Colas Development Group has been selected to enter exclusive negotiations to build a $70 million hotel and conference center in south downtown Portland, according to a press release issued by Portland State University on Tuesday.

The Portland-based developer will have the inside track on building a 150-room hotel and conference center alongside the future Performing Arts + Culture Center. PSU will act as the overall developer of the project.

The hotel and conference center will complement the 3,000-seat Performing Arts + Culture Center, which will be owned by the city of Portland. The new hotel building will replace the existing University Place Hotel & Conference Center, which was completed in 1970 at 310 S.W. Lincoln St.

The projects will “help elevate Portland as a cultural destination, reignite investor confidence, activate south downtown, strengthen PSU’s signature performing arts program and energize the city’s arts ecosystem,” PSU stated.

The city of Portland and PSU have moved forward on a plan to replace the Keller Auditorium as the city’s premier venue for Broadway shows and other entertainment. A recent market feasibility study conducted by Hunden Partners found Portland has insufficient demand for two similar venues, and preferred the PSU site.

No decisions have been made about the future of Keller Auditorium.

Colas Development Group will work alongside HMS Developments, a firm led by Ndamukong Suh, the retired NFL star and Portland native who has launched several entrepreneurial projects.

“We believe downtown Portland’s best days are still ahead,” Andrew Colas, president and CEO of Colas Development Group and Colas Construction, stated in a news release. “This is more than a development project. It is an opportunity to help shape the next chapter of our city.”

Colas added that his firm and HMS Developments are bringing together “locally headquartered leadership, private investment and a shared vision for Portland’s future.”

Neither a contractor nor an architect has been chosen yet for the project.

Greg Goodman, co-president of Downtown Development Group, said hotel-conference centers tied to universities have worked well in other cities such as Austin, Texas.

“I think that’d be a positive, definitely,” Goodman said.

The exclusive negotiating agreement will remain in place for at least six months. PSU stated that the next step is “dependent on the city of Portland and its elected officials providing confidence that the project will move forward.”

Colas Development Group is an outgrowth of Colas Construction, Oregon’s largest minority-owned contractor that was founded in 1997 by Andrew’s father, Hermann Colas Jr.

Colas Construction has emerged as a force in public contracting. The firm has built affordable housing, including the 206-unit Hazel Ying Lee Apartments at 3000 S.E. Powell Blvd., commercial projects such as Alberta Commons, and renovations to the Oregon Convention Center.

The development arm is newer but also busy. Alongside Beam Development, Colas Development is developing Steelhead, a 3,500-seat capacity concert venue in Portland’s Central Eastside. The facility for concert giant Live Nation, now under construction, is scheduled to open in summer 2027.

HMS Developments previously developed the Weidler, a 101,600-square-foot Slabtown multifamily project that was completed in 2023.

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The Portland Design Commission on Thursday got its first look at plans for an affordable housing development at 1701 S.E. Water Ave., in the OMSI District. Approximately 100 residential units are proposed for the five-story Los Colibris (“The Hummingbirds”) building.

This is the first project within the OMSI Central City Master Plan, which was adopted in 2023. The project site, tract A, is in the Central Eastside Industrial District, between the main Oregon Museum of Science and Industry building and the Pepco workshop/warehouse. The Marquam Bridge looms to the immediate west.

Holst Architecture is designing the project for owner/co-developer Hacienda CDC and co-developer Edlen & Co. OMSI is the landowner. The project team also includes civil engineer KPFF, landscape architect PLACE, and general contractor Colas Construction.

The project is valued at $36 million, according to Portland Permitting & Development.

The proposal moves the site’s existing parking and loading access point to the north of the tract and places additional separation between the Los Colibris building and the master plan’s Open Space-2, where the OMSI waterfront education park is planned.

While the project is still in conceptual design, Holst Architecture is eyeing cross-laminated timber (CLT) for the building. The team is also looking to meet passive house standards for energy efficiency, focus on quality of light, and include vibrant colors.

