Construction of one of the final projects within the Con-way master plan has begun in the Slabtown neighborhood of Northwest Portland.

Freewell, a 265,000-square-foot development, is being brought to market by Cairn Pacific LLC and Prometheus Real Estate Group. A seven-story building will host 192 apartments, ground-floor retail space and underground parking. A bridge will connect to a two-story pavilion building with amenities.

The project site is Block 291 East, at 2030 N.W. Raleigh St. Freewell will front a future park to be developed by the city of Portland.

The Portland Bureau of Development Services last week issued a $44 million construction permit for Freewell. However, construction costs have increased so much since a permit was sought nearly a year ago that they’re expected to be around $60 million, Cairn Pacific principal Tom DiChiara said.

Freewell is the eighth project for Cairn Pacific in Slabtown. SERA Architects designed the development – the firm’s third for Cairn Pacific in the neighborhood; Saltwood and Saltwood North are the others.

SERA also designed Greystar‘s Slabtown Savier, which was approved by the Design Commission in December 2021. That project will occupy blocks 261 and 262.

“T��� Con-way master plan provided a blank slate to design and develop an entire neighborhood from the ground up,” SERA Architects principal Kurt Schultz stated in a press release. “Our approach when designing at neighborhood scale is to design buildings that are unique but also in harmony with the surrounding context.”

Freewell will feature brick, wood and natural materials, and the pavilion building will be constructed of mass-timber. Materials were chosen as an ode to the neighborhood’s past, when it was filled with warehouses, Schultz stated.

The 20-acre neighborhood previously was owned by the Con-way trucking company. The master plan called for creation of a 24-7, mixed-use area for people to live, work and play.

There are 17 development parcels within the Con-way master plan, and projects for 16 of them are completed or in development. The remaining block, 292 East, is a Prometheus Real Estate Group property. At this point there is no project planned for 292 East, DiChiara said, but developers are hoping it will become senior housing or something other than multifamily.

Over the past nine years, Cairn Pacific and Prometheus Real Estate Group have partnered on five mixed-use projects in the neighborhood. Freewell, their sixth joint venture, will “add a finishing touch to the district,” DiChiara stated.

R&H Construction is the general contractor. Construction is expected to finish in spring 2024.

The post Crews break ground on Slabtown project appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Capstone Partners and Cairn Pacific have sold L.L. Hawkins and Slabtown Marketplace for $78 million to an institutional investment company, unloading the multifamily and retail assets that pioneered redevelopment in Northwest Portland’s Slabtown neighborhood.

L.L. Hawkins, 1515 NW 21st Ave., has 113 apartments in studio, one- and two-bedroom floor plans, along with 11,087 square feet of ground-floor retail spaces. Completed in 2015, the six-story project was the first apartment building in the area.

Slabtown Marketplace, which shares a block with L.L. Hawkins, is a renovated freight warehouse that was built in 1952 and made into a retail redevelopment, also in 2015. The 36,000-square-foot building at 2170 N.W. Raleigh St. hosts a New Seasons grocery store, Breakside Brewery and YogaSix.

L.L. Hawkins and Slabtown Marketplace were sold in a single transaction. The buyer declined to be identified, and the information was not yet available in Multnomah County records. Chris Nelson, principal of Capstone Partners, said the buyer was a “large institutional investor.”

The sale represents a successful exit for Capstone and Cairn Pacific, both local developers. “It was a good outcome, for sure,” Nelson said.

The projects jump-started the transformation of the Slabtown area from an industrial zone into a mixed-use neighborhood.

“It was kind of the first step in the evolution of a great neighborhood,” Nelson said.

Developers including Cairn, Prometheus and Guardian Real Estate Services have followed up with more projects that have begun to fill out the neighborhood. Greystar recently gained planning approval to build two multifamily structures totaling 363 apartments on Northwest Savier Street.

Capstone and Cairn Pacific partnered with a venture capital investor, who was not identified, on L.L. Hawkins and Slabtown Marketplace.

“It is bittersweet to sell this project,” Nelson added in an email. “T��� project was certainly a catalyst for the neighborhood, but we decided it was a good time to sell with the strong investor interest for core multifamily and grocery-anchored retail investments in A-plus locations.”

