At Mercato Grove, visitors will find a mix of suburban swankiness, contemporary Portland brands and a construction type that is more common in Sun Belt metropolises.

The Lake Oswego mixed-use community is now open at 4055 Mercantile Drive. It includes 206 apartments and almost 50,000 square feet of retail space.

For developer Trammell Crow, Mercato Grove comes as interest has grown in suburban living amid social turmoil in urban Portland.

In many ways, Mercato Grove brings Portland to Lake Oswego: The restaurant group ChefStable has invested heavily in Mercato Grove with five restaurants: St. Jack, Tasty, Oven & Shaker, Grassa and Lardo. Complementing the ChefStable offerings are Fills Donuts, Ovation Coffee and Clean Juice.

The retail is anchored by a CVS pharmacy and Orangetheory Fitness.

The buildings, designed by SERA Architects, balance Lake Oswego’s approved architectural styles.

“Everyone wants to live in a boutique environment,” said Damin Tarlow, senior vice president for Trammell Crow’s Portland office. “No one wants to live in a big building, so how do we break these up?”

Trammell Crow launched the project as part of its High Street Residential brand. Mercato Grove is a joint venture with CenterCal Properties, the property owner.

The property formerly held a series of small Providence medical buildings. CenterCal brought the properties under contract, and linked up with Trammell Crow – the developer had previously worked with the real estate firm on Cascade Station.

“We decided to do it together,” Tarlow said.

Deacon Construction was brought on as general contractor. The Portland-based firm helped create a wrapped parking structure, with buildings surrounding central parking. This construction type is sometimes called a “Texas donut” because it’s more common in cities with ample space, Tarlow said.

Portland’s small blocks make a wrapped parking approach difficult within the city, although a proposal from Mill Creek Residential Trust for Goose Hollow (design review is ongoing) would have a wrapped parking structure.

Deacon brought in from its Sacramento office a project superintendent, Johnny Seuferling, who had experience building a wrapped parking structure.

Befitting its suburban location, Mercato Grove has 550 parking spaces, including 211 for retail use.

The residences comprise more than 60 unit types, said Eric Henry, project executive at Deacon. The apartments come in configurations from studios to three-bedroom units of up to 2,200 square feet. The average unit size is 972 square feet.

“We really took a single-family approach,” Tarlow said. “We wanted it to read as a single-family home.”

Leasing of the apartments began in April. They’re approximately 50 percent leased, Tarlow said.

Mercato Grove’s interior design is by CID Design Group of Naples, Florida. Interior elements seek to balance individual and group living. There’s a shared kitchen with large appliances such as a juice maker and a bread maker that residents may not have in their own units. A kids’ maker space comes equipped with chalk, toys and hiding spaces.

Mercato Grove has no commercial office space, but that doesn’t mean the project team has forgotten about the workplace. Residents have access to three conference centers with large TV monitors, shared tables and break-out rooms.

“This is our interpretation of how people work these days,” Tarlow said.

He hopes the amenities will prove appealing among office workers who expect to enjoy increased flexibility to work from home once the pandemic subsides.

“Some of this looks like it was designed for the post-pandemic world, which it was not because it was designed two to three years ago,” he said.

The project was completed after 25 months of construction. Some of the exterior panels were prefabricated, which sped construction.

“Without that prefab, it would have been really hard to stay on schedule,” said Chip Laizure, vice president of Deacon Construction.

The project was delayed by numerous obstacles, including wildfire smoke in September 2020 that paused construction for four days, a February ice storm that crippled the region and a flooded wetland in September 2019 that interfered with foundation work.

Deacon also dealt with labor shortages related to the pandemic, including 22 positive COVID-19 tests during construction.

Now that Mercato Grove is done, visitors may notice a duck theme throughout the premises. There are live ducks in a pool, duck murals, a duck phone, even a duck statue. The idea came from the marketing team and quickly snowballed.

“I lost control of the duck situation,” Tarlow said.

The post Lake Oswego gains new blend of residential, retail appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Crews could break ground soon on a major development that will bring hundreds of apartments along with speculative commercial space to Lake Oswego.

Plans for the Mercantile Village project call for 207 apartment units and approximately 50,000 square feet of commercial space near the intersection of Southwest Boones Ferry Road and Kruse Way – two highly trafficked arterial roads. The 6.3-acre site will have four buildings and an adjoining parking structure.

The project team has applied for building permits, but they have not yet been issued, Lake Oswego Planning Director Scot Siegel stated in an email.