Active ground-level uses would be mainly in the building’s middle and northern portions. They would include meeting rooms, a multipurpose community room with a kitchen, a lobby with mail space, office space for resident services, and property management offices. The project team proposes to keep the community room at the center of the building.

There is not enough programming to fill the entire ground floor, said Dustin Furseth, a Holst Architecture senior associate.

“I’m totally OK with having that community facility in the middle (of the ground floor) as long as there is floor-to-ceiling windows, so pedestrians have a visual connection to the greenway,” Commissioner Zari Santner said.

Some residential units are proposed for the southern end of the ground floor. Most would be situated on the west elevation, facing a garden and play area. However, two would face the Bull Run public right-of-way connecting to the greenway, four would face Water Avenue, and a two-bedroom unit would be at the corner of Water Avenue and the Bull Run area, a staff report states.

The Bull Run path is about 30 feet wide and runs along the south side of tract A, according to city spokesman Elliott Kozuch. The Portland Water Bureau owns the Bull Run, and beneath the path there is a pipe used to move water from the Bull Run watershed on Mount Hood to the Washington Park reservoir.

Commission Chair Brian McCarter suggested flipping the ground floor’s layout so the early learning center would be where the two-bedroom unit is currently. Then the early learning center would be on the more pedestrian-accessible side of the building.

“I do have a lot of concern about … the sequencing of Bull Run and the units (planned near) the property line,” Commissioner Joe Swank said.

Commissioners suggested a five-foot setback or elevation change. The design team agreed to examine how high the first floor could be constructed in accounting for the residential units situated near the Bull Run path. Landscaping would also provide a buffer for the units.

Active ground-floor space on the east elevation would be set behind an arcade – a series of arches supported by columns that create a covered walkway. The commissioners suggested a wrap-around canopy as an alternative.

The design includes an outdoor courtyard in front of the building and outdoor communal space in the back. This courtyard allows space for residents and their guests to gather and be partly sheltered from the noise of Marquam Bridge traffic.

“I think the courtyard is essential,” Commissioner Joe Swank said.

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The pandemic killed Urban Development + Partners‘ plans to build a hotel in Portland’s burgeoning Central Eastside neighborhood.

Now UD+P is back with a proposal for a seven-story building with residential units above a ground-floor café and other space at 550 S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

A hotel development “essentially became unfeasible,” said Marcus Lima, a GBD Architects associate principal. Now GBD is working with UD+P on a new program – with a residential scheme.

Plans presented to the Portland Design Commission on Thursday call for approximately 120 residential units on floors two through seven. The ground floor would have a café, bike parking and other amenities.

The hotel project was approved by the Design Commission in 2017. With an essentially new project, the developer and architect must start the design review process anew.

The development will continue to change as the design is refined, Lima said.

“It has evolved and will continue to evolve before we come in for a design review submittal,” he said.

As currently designed, the building would be approximately 85 feet tall. Surface parking would be approximately 60 spaces. The site is slightly smaller than a half-block.

UD+P was thrown a curveball by a Portland Bureau of Transportation decision to designate the frontage along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard as a pedestrian district, requiring a 3-foot-wide dedication. That reduced the footprint available for the building.

“So our site that was already kind of constricted is now even more constricted,” Lima said.

UD+P and GBD floated a potential modification to ground-floor active use design guidelines that require 25 feet of depth from the face of the building to the back of retail spaces. The proposal does not meet the guideline along 50 percent of its façade as required.

A majority of the commissioners said they would not approve a modification; only two were in favor of granting the exception.

“It shouldn’t feel like you’re walking next to a dead zone or alleyway,” Commissioner Jessica Molinar said.

The café would be open after hours to residents who want to work or gather there, Lima said.

Without a modification, the development would have to shrink, said Katherine Schultz, director of GBD Architects.

“The option is to lose units … or to lose parking spaces,” she said.

The building would rise in a fast-growing commercial area. New developments including District Office and Hotel Chamberlain are rapidly transforming the Central Eastside neighborhood into a modern commercial area.

