Andersen Construction is continuing work on Osprey Apartments, a six-story mixed-use project overlooking the Willamette River in the South Waterfront. Originally known as Block 37, the 270-unit project will have a total of 270 residential units, as well as five ground-floor retail spaces and parking for 227 vehicles. GBD Architects designed the project for owner Mack Urban.

The building features two landscaped courtyards – one in the center of the building, and another terrace overlooking the river on the building’s east side. A second-floor community space adjacent to the courtyard will include a kitchen, lounge space, and a pool table. Other residential amenities include a fitness room and long-term bicycle storage rooms on each floor.

The project is slated for completion by mid-November.

Project Stats + Team – Osprey Apartments
Location: 3750 S.W. River Pkwy
Size: 281,000 square feet
Construction start date: December 2014
Construction completion date: November 2016
Owner: Mack Urban
Architect: GBD Architects
General contractor: Andersen Construction
Civil engineer: Harper, Houf, Peterson, Righellis
Mechanical engineer: Interface Engineering
Structural engineer: Kramer Gehlen Associates
Landscape architect: Lango Hansen

The post Photos: More units coming to South Waterfront appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Andersen Construction is building a new mixed-use project along the Willamette River in Portland’s South Waterfront neighborhood. Block 37 was designed by GBD Architects for developer Mack Urban, which purchased the 1.67-acre lot in 2014 for $7.05 million.

The six-story building will total approximately 322,000 square feet, and will contain 281 apartments and retail space, as well as a below-grade parking garage. Retail space will be on the building’s west and east sides, facing Southwest River Parkway and the Willamette River Greenway, respectively, while the north and south sides of the ground floor will have walk-up residential units. The project is slated for completion in October 2016.

The post Photos: Down by the riverside appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The design for a six-story, mixed-use building in the South Waterfront District that has drawn criticism from neighboring residents narrowly gained an OK from the city on Thursday.

The Portland Design Commission voted 3-2 to approve GBD Architects’ design of Mack Urban‘s $36 million development for Block 37, near the intersection of Southwest Gaines Street and River Parkway. Thursday’s hearing was the design team’s third attempt to gain city approval; plans call for the 278-unit building to include 6,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 225 parking spaces.

Despite revisions to the design, commissioners expressed lingering concerns – mostly regarding the potential for building stoops to encroach into public space. Commissioners Tad Savinar and Ben Kaiser voted against approving the proposed design.

“For me, it comes down to porches in the right of way, because that’s privatizing,” Kaiser said.

The commissioners’ approval came with several conditions, including creation of an outdoor furniture zone on Southwest Lane Street with benches, bike shelters and pole lights to ease the transition between public and private space.

Neighborhood residents who testified on Thursday reiterated concerns expressed during two previous hearings for the project. These included the building’s proximity to the Willamette River Greenway trail and that it would block Southwest Portland residents’ views of the Willamette River and Ross Island.

The building’s massing still does not step back enough from the greenway trail, said Melanie Diamond, a member of the Block 37 Citizens Committee, a group that opposes the design.

“The effect of this massing is an overbearing presence on the greenway,” she said. “The overall effect is a building that doesn’t fit the site, overpowers the greenway and doesn’t fit the South Waterfront design guidelines.”

In response to commissioners’ feedback given at a previous hearing, the design was modified in several ways, GBD Architects principal Katherine Schultz said. Balconies were added to enhance the north and south facades, a retail patio along the greenway trail was made larger and the garage entrance was relocated farther west of the cul-de-sac on Gaines Street to improve safety for area bicyclists and pedestrians, she said.

“The project has evolved quite a bit,” she said. “We’ve done a lot of work and feel that through all those changes we’ve got a great building.”

GBD designers also took the feedback from the neighborhood seriously, Schultz said.

“We’re well aware at this point that not all the neighbors are satisfied with our design, but we’ve worked very hard to satisfy their concerns,” she said.

Schultz noted that the building will actually preserve views to the river.

“If there is a building that provides more views at this location, it’s this building,” she said. “We could have built a tower. We didn’t.”

Commissioner David Wark said he was comfortable with modifications to the design to ease the transition between the building and the greenway trail.

“I think they’ve done a really good job of knitting it all together with our comments,” he told the design team.

Wark said he felt the stoops were an asset to the design and not an encroachment on public space.

“Stoops create a streetscape that we’re always asking for, pleading for from other (design review) applicants,” he said. “I think that’s a fair trade when it comes to what we’re gaining in the pedestrian environment.”

