The Portland Design Commission on Thursday essentially rejected revised plans for a seven-story mixed-use building at 550 S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

At least three commissioners present at the hearing expressed opposition. The developer, Urban Development + Partners, and designer Marcus Lima of GBD Architects opted not to call for a vote, which would have likely resulted in a formal denial and teed up a potential appeal to the City Council.

Instead, UD+P and GBD representatives opted for a continuance, indicating they would rework the design in hopes of winning the Design Commission’s approval. A follow-up work session is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 4.

“I’m not eager to call for a vote,” Sarah Zahn, director of development for UD+P, told commissioners. “That’s not my style. That’s not Marcus’ style. We want to be collaborative.”

As proposed, the building would be a five-over-two structure with 132 residential units. The ground floor would have retail space at each corner, and a lobby space. Parking would be provided via 60 ground-level stalls.

Commissioners said context is where the proposed building’s design falls short. Many of their objections appeared to stem from the difficulty of fitting a primarily residential building among low-slung warehouses and office buildings.

“I’m kind of struggling with this one, because it is a nice-looking building,” Commissioner Chandra Robinson said, “but I’m not sure that it’s meeting the context – and it’s a tough context to meet because it’s historic on one side and Central Eastside Industrial on the other side.”

The site is within the Central Eastside Industrial District, and the eastern portion of it also overlaps the East Portland Grand Avenue Historic District.

UD+P has invested heavily in the neighborhood: Across Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, UD+P in partnership with Beam Development last year delivered District Office, a sleek, modern office building. The two developers also partnered for Hotel Grand Stark, which sits east of the 550 S.E. MLK project and opened in May. UD+P is the sole developer for the latest project.

“We’re not unfamiliar with this neighborhood,” Zahn said in an interview. “This is our neighborhood.”

UD+P’s development of the 550 S.E. MLK site has stretched on. Initially, UD+P proposed a hotel at the location. A pre-application meeting was held nearly a year ago, on Nov. 10, 2020.

Commissioners Robinson, Jessica Molinar and Brian McCarter indicated they were not ready to approve the project Thursday. Don Vallaster and Zari Santner spoke in favor, and Chairwoman Julie Livingston said she was a “swing vote.” Sam Rodriguez was absent from Thursday’s meeting, which was conducted via Zoom.

The project team appeared to be taken aback by the Design Commission’s opposition, given earlier meetings where the design seemed to be headed in the right direction.

“I’m slightly speechless,” said Lima, a GBD associate principal. “I’m at a bit of a loss,” he later added.

Some of the design choices stem from the building’s residential program, he said.

“We can’t have large windows like an industrial building or an office building,” he said. “We can’t be the building across the street.”

The building’s windows “need to be more regular,” Molinar said.

“You need to ratchet back a number of moves to be consistent with the context,” she added.

McCarter said the proposal needs to better fit among the surrounding warehouses.

“We don’t need to throw everything out and start from scratch,” he said. “I think something’s got to happen with the windows that bring it somehow into the realm of industrial warehouse architecture.”

Santner argued that the building fits within the Central Eastside’s evolving context.

“We know the nature of development in this area is going to change,” she said. “It is not going to remain industrial. It is not going to remain office. It is going to be more residential.”

In other neighborhoods such as Slabtown, where new buildings have hewed closely to context, the designs have become too much alike, Santner said.

“We rely so heavily on context,” she said. “After a while, it becomes like, gosh, this is all the same.”

Zahn, in an interview on Friday, said the team would work with Bureau of Development Services staff to update the design ahead of the November work session with commissioners.

“Not the outcome we expected,” she said. “We’re regrouping right now and discussing with staff the best path forward. I have a lot of confidence in GBD to respond to comments and frankly, we love our design, and we think it’s a beautiful building. And the commission loved the design. It’s about context.”

The post Context suddenly an issue for Central Eastside project appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

It’s out with the ODOT Blocks, and in with the Workshop Blocks.

Beam Development is moving forward with Prosper Portland to develop the first of three vacant blocks in the Central Eastside Industrial District. The agency’s board on Wednesday voted unanimously to authorize negotiations with Beam for a 99-year ground lease and a disposition and development agreement.