The 550 MLK project would add an atypical residential element.

“It is really hard to land a residential project in a warehouse district,” Commission Chairwoman Julie Livingston said.

Commissioners critiqued the initial design. Zari Santner said the building needed a more distinct base, middle and top. Molinar and Livingston suggested the north and south elevations needed improvement so they wouldn’t appear to be sidewalls.

The building should have “one single, clear expression that wraps all the way around,” Livingston added.

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A proposal for an eight-story mixed-use building in Portland’s Central Eastside drew skeptical responses from members of the Historic Landmarks Commission this week.

An 85-foot-tall structure would rise at 1006 S.E. Grand Ave., and incorporate the U.S. Laundry Building – a contributing historic resource constructed in 1907. The project, valued at $9.8 million, is being pitched by ARCOA Partners, a limited liability company. Ink:Built Design of Portland is providing design services.

The project team received design advice from the Historic Landmarks Commission on Monday. Commissioners raised a number of issues with the scale, boldness and materiality of the proposal.

“I’m not against something more modern – and we have voted for more modern expressions – but not this large,” Commissioner Matthew Roman said. “It seems like it’s well out of scale with the adjoining context.”

Difficulties have arisen for heavily residential proposals in historic districts, where a need for more housing often clashes with stakeholders’ desire to maintain existing character. The Central Eastside is increasingly being targeted by developers looking to build relatively close to downtown.

Commissioners referred to precedents, including Grand + Belmont – a 131-unit apartment building nearby.

“We supported Grand + Belmont at about this height, and that was a bridgehead project, and I came around to voting for that because the applicant really sought a more compatible building,” Roman said.

Commissioner Maya Foty also said the building, as proposed, would clash with the context of the neighborhood.

“I feel like this is trying to be a statement building when it needs to be more of a background building,” she said.

The proposed height would be within the 100-foot limit for the property, but not necessarily suitable, according to Foty.

“The height, to me, it’s very large,” she said. “It’s very tall in this location.”

The building would offer studios and apartments with one or two bedrooms on upper floors. (The number of units was not included in project materials). The ground floor would have retail space, amenity spaces for residents, and mechanized, stacked parking.

Neighbors requested the building include as much parking as possible, Ink:Built Design principal architect Nate Ember said.

“The neighborhood really needs it,” he said, “especially if we have the Green Loop – we won’t have as much on-street parking.”

The building would adjoin the planned Green Loop on Southeast Sixth Avenue. That may pose an obstacle for alignment of the parking entrance; proposed access would be from Sixth Avenue. The Portland Bureau of Transportation is discouraging construction of new curb cuts along the Green Loop, said Teresa Montalvo, the bureau’s land-use review development supervisor.

“Because of the Green Loop, because we don’t have the standards yet – but we know fragmenting it all along the loop with driveways and creating conflicts is not going to give us what we have envisioned for this great park-like facility through the city,” she said. “So we’re starting to say if you’re on that frontage, and if you have another frontage you can go on, then we’re not going to permit off the top that driveway along the Green Loop alignment.”

A return for the project team before the Historic Landmarks Commission for a design review hearing has not been scheduled yet.

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The Living Building Challenge is generally considered one of the top green building certification programs in terms of both prestige and rigor. In short, that’s why Mahlum Architects chose to follow that path for its new office in inner Southeast Portland.

Now, Mahlum selected for its new home an existing warehouse that had been converted into office space. There was no chance for the project team to obtain full Living Building certification from the International Living Future Institute.

However, one of the challenge’s seven “petals” – materials – appeared to be within reach. That is where Mahlum chose to focus.

“Petal certification has been around since the beginning of the standard, but it’s allowed (the ILFI) to scale the program,” said Jay Hindmarsh, a Seattle-based Mahlum associate principal and head of the Living Building Challenge portion of the renovation, which covered a 7,500-square-foot office space. “The materials petal is insanely difficult, but for Mahlum it was a way for us to embrace our values around walking the talk. We’ve been advocating for our clients about better materials and lower-carbon materials, and we looked at each other and said our new space should be beautiful but also should be super healthy and have a low-carbon footprint.”