CBRE represented the sellers.

“L.L. Hawkins was the first multifamily property built in Slabtown and truly compliments one of the most desired locations within Portland,” Joe Nydahl, first vice president at CBRE’s Portland office, stated in a news release. “LL Hawkins is one of the highest-quality projects to trade in the Portland market, featuring desirable ground-floor retail as well as a pedestrian thoroughfare connecting Slabtown Marketplace, offering residents convenient access to high-quality retail including New Seasons Market.”

Nydahl, Phil Oester and Josh McDonald of CBRE’s Pacific Northwest Multifamily group and Philip Voorhees, Jimmy Slusher and Joseph Blatner of CBRE’s National Retail Partners – West group represented the seller in the transaction.

The post Slabtown buildings sold for $78 million appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Portland Design Commission on Thursday unanimously approved a two-building multifamily proposal to add 363 apartments to the Slabtown neighborhood.

Greystar‘s development, designed by SERA Architects, includes a five-story, 149-unit building and a six- and seven-story, 214-unit building. The two structures will be split by Northwest Savier Street between Northwest 19th and 20th avenues.

The project, known as Slabtown Savier, on blocks 261 and 262, will neighbor U.S. Route 30 to the north and St. Patrick Catholic Church to the east.

Commissioners had seen the project in two previous design advice meetings and had few quibbles with the final design.

“T��� building’s looking great,” Commissioner Sam Rodriguez said. “From a public realm perspective, they nailed it. It’s a great infill building with very thoughtful articulation.”

Slabtown Savier is subject to the Con-way master plan, which was enacted in 2012. As such, the development is not required to provide rent-restricted inclusionary housing units.

Greystar and SERA worked with St. Patrick Catholic Church officials to ensure the development would not loom over the 130-year-old church, a landmark on the National Register of Historic Places and the oldest structure in the neighborhood. SERA did a “radical re-massing of the site to give St. Patrick Church more space and more breathing room,” principal Kurt Schultz said.

Slabtown Savier will be marked by a pocket park between Block 262 and the church, ground-level live-work units and front stoops. The brick exteriors will feature Juliet balconies on each side.

Some neighborhood residents had pushed for a taller building that would block views and noise from U.S. Route 30. But Chairwoman Julie Livingston said there’s nothing in guidelines to require that type of development. She called the project a “gigantic win for the neighborhood.”

“This development looks as if it really does have the potential to take back this street (Savier) and take back this neighborhood and restore some of the church’s dignity,” she said.

Greystar, based in Charleston, South Carolina, scooped up the property from Lennar Multifamily Communities, going under contract in March. Greystar’s Portland office most recently completed the Sawbuck Apartments next to Providence Park.

Slabtown Savier won exemptions from the Design Commission for building height, parking space widths and bicycle parking. Commissioners granted a modification for Block 262 to ascend to 83 feet, above the limit of 67 feet.

The project previously was the subject of two design advice hearings, in February and July.

Design commissioners praised the team of SERA’s Schultz and Lango Hansen Landscape Architects principal Kurt Lango.

“I would say Kurt and Kurt are the dream team,” Commissioner Zari Santner said.

Santner lauded the project team for “not just following, but listening and coming up with their own options to really respond to the core of the commission’s concerns.”

Doug Burges, Greystar’s director of development in Portland, said the firm wanted to honor the city’s process.

“We took the process seriously and used the process to better our design and get feedback along the way,” he said in an interview.

Greystar plans to break ground in October 2022, likely using its in-house construction arm, Burges said.

The post Slabtown housing project gets green light appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Portland Design Commission on Thursday got its first glimpse of one of the last remaining pieces of the Con-way Master Plan. Slabtown Savier will be a two-block development in the northeast corner of the Slabtown neighborhood.

The north building, on Block 261, at the corner of Northwest 20th Avenue and Savier Street, would be five stories and hold 138 residential units. U.S. Route 30 is directly north of the site. Across from Savier Street, Block 262 would have a six-story building with 214 residential units.

