits, barbecues and concrete pingpong tables – be moved back slightly to make the public sidewalk space larger and more inviting. Gardner said the neighborhood association hoped that Ball would open the courtyard to the public during the day.

“We have such limited outdoor space (in the Pearl), so it kind of marginally increases the outdoor space for everybody,” she said. “Bob has not been in favor of that. It’s a small issue, but collectively it starts adding up.”

Ball said he was not decidedly opposed to that idea and that he was willing to leave it on the table for future discussion. However, he added that he wants to be able to lock up the courtyard at night for security reasons.

Ball said he believes demand for larger units may increase in the future, but for now, the market is calling for smaller ones.

“We think our market timing is good … and I’m very pleased with the way the building looks,” he said. “We’ve tried to do something that is superior in the marketplace and that will be a standard for the north Pearl.”

Astor Pacific is in the process of hiring a general contractor and a property manager for The Parker, which was designed by Fletcher Farr Ayotte Inc.

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At age 19 – when many college students are still trying to figure out their major – Portland developer Bob Ball was figuring out how to buy his first property.

He found inspiration in an article about a developer named Sam LeFrak – a champion for middle-income housing in New York City. Through the LeFrak Organization, he built approximately 200,000 homes and apartments in the city. He also was a billionaire.

Ball took a real estate class at the University of Oregon to learn the basics about deeds, easements, titles and other industry jargon. He waited tables at a restaurant and worked at a golf course to build some savings.

“I took that money that I saved when I was living in the dorms and I put it down on a house,” he said. “I bought it from a retired couple, made my payments every month, fixed that up and then went on to the next one. And here I am.”

Ball found the process of buying, re-envisioning, renovating and selling properties fulfilling; he went on to do it several more times before leaving college one credit shy of a degree.

He also went to work full time (pre-Internet) for a startup called Software Sciences, which gave real estate agents the ability to compile multiple listings via a computer rather than by hand. The company grew and Ball traveled around the U.S. installing the software for real estate firms and training personnel how to use it.

Today, Ball owns several companies, including , , and Ball Parc Properties LLC. In the past 10 years, Astor Pacific has built the 168-unit Avenue Lofts, the 69-unit Embassy apartments, the 164-unit Marshall-Wells Lofts and the 245 Wyatt apartments in the Pearl District.

Presently, Ball is working on the Parker – a six-story, 177-unit apartment building in the Pearl District. He recently spoke with the 91��Ƶ.

91��Ƶ: What do you like about development?

Bob Ball: I like driving over the Fremont Bridge and being able to look down and see the Wyatt and the Marshall-Wells, and the Avenue Lofts, which I think are three beautiful buildings that I can take pride in, and that’s really a lot of fun for me. That’s really an honor for me.

91��Ƶ: What did you find inspiring about that early experience working for Software Sciences?

Ball: The founder of that company, his name is Buck Lindsey … was an entrepreneur and really taught me and opened my eyes about what it is to be an entrepreneur … As the first full-time employee, I saw a brand new company start from the ground up with the visionary leader that he was, and it opened my eyes to the idea that I could go out and do something and start something myself, which was a gift to get at 19 years old … I learned that the thing that inhibits most people from being successful at doing something is just the fear of trying. So that gift that I was given was the ability to see that it’s OK to try – you don’t have to be afraid of failure. As Nike says, ‘just do it.’

91��Ƶ: Astor Pacific puts a special focus on the renovation of used and historic properties. Why is that important?

Ball: When you can combine in a neighborhood like the Pearl District, old historic buildings and renovated new buildings, it brings a significant amount of character to a neighborhood. It makes it a more livable, walkable place and a more intrinsically enjoyable place to be … Both the Marshall-Wells Lofts and the Avenue Lofts were big warehouses that had become functionally obsolescent. So the challenge was taking a building in that state and changing it into something that was relevant but still retained its historic character.

91��Ƶ: A lot of your work has focused on re-envisioning buildings in the Pearl District. What do you think will be the next area of Portland to take off?

Ball: I think there are a number of opportunities. I’ve always liked – on one end – the St. Johns area. My dad lived in St. Johns most of my life. My parents separated and divorced when I was a young kid, but my dad lived here in Portland on North Edison, and I’ve always liked that little strip in St. Johns. I think it could be really great if somebody had the time and energy – it’s like its own little village.

Obviously the central industrial east side is a focus with the new streetcar (track) going down there. I don’t know how that will shake out though because … the city has envisioned it and the central industrial east side council – I’ve just been reading in the paper – has a different vision.

Obviously, I think before that the North Pearl has yet to be finished out, and we’re working on that.

91��Ƶ: What do you guys have on tap for projects?

Ball: I just have the one right now. I don’t know exactly what Hoyt Street is going to do, but they obviously have quite a bit of land left … it will be very exciting to see what they do, and I think they have an incredible amount of opportunity to really book-end the final part of the Pearl District … I went to the Fields Park grand opening yesterday and they said they had eight undeveloped lots around it … there could be a lot to be done.

91��Ƶ: It seems like the bread and butter for developers right now is market-rate multifamily projects. Do you think we’ll get to a point where that gets built out, and if so, where will investors turn?

Ball: We just went through a pretty long period where for-sale residential housing was the dominant product that was developed. Right now it’s for-rent product. I think my answer is we’re always going to have a demand for residential housing as our population naturally grows. So really the question is: ‘Is it for sale, or is it for rent?’ I think we’ll always have both of those, even at the same time.

91��Ƶ: Are there any guiding philosophies that you live by?

Ball: I’ve tried to build quality products that are aesthetically pleasing, and I’ve tried to pick really good teams of people to help me get there – architects, contractors, engineers. That whole group of people is the most important decision that you can make when starting any kind of a new development.

91��Ƶ: What other advice would you offer to aspiring developers?

Ball: I started out with rentals, renting out my own apartment and really understanding what people were looking for in a place to live and what was important and what wasn’t. Those years of experience have been invaluable to me in my process of developing and being able to properly oversee a team. So I think the advice I would give is take it slow, be careful, know your business, know it well, and don’t go in sort of haphazard because it can really come back and bite you.

91��Ƶ: What’s on your developer’s bucket list?

Ball: I think I would love at some point to build an architecturally significant building … without any constraints on budget. The thing that has always inhibited me to some degree is the market. I can’t go as far as I’d like to go in terms of design because economically it’s just very difficult to do and make it pencil out. So that would be my one dream – to be able to have at it without a budget.

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