Mahlum’s new space is located in the Custom Blocks‘ south building, at 1380 S.E. Ninth Ave. The single-level building was at one time a metal stamping shop, but was gutted, renovated and seismically retrofitted.

“We were trying to find a place in Portland that would allow us to be near clients and the community,” Hindmarsh said. “The interesting thing about the space is that it had just fairly recently gotten a core and shell upgrade, but in a lot of ways there was a great historic shell there, and it was interesting to see a space where we could envision quantifying all materials we were bringing in.”

The space could not be retrofitted to achieve net-zero energy or water use. But that wasn’t a problem for either Mahlum.

“The most sustainable buildings are the ones that are already built,” Hindmarsh said, paraphrasing Carl Elefante, a past American Institute of Architects president. “Aside from cost issues, clearly we were going to be renovating a space. This concept of net-zero material impacts is where a renovation typology suits itself to the materials petal. We’re not touching the enclosure, so there was a chance for us to not focus on new construction type components and try to promote investment in local economy.”

Slightly more than 50 percent of the products came from within 500 kilometers of the site, with some of the biggest gains coming from sourcing wood salvaged from the existing building. Also, by working with Salvage Works, a Portland supplier of reclaimed wood products, the project team used lumber originally used to build Fort Vancouver to create wall cladding, display cases and more. Such accents complement the existing heavy timber in the former warehouse, as well as a host of Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood products sourced by another Portland firm, Sustainable Northwest Wood. The latter were mainly plywood and lumber used to frame the new space.

“There’s a threshold for salvage products and we vastly exceeded that,” Hindmarsh said. “This embraces the philosophy of not having superfluous materials. Materials should be true to themselves, especially with the Living Building Challenge. If you’re adding in and designing in things that need to be vetted you’re making things hard for yourself.”

Working under Living Building Challenge version 3.1, Mahlum staff vetted over 350 products and materials for red list compliance. One that fit the bill was EcoSmart drywall manufactured by USG, which is known for its popular Sheetrock brand.

“We had never used this one, as it has just come on the market,” Hindmarsh said. “But it lists a 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions for the drywall, and it’s also made in Rainier (Oregon), so it was win-win for all.”

Portland’s Quartertwenty crafted custom workstations to serve Mahlum’s 50-plus employees in the new office.

“We had to catalog all the pieces of wood and steel, the nuts and bolts, the coating on the steel, the weight,” Hindmarsh said. “And getting that done was a huge lift. We were able to get something that met all our design and ergonomic needs and ended up being LBC compliant.”

Finally, waste diversion is required for certification; debris can’t simply be carted to the landfill. In the end, however, the project team managed to recycle close to 95 percent of waste materials generated on site.

General contractor Perlo Construction finished the project last year. Mahlum moved in this past November, and petal certification was achieved on March 17.

It was a very valuable learning experience for the Mahlum team, Hindmarsh said.

“I think my recommendation would be do your homework and understand what it will take,” he said. “It is a great opportunity for architecture firms and design firms to really put their process in a petri dish and look at it and their materials library and reflect on their practices.”

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In Portland’s Central Eastside Industrial District, construction of a six-story mixed-use building is progressing quickly.

District Office will have 90,400 square feet – five stories of creative office space above ground-floor retail space. There will also be one level of below-grade parking. Work began in May 2018 with . Then Timberland Inc. carpentry crews flew the first cross-laminated timber panel into place a year later, and the building was topped out barely three months after that.

Beam Development and Urban Development + Partners are developing the project, which was designed by Hacker. The general contractor is Andersen Construction.

A pair of concrete building cores will house elevators and stairwells as well as mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. Glulam beams and columns are being used, along with CLT floor panels manufactured by DR Johnson. A 3-inch topping slab on each floor will provide additional horizontal shear strength, while floor-to-ceiling glazing will let in generous amounts of natural light.