Beam would also have exclusive development rights on two neighboring blocks acquired from the Oregon Department of Transportation in 2017. All three blocks are pinched between Water Avenue and the Eastbank Esplanade in the fast-growing employment area.

The lease agreement would allow Beam the option to purchase the property in year 20 and again in year 30.

Beam plans to build approximately 100,000 square feet of industrial office space on Block A – the northernmost block between Taylor and Salmon streets along Water Avenue. The developer is branding the project Workshop Blocks.

The building program for Block A would revolve around what Beam calls an “inclusive technology cluster.” A nonprofit is being sought to potentially anchor the ground floor. The building would have a modest complement of retail space and, possibly, on-site day care. The upper floors would be dedicated to industrial office space. Some of the office space is likely to be coworking or flexible office, said Jonathan Malsin, a Beam principal.

“We’re focused on continuing to deliver innovative office space,” Malsin said during Wednesday’s Prosper Portland board meeting, which was a video conference.

The structure is likely to be constructed of cross-laminated timber, Malsin said, and build upon Beam’s experience with District Office – a six-story office building on Southeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

The Block A building would have one level of underground parking.

Hacker, which designed District Office, is on board to design the Workshop Blocks building on Block A. Colas Construction will serve as general contractor.

Prosper Portland will contribute $725,000 to remove polluted soil from the site.

Construction is expected to begin on Block A in 2022, and be completed the following year. The build-out of all three blocks is expected to be done by 2027.

Conceptual plans for the other two blocks imagine Block B centering on creative production, and Block C focusing on food and beverage production and related retail.

Zoning in the industrial district limits retail and residential use. The developable parcels are 34,809 square feet, 34,862 square feet and 25,601 square feet, respectively.

Beam was chosen as the developer in May 2018 after Prosper Portland’s request for proposals drew five applications.

The post Firm moves ahead on Central Eastside blocks appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The city of Portland is wrestling with how the Green Loop will look and what it will require even as major projects that will front the route through downtown and the Central Eastside Industrial District move ahead with development and design work.

The approximately six-mile oval route would go through downtown – likely along Southwest Ninth and Park avenues – the Lloyd area and the Central Eastside Industrial District. The Green Loop would cross the Willamette River at Tilikum Crossing at its southern end and the Broadway Bridge at its northern end.

On a recent Sunday in July, 33,000 people took to the proposed Green Loop route to walk and ride as part of the city’s Sunday Parkways promotion. City officials say residents are eager for attractive routes that they can safely travel with cars kept at a distance.

Yet many details remain to be solidified. The Green Loop may look different in different areas. Signage, traffic features and more have not been decided.

Development of the Green Loop could involve crossing improvements to key intersections, small “parklets,” streetscape design and landscape additions, Bureau of Planning and Sustainability senior planner Mark Raggett said at an Aug. 2 Design Commission briefing.

The Green Loop would feature barriers between bike lanes and vehicle traffic. The concept aims to encourage more people to walk and bike in Portland’s core. It comes amid other governmental projects such as Tilikum Crossing and Sullivan’s Crossing that downshift vehicle priority.

The city is looking at “one concept, many forms – one continuous design but with an ability to place-make and sort of have your own district brand or what have you,” Lora Lillard, a Bureau of Planning and Sustainability urban designer, told design commissioners.

“We haven’t had the opportunity to talk to the public about what those things are,” she added.

Perhaps the most impactful change for developers will be 12-foot setbacks along 75 percent of property lines adjacent to the Green Loop. The setback requirement applies only to new developments, not existing buildings. And it would apply only on the west side, where it would continue the aesthetic of the Park Blocks. The setbacks would create “eddies” of different widths along the Green Loop, planners said.

That’s a major point of discussion for developer Walt Bowen’s proposed 35-story mixed-use tower on Block 216. If built, the tower would front the Green Loop on Southwest Ninth Avenue between Washington and Alder streets.

“We expect that our project will be an excellent partner to the Green Loop,” Bowen stated in an email response to questions. “Our ground floor is set up to provide 100 percent of the Ninth Avenue frontage with the kind of pedestrian-focused space that will play well with the Green Loop both before and after it is developed.”

The project team will seek a modification of the setback requirement, according to Bowen.