CenterCal Properties and Trammell Crow Co. are developing the project. SERA Architects has designed it, and Deacon Corp. is serving as general contractor.

Trammell Crow Senior Vice President Damin Tarlow declined to comment last week.

Building exteriors will mostly consist of stucco and wood siding, with vinyl windows in residential units and storefront glazing on ground-floor retail areas, according to public bid information. The buildings are subject to a 45-foot height limit.

The project will require crews to remove 43 trees and 51 additional “invasive” trees, according to Lake Oswego documents.

Neighbors who testified during the planning process last year decried reductions to a riparian zone buffer. Members of the Lake Oswego Development Review Commission also voiced concerns that the development would worsen traffic on Kruse Way and Boones Ferry Road. Nevertheless, the commission approved the project with a 4-1 vote on Sept. 12, according to minutes.

Buildings will be constructed at 3975, 4015 and 4095 Mercantile Drive, and a vacant lot at the southwest corner of Mercantile Drive and Hallmark Drive.

The post Lake Oswego development now in permitting phase appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Lake Oswego Development Review Commission has to redevelop property bordered by Kruse Way, Boones Ferry Road and Mercantile Drive.

from CenterCal Properties and Trammell Crow Co. calls for removal of an existing office park featuring three single-story buildings owned by Providence Health Systems-Oregon. A new mixed-use development of four buildings would join a small retail pavilion.

Preliminary plans drawn up by SERA Architects for the Lake Oswego Mercantile Village project show two of the buildings would be four stories and hold both commercial and residential space. A three-story building would be solely residential, and a large single-story retail building would dominate the corner of Southwest Boones Ferry Road and Mercantile Drive.

The existing medical office buildings have approximately 77,000 square feet of floor space and are served by substantial surface parking. All would be removed to accommodate the new project.

Apartments, commercial spaces and a structured parking garage are planned, according to the applicant’s July 18 development narrative.

An anchor tenant would occupy space at the corner of Mercantile Drive and Boones Ferry Road, while smaller restaurants and retailers would occupy other commercial spaces.

Plans call for 208 apartment units along with lobbies, leasing offices, fitness rooms, a rooftop deck and more. A parking garage would be located on the property’s east end.

The new Festival Street, through the center of the development, is planned as an extension of Hallmark Drive to connect with Boones Ferry Road.

The next step for the project team will be final design and permitting.

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The city of Portland may order a housing development feasibility study along the route of a future MAX light-rail line in the southwest metro area.

City leaders are trying to get ahead of gentrification along the proposed route with a batch of affordable housing projects. On Wednesday, the City Council is scheduled to consider additional funding for Housing Development Center (HDC), a Portland nonprofit, to carry out the feasibility study.

HDC would evaluate up to eight sites along the Interstate 5 corridor in Southwest Portland, with one near each anticipated MAX station. The city has a minimum goal of 1,000 new affordable units along the light-rail corridor, and up to 2,300 if more funding can be secured.

The city expects at least two sites to host mixed-use buildings. Two other sites could accommodate as many as 500 units each of market-rate and affordable housing.

The Housing Bureau and Bureau of Planning and Sustainability would create a joint agreement for the plan, known as the Southwest Corridor Equitable Housing Strategy. The City Council item, if approved, would add $68,419 to an existing contract HDC has with the Housing Bureau.

Planning for the affordable housing comes as Metro plans to establish a light-rail line from downtown Portland, through Tualatin and Tigard, to Bridgeport Village. Metro’s Southwest Corridor Light Rail Advisory Committee has been meeting regularly to evaluate options for the MAX line. Route options would follow Barbur Boulevard and I-5 at certain points.

“Two major goals are to prevent residential and cultural displacement before the area becomes more desirable and developed,” said Ryan Curren, project manager for the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability.

Portland officials have studied what happened along the yellow line route in North Portland when it opened in 2004. Land prices increased and residents were displaced. Some nearby homeowners were targets of predatory lending and real-estate practices, Curren said.

“The lesson there is get it early,” he said. “There’s been a lot of displacement around the yellow line – some of it would have happened just because of the location. What we could have done is have a little earlier action to secure land (for affordable housing).”

A draft environmental impact statement is being prepared to potentially answer remaining questions about the proposed routes.

A final decision on the route will be made in July, with the Portland and Tigard city councils adopting a joint plan. Metro’s council would follow.

Businesspeople near the proposed routes have begun to weigh in.