Thursday’s hearing was for design advice. The applicant, Kurt Schultz of SERA Architects, filed the request on behalf of project owner LMC (Lennar Multifamily Communities).

As submitted, the buildings would be designed in quarter-block and eighth-block segments to break the massing down. Varied heights and an exterior brick skin would be used on the different segments to emphasize this more.

“T��� goal is really to break this façade (20th Avenue) into really what feels like a variety of buildings that meet the street in a different way,” Schultz said.

The project is early in its design phase, Schultz said, and was brought to the Design Commission to work out kinks early.

The most concern and conversation surrounded the required pocket park between Block 262 and its neighbor to the east, St. Patrick Catholic Church. The Con-way Master Plan stated a “breath” of room was needed between the two properties. The pocket park would be on private property and serve as a community space.

Commissioner Brian McCarter expressed concern over security of the park and its proximity to the highway.

“T���re’s a lot of social problems underneath the freeway,” he said. “It’s a continual thing that moves for a few weeks, and then it reappears. I hear comments about this courtyard becoming public and who’s going to occupy it – what kind of activities are going to happen out there.”

The pocket park was proposed as a 30-foot-wide space with large trees to help buffer the building’s height in comparison to the church. Father Tim Furlow, representative of St. Patrick Catholic Church, said that the new building should step back and the park should be widened to 50 feet.

“I think the idea of expanding the open space to give it more breathing room – it’s sort of a double-edged sword,” Commissioner Zari Santner said. “Given the social problems that exist in that area – whether to what extent do you want to make the design of this space look, as public as it can get.”

If the design team were to widen the park, then a significant massing shift would be needed to accommodate the units lost in that space. All design commissioners were in agreement that moving the units to the top of the 20th Avenue face would widen the park and benefit the overall development.

Further discussions are needed between the design team and St. Patrick Catholic Church representatives to decide on the public versus private nature of the pocket park.

The post Slabtown project team receives design advice appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A new residential building and hotel could soon be constructed side by side in the Con-way master-planned area of Northwest Portland.

A pre-application conference is scheduled with Portland’s Bureau of Development Services on Dec. 19 for discussion of Trammell Crow Company‘s proposal for Blocks 261 and 262. City documents indicate the company intends to develop market-rate housing on Block 262 and a hotel on Block 261.

The two blocks are split by Northwest Savier Street, with Block 261 to the north of Block 262; both are bordered on the west by Northwest 20th Avenue. The hotel would take up virtually its entire block, and be bordered on the northeast corner by U.S. Route 30. The residential building would be L-shaped, and run the length of 20th Avenue between Savier and Raleigh Streets, but then abut St. Patrick Catholic Church at its east end. St. Patrick’s, which touts itself as the oldest Catholic church in Greater Portland, dates back to 1889, according to its website.

According to BDS documents, feedback is being sought on the process and feasibility of amending the Con-way Master Plan to allow hotel use on Block 261. Stormwater management details are to be submitted with a future design review application.

No changes to the Con-way Master Plan’s floor area ratio limits or building height limits are proposed or sought.

Trammell Crow, known mainly for its industrial projects, has developed over 5 million square feet of industrial space since 2005. But the firm also has been busy in residential and mixed-use sectors, and broke ground in April 2019 on the 206-unit Mercantile Village mixed-use project in Lake Oswego.

The post Meeting on tap for Northwest Portland project appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Development has been ramping up in Portland’s Northwest District for the past several years. One of the latest projects to move ahead there is Raleigh Slabtown, a six-story mixed-use building designed by SERA Architects for the partnership of Cairn Pacific and California-based Prometheus Real Estate Group. R&H Construction is serving as general contractor.

The project site – formerly occupied by the George Morlan Plumbing warehouse – is slightly west of the Con-way Master Plan area, which consists of 20 acres formerly owned by Con-way Freight. Raleigh Slabtown will be across Northwest 22nd Avenue from the new Breakside Brewery and New Seasons Market. Other developments nearby include the Leland James Building and The Carson Apartments.

Raleigh Slabtown will have a total of 173 residential units – some on the ground floor.