“We envision this segment of the Loop to be a vibrant node along its path, an energized eddy in its stream of pedestrian and bike activity,” he stated. “We’ll be seeking a modification to the setback requirement to make that happen. The amended code allows for modifications to the setback, recognizing that every block face along the Loop will have unique circumstances and conditions that need to be addressed.”

The setbacks are intended to create room for landscaping, perhaps including large, native deciduous and conifer trees.

“You really need a lot of space to be able to provide a lot of shade,” Lillard said.

Other developments planned or under construction near the Green Loop include Provenance Hotels‘ and NBP Capital’s Woodlark Hotel project in the West End, and American Assets Trust’s four-block Oregon Square in Lloyd.

“We just think activating the streetscape with pedestrian and bicycle traffic is certainly good for us,” said Wade Lange, American Assets Trust‘s vice president and regional manager.

The city hasn’t yet landed on a route through the Lloyd area. But Lange said more ground-level activity would help the retail spaces that the city’s guidelines typically require on the ground floor.

“What it means for our development, it’s too early to say how it will interact with it, but I think it brings a good vibe into the neighborhood,” he said.

The Green Loop would also pass by the Portland Art Museum, which is planning a $50 million, three-story structure to link its two buildings. The museum’s director, Brian Ferriso, took part in early discussions regarding the Green Loop. The project is currently before the Historic Landmarks Commission.

The project team is designing the project with the Green Loop in mind, Ferriso said. The landscape architects are Portland’s Walker Macy and Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture of San Francisco. The design architect is Vinci Hamp Architects of Chicago, and Portland’s Hennebery Eddy Architects is the architect of record.

“It’s such a good opportunity for our downtown area, and to connect our city in various ways,” Ferriso said. “T��� museum is absolutely thrilled it would be fronting our facility, and we’re looking forward to integrating it with our museum campus.”

The post Portland’s Green Loop coming together appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The rush of industrial office projects in the Central Eastside Industrial District shows no signs of abating.

Last week, ScanlanKemperBard, in partnership with Tryba Architects and Lorentz Bruun Construction principals, announced the group has closed on the purchase of 1805 S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., with a 46,000-square-foot, two-story industrial building, for $6.3 million.

The project team plans to spend $8.9 million more on renovations to create an industrial office product they’re calling The Glass Lab.

The 1960s-era concrete building was originally the home of Morehouse Glass, a glass factory. The project is “designed to cater to creative craft manufacturing, advanced manufacturing and office users requiring 2,500-to-5,000-square-foot suites,” according to a news release.

Developers, prodded by zoning rules that limit residential and retail uses in the district, have flooded into the Central Eastside with projects designed to appeal to so-called “industrial office” users. Some have been adaptive reuse projects, such as the Towne Storage building and the Custom Blocks. Others have been new construction, including the proposed Platform and ODOT blocks projects.

The Glass Lab project is eligible for participation in Prosper Portland‘s Enterprise Zone program, which provides five-year property tax exemptions.

Also, the property is located within the Innovation Quadrant, where an effort is under way to link various developments in Southeast and Southwest Portland; they include the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Oregon Health and Science University and Zidell Yards.

The post Project team purchases Central Eastside property appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Beam Development is looking to build a trio of industrial office buildings to further cement the Central Eastside Industrial District‘s future as a home for creative jobs.

Beam was selected in May by Prosper Portland as preferred developer for the ODOT blocks – three parcels along Southeast Water Avenue. The Oregon Department of Transportation retains the western portion of each block.

Beam Development founder Brad Malsin and his son, fellow principal Jonathan Malsin, said they envision each block holding one building. Two would be mid-rise buildings, likely topping out at six stories. The ground floors may become hubs for light manufacturing or “maker” space, and be topped by five floors of creative office space.

Each building would include up to 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, likely for food and beverage. Each building is allowed to have up to 5,000 square feet of traditional office space, according to zoning under the proposed Central City 2035 plan; the City Council is slated to adopt the plan this week.

The middle building may include structured parking that could be owned by Prosper Portland, although plans for the ODOT blocks are in an early stage.

“We feel there’s that opportunity to work to the benefit of the city, to the benefit of the district, to the benefit of the businesses and the community at large,” Brad Malsin said.