“Overall, I’m optimistic about increasing the amount of available transit in the area and creating more options,” said Chad Hastings, general manager of CenterCal Properties, which manages Bridgeport Village and other properties in the Portland area.

Hastings said he anticipates Bridgeport Village would have an end-of-the-line transit center similar to the one at Clackamas Town Center. Bridgeport Village already has park-and-ride facilities that could be used, he said.

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Quarrels over a planned development in Oregon City have finally come to a head, and the fate of a city commissioner who criticized the project now rests in the hands of the city’s voters.

Petitioners for the recall of Commissioner Jim Nicita in October collected more than the 1,742 signatures required. But on Tuesday Nicita submitted a “statement of justification” to city and county officials, indicating that he will not give up his position.

Nicita opposed the possibility of urban renewal money being used to help pay for the now defunct Rivers mall project. The $200 million development was planned at a landfill site in Oregon City, but the project fell through in June when the developer pulled out because of division within the commission.

Nicita contends that inherent project risks led the urban renewal commission to demand to see a signed sales contract between the landfill owner and developer , which he says caused negotiations to collapse.

CenterCal Properties CEO Fred Bruning, on the other hand, says he was prepared to enter a purchase agreement, but decided not to move forward without total support of commissioners.

“Had there not been that opposition on the council, we’d be under construction right now,” Bruning said. “I don’t think anyone in the world would buy a landfill site with all the attendant liability and toxics unless they had a deal with the city to develop in the way they wished.”

The petitioners claim the poor economy should have made the Rivers project unassailable because it would have generated more than 1,000 jobs. Nicita, who criticized CenterCal Properties’ request for $17.6 million in urban renewal money for the project, says that construction of the mall during weak economic conditions could have put taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars if the property’s value didn’t increase enough to meet expectations.

Cabela’s, a popular sporting goods retailer, was planned to anchor the 650,000-square-foot mall. The group pushing for Nicita’s recall has focused on the loss of Cabela’s. The statement printed on the petition – which also will appear on forthcoming ballots – begins its list of reasons that Nicita “needs to be removed from office” with the accusation that he “killed Cabela’s.”

But after receiving reports that some volunteers collecting signatures for the recall effort were approaching people with a pitch to bring back Cabela’s, Nicita filed a complaint to the Clackamas County Elections Office.

“I can’t tell you how many people knew what they were signing, but there is a possibility that they made their petitioning quota via this misrepresentation about what exactly folks were signing,” Nicita said.

Several people working on the petition campaign denied making explicit promises about the future of Cabela’s and the Rivers mall, but acknowledged that the subject was part of the conversation with signatories.

“We clearly told all volunteers and all petition-gatherers that this was not exclusively about the Rivers,” said William Gifford, co-chairman of the petition committee. “It is possible that some enthusiastic people did not present themselves as clearly as they should have, but that was not our strategy.”

Nicita perceives former mayor Dan Fowler as the leader of the recall campaign. The commissioner suggested that Fowler’s landholdings near the proposed Rivers mall site add a personal incentive for Fowler to remove Nicita from office.

“Yes, we have property in the area,” Fowler responded. “Was that property purchased in speculation because of the Rivers project? No. We’ve had a lot of it for a long time.”

Fowler says he simply is eager for job creation.

“We can’t wait another year to get jobs going,” he said. “And I think we can have a person with a greater attitude toward growing the community and wanting jobs.”

Nicita cited his leadership in the recent hire of Eric Underwood as economic development coordinator – a position Nicita had sought filled since 1998 – as evidence of his commitment to job creation.

“I am pro-development, but pro a particular kind of development,” Nicita said. “We need to draw on our competitive strengths. We’re on the edge of the metro area and can become a center for value-added food processing for small and medium-sized farms out on highway 213. There’s untapped potential for jobs in that area.”

The single-issue recall ballots will be mailed on Nov. 18 and must be returned to the Clackamas County Elections Office by Dec. 6, according to Oregon City recorder Nancy Ide. The 200-word statements from both the petitioners and Nicita will be included with ballots.

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The proposed Rivers mall may not be built in Oregon City. But its developer already is looking at other Portland-metro areas that could suit retailers previously courted for the project.

Fred Bruning and his company, CenterCal Properties, the development firm responsible for Cascade Station and Bridgeport Village, pulled out of the proposed $200 million Rivers mall project earlier this summer, citing a “toxic political environment” in Oregon City. But that suburb’s loss could be another’s gain.