Although other commissioners praised the addition of a corner retail space near the greenway, Savinar said he wished the project would go further.

“Look at all that space where retail could be added on Lane (Street) side,” he said. “There’s a difference between squeezing it in and making it thrive.”

Andersen Construction crews are scheduled to start work on the project in October.

The post Third time is the charm for Block 37 appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Despite revisions, GBD Architects‘ design for a six-story mixed-use building planned in the South Waterfront District still needs work to gain city approval.

City planners, design commissioners and South Waterfront residents at a Portland Design Commission hearing Thursday expressed lingering concerns about Mack Urban‘s $36 million project for Block 37, near the intersection of Southwest Gaines Street and River Parkway.

GBD Architects, which previously proposed a design for approval in May, revealed its latest for the 278-unit building, which would include 6,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 225 parking spaces. Commissioners on Thursday did not vote whether to issue approval, but instead scheduled a hearing for Aug. 21 to allow project designers time to make additional revisions.

The building needs a more engaging facade with balconies or bays, commissioners said. They added that it could be better integrated into the surrounding neighborhood and that the parking garage entrance should be relocated.

However, commissioners appreciated that in the new design the building steps back slightly from a nearby riverfront bicycle and pedestrian path, and an added ground-floor retail/patio space faces the Willamette River.

GBD Architects principal Katherine Schultz said the design team made a concerted effort to respond to neighbors’ and design commissioners’ concerns that the building would crowd the Willamette River Greenway trail. Designers also worked to smooth the transition between the private development and public path.

“We went through the design guidelines,” she said. “We didn’t just do one of them; we did every single example in the design guidelines. We feel like it’s a graceful transition and addresses the design guidelines.”

Neighborhood residents who testified at Thursday’s hearing reiterated concerns expressed during the one in May. These included the building’s proximity to the trail and that it would block Southwest Portland residents’ views of the Willamette River and Ross Island. South Waterfront residents also suggested that the building have an eco-roof instead of a rooftop rock garden and that the parking garage entrance be relocated farther west of the cul-de-sac on Gaines Street to improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians.

“The location (of the garage entry) is a pinch point of the cul-de-sac and greenway. It’s a high pedestrian and bike area,” South Waterfront resident William Savery said. “I think it’s a disaster waiting to happen.”

South Waterfront resident Robert Nunn said neighbors would like to see additional articulation on the building’s north face.

“As you look at the elevation, there is not a lot of variation,” he said. “It is significant massing that we think could be softened with the right design.”

Design commissioners agreed.

“I think what would be more successful would be the integration of more balconies,” Commissioner David Wark said. “It would activate the facade.”

Schultz said it would be tricky to add balconies, but that the design team would investigate the possibility.

“I will say it will cause dramatic changes in the floor plans of our units,” she said. “My gut is it’s going to be a very hard thing to accomplish.”

Moving the garage entrance closer to River Parkway would be more convenient to building residents because they would spend less time traveling on Gaines Street, Commissioner Jeff Simpson said.

“If I live there, or I was a visitor, I would prefer that resident traffic getting off the street early,” he said.

Commissioner Tad Savinar said he is still worried about how the building responds to the context of the neighborhood.

The design is very conscious of nearby buildings, GBD Architects designer Craig Mendenhall said.

“It’s about creating a contemporary building,” he said. “The South Waterfront is full of contemporary buildings. It’s really contemporary in style with a connection to nature. That’s been the theme.”

South Waterfront Block 37

Location: 3700 S.W. River Parkway, Portland

Cost: $36 million

Planned construction start date: October 2014

Developer: Mack Urban

Architect: GBD Architects

General contractor: Andersen Construction

The post Block 37 design not ready yet appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The design for a six-story mixed-use building planned in the South Waterfront District deviates from a string of nearby towers, and that bothers neighbors.

South Waterfront residents and business owners attended a Portland Design Commission hearing Thursday to express concerns about Mack Urban‘s $36 million project for Block 37, near the intersection of Southwest Gaines Street and River Parkway. The building, as designed by GBD Architects, would crowd a riverfront bicycle and pedestrian path, and block Southwest Portland residents’ views of the Willamette River and Ross Island, critics said.

GBD Architects staffers sought design review for the 278-unit building, which would include 6,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 225 parking spaces. Commissioners did not vote, but instead scheduled another hearing for June 19 to further review plans and hear more public testimony.

