The new owner of the defunct Concordia University campus plans to resell the property.

The Lutheran Church Extension Fund, which purchased the property June 29, has enlisted an agent, Mike Holzgang, executive vice president at Colliers International in Portland, to work alongside Foundry Commercial to market and sell the real estate.

The fund purchased the property for $3 million at a Multnomah County foreclosure auction, OPB reported. The fund is a nonprofit that supports the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod’s workers, congregations and organizations.

Concordia closed in spring 2020 amid a raft of financial and legal problems. The campus was founded in 1905.

The property occupies 24 acres in Northeast Portland between Dekum and Holman streets and 27th and 30th avenues.

Potential uses of the property are limited by its campus institution zoning. Education and medical centers are among the allowed uses, with height limits up to 75 feet with no bonuses available, Portland city planner Tom Armstrong stated in an email.

The property is most likely to go to an institutional buyer, Holzgang said.

“It’s campus institutional zoning, so the primary focus is for other universities, colleges and the like that would have an interest,” he said.

The property includes more than 300,000 square feet of buildings and an athletics field. The area has a large footprint within Portland’s urban growth boundary, Holzgang said.

Holzgang would not disclose a price, saying that’s a discussion to be had with prospective buyers.

“It’s a one-of-a-kind property,” he said.

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Concordia University is ramping up to become a bigger player in the ultra-competitive health care education field. A renovation of an existing building, at the university’s Columbia River campus in Northeast Portland, is under way in order to add space and technology for the nursing program.

The 41,000-square-foot structure, at first a Best Buy store and later an office building, is being converted into a new Nursing Innovation Center. Mackenzie is designing the project, which is being built by general contractor Union Corner Construction of Vancouver, Washington. Interface Engineering is taking care of mechanical and electrical needs.

Work began recently, and completion is scheduled for January 2020. The project’s design has already made an impact.

“I’m really impressed,” said Shawn Daley, Concordia’s chief business development officer. “They’re putting into place things that will help educators do research.”

The center represents a renewed push into nursing for Concordia, which has the largest enrollment of a private nonprofit university in Oregon. The school in 2017 opened the 12,000-square-foot Nursing Skills Center, and is planning to soon expand its offering of nursing degrees.

To accommodate new programs and students, the building is gaining a variety of technological and educational improvements, including six simulation rooms that will replicate surgery, OB-GYN and other medical scenarios. There will also be community health rooms that look like apartments, to simulate in-home visits.

“We kind of have to set this up like a mini-hospital,” Mackenzie design director Monty Hill said. “When the nursing students come in, they feel like they’re really in that situation.”

Walls will be built to separate the rooms, and they will be topped off with ceilings as well. Daley said the original plan was to leave them open up top for observation, but the simulations create so much noise that each room needs to be somewhat isolated.

Simulations will involve professional actors performing various scenarios a nurse might encounter in a workplace, and so a studio will be built in which actors will be able to rehearse. The desire to make simulations as realistic as possible inspired the design team to incorporate working toilets in each room, and Daley said the plumbing for that might present a challenge.

Taking realism even further, a separate corridor will be built for the actors to enter simulation and changing rooms, so they don’t interact with students outside of their characters. Hill said he’s toured every nursing school in Oregon and has never seen such a corridor.

Concordia started its nursing program 10 years ago, and has since received both state and national accreditation. Daley said the school early on was graduating about 40 nursing students each year. That number has since increased to around 200 per year, but Daley said more are needed.

“Adding just another 10 students is not going to make much of a dent,” he said.

Supplying the world with more nurses naturally requires more education, and Daley said the Columbia River campus, located slightly east of Interstate 205, was the best choice – primarily because of the availability of space.

Though completion of the Nursing Innovation Center is still several months away, Daley said even before then classes will take place inside the building in some capacity.

While Hill has worked on many health care facilities in his career, he said he only recently joined Mackenzie, and Concordia is one of the firm’s first clients with such a project.

“I think they’re going to be one of the most advanced nursing schools in the state,” he said. “We’re excited to be a part of it.”

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The partnership between Faubion School and Concordia University started by proximity. Faubion, a pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school in Northeast Portland, has been located since the 1950s across the street from Concordia, which has offered a four-year college curriculum since the 1970s.

Then, about eight years ago, students in Concordia’s College of Education thought to visit Faubion to build teaching experience. A $49 million project funded by the 2012 Portland Public Schools bond is helping fuse the two institutions even further – by literally adding a wing of Concordia onto a new Faubion now being built by Todd Construction.