“We’re currently looking at a specific site in Washington County and an area in Clackamas County – more specifically, Milwaukie,” Bruning said. “Every site is unique, so they would definitely be different animals than the Rivers project, but there might be some of the proposed tenants.

“We’d identified 550,000 square feet of tenants at the Rivers. So, that’s a lot of retail looking for space in the area.”

The most notable retailer that had planned to open a store in the Rivers mall is Cabela’s, which was going to be the anchor tenant. Bruning said he doesn’t have an exclusive contract with Cabela’s, but he expressed confidence that the hunting and fishing gear retailer has strong interest in the Portland-metro area and in leasing space in one of CenterCal’s developments.

Cabela’s officials won’t comment on the possibility of it occupying one of CenterCal’s properties because there is no official plan in place yet.

Points east and west

The first location Bruning said he is looking at is in Milwaukie’s north industrial area, 265 acres zoned for manufacturing-type businesses. Although he said he doesn’t have a specific site in mind yet, he added that he is intrigued with the area. With 60 businesses already located within its boundaries, the area will be served by the future Portland-to-Milwaukie light-rail line. Also, talks have arisen about the possibility of building a minor league baseball stadium in the area.

Bruning said he hasn’t discussed any specific projects with the city of Milwaukie, but that potential developments would require between 30 and 60 acres. But he wouldn’t go forward with any plans without making sure a project was fully supported by city officials and Milwaukie residents, he said. In Oregon City, councilors couldn’t agree to use urban renewal money to help pay for the Rivers.

Bruning was slightly less forthcoming about the second site he’s eyeing. He said only that it is in Washington County, and that he and company officials are working on early due diligence.

Colin Cooper, planning manager with the city of Hillsboro, said he hasn’t talked to Bruning about any potential project there.

The city of Beaverton has an area in its proposed 997-acre urban renewal area that is similar to Milwaukie’s north industrial area. But Don Mazziotti, the city’s community and economic development director, would neither confirm nor deny whether Bruning is looking at building a project in Beaverton.

“If we did have a discussion, it would have been done in a private setting,” Mazziotti said. “All I can say right now is that we don’t have an application or even a pre-application in front of us.”

Rivers mall project talks could be revived in Oregon City, but Bruning said he wasn’t leaning in that direction.

“Well, the site is still there and there’s obviously a lot of interest from retailers for the site specifically,” he said. “But given the current political climate, it won’t be moving forward anytime soon.”

The post Developer looking for home for Rivers mall displaced retailers appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A rift over funding for a proposed $200 million mall project on a former landfill site in Oregon City could end in the recall of one of Oregon City’s commissioners.

A petition for the recall of Commissioner James Nicita was filed by Oregon City resident Rex Parks Jr. In the petition, Parks claims Nicita has been unwilling to work with developers on the proposed Rivers mall project.

“(Nicita’s) know-it-all attitude and pie-in-the-sky ideas have seriously hurt Oregon City,” Parks wrote in his official statement for recall, which was approved by the city on Monday. “The longer he remains in office, the longer his signal will be sent that Oregon City is a toxic environment for business or serious investment.”

Meanwhile, Center Cal Properties CEO Fred Bruning believes the political environment in Oregon City is too volatile to move forward with the Rivers project.

“Quite honestly … the political situation isn’t right to move forward,” Bruning said. “I would call it toxic.”

The Rivers was proposed as a 650,000-square-foot outdoor mall anchored by outdoor and sporting retailer Cabela’s. Bruning for years has engaged in talks with the city about the project. Those discussions were relatively quiet until last year, when Bruning and the city started working out financing. Bruning has sought $17.6 million in urban renewal money for the project.

Then in February, as a disposition and development agreement was being developed, Nicita started a push for a charter amendment that would require voter approval for any city-backed bonds like those proposed for the mall project.

A meeting about the amendment proposal drew nearly 400 project supporters wearing stickers that read “1,500 jobs” – a reference to the proposed project’s expected economic impact.

Bruning said both his company and Cabela’s would walk away if the charter amendment were to pass. It didn’t, but in June, Bruning walked away anyway; he cited division in the commission as the reason.

“I don’t want to prejudge anything, but the city and the people of Oregon City need to determine what they want,” Bruning said. “And I just hope the commission can become unified, whether our project moves forward or not.”

Downtown property owner Dan Fowler believes the entire project would suit Oregon City, and the proposed site in particular.