“T���re’s a lot of retail space on the ground floor too, and we spent some time focusing on setting it up for successful leasing,” said Mike Kremers, a senior project manager with R&H Construction. “It’s got a rooftop amenity as well, and it’s basically full of fairly high-end finishes.”

A Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold rating is being targeted for the project.

The building will feature five wood-framed stories atop a concrete podium and two levels of below-grade vehicle parking. These days, crews of carpenters from Whitaker Ellis are busy building formwork, while ironworkers from Bar M Steel and MEP workers from Bear Electric and other subcontractors are installing conduit, plumbing and other utilities on the second level deck in advance of pouring the second half of the concrete floor slab.

A prefabricated wall-panel system is being used for Raleigh Slabtown. Carpenters from Wood Mechanix are preparing to arrive on site in the next few weeks to start installation of wood-framed interior and exterior wall systems. The interior walls will consist of bare timber while the exterior walls will come framed and covered with DensGlass sheathing. Exterior masonry and metal panel siding will be installed separately along with drywall and MEP fittings on both interior and exterior walls.

“It’s a huge effort to do the shop drawings, but it’s a smaller framing crew on the site,” Kremers said. “We’re in a tight labor market, and it’s really to Wood Mechanix’s and R&H’s advantage to do this. To get large framing crews – it’s tough.”

Building stick-framed walls on site would extend the schedule, R&H Construction project manager Ted Rhodes said. Because of the project’s scale, he added, purchasing prefabricated walls from Pacific Wall Systems made financial sense.

“On a project like this (on-site framing) probably adds at least four weeks to the framing schedule,” he said. “And there are less labor hours on-site (with prefabrication), so it’s safer.”

Because of an ongoing shortage of skilled labor, Kremers said, it’s likely that use of prefabrication in construction will only increase.

“I see us in the future panelizing virtually everything,” he said.

“T���re’s a shortage of labor, especially after the last downturn,” Rhodes added. “We lost two million workers (nationally) and those people never came back. The market is now way hotter and we just don’t have the bodies.”

The post Another Slabtown project on the rise appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Development in the Con-way master-planned area took another big step forward Thursday, as the Portland Design Commission enthusiastically approved a design proposed for Saltwood: a two-building mixed-use project.

Commissioners voted 6-0 in favor of SERA Architects‘ design, allowing developer Cairn Pacific LLC to move forward with a pair of six-story market-rate apartment buildings. Combined, they will hold approximately 17,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space, 354 residential units and below-grade parking.

This will continue the transformation of the intersection of Northwest 21st Avenue and Raleigh Street into a bustling retail hub as part of the Con-way Master Plan. It calls for redevelopment of 17 city blocks of former industrial space into a residential and commercial center.

“All of this stuff is woven together very, very well,” commission Chairwoman Julie Livingston said to Cairn Pacific principal Tom DiChiara and SERA Architects principal Kurt Schultz. “What is happening at the intersection of Raleigh, with Carson South and L.L. Hawkins – that’s really nice urban space, and when you expand it across the street, it’s fantastic urban space.”

Saltwood will rise on city blocks 291W and 292W as a pair of mixed-use apartment buildings with distinctly different appearances. The common denominator will be brick masonry, but the style, color and textures will differ. By contrast, cedar and other decorative wood will dominate the ground-floor retail spaces.

The property under development is split into north and south blocks. It is bounded on the west by Northwest 21st Avenue, on the north by Savier Street and on the south by Quimby Street.

Both buildings will feature landscaped courtyards open to the outside neighborhood. On the ground floor, a wide variety of storefront design features are intended to distinguish each retail space from the next.

“We want to see a great mix that makes that 24-7 style of neighborhood work,” DiChiara said.

The south building will have lighter-colored brick accents with additional metal panels to accent the brick, while the north building will feature darker burgundy brick.

“T��� south building is not so industrial and probably more urbane in character,” Schultz said.

One of the highlights of the design is a quarter-block expression in each building; combined, they will dominate the northeast and southeast corners of Northwest 21st Avenue and Raleigh Street. Connected to the main buildings by pedestrian walkways, this aspect provides variation of height, rhythm and color coveted by designers.