Developers are flooding the Portland market with office space in response to strong employment growth. Construction crews were building more than 1 million square feet of offices during the first quarter of 2018, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. And new proposals keep coming, such as Platform – planned as a half-block building with seven stories of offices. That project from local developer Project^ recently received rave reviews in its debut before the Portland Design Commission. Meanwhile, Intrinsic Ventures of California envisions two potential creative-office buildings for the Lower Division neighborhood.

Rents for new construction have risen and pre-leasing has been strong. The Towne Storage building, converted into offices via an adaptive reuse project, fetched a local record $630 per square foot when it sold in April to CBRE Global Investors.

Beam Development will look to lease space in the ODOT blocks to a mix of large and small companies, the executives said. The firm hopes to lease the space to employers, and perhaps avoid adding to the surge of co-working space from fast-growing chains such as WeWork and CENTRL.

Beam seeks to differentiate from other office projects being delivered, Jonathan Malsin said. Industrial or manufacturing space could give users access to lab equipment or machinery.

Parking will play a major role in ODOT blocks development. Prosper Portland, in its request for proposals, asked for twice as much parking as office space. Beam’s proposal falls short of that, but the developer is looking to contribute a significant number of spaces.

“We are motivated to try to solve some of the parking constraints in the district at large,” Brad Malsin said. “I can’t tell you how many spots we’re going to be able to offer and what’s going to make sense, but we certainly want to address the fact that there’s a major parking shortage for the foreseeable future.”

Hacker and Mackenzie are on board to design the project. Colas Construction will serve as general contractor. It’s possible the three buildings will be built in phases, Jonathan Malsin said.

The buildings may be designed with mass-timber frames and concrete diaphragms and cores, he said.

The blocks are along Water Avenue between Taylor and Madison streets. The developable parcels are 34,809 square feet, 34,862 square feet and 25,601 square feet, respectively.

Prosper Portland paid $2.485 million for the ODOT blocks. ODOT acquired the properties decades ago as part of the right of way for Interstate 5. The state agency will retain those portions of the property for the foreseeable future, a spokesman said.

ODOT considers the site useful for managing water runoff from I-5. And it could come in handy if the agency at some later date decides to widen I-5.

“That’s always a possibility,” ODOT spokesman Don Hamilton said. “T���re’s nothing in the works on that right now.”

The post Preparing to build up a few blocks appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The team behind a proposed mixed-use building in Northeast Portland has significant work to do after a second design advice meeting in which the Portland Design Commission issued critical comments.
The project from developer Fairfield Residential Co. of San Diego is being designed by Ankrom Moisan Architects.

The eight-story building would be approximately 86 feet tall and hold 170 market-rate apartments, plus 5,000 to 6,500 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. Parking would be provided on the ground floor and in two underground levels.

The location is approximately a half-block at 203 N.E. Grand Ave. and 206 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd that is also bounded by Davis and Everett streets. The lot has been home to a used car dealer and vehicle detailing shop. It’s on the northern edge of the Central Eastside Industrial District, visible to Interstate 84 and the neighboring Lloyd District.

Ankrom Moisan Architects’ design drew inspiration from existing buildings by Works Progress Architecture that were cited in Design Commission documents as precedents. The architects also pointed to a historical photo of a railroad trestle made from stacked logs as inspiration.

In a design advice hearing Thursday, commissioners said the proposal lacks coherency.

“Well, it’s a concept,” Commissioner Don Vallaster said. “Maybe they can make it work and maybe they can’t.”

The design came as a significant departure from one presented during the first design advice meeting in which the building featured a purple vertical line.

Other commissioners said a multitude of windows detracted from the new concept.

“It’s definitely a much more obvious concept, but it’s definitely fighting the building use as apartments with all of the windows,” Commissioner Jessica Molinar said.

Commissioners were unimpressed by one option that would place an 800-square-foot leasing office on the busy corner of Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Everett Street.

The architects should re-examine the design concept that uses blocky window apertures, Commissioner Tad Savinar said.

“T��� team needs to do some real soul-searching about whether you’re a slave to the concept,” he said. “If you can move away from the concept a bit, that’ll free you up.”

The metal paneling used by the architects isn’t a good fit for the design, according to Commissioner Sam Rodriguez.

“I would not tie myself to the concept literally,” he said. “It’s a strong concept, and you don’t have the materials to pull it off.”