Commissioners agreed with some of the neighbors’ concerns, including the building’s proximity to the Willamette River Greenway trail. Block 37 should step farther back from the trail and provide a smoother transition between private development and public space, Commissioner David Wark said.

“I don’t think a sliver of landscaping that’s two to five feet meets the spirit of this,” he said.

GBD Architects principal Katherine Schultz told commissioners that the Block 37 design takes into account both the trail and river east of the property.

“We are allowed by code to be on the property line,” she said. “Remember, we are not a tower. We sit more gently on the greenway.”

In response to commissioners’ advice given this past summer, GBD Architects redesigned the building’s eastern facade to gradually step away from the river.

“I think it does provide connections,” Schultz said. “We feel we’re achieving that by how we erode the building as well as providing stoops. There’s a transition of not only the trail, but the landscaping and the street.”

Another connection to the greenway, GBD Architects designer Craig Mendenhall said, is a lobby near the cul-de-sac on Gaines Street adjacent to the riverfront path.

“We wanted that ability of the lobby to spill out onto the greenway,” he said.

The building will be too close to the greenway, said George Crandall, principal of urban design firm Crandall Arambula. He addressed the commission on behalf of a group of South Waterfront residents and business owners who reviewed the Block 37 design.

“The amount of time the architect spent talking about that tells you that is a problem,” he said. “We say they’re crowding the greenway and we say it doesn’t really step down to the greenway.”

The development also would deviate from a view corridor established along Gaines Street where all buildings line up to preserve a view to the river, Crandall said.

“The promise was made to the people of the west hills that there would be view corridors,” he said. “I think this project sets a very dangerous precedent.”

Commissioner David Keltner agreed.

“It’s not fair to the other buildings that were built anticipating other buildings having that setback,” he said.

Commission Chairwoman Guenevere Millius said she didn’t mind that Block 37 would look different than other South Waterfront developments.

“I’m OK with varying the design,” she said. “I think a little difference in palette down there is OK.”

Commissioner Tad Savinar said he had an overarching concern with the design.

“Why design this building in this place?” he asked. “I feel like everything is compromised a little bit. Those things are a symptom of a larger approach to the project.”

The post Design conflict in South Waterfront District appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Mack Urban development team members spend a lot of time in coffee shops, but not necessarily to drink coffee. They’re conducting research.

“People look for neighborhoods that fit with their personality, and we design buildings to fit with that personality,” said Dayna Dealy, a project manager for the Seattle-based real estate investment and development company. “We’ll sit in coffee shops watching people come in. We’ll sit in the lobbies of other apartments. We’ll see if they have dogs, or friends. What do they like? What do they listen to? We go to the banks and talk to tellers to see what kinds of people have accounts there.”

The idea is to identify tenants’ preferences so that new buildings will appeal to them. As lifestyle-centric city dwellers choose to rent rather than buy a home, developers like Mack Urban are increasingly finding that they must adapt projects to tenants’ needs to remain competitive. To a degree, amenities have become necessities.

Seattle-based Trinsic Residential Group, for instance, is hoping to break ground later this year on a 159-unit multifamily development featuring pea-patch gardens, travel libraries and a rooftop barbecue area. That project is pegged for the former Falcon Auto lot at 419 E. Burnside St.

On Thursday, Mack Urban will present to the Portland Design Commission drawings for a mixed-use development in the South Waterfront District. Construction is scheduled to start in August on a 278-unit complex featuring numerous luxuries. Those include a central courtyard with gardens where tenants can grow their own vegetables, a second-story rooftop deck overlooking the Willamette River, a posh room for watching movies and sports, and areas for airing out camping tents, washing surfboards, waxing skis and tuning bikes.

Dealy said that storage is especially important in Portland. Tenants may be willing to sacrifice unit size for location, but they need lots of room for their gear.

“If I (have a) paddleboard, where would I put it?” she said. “What does it take to make it a place you want to live and not just a stop-off point between living at school and buying a house? It’s really a lifestyle choice.”

Mack Urban isn’t hiding that gear space, but rather giving it a storefront presence so that passersby will see the building’s adventurous tenants.

The building will also have bike and dog washing stations, which have become somewhat ubiquitous in new Portland apartment developments. Sam Rodriguez, managing director of Mill Creek Residential Trust‘s Oregon office, said those amenities are standard in his company’s newer projects, but to date they’ve been utilitarian. He has since realized they could use some items like sofas and TVs.

“We need to jazz them up because people want to spend time there,” he said.