“The timber structure is fully up, the topping slabs are done, framing is up and going on all elevations two through the roof, and the roof starts going in today,” Andersen Construction project manager Katie Hoyt said late last month. “Fiberglass windows are done on the east elevation, they are a good portion of the way done on the south and they’ll be starting on the north side today, as well.”

The exterior will feature brick cladding, fiberglass windows and aluminum storefronts. The main entry will front Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Upon delivery, Hacker will occupy space on the sixth floor and part of the fifth; other tenants have not been named. Much of the building, at 525 S.E. MLK Jr. Blvd., will be shell space initially.

Power issues have complicated the project.

“Everywhere you look we’ve got live power lines,” Hoyt said. “And our temp power line for the job is coming across the street.”

There is a streetcar line on the east side of the project site, power lines on the north and south sides, and two buildings on the west side.

“When we’re done, our power into the building will go under Stark (Street); they’ve already done the excavation for that,” Hoyt said. “It will go into a switch vault and then into the building. So when we’re able to turn the live power on, then they can disconnect the temp power. But live power is predicated on having the electrical rooms done and signed off and lockable – all that good stuff.”

The project’s tower crane is set to be dismantled in November. Project completion is expected by the end of the year.

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The Central Eastside Industrial Council has commissioned a parking study as an increase of jobs in the urban district has not come with additions of spaces for motor vehicles.

The study is “to determine exactly how much parking we have and how much parking we need, and whether we’re using the parking that we have efficiently,” said Brad Malsin, the council’s president and a Beam Development principal.

Portland’s zoning, in particular the Central City 2035 plan, limits residential and office uses in the Central Eastside in an attempt to protect the district as an industrial sanctuary. As multifamily and office development creates pressure on industrial space across the city, the Central Eastside is meant to remain a place where industrial businesses can continue to flourish.

That has become a challenge.

“I think it needs to be done,” Jim Kennison, director of bakery operations at Franz Bakery, said of the parking study. “It is the industrial district, and the industry is getting kind of crowded and pushed out.”

Pressures have grown. In June 2018, Autodesk moved from Lake Oswego to the Towne Storage building, a renovated 100,000-square-foot warehouse south of the Burnside Bridge that was originally built in 1916 and has no parking. Media reports at the time said Autodesk had 200 employees at the location, with room to scale up to 500.

The construction software firm declined a recent interview request, and did not respond to an email asking how many employees work at the Towne Storage building.

Whereas the parking situation is a problem for many employers, it’s an opportunity for some developers. Harsch Investment Properties‘ 7 SE Stark building, nearly completed, has six floors of parking with 265 stalls.

“It’s a critical need,” said Jordan Schnitzer, president of Harsch Investment Properties. “Many tenants realize that while lots of people walk and bike and use Uber, there’s a lot of people that still drive their cars and a lot of people that want to visit businesses.”

Some of 7 SE Stark’s parking will be available to other users, Schnitzer said.

“We’re first going to take care of our tenants, and then any excess parking, we’ll take care of Olympic Mills and the public,” he said.

The Olympic Mills Commerce Center, a commercial building near 7 SE Stark, has tenants including Olympia Provisions and Fish Marketing.

Gerding Edlen’s 5 MLK, another building under construction in the area and expected to be delivered early next year, has three floors of underground parking. A spokesperson for the developer did not respond to a message seeking comment. An executive with Apex Real Estate Partners, the leasing agent for the project, also did not respond to requests for comment.

District Office, a six-story building from Beam Development and Urban Development + Partners at 525 S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., will have one floor of underground parking.

The growth affects many longtime industrial businesses, which rely on parking and easy access for trucks to transport their products. Franz Bakery has operated in the neighborhood since 1906, and is in a relatively good position with three parking lots for its approximately 500 employees in the district. Few employees use public transit, Kennison said, because of schedule challenges.