“I think Cabela’s would have been an absolutely great fit – and better yet, they wanted to be here,” Fowler said. “It’s frustrating as a business guy to see someone putting up roadblocks in front of the businesses that want to come to town.”

Fowler, who was Oregon City’s mayor for eight years, understands that elected officials face tough decisions and often must make compromises. But he added that public officials need can-do attitudes.

“We’ve all worked very hard to build momentum within the business community during difficult times, and we need to take advantage of that,” he said.

Oregon City Auditor Nancy Ide said Parks has until Oct. 18 to turn in 1,742 valid signatures for verification. If sufficient verified signatures are turned in, Nicita will have a short time period to either resign or submit a statement of justification, which will then go before voters within 35 days, Ide said.

Nicita declined to comment bypress time.

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When officials at the Blue Heron mill announced late last month that it would cease operating immediately, Oregon City lost a tax-generating business and 175 employees lost family-wage jobs.

But when one door closes, another can open.

Local developer Fred Bruning knew Blue Heron Paper Co. had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and that the mill’s future was uncertain. He has since offered $20 million for two parcels – a total of 63 acres – owned by the company. Bruning’s development plan would be to transform the swath of land along the Willamette River into the area’s next big destination, with retail, office and urban living spaces.

“I had an idea of what was going to happen so I approached management at the mill recently and gave them an initial offer. I wanted them to know I was interested,” said Bruning, whose development company, , has been responsible for such metro-area projects as Bridgeport Village in Tigard, Cascade Station in East Portland and Gresham Station.

Each of the Blue Heron parcels is in a different city: a 23-acre site sits next to Willamette Falls in Oregon City, and a 40-acre site is on the west side of the Willamette River in West Linn. Both sites were used for paper production for more than 100 years, so environmental issues could arise.

Last week, in the initial bankruptcy hearing, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Randall L. Dunn noted that $20 million would cover the $14 million that Blue Heron owes its creditors – and then some. Wells Fargo is the company’s largest creditor.

But Bruning acknowledged that there are many issues that could change the price and the timing of the purchase. One is the possible existence of pollutants requiring environmental cleanup, which often multiplies the cost of development. The mill itself has lead and asbestos, but a formal site assessment hasn’t been conducted. The Environmental Protection Agency already ruled out the possibility of the property becoming a federal superfund site.

Bruning said that if the company and creditors were willing to sign some sort of a letter of intent to purchase, he would be willing to conduct the phase two environmental assessment. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality will conduct its own analysis of the site in the coming months.

“We don’t really know what’s there, but we also know that this is a unique opportunity,” Bruning said. “We want to sit down with the bank and the company … and work out a fair process to move forward.”

Bruning’s plan calls for turning the West Linn parcel into a residential area surrounded by mixed-use commercial space. He is even more excited about his vision for the Oregon City site.

“I envision it looking something like the Old Mill District in Bend, except less of a focus of retail,” he said.

A hotel and entertainment complex would be surrounded by retail and office buildings. Bruning also expressed desire to create public access to the waterfall’s base, which has not existed for more than a century.

Another one of Bruning’s projects in Oregon City, a 650,000-square-foot mall called the Rivers being built on a former landfill site, drew heated public opposition because urban renewal money was used. However, this possible new project likely wouldn’t cause a similar stir because only a sliver of the property is included in the current URA boundaries, and including it in the URA project list would require a major amendment and trigger a city vote, said David Frasher, the city manager for Oregon City. That is unlikely, he added.

“I had an upbeat conversation with Fred (Bruning) about this the other day and we both had similar ideas about how to maximize the potential for this project,” Frasher said. “Considering a zoning change will be necessary, and a master plan will be required, the city will work closely with whoever the property owner is.”

Bruning added that he is planning to go forward with both projects and that he intends to engage the public early in the development process.

Frasher said that city officials support the idea, and hope it can help accomplish several city goals. He is hopeful for job creation as well as elimination of some of the pollutants in the air and the water.

“For over 100 years we’ve accepted certain levels of pollutants in exchange for the economic benefits of the mill,” he said. “We are going to be interested in seeing a reduction if this goes forward.”

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A long-standing divide among Oregon City commissioners on how to spend urban renewal money came to the forefront last week when a $200 million project and 1,500 new jobs were threatened.

Approximately 400 concerned citizens packed into the Pioneer Community Center in Oregon City on Wednesday to show overwhelming support for the Rivers mall project, and ample disdain for a charter amendment that could have killed it. A week after three of the five city commissioners expressed support for an amendment that would require a citizens’ vote of approval for all major urban renewal decisions, the commissioners chose to table a vote on the proposal – and possibly let it die.