Dogs play such an important role in leasing activity that Mill Creek is even planning to include a dog walk on the rooftop of a 290-unit complex in the Pearl District. Not long ago, Rodriguez would have been reluctant to devote valuable income-producing space to tenants’ four-legged friends. But competition is growing: Industry experts estimate that developers will deliver some 12,000 to 14,000 units this year and next.

Mill Creek is hoping that TV projectors, wet bars, game rooms, a production-scale kitchen, a 14-person whirlpool spa, and a rooftop infinity pool will set its development apart. Rodriguez expects rents to reach approximately $2.45 per square foot.

“All of a sudden these buildings are becoming more like cruise ships than your traditional apartment building,” he said. “People want to have different options within their building, and it also goes part and parcel with the size of the unit. As people go smaller, people want to have more options and more room when they need it – and that’s what those amenities are designed to do.”

Indeed, some of the newer micro units in the city are as small as 350 square feet. Tenants in such spaces will likely look to stretch their legs occasionally. That’s one of the reasons why Mack Urban is investing in its common areas.

The new South Waterfront building’s fitness center will resemble an exclusive athletic club, with comfortable areas for reading. A movie room will include pool tables. A large kitchen will feature space for dinner parties. The mail room will have sofas.

“Instead of just making a mail room, we’re actually making them a place where you want to go and stop and open your mail – I mean elegant,” said Amy Arroyo, amenity and interiors designer for Mack Urban. “We spend a lot of time on the mail area just to make people interact. It’s the one place people will definitely go.”

A centerpiece of Mack Urban’s development will be a second-story deck overlooking the river. It was originally planned for the roof, but designers wanted to give tenants space to watch passersby on the greenway.

All those amenities will be on the same floor, which Arroyo said makes them more accessible to tenants and easier for managers to show. That plays an important role in not only attracting tenants, but retaining them too. In a 250-unit apartment complex, about 10 units switch hands every month, so design can help stem the tide.

“You want people to feel that they are actually comfortable,” she said. “Why would they move? They have everything they need.”

The post A lot more than bare necessities appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

There are four things that Jim Atkins, the managing director of Seattle-based development company Mack Urban, looks for when planning a new development.

One is an employment base. Another is multiple transportation alternatives. A third is access to recreational amenities.

“Four, there’s got to be a ‘there’ there,” Atkins said. “There has to be something to do when you walk outside on a Saturday morning, or go get a beer in the evening. Admittedly, the South Waterfront is a little early in that process, but it’s going to get there.”

Despite attracting more than $1 billion worth of private development over the past decade, the South Waterfront District has struggled to attract some of the commercial vibrancy of other inner-Portland areas. But because the South Waterfront is at the doorstep of Portland’s largest employer, and at the confluence of the Willamette River and expanding transit lines, Mack Urban believes the neighborhood has all the necessary ingredients for growth.

The company, formed this past summer, recently purchased one of the area’s few remaining undeveloped parcels for $7.05 million, and plans to build a 281-unit multifamily building. But Mack Urban isn’t the only company planning projects.

New construction brewing at OHSU

When the Collaborative Life Sciences Building (CLSB) opens in July, Oregon Health & Science University will have built 1.3 million square feet in the past 10 years.

“Over the next five years, we hope to build another 1 million square feet,” said Brian Newman, director of campus planning, development and real estate for OHSU. “That’s an enormous injection of construction activity that’s really fulfilling the original vision of the South Waterfront.”

This past September, Nike co-founder Phil Knight pledged to donate $500 million toward OHSU’s cancer research if it could match that amount by the end of 2015. University officials this month plan to go before the Oregon Legislature to request $200 million in bond money as they pursue the goal.

If money were secured, OHSU would begin planning immediately for two new research facilities (one north of the CLSB; the other south of the Center for Health and Healing) that together would cost approximately $500 million. Construction, according to OHSU estimates, would create 6,835 direct and indirect jobs, $892 million in economic activity, and $35.3 million in tax revenue.

The facilities, once operational, would create 860 additional direct and indirect permanent jobs and $134 million in yearly economic activity. Plus the CLSB is expected to bring 3,400 people into the area.

Nevertheless, the South Waterfront is about 8,000 jobs short of the 10,000 identified as a goal in the Portland Development Commission‘s North Macadam Urban Renewal Area plan. It’s halfway through its 20-year lifespan. Newman said OHSU always viewed the area with a 30-year horizon, and sees future developments moving that destination closer.