Another interesting aspect of the plan is the inclusion of large ground-floor, walk-up townhomes on the east side of each building that will front future pedestrian walkways called for in the master plan.

Commissioners praised the manner in which Saltwood fits into the area, which in recent years has seen development of a number of significant projects. These include: the L.L. Hawkins, a six-story mixed use building fronting Northwest 21st Avenue and stretching between Quimby and Raleigh streets; The Carson, a 13-story mixed-use building and a six-story mixed-use building; a New Seasons supermarket at the corner of Northwest 22nd Avenue and Quimby Street; and the Leland James Center, an adaptive reuse effort at the corner of Northwest 22nd Avenue and Raleigh Street.

Future development on the Con-way Blocks will include a new park stretching along the west side of Northwest 21st Avenue between Quimby and Pettygrove streets.

“This is a quality couple of buildings you’ve put together,” Commissioner Andrew Clarke said of Saltwood. “T��� massing and the way you broke up the massing feels like an urban area that’s actually been here for a little while. I like the quality of colors and materials that you use all the way down to the public realm areas, which are continuing to stitch this new neighborhood together.”

The post Weaving another piece of Con-way Blocks fabric appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Portland’s Northwest District could gain hundreds of new apartment units if a proposed two-building development proceeds as proposed.

Applicant SERA Architects submitted initial site plans and elevation drawings to the city on behalf of the owner’s representative – Preg NW Portland LLC, which shares the San Mateo, California, mailing address of Prometheus Real Estate Group. Those drawings show the two six-story buildings proposed for two full-block parcels — blocks 291 west and 292 west — covering a total of 2.43 acres.

The Portland Bureau of Development Services issued on Aug. 16 a Request for Response concerning the project. Local neighborhood groups and other organizations have until Sept. 13 to raise any concerns or issues. Public records show the project is scheduled to go before the Portland Development Commission at a hearing Oct. 4.

The northern half of the site lies between Northwest Raleigh and Savier streets and Northwest 20th and 21st avenues. The southern half, also between 20th and 21st avenues, stretches from Raleigh Street to as far south as Quimby Street. The property was purchased in October 2015 by Guardian Real Estate Services for $4 million.

As submitted, the plan calls for a total of approximately 354 market-rate apartments and 8,000 to 9,800 square feet of retail space on the ground floors in the two buildings. At least 250 below-grade parking stalls are envisioned for the north building and 130 more for the south building, according to documentation filed with the city.

Because the site falls inside the Con-way Master Plan area designated in 2012, any zoning changes or other regulations enacted by the city thereafter – including its inclusionary zoning policy – do not apply to development proposals.

“T���refore,” the Request for Response states, “the proposal will be reviewed under the zoning in effect the date the Master Plan application was filed (April 24, 2012).”

Site plans show both buildings’ retail space would front Northwest 21st Avenue. A pedestrian way, meanwhile, would feature prominently on the east side of the site, along Northwest 20th Avenue.

For more information, visit: .

The post Multifamily project planned in Con-way area appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Cairn Pacific’s largest project to date requires the developer to deliver on a tall order – help create a neighborhood in the Con-way area, sandwiched between the Northwest District and Interstate 405, while playing off the successes and avoiding the mistakes made in the South Waterfront District and Pearl District.

The $175 million build-out encompasses the soon-to-be-built Leland James and east block buildings. The developments involve a mix of heights and uses, including residential, office and commercial.

Cairn Pacific, led by co-founders Tom DiChiara and Rob Hinnen, is leading the remake of the Northwest Portland neighborhood. The new developments are envisioned to link easily with the existing neighborhood to the west, including the retail- and restaurant-heavy blocks of Northwest 23rd Avenue, and eventually the Pearl District.

“We’re trying to get the right blend of residential, office, retail so the neighborhood can thrive,” DiChiara said.

A master plan completed in 2012 envisions Raleigh Street becoming the main east-west artery, and Cairn Pacific is planning retail spaces along Raleigh.

“Raleigh is going to be a primary artery between 23rd and 21st (avenues), with a lot of development going on,” DiChiara said.