Vallaster also called for better integration of apartment balconies into the building exterior.

The design team will work to create a signature appearance for the north-facing side that drivers on I-84 will see, said Ryan Miyahara, a senior associate at Ankrom Moisan.

“We need to do it in a cost-effective way, and we need to find that balance, and we’re not there,” he said.

Ankrom Moisan and Fairfield Residential will return for a brief work session June 7 before proceeding to design review. The project is valued at $60 million.

The post Concept questioned by Design Commission appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The first time developer Michael Tevis toured Southeast Portland’s Ford Building, it was 14 percent occupied, not including the pigeons that had taken up residence via some broken windows.

Today, it’s a bustling creative office building with a hip ground-floor café.

Now Tevis, president of Intrinsic Ventures, which is in the process of moving from Menlo Park, California, to Oakland, plans a round of ground-up construction to add to Portland’s Central Eastside Industrial District‘s growing tech-office scene.

Tevis has completed big projects in the Central Eastside Industrial District before. He redeveloped the Ford Building, an 82,124-square-foot former auto plant built in 1914, into offices. He also redeveloped the former 65,000-square-foot warehouse at a retired Darigold site into a creative office structure known as the Dairy Building.

Intrinsic Ventures’ two new project proposals would add more than 185,000 square feet of mixed-use space, mostly creative offices targeted at tech tenants, to the fast-changing Central Eastside. Tevis has commissioned preliminary designs, but has not requested an early application meeting with the Bureau of Development Services.

One development would rise on a vacant site formerly owned by TriMet along the orange light-rail line. The seven-story building would hold 115,600 square feet of occupied space, including 58,100 square feet of industrial offices, 47,500 square feet of manufacturing and production space, 5,000 square feet of traditional offices and another 5,000 square feet of retail space. The building at 2425-2445 S.E. Eighth Ave. would have 210 vehicle parking spaces and 30 bike stalls in two underground levels.

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, an architecture firm also known as BCJ, will design the building, Tevis said. The firm is well-known for contemporary projects that use glass, including Apple stores and the Square Inc. headquarters in San Francisco.

A second project, known as the Allan Building, would come to Southeast 11th Avenue and Division Street, at 2421-2455 S.E. 11th Ave. The site currently has a low-slung office building. Tevis plans to demolish the existing structure and construct a six-story building, plus a rooftop penthouse, totaling 70,845 square feet of occupied space. Two floors of underground parking are planned as well.

The Allan Building would have 119 auto parking spaces and 25 bike parking spaces. The project is being designed by LRS Architects.

“I like to mix up with different architects on different projects,” Tevis said.

In both buildings, Tevis said he wants to celebrate the Southeast Portland neighborhood’s industrial character.

“To me, that means exposed timbers, exposed concrete and really tall ceiling heights,” he said.

Tevis said he will not build either project on speculation without backing. He’s looking for either a financial partner or a tenant to commit to 50 percent of a building before he’ll kick off either project.

“We would do it if we got a partner who was like-minded and committed to long-term hold, or if we got 50 percent of it pre-leased,” he said during an interview at Ford Food and Drink, a Ford Building tenant.

Tevis got started developing in Silicon Valley during the 1980s. After a succession of successful projects in California, he began developing in Portland around 2004.

“I wanted diversification out of the corporate risk from Silicon Valley,” he said.

Tevis said he’s drawn to Portland’s lower costs and concentration of creative industries. Along with his wife, Tevis owns nine commercial properties in Portland. The Dairy Building is his only Portland project with additional partners who were brought on to help finance the renovation, which included a full seismic retrofit. Tevis and his wife even bought a house in the Ladd’s Addition neighborhood.

“Portland is a cross between San Francisco and the Midwest, where I grew up,” he said. “It’s affordable. It’s very creative. There’s a lot of small businesses. The Bay Area has become very corporate.”

Both of Intrinsic Ventures’ new project proposals are shaped by Central Eastside Industrial District zoning that limits traditional office and retail space to 5,000 square feet per site. It prohibits residential uses.

Tevis said the zoning work in the Central Eastside has been “masterful,” but he also chafed at the restriction on building residential units.

“I’d like to see more encouragement of residential density,” he said.