“Any time you put down a building that’s 100 percent occupied on day one with a couple thousand employees, students and patients, it adds to the street life, and the retail activity that’s going on in the South Waterfront,” he said. “I think it’s a good thing as we start to transform that area into an authentic neighborhood.”

The formation of Mack Urban

Atkins has no trouble picturing that outcome. He got his start in real estate development in 1997 working for Dike Dame and Homer Williams. The two developers were buying property in the South Waterfront before urban renewal plans existed.

“Homer was one of the most creative, visionary people I’ve ever had a chance to work with,” Atkins said. “I remember him coming into our office and saying, ‘Hey, I want you to listen to this guy. He’s got this idea for this tram.’ ”

The Portland Aerial Tram has since shuttled more than 10 million people to and from Marquam Hill.

In the meantime, connections were being made to set the stage for formation of Mack Urban.

In 2004, Atkins went to Los Angeles to work on the development of high-rise condos; there, he met Matthew Burton and Paul Keller, the principals of a development company called Urban Partners. In 2012, the three joined forces with AREA Property Partners – an international real estate fund manager with investments worth $70 billion – to purchase Harbor Properties (later, Harbor Urban) in Seattle.

AREA Property Partners in July 2013 was acquired by Ares Management LLC, but one of its founders – William Mack – created Mack Real Estate Group (MREG) with his two sons, Richard and Stephen.

Zeroing in on Portland

Mack Urban is the merger of MREG and Urban Partners/Harbor Urban. Despite its ties to East Coast financial institutions, Mack Urban knows Portland’s story.

“While we see great growth in places like the big cities in Texas, we just don’t see high enough barriers to entry, and they don’t have the same urban core and urban appeal,” said Richard Mack, CEO of MREG. “When we invest in a city like New York, we are looking for those parts of New York that exhibit qualities much like Portland.”

Specifically, Richard Mack sees three things that spell opportunity in Portland: a nationwide trend among echo boomers and baby boomers to move into urban centers; an alluring food, bicycling and employment culture; and limited opportunities for developers to enter the market because of the urban growth boundary.

Burton, president of Mack Urban, said the combination makes Portland a perfect place to invest. The company already is in discussions with other property owners about future projects.

“I deal with a lot of our institutional investors,” Burton said. “I can tell you that Portland is absolutely on the radar for institutional investors. We will bring institutional investors into this deal; they like the Portland market. It’s probably not as widely accepted as places like Seattle, but I think it’s heading in that direction.”

As Mack Urban was formed, Atkins kept close ties with Dame and Williams. They sold the company its new property at 3700 S.W. River Parkway.

The upcoming project is still in the early design stage (GBD Architects is the designer), but Mack Urban hopes to break ground in the third quarter of 2014 and possibly open the building by the time OHSU starts its construction.

“With the benefit of seeing how the Pearl District evolved, I look at the South Waterfront in much of the same light,” Atkins said. “You have a neighborhood that has great bones, but these things take time to evolve.”

The post Banking on South Waterfront’s growth potential appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A group of heavy hitters in the nation’s real estate industry have zeroed in on Portland’s South Waterfront District.

Mack Urban – a partnership between New York-based Mack Real Estate Group and Los Angeles-based Urban Partners LLC – and New Jersey-based Connell Real Estate and Development have purchased 1.67-acre Block 37 from an affiliate of Williams & Dame Development Inc. for $7.05 million. The group plans to build a six-story building with 281 apartment units and 50 parking stalls.

News of the development broke in April 2013, when Harbor Urban – a Seattle-based development company – applied for early
assistance from the Portland Bureau of Development Services.

Harbor Urban was folded into Mack Urban, which derived from the Mack family. Its members helped found AREA Property Partners, an international real estate fund manager with investments valued at $70 billion; and Mack-Cali Realty Corp., one of the nation’s largest real estate investment trusts.

Richard Mack, CEO of Mack Real Estate Group, said his company is focusing on Portland and the South Waterfront for numerous reasons. Among them is the metro area’s high barrier to entry, employment base, and a quality of life that attracts a young, talented demographic. He pointed to Oregon Health and Science University, and the soon-to-open Collaborative Life Sciences Building as evidence.

“You have leading scientists and doctors in the field of medical health that are a doorstep away from us, and we think that’s going to contribute to the vitality of the entire Portland market, and provide jobs for people that are excited about enacting change in the world,” he said. “What a great place to be a developer. That’s why we like Portland.”

Jones Lang LaSalle helped broker Mack Urban’s property acquisition.

The post Development group stakes claim in South Waterfront appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.