The $40 million L.L. Hawkins mixed-use building completed last year was a joint venture of Cairn Pacific and Capstone Partners.

Another partnership between the two firms is taking place at Block 295W, where the Leland James three-story office building will feature 11,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. The office floors will have relatively large 34,000-square-foot plates. A rooftop wood-frame penthouse will add 16,000 square feet.

The project team will retain the skeleton of the existing building at 1621 N.W. 21st Ave., but a thorough rebuild will clad the building in red brick and aluminum. SERA Architects is designing the Leland James building, and Andersen Construction and JBA will build it. A leasing push for the building, represented by David Squire at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, is under way.

DiChiara believes the Leland James’ large floor plates could attract a tech tenant, although he’s open to other uses as well.

“It certainly can cater to the tech guys, but it’s not exclusively tech-oriented,” he said.

The Leland James is named for the local businessman who founded Consolidated Truck Lines, which later became Con-way Inc.

Different uses, building heights, tenants

Nearby, on Block 294E, Cairn Pacific plans to construct three mixed-use buildings, of three, nine and 14 stories. Excavation on the parking areas on 294E is expected to begin in mid-June, after a sewer line is rerouted.

On Block 295E, the developer plans two residential buildings, one with three stories and one with six. Together they will add 385 market-rate residential units to the neighborhood. The east block developments will call for the use of two tower cranes.

The mix of heights is an important aspect of the growth in Northwest Portland, DiChiara said. In part, it’s a reaction to the point tower approach taken in the South Waterfront, and the flatter look of the Pearl District. In old cities, DiChiara said, a mix of heights arises naturally amid growth. He wants to recreate that aesthetic in Northwest Portland.

“T���re is a mix of heights,” he said. “T��� Pearl and the South Waterfront, it’s all the same height.”

New York-based investment firm BlackRock is Cairn Pacific’s investor for the Leland James project, and Wells Fargo is the lender. For the east block projects, Prometheus Real Estate Group of San Mateo, Calif., is the investor. A lender has not yet been chosen.

Cairn Pacific is looking to build upon the success of L.L. Hawkins. The building at 1515 N.W. 21st Ave. has 113 residential units, which are 90 percent leased. Notably, the leasing team has eschewed national chain businesses, instead luring local tenants with loyal followings.

Tenants include the Slabtown New Seasons grocery store, a Breakside Brewery pub, a pizzeria from the Breakside partners and the new home of Besaw’s, a landmark Portland restaurant. Besaw’s owner Cana Flug is also opening a dessert bar and patisserie called Solo Club; tenant improvements are under way now.

The grocery store gives the Northwest Portland neighborhood a leg up on the South Waterfront, which lacks one. New Seasons’ Slabtown location offers 28,000 square feet of high-end grocery products, and DiChiara said the store has been successful. He credited Capstone Partners with helping to lure the local grocery chain.

Cairn Pacific, working with GBD Architects and Holst Architecture, designed L.L. Hawkins to have various step-backs from the sidewalk and different aesthetic treatments to avoid a monolithic look and provide sidewalk seating.

“T��� small boutique retail spaces all have their own personality,” DiChiara said.

Each shop is encouraged to use unique signage, mostly lighted. As a result, the building has a nighttime presence.

“You come here at night, and there’s a feel,” DiChiara said.

Both the Leland James and the L.L. Hawkins have dozens of parking spaces.

“All of our projects have adequate parking,” DiChiara said. “Cars aren’t going anywhere.”

The developments are divided by pedestrian-friendly strips and green spaces. The east blocks will have a grove of 35-foot-tall sequoia trees and sitting areas. The L.L. Hawkins has an outdoor patio with a small rooftop garden that overlooks New Seasons.

Cairn Pacific’s ambitious plans extend further. The developer has also placed the George Morlan Plumbing building, at 2222 N.W. Raleigh St., under contract and likely will pursue entitlements this fall, DiChiara said. The developer plans to convert the building to housing above ground-floor retail space.

“It’s a lot of change coming. It’s a lot of construction coming,” DiChiara said. “I think it’s going to fit in well. It’s all quality brick buildings and durable materials.”