During discussions for the Southeast Quadrant and Central City 2035 plans, city planners heard clearly calls to preserve the Central Eastside’s industrial character, said Tyler Bump, senior economic planner for the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability.

“T���re was a focus on job production and these industrial and industrial office types in the (general industrial) zone,” he said. “T��� intent of the zone is to reflect that flexibility with industrial office and industrial users being able to share the same building.”

Brad Malsin, principal of Beam Development and president of the Central Eastside Industrial Council board of directors, said he sympathizes as a developer with the desire to build housing. But he said the zoning rules that preserve the Central Eastside for jobs and business development have “benefited the Central Eastside in a huge way.”

“T��� results of that speak for themselves,” he said. “We’d have to be very shortsighted to be able to say that we should develop any significant area of the industrial sanctuary as residential.”

Both proposed projects would be within a short walk of the MAX orange line, which has begun to spur a spate of redevelopment alongside. Nearby, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is planning a major redevelopment of its 18-acre campus.

Intrinsic Ventures’ projects, if they move forward, would add to an influx of creative office projects in the Central Eastside. Developers have snapped up older warehouses for office use or built ground-up contemporary projects. As multifamily development continues to stall in the face of competition and affordable housing rules, more developers are jumping into creative office space that is attractive to startups and tech tenants.

Tevis said he’s looking for rents of $32 per square foot on a triple-net basis at the former TriMet site. Intrinsic Ventures is seeking a major anchor tenant.

“We think it’s a corporate headquarters kind of location, and we’re going to pursue corporate headquarters users,” he said.

Intrinsic Ventures looks for a mix of creative tenants. The Ford Building has 90 tenants – mostly small businesses. The firm’s Troy Laundry building at Southeast 11th Avenue and Sandy Boulevard has dozens more.

“Even if Amazon comes along and signs a big lease, they’re still going to be with these small businesses,” Tevis said.

Keeping rents low helps encourage a good mix of creative tenants, Tevis said. He pointed to Ford Food and Drink, which hosts events including a monthly all-ages drag show.

“We’re in it to build a sense of community, a pool of tenants,” he said. “I like hanging out with actors and artists and musicians a lot more than boring real estate people.”

The post Searching for Intrinsic character in Central Eastside appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Beam Development will take the lead in developing three vacant blocks in the Central Eastside Industrial District.

Prosper Portland officials said in a board meeting Wednesday that Beam was the successful respondent to a request for proposals that was issued in December. Prosper Portland and Beam will negotiate a memorandum of understanding and a disposition and development agreement for work on the 2.19-acre site.

All three blocks’ western portions are owned by the Oregon Department of Transportation and are not part of the project.

Beam, an experienced developer in the fast-changing industrial neighborhood, assembled a team including Colas Construction, Mackenzie and Hacker. The proposal was chosen from among five responses. Of those, four were from local firms, said Lisa Abuaf, Prosper Portland’s development manager.

Beam principal Jonathan Malsin said he wants to better link Southeast Water Avenue with the Eastbank Esplanade on the Willamette River.

“T��� ODOT blocks really right now (are) a barrier to the esplanade, so this is really an opportunity to work with our architects and our landscape designers to actually pull people down to the esplanade, which is an amazing public access point or public amenity,” he said.

The project is likely to include office space and structural parking, along with a small amount of retail space, Malsin said.

The blocks are along Water Avenue between Taylor and Madison streets. The developable parcels are 34,809 square feet, 34,862 square feet and 25,601 square feet, respectively.

The blocks are zoned for industrial office use. The zoning, part of the Central City 2035 plan, limits retail uses to no more than 5,000 square feet on each site.

The Central Eastside has exploded with office projects recently. Malsin said part of his pitch to Prosper Portland was Beam’s willingness to work with small tenants.

“We’re really open to flexible floor plans that can break down to really granular rent roles that allow small businesses an opportunity to come into our spaces,” Malsin said. “We’re not singularly focused on credit tenants that have established high levels of credit that really kind of precludes a lot of local entrepreneurs from getting into the Central Eastside. And that strategy’s been really successful for us. Our portfolio’s full.”

The post Beam Development chosen to tackle ODOT blocks appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Portland’s Towne Storage building has earned a record price on a per-square-foot basis.

The building traded for $62.75 million, according to Multnomah County records. The sale was recorded April 23.