The Rivers mall is being proposed by Fred Bruning; his company CenterCal Properties developed similar projects such as Bridgeport Village in Tigard and Cascade Station near Portland International Airport. The $200 million project would transform a former landfill into a 650,000-square-foot outdoor mall, anchored by national outdoor retailer Cabela’s, on a site south of the intersection of Interstate 205 and Oregon Route 213.

The project, which could create nearly 1,500 permanent jobs, has drawn little opposition; however, proposed public investment has elicited concerns. In the current draft of the disposition and development agreement, which hasn’t been officially signed by the commission but is nearly finished, the city would give the developer $17.6 million of urban renewal money. Those funds would go toward environmental cleanup and construction of transportation access to the site.

The $17.6 million would be held in an account and be given to Bruning only when the project is completed and at least 80 percent of the facilities are leased.

Then three Oregon City commissioners, including Jim Nicita, started a push in January for the charter amendment. When Nicita first took office in 2009, he wanted to give voters the power to approve or deny city-issued bonds like the one Oregon City would authorize for the Rivers project.

If the commission had approved the charter amendment, voters in May would have been able to voice opinions on voter-approved bonds.

Bruning said last month that CenterCal Properties and Cabela’s would walk away from the project if the commission were to approve the charter amendment because it would likely cause delays and cost overruns. Also, voter-approved bonds represent a lot of risk for these types of projects, he said, and could deter large tenants from signing on before the development is completed.

Nicita compared the citizen opposition to the charter amendment at Wednesday’s meeting to the opposition Egypt President Hosni Mubarak is facing right now. He said he realized that significant time likely would be needed to carefully craft a charter amendment that wouldn’t lead Bruning to back out of the project.

Citizen support for the Rivers project is based primarily on job creation, potential property tax collection and the overwhelming desire to secure a Cabela’s store.

Cabela’s has a store in Lacey, Wash., and is set to open its first Oregon store in Eugene in the spring. The retailer has targeted the Portland-metro area for a while, and looked at sites in Wilsonville, Troutdale and Portland. But with Bruning ready to move forward with the Rivers, Cabela’s chose Oregon City.

Most of the meeting attendees wore stickers that read “1,500 jobs” and “No Charter Changes.”

Oregon Employment Department workforce analyst Lynn Wallis noted that nearly 3,000 Oregon City residents are presently searching for employment.

April McGinnis, a resident, approached the council at the meeting in the company of six Oregon City High School students and simply asked, “Who is going to employ these boys?”

Probably the most telling sign of the overall ethos of those in attendance was when Mayor Doug Neeley asked for a show of hands from project opponents. No one raised a hand.

Nicita and the other two commissioners who originally supported the charter amendment, Kathy Roth and Rocky Smith Jr., acknowledged that public opposition led them to change their minds. Even though the charter amendment won’t be on the May ballot, all three commissioners want more discussion about how to provide citizens with more power in the decision-making process.

Neeley said he would invite Bruning and other members of the project team to the next council meeting to nail down the final specifics of the development agreement. Project construction is anticipated to start in the fall.

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A proposed mall in Oregon City in the planning stages for more than six years could make some headway before the end of the year.

CenterCal Properties – the developers behind Bridgeport Village in Tigard and Cascade Station Portland – want to construct a 650,000-square-foot mall in Oregon City named The Rivers.

Fred Bruning, CEO of CenterCal, said he has been in talks with Cabela’s, the Nebraska-based outdoor supply retailer, about the the store leasing an anchor spot in the mall.

The company is tying up loose ends in a disposition and development agreement with the city’s urban renewal commission. The agreement could be completed and signed by the end of the year, according to Dan Drentlaw, economic development manager for Oregon City.

“I think everyone is just waiting to see how the elections turn out before going any further with this,” Drentlaw said.

The main point of contention in the agreement is the maximum reimbursement, the most the city would reimburse the developer in urban renewal dollars once the project is complete. The current offer from the city is for $17.6 million. The money would help cover transportation access to the site, which is located on a former landfill immediately south of the intersection of Interstate 205 and Oregon Route 213.

The project would be a boon for the mall retail industry. No regional mall is currently under construction anywhere in the United States, according to Charles DiRocco, director and head of real estate research for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Washington, D.C., who spoke at the Urban Land Institute Emerging Trends in Real Estate breakfast in Portland on Thursday.

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