“Our problem here is we work pretty much 24/7,” he said. “Bus service and light rail is not great on holidays or weekends.”

TriMet spokeswoman Tia York stated via email that the Central Eastside “enjoys some of the best supply of transit in the region.” Next spring, bus line 20 will be upgraded to frequent service – every 15 minutes – joining six frequent service lines currently operating in the area. TriMet is also working with the Portland Bureau of Transportation to accelerate bus service to make riding transit more attractive, York stated.

The Central Eastside Industrial Council also operates the Water Avenue Shuttle, which runs two shuttle buses during peak commuting hours from the Dairy Building on Southeast Eighth Avenue to the Oregon Convention Center.

Kennison said some small businesses have moved out of the district. That’s hardly an option for a company the size of Franz, he said.

“We’re a big company,” he said. “It’s going to be really hard for someone like us to move – I’m not saying that’s happening.

“Smaller businesses that can be more mobile, they don’t want to hassle with the parking,” he added.

The Lloyd area, just north of the Central Eastside, has its own parking challenges. Go Lloyd, a business group, conducts an annual parking survey of more than 13,000 on-street and off-street parking spaces. In 2018, the survey found usage rates were 10 percent higher than during the previous year.

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A renovation of a former industrial building under way in Southeast Portland will provide 46,000 square feet of craft manufacturing, light industrial and creative office space in the Central Eastside Industrial District.

ScanlanKemperBard (SKB) is partnering with Denver-based Tryba Architects and Lorentz Bruun Construction on the Glass Lab, which will contain multiple speculative light industrial suites ranging in size from about 2,000 to 4,800 square feet. The building’s ground-floor suites will cater to industrial users, with concrete floors and interior roll-up doors providing access to a shared loading dock. The fully air-conditioned second-floor spaces are designed for creative office users.

“We’re big believers in a localized manufacturing economy,” said John Olivier, senior vice president of acquisitions & development for SKB. “For lack of a better term, I call it an urban industrial concept. This building is not just industrial; it’s also creative office or creative industrial.”

The project is a core-and-shell remodel of the 59-year-old building, which was constructed for a glass manufacturer. It later was used as an antique furniture showroom and most recently as the home of Eastside Distilling. SKB purchased the property last summer for $6.3 million, and is investing about $8.9 million in the renovation.

The two-story tilt-up concrete building features old-growth timber beams, tongue-and-groove wood floors and 20-foot ceiling heights. It will feature common amenities including break room and kitchen space, bicycle commuter facilities, a conference room, and a ground-floor gathering area. The second floor is being expanded by 4,000 square feet, and new interior mezzanines will be added to select ground-level suites.

As with the Iron Fireman building, an SKB-owned light industrial building in the Brooklyn neighborhood, the idea for the Glass Lab is to provide a home for craft manufacturers in an area where availability of affordable space is becoming increasingly rare.

“The smaller tenants are having trouble finding stuff in the Central Eastside,” Olivier said. “We really want to cater to the manufacturers, probably tech manufacturing, but we can still do any kind of light manufacturing.”

SKB has been working with Prosper Portland to capitalize on Enterprise Zone tax benefits, giving tenants the benefits of the capital improvements along with whatever money they invest into their individual spaces. According to Olivier, initial estimates equate to about a $1.40/square foot savings for the first five years of occupancy. Rental rates will be about $25-28 per square foot, triple-net.

“We think it’ll be some of the least expensive space in the Central Eastside, certainly of the newly-delivered stuff,” Olivier said.

The Glass Lab is being outfitted with new mechanical/electrical/plumbing systems, including an electrical upgrade from 208-volt service to 480-volt service, new water and sewer systems, rooftop mechanical units, and an upgraded fire suppression system. The building’s energy model is being brought up to code, and new insulated glass, window frames, storefront systems and roll-up doors are being installed.

The core and shell work is expected to last through the summer, at which point tenants will be able to begin building out their white box spaces. The building’s leasing is being handled by Colliers International.