The sale equated to $630 per square foot for the approximately 100,000-square-foot building, beating the previous record for Portland office space of $565 per square foot for Pearl West, according to Jones Lang LaSalle research.

CBRE Global Investors purchased the building from an entity of Westport Capital Partners. NKF Capital Markets represented Westport, while CBRE represented itself.

The high price reflects the strength of the tenant, said Patricia Raicht, senior vice president for research at JLL. The building is fully leased by Autodesk, a software maker for architecture and engineering, construction and entertainment applications. The company moved into the building, near the Burnside Bridge’s east end, from Lake Oswego.

“T���y have a credit tenant with an 11-year lease in there,” Raicht said.

Investors have been willing to pay a premium for buildings with long-term tenants. The Wieden + Kennedy building sold for $103.25 million, or $556 per square foot, last year to an institutional buyer.

The sale also shows bustling office demand in the Central Eastside industrial District. Developers are rushing in with projects such as Platform by Project^. That proposal calls for new construction of 140,000 square feet of office space.

The Towne Storage building originally opened in 1916 and was once home to a wholesale paper distributor. LRS Architects designed an adaptive reuse project to update the unreinforced masonry building, and Bremik Construction served as the general contractor. Sentinel Development was the developer.

Fortis Construction performed the tenant improvements for Autodesk, with design by Mackenzie.

Editor’s Note: This article has been corrected from an earlier version that misstated the price per square foot.

The post Towne Storage building fetches record price appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Platform, a mixed-use building from Portland developer Project^ planned for the Central Eastside, enjoyed a rapturous reception from the Portland Design Commission on Thursday.

The eight-story building would occupy a half-block at 1100-1300 S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., between Taylor and Salmon streets. The ground floor would hold retail space, including a café or restaurant at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Taylor Street. The top seven floors would offer office space.

Platform would also have two floors of below-ground parking, with access provided in the middle of the block on Salmon Street.

Thursday’s hearing was for commissioners to provide device advice. The project will return for a Type III design review hearing.

Allied Works Architecture‘s design essentially cuts the building in two on the upper floors, allowing light to pass through. The building is replete with decks, which the architects said serve to connect the building to the street below. Plans call for a cascading stormwater management system, with planters on each floor handling water descending from the floor above.

The design extensively uses glass and a bronze-colored metal material that would have a patina. The metal material has not been selected, but it’s likely to be aluminum, Allied Works associate principal Brent Linden said.

Platform is planned as the first phase of a two-phase development. The same landowner – listed in public records as William Floberg and EMCF, a limited liability company – also owns the block to the north. The area is zoned “EXd,” for central employment with a design overlay. (Project^ did not return Thursday a message requesting comment on development plans).

Platform, if built, would serve as a gateway to drivers coming to or from the Morrison and Hawthorne bridges and the Oregon Route 99E couplet. The site currently holds a one-story auto shop.

A city staff report listed a $30 million valuation for the Platform project.

Design commissioners blanketed the proposal with praise.

Commissioner Don Vallaster: “This is probably one of the best buildings we’ve ever had presented to us, at least in my tenure.”

Commissioner Tad Savinar: “Extraordinary. Could we have one of these (on) the west side? Yeah, I think it’s incredible.”

Commissioner Sam Rodriguez: “It’s a fantastic composition.”

Chairwoman Julie Livingston: “It’s just incredibly clear and thoughtful.”

Linden said he appreciated the positive reception from the Design Commission.

“I’m very excited about the comments,” he said. “I’m glad you guys like it.”

Platform is designed to connect well with other new construction in the burgeoning Central Eastside.

“We have a real passion for vibrant pedestrian neighborhoods and helping to create a more vibrant pedestrian neighborhood here in the Central Eastside,” Linden said. “T���re’s a lot of these disparate places on a pedestrian scale, but they’re somewhat disconnected.”

Platform would be the latest in a bumper crop of office buildings in the Central Eastside Industrial District. Projects including the proposed Hammer & Hand, Tree Farm and 120 Clay buildings seek to fulfill office demand in the district.

Average direct asking rents in the close-in Eastside rose to $32.41 per square foot during the first quarter, according to a Jones Lang LaSalle report. That was up 6 percent from a year earlier.

The post Project proposal’s public debut is a hit appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.