Space for storage and motor vehicles

Cairn Pacific and Capstone Partners aren’t the only developers at work in the area. At Northwest 21st Avenue and Quimby Street, Guardian Real Estate Services and Andersen are building a seven-story mixed-use tower. Designed by YBA Architects, the building will have 163 market-rate apartment units, 11,000 square feet of offices and 16,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

A nearby parcel was snatched up last week by a storage company, Security Public Storage-Portland LLC, for $8.75 million. The sale, brokered by CBRE Group, included two industrial buildings located at 2012 and 2050 N.W. Vaughn St.

The buildings are 25,500 and 28,456 square feet, respectively, on approximately 1.73 acres. The final sale price equated to a land value of more than $116 per square foot.

DiChiara said Cairn Pacific had the property under contract at one time, and was planning to build public storage units. But Cairn Pacific opted to focus on its other projects, he said.

“We couldn’t quite make sense of the economics,” he said.

DiChiara said he remains interested in doing more as the neighborhood develops.

“We’ll see what happens with the other real estate,” he said. “We’re certainly interested in being involved with more.”

The developments follow the Con-way master plan, adopted in 2012. XPO Logistics has taken over Con-way’s existing facilities.

John Bradley, planning committee chairman of the Northwest Neighborhood Association, said area residents have enjoyed a good working relationship with Cairn Pacific. The neighborhood association includes residents with professional expertise in architecture, land-use planning and law, he said.

Cairn Pacific “came in early, and they’re willing to listen,” Bradley said. “I think most of our concerns are traffic concerns. These were and still are fairly small streets.”

Bradley also noted that developers are pursuing market-rate housing to the exclusion of affordable units.

“It’s important to us to see a little bit of low-income housing, and most of what we’re seeing is market rate,” he said. “It just doesn’t seem like we’ve got a handle on how to (build) anything else but market rate, but hopefully that’ll change.”

The post Transformation of a neighborhood appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

In less than two years since Cairn Pacific was formed by Tom DiChiara and his longtime business partner Rob Hinnen, the firm has managed to achieve the kind of success it takes most development companies decades to reach.

The duo’s company recently wrapped up two high-profile projects – the LL Hawkins mixed-use multifamily building and a renovation of a 1950s warehouse core and shell for Slabtown Marketplace – on portions of the 25-acre Con-way site in Northwest Portland.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” DiChiara said. “As with any startup, we’ve had our challenges, but we were fortunate to start with LL Hawkins and Slabtown cued up.”

DiChiara is an architect by trade, so he handles project aspects – conceptualization, basic underwriting, and oversight of architecture and construction – that place him squarely in a position as the face of Cairn Pacific. But he’s quick to point out that Hinnen’s background as an attorney and his handling of the financial details of projects along with principal Scott Eaton’s business development efforts are critical to Cairn Pacific’s success.

“(Our) different skill sets all work pretty well together,” DiChiara said.

DiChiara and Hinnen began working together about 13 years ago, handling residential projects for Trammell Crow Residential. They both eventually joined C.E. John, and helped the company develop a plan for the Con-way site. Plans for three projects on the site were under way, DiChiara said, when C.E. John decided to step away from larger-mixed use developments.  DiChiara and Hinnen, however, weren’t ready to walk away from the projects.

“We decided it was time to branch out and build our own destiny,” DiChiara said. “We had a lot of passion and blood, sweat and tears to make (the projects) happen.”

While he and Hinnen are well acquainted the ins-and-outs of development, they still learned some new lessons with the LL Hawkins and Slabtown Market projects.

“It’s different,” DiChiara said. “When it’s your own company and your own money, you look at things differently.”

Cairn Pacific’s forward momentum doesn’t show any signs of slowing soon. From an office with just Hinnen and DiChaira, the company has grown to its current staff of six people. The company also is moving forward with its next project at the Con-Way site.

“T��� next deals, they feel like they’ve been a long time coming,” DiChiara said. ‘We’re getting ready to start up in about three months.”

The post Newsmakers 2016: Tom DiChiara & Cairn Pacific appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.