“We haven’t found another school of this kind where it’s a university program fully integrated with an elementary school,” said Erik Gerding, PPS’ capital project director. “Here, their classrooms will literally be on the same hall.”

Joint venture

Officials call the Concordia-Faubion educational initiative “3 to Ph.D,” with the “3” representing the third trimester of pregnancy.

The partnership started out one-way, with it primarily benefiting the college students, according to Gary Withers, Concordia’s chief strategic relations officer. Some colleges of education have teaching “laboratories” to help their students develop as teachers. It’s an approach similar to the one used by a teaching hospital like Oregon Health & Science University.

After Concordia established a beachhead at Faubion, members of its Athlete Corps – varsity athletes of all majors – started volunteering at recess. They brought “hundreds” of new kid-focused games, and effectively ended the Darwinian free-for-all.

“They pretty much got rid of all office referrals and discipline,” Withers said.

The relationship grew, and when the 2012 PPS bond was being written, Concordia came forward to offer to help pay for a new facility and integrate its College of Education with Faubion, and other community aid organizations.

This arrangement presented an interesting challenge for the designer – Bora Architects – and the project’s Design Advisory Group. The vision called for a structure with multiple uses – offices, health clinic, elementary school – and features not found at other schools. There are areas for kids to take showers and clean their clothes. The dean’s office and those of program directors are next door to the principal and Faubion administrators. The design incorporates heightened security measures, like high-tech cameras and a key-card entry system.

Also unique are the faculty studios, which will be shared by Faubion teachers and Concordia faculty.

“The idea is there’s a lot more collaboration,” said Ayana Horn, project coordinator for PPS.

And lots of mental energy went into engineering for seismic soundness. The new Faubion is being built in and around eight shear walls, some held by footers 40 feet by 40 feet, and so full of rebar “you could hardly fit any concrete in,” according to Darren Lee, senior construction manager for owner’s representative Heery.

A school-based health clinic will be located on the ground floor. The college paid for the area, and the partnership is finalizing a management agreement with an undisclosed entity to run it.

Trillium Family Services will operate mental health counseling, with a specialist contracted for the first two years. A “food club” sponsored by Pacific Foods and Whole Foods, will sell food to high-need community members at prices that essentially cover only transportation costs.

“There’s a pretty amazing need out there,” Gerding said.

A demonstration kitchen near the cafeteria will be used for cooking classes. Those programs are often provided to high school-aged children, but administrators have learned the lessons are equally valuable to Faubion students.

“It’s bringing life skills to middle school kids,” Gerding said. “Sometimes we have seventh- (and) eighth-graders go home and they’re the ones who are cooking food for their siblings.”

A fresh start

Right now, the replacement project is about halfway through its two-year timeline. The focus now is on completing installation of the interior framing and mechanical, electrical and plumbing elements before more precipitation falls.

The Faubion project is one of four big ones funded by the $482 million bond. The others are modernizations of Franklin, Roosevelt and Grant high schools. Faubion, Franklin and Roosevelt are active projects, and on track to open in fall 2017, according to district officials. Grant is in design.

The old Faubion was afflicted by problems common to older schools – leaky roof, lead, asbestos and seismic concerns. Officials felt it best to demolish and start over. Construction of a whole new facility also settled some community members’ nerves, said Ken Fisher, program manager for Lake Oswego-based Heery.

“You can be absolutely sure there will be none of those problems,” he said. “Everything’s going well. We’re on schedule to open (in fall 2017). Demolition went great.”

The project team is targeting a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold rating, so around 90 percent of demolished materials were recycled, some creatively. An old sequoia tree that had to be removed is being made into benches, tables and other furniture. Like at other bond-funded projects, the school’s old logo from the middle of its basketball court is being preserved in the new building.

The old Faubion School served one last function for its community before it came down. First responders from about 10 agencies used the building for training – smoking it out to test firefighters in realistic emergency conditions, and otherwise allowing agencies to run roughshod over it for a few weeks. The project has also necessitated the removal of three adjacent homes owned by Concordia (one remains to be moved).

But before any of that could happen, Faubion students had to relocate to Tubman Middle School near the Lloyd District. And before that, Tubman had to be updated (using bond money).

