Plans for a five-story mixed-use building in the Northwest District won unanimous approval from the Portland Design Commission on Thursday.

The building will have 74 apartment units over 10,000 square feet of retail space in a layout intended to take advantage of frontage on Northwest 23rd Avenue – a busy neighborhood commercial corridor.

Vancouver developer C.E. John Company is behind the project, known as NW 23rd and Marshall Apartments, and GBD Architects is the designer. C.E. John bought the property for $6.575 million in January 2019, public documents show.

The project encountered no significant opposition from the Design Commission. Members did question GBD’s request for approval for two materials – metal cladding or stucco – for the exterior. One or the other would be applied, depending on cost. That raised some concerns for commissioners, but that was allayed with more discussion on the specific type of stucco that would be used.

“Depending on how pricing is coming out, we just want to be able to use a different material if we need to,” GBD Architects Associate Principal Richard Dobrot told the Design Commission.

The unusual request for approval of different materials to be chosen in the future underscores how project teams are continuing to deal with unpredictable supply costs.

Commissioners praised the project team’s design in regard to public realm guidelines. Plans call for outdoor dining and a service entrance.

The building breaks down into three separate forms. As Dobrot explained, the central block form looks like an early-20th century industrial building. The south building appears contemporary, with a dark brick cladding. The north building also has a contemporary look, highlighted by a white frame.

While praising the project, Chairwoman Julie Livingston asked whether the city’s Community Design Guidelines for the Northwest District were pushing architects to design overly similar buildings.

Several other buildings in the neighborhood have a parti, or organizing concept, of three distinct architectural expressions intended to break down the apparent mass and emulate historical architecture in the area.

“My view on this is it makes for very busy buildings on lots that aren’t particularly large,” Livingston said.

Grace Jefferies, a Bureau of Development Services planner, agreed that the guideline “really pushes to this solution.”

Primary cladding materials for NW 23rd and Marshall Apartments include brick and metal panels with vinyl windows, ground-level wood and aluminum storefront glazing, metal canopies, and board-formed and painted concrete at the base.

“There’s just a lot more sameness neighborhood to neighborhood as these buildings break down half-block massing that in my opinion doesn’t necessarily need a lot of modulation,” Livingston said.

With an inclusionary housing bonus, the site is allowed to have a floor-area ratio of 4-to-1. C.E. John’s project uses 3.8-to-1. The project also has 44 underground parking spaces as well as both private and communal terraces.

The property is located near, but not within, the Alphabet Historic District. It’s across Northwest 23rd Avenue from Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center.

Two residents testified that the building should be slimmed down to appear smaller on the half-block frontage with Northwest 23rd Avenue.

Steve Pinger, a Northwest District Association board member, said the upper floors should be stepped back. The shear wall design that rises to 65 feet at its Northwest corner doesn’t meet Community Design Guidelines, he said.

Sue Perkel, who owns a neighboring multifamily building, expressed concerns about trash trucks servicing the new building disturbing her tenants. She also said the building would be one story too high.

Livingston said the proposed height meets zoning rules, and that operational issues such as service trucks are outside the Design Commission’s authority.

Also on Thursday:

Multifamily project survives appeal

The Design Commission rejected an appeal brought by the Southwest Hills Residential League of city staff approval of plans for an 11-story, 89-unit affordable housing building on Southwest Park Avenue. The proposal from Main Street Development and architect Ralph Tahran would use prefabricated modular construction for the building on a 6,016-square-foot hillside site. The neighborhood association could choose to appeal to the Land Use Board of Appeals. The deadline to appeal is 21 days after the final decision is mailed.

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C.E. John Co. has sold the 51-unit George Besaw building in Northwest Portland for $23.625 million.

The mixed-use development at Northwest 23rd Avenue and Savier Street was completed in 2018. C.E. John Co., of Vancouver, Washington, was the developer.

“There are only so many properties located in A+ locations, and with its iconic location at NW 23rd Avenue and NW Savier Street, The George Besaw fits that bill,” Kidder Mathews Executive Vice President Clay Newton stated in a news release. “It’s rewarding to be a part of a sale like this, especially with such great parties involved on both sides of the transaction.”

The Alphabet District building has three floors of apartments in studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom configurations over ground-floor retail space occupied by tenants including Pine State Biscuits, Life of Pie, Moberi and The Barbers.

GBD Architects designed the building.

Kidder Mathews represented the seller. In addition to Newton, Jordan Carter and Tyler Linn were involved in the transaction. The buyer’s identity was not immediately available in Multnomah County records. Newton said the buyer was a “small, family office in Washington.”

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A proposal to construct a five-story mixed-use building in Portland’s historic Alphabet District is scheduled to be discussed by the Bureau of Development Services at a pre-application conference on Oct. 10.

The applicant, GBD Architects, is set to lay out plans for construction on two parcels fronting Northwest 23rd Avenue and stretching between Marshall and Northrup streets. As described in city documents, the development at 1137 N.W. 23rd Ave. would feature one level of below-grade parking (approximately 48 total parking spaces), with an entrance on Northrup Street. The upper four floors would hold around 70 apartment units.

The project’s developer is CE John, a commercial real estate development firm based in Vancouver, Washington, that started in the 1940s as a residential homebuilder. The company develops and builds retail, office and industrial products, and also offers property management services and commercial construction. CE John normally operates in a build-hold fashion, and has produced developments including Beaverton’s Cedar Hills Crossing and Columbia Shores in Vancouver.

For this project, CE John purchased the Northwest 23rd Avenue property earlier this year for $6.57 million. The two 0.23-acre parcels have a pair of aging single-story commercial buildings. The Quality Pie diner occupied the building on the corner of Northwest 23rd Avenue and Northrup Street until 1992. That structure has been vacant since. The adjacent building was the home of Shogun’s Gallery, an antique dealer, until it closed in 2017.

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