SKB is also in predevelopment on a 140,000-square-foot creative office building on an adjacent parcel at 1919 S.E. Third Ave. The firm is working with Scott | Edwards Architecture to design the building. Olivier hopes construction will begin early next year.

“We see our ability to develop that area over time,” he said. “We think we’ve got the capability to bring all of these elements together and create a mini-campus, ultimately.”

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These days in Portland, buildings are popping up everywhere.

For example, in the Central Eastside, at the junction of Southeast Stark Street and Water Avenue, a 10-story mixed-use building is being squeezed into an industrial space mere feet away from Interstate 5 to the west and Union Pacific railroad tracks to the east.

“You can see the close proximity of the building to the freeway,” Hoffman Construction Superintendent Mark Rado said during a walk around the site last week, pointing out how close workers were to passing vehicles. “The building itself is a little further away, but because we need a work deck, we’re even closer; you can see that Aluma deck there. That one is probably about 10 feet away, and that one up there is probably 15.”

The started as an innovative parking solution, but evolved into one of the few Central Eastside work-space buildings to be constructed from the ground up. The building, known as “,” will hold approximately 70,000 square feet of office space and 265 parking spaces for motor vehicles. Secured bike parking and a fitness center with locker rooms also will be included.

Works Progress Architecture to stand out among the vintage industrial shells that dominate the immediate vicinity. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows will provide occupants views of the city. As the structure rises, portions of the façade will “erode” back toward the core, and the top will feature several shared terraces. The bottom six stories will be devoted to public parking.

“We think there’s tremendous demand in the neighborhood for parking,” Harsch Investment Properties Senior Vice President and Regional Manager Steve Roselli said. “It has the added bonus of getting you above the freeway and the railroad noise. It gets you up there to where you’re in a world of your own.”

The building will feature six stories of post-tensioned concrete topped with four stories of structural steel with slab-on-metal decks. Crews are about six weeks away from finishing structural concrete work, Rado said.

“We start structural steel after Thanksgiving,” he said. “Today we’re loading our PT deck number six, and we have three more decks to pour, but right now we’re loading rebar and PT on the deck and getting ready to pour next week.”

The development is not necessarily a new direction for Harsch Investment Properties, Roselli said, but rather a reflection of earlier property investments made in Portland’s inner east side.

“We’re a pretty active developer in markets where we can find land for our light industrial products, but there are no industrial sites left up here,” he said. “So, we’re a very active developer in Las Vegas and Sacramento and now starting in Tucson. It just happens that in Portland, where we’re based, we have a lot of downtown blocks that are or will be redevelopments as the market dictates.”

Harsch Investment Properties purchased the 7 Southeast Stark site five years ago when it was a surface parking lot. Then it six months ago purchased the site to the east with the intention of either redeveloping the existing warehouse or replacing it with something new.

“We have quite a few sites around town in Portland that are redevelopment sites that could certainly sustain much higher and better uses,” Roselli said. “Several of these blocks that we bought on the east side qualify.”

Nearby, Harsch Investment Properties has its eyes on 151 S.E. Alder St. The firm was working with Works Progress Architecture on a potential 10-story mixed-use building there; however, plans were put on hold, Roselli said.

“This one went first; it made more sense because we could do more parking,” he said in reference to 7 Southeast Stark. “That one, being a corner block, it’s more limited and we’ll hold for now.”

Substantial completion of the project, Roselli said, is expected by June 2019. , with JLL agent Jake Lancaster handling inquiries.

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An 86-year-old commercial building in the Central Eastside Industrial District is being demolished to create space for a new mixed-use development. Crews with LOI Environmental & Demolition Services began demolition Tuesday of the 8,000-square-foot former home of Portland Music Co. at Southeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Washington Street.

The building and an adjacent parking lot will be replaced by a six-story building with ground-floor commercial space and five stories of open creative office space. Andersen Construction is serving as the general contractor for the Hacker-designed project, which is being developed by a partnership between Beam Development and Urban Development + Partners.

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