The design process was unusually long for Faubion – 16 months and dozens of community and parent meetings. The finished product will be an airy and spacious building illuminated by light wells and an entryway atrium open 50 feet to the top. Classrooms will have some of the best views in the PPS system. Those on the top two floors will face three Cascade Range mountains – Hood, St. Helens and Adams.

The 133,000-square-foot structure is three stories except for Concordia’s two-story south wing. The new play field will stay in about the same spot, but feature a unique concrete path that’s more like a sidewalk than a track. A play area in the rear of the site will have an interactive water feature. The team decided to use lots of solar to achieve LEED gold – ample photovoltaic cells on the roof and a solar water heating system.

The project started at $48 million and then escalated to $49 million. Concordia’s contribution is $15.5 million (all donations). Hard construction costs total $37 million. It was a hard-bid project with a two-step process. Five firms submitted qualified packages, with Todd Construction eventually winning. The contractor has had between 70 and 90 people working on the project since it began.

The site, at Northeast Dekum Street and 30th Avenue, was once a farm. Excavators have found evidence of this in bottles now arrayed outside one of the job trailers on-site. There’s no tower crane; crews are using two mobile, mud-caked lifts.

“Remember all this mud when you come back on opening day,” Fisher said.

Faubion School replacement

Size: 133,000 square feet

Cost: $49 million

Owner’s representative: Heery International

Contractor: Todd Construction

Architect: Bora Architects

Excavation: Coffman Excavation

Steel framing: Volk Steel Erectors

Roofing: Snyder

Mechanical: Robert Lloyd Sheet Metal

Electrical: Prairie Electric

Plumbing: Tapani Plumbing

Metal siding: Martin Sheet Metal

CMU and brickwork: Klinger Masonry

Landscaping: Dennis’ 7 Dees

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A Northeast Portland big-box space, with its distinctive blue and yellow exterior, may still look like it houses former retail tenant Best Buy. But inside, workers are transforming it into Concordia University’s Columbia River campus – including a homeland security simulation center.

“It was a total gut,” said Rick Porter, owner of Union Corner Construction, the project’s general contractor. “Everything had to be changed and brought up to the new codes. That’s kind of it.”

The building’s exterior will soon gain a new paint job. And within six weeks, the interior will be converted into a mix of cubicle spaces to serve online degree programs, classroom space for the Graduate School of Education and a $1 million simulation center.

“We’re (installing) tons of electrical and miles of Cat 6 cable wire for data and computers and all that,” Porter said. “It will be a high-tech building. It will be state of the art.”

The big-box space lent itself to an easier conversion process, said Denny Stoecklin, Concordia’s chief financial officer.

“It was a blank canvas,” he said. “It was helpful that there was not a whole lot there.”

The simulation center will serve homeland security students, as well as first responders of local, state and federal agencies, Stoecklin said. Its numerous life-and-death scenarios will include an airplane crash in an urban area and an on-campus shooter. Six participants plus one incident commander will be able to take part in field operations in the main simulation room, plus a separate command room.

The 25-foot-by-35-foot simulation room will have a 180-degree screen with multiple video projectors to give participants almost a real-world view of what is being projected. Gunfire and explosions will be muted by soundproofed walls, said Scott Winegar, director of Concordia’s homeland security degree program.

“It is intended to provide real-life emergency management training,” he said. “It will have a surround-sound theater so you can visually see an event unfold.”

The simulation center will be constructed according to specific criteria, including ceiling height, wall curvature, data requirements and soundproofing. Two full racks of servers were needed.

“When you take the wires and run them to the hardware, it is a pretty significant difference from what you normally see in a classroom environment,” Stoecklin said. “There will be a degree of interaction and reaction to what’s happening.”

Concordia contracted with Orlando-based Environmental Tectonics Corp. to provide a custom design for the simulation center, Winegar said.

“As far as simulators for disaster management, they’re probably the leading consultants,” he said. “They have their systems installed throughout the world.”

The building’s proximity to Portland International Airport and hotels presents an attractive leasing option, Winegar said. Full-day use of the simulation center for up to 20 people will cost $3,500.

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The work of two Portland-area firms was dedicated last week in Boise, Idaho. The law school for Portland-based Concordia University opened this fall with 73 students in its inaugural class. Portland firm Group MacKenzie and Vancouver, Wash., firm Union Corner Construction worked on the project.

Concordia University purchased the Boise property for the new law school in 2010. The building originally was a 16,000-square-foot warehouse that the previous owner had turned into office space. That building was renovated into a law library, and a 35,000-square-foot building for classrooms and offices was constructed next to it. In total, the property spans 52,000 square feet. The cost for the project, including the property purchase and hard and soft construction costs, was about $10 million.

Since a large portion of downtown Boise uses geothermal energy, the geothermal line was extended about a block and a half to be used at the law school, according to Concordia CFO Dennis Stoeklin. The university expects the building will achieve a LEED silver or LEED gold certification.

Concordia is a private, Lutheran university with about 1,700 students on its Portland campus. The law school will serve 350 students once it is fully enrolled in two years.

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After long delays for a proposed $185 million waterfront development in Oregon City, a new potential suitor has emerged for the 92-acre Clackamette Cove site.

At a recent urban renewal commission meeting, developers Ed Darrow and Randy Tyler gave an update on their project; however, Concordia University representatives also expressed interest in expanding into Oregon City and onto the site. Although details are sparse, university administrators say their project could bring as many as 300 family-wage jobs to the city.

Four years ago, Darrow and Tyler were selected by the city to turn the publicly owned property into a mix of apartments, condominiums and commercial space with the help of $10 million in urban renewal money. Then two delays occurred, after the economy took a nosedive and a few project partners backed out.

After reworking project phasing during the past year and securing a new financial partner – – the developers last week met with city officials to request an extension to an Oct. 30 deadline in order to work out final details.

City officials in the next month will consider both the developers’ project changes and interest expressed by Concordia University.

According to city councilor Jim Nicita, who serves on the city’s urban renewal commission and has served as a liaison between the city and the university, Concordia would use the site to house a federally accredited Homeland Security training center. A large, conference-style education facility and a simulation center would be included, he said.

In addition, Concordia would partner with Growth Design Corp., a company that helps businesses grow and has searched for space in Oregon City. According to Nicita, the company was looking at the former Blue Heron mill site, but has since turned its attention toward the cove site.

Madeline Turnock, spokeswoman for Concordia University, said the school’s interest in the Cove project is still preliminary. The university hasn’t decided whether to expand beyond its location in Northeast Portland.

“Concordia’s … letter of interest is an earliest expression of interest, following an inquiry by Oregon City into the university’s potential interest in local property,” Turnock said. “The university would follow its own internal strategic planning process and (long-range visioning plan) in determining whether or not to pursue any potential expansion opportunities.”

Oregon City Mayor Doug Neeley acknowledged that the idea is interesting, but that right now it is only an idea.

“It’s only a letter,” he said. “We haven’t seen anything in terms of an actual plan, and until we do, we can’t really discuss it as part of the development.”

The biggest question is whether the university’s project would replace the Cove development plan or accompany it. The city has invested $3 million in the present project. If councilors were to approve the rephased plan pitched by the developers, the city would need to contribute $7 million more for the project.

So far, the university has communicated with only Nicita and another city commissioner, Kathy Roth, about the Cove project. Both Darrow and Tyler said they’ve been focused exclusively on changes to their project. They knew of the letter of interest, but had not talked with the university yet.

The developers say office space could be available to suit Concordia. A few years ago, Kaiser Permanente expressed interest in locating a medical facility on the site, but according to Darrow, the company backed out because of economic conditions. Darrow said that plans presently call for two office facilities – one 80,000 square feet and one 58,000 square feet.

“We’re open to work with different entities, but as of right now we are focused on moving forward with the residential phase of the project,” Darrow said.

The other issue that could arise is that Concordia University, as a faith-based educational institution, could be subject to some sort of property tax abatement. So, it wouldn’t increase the tax base, which is the main purpose of urban renewal.

David Frasher, Oregon City manager, said he wasn’t sure what would happen with the university. But he added that in his initial discussions with Growth Design Corp., the company indicated that it wouldn’t seek a property tax exemption and wouldn’t ask for urban renewal money.

“We are more mindful than most about our property tax base … because we have a lot of tax-exempt public facilities already,” he said.

Frasher added that more details are likely to emerge in the coming weeks. He expects the city to resume regular meetings with the project developers within the month, at which time they will likely discuss interest from Concordia University and Growth Design Corp.

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As Concordia University officials geared up to break ground on their new $7.5 million Community Athletic Complex, they encountered an ethical dilemma: Is it OK to simply destroy the 30 or so homes on the site, or is there a better option?

For the small Christian university, the answer was simple: Find a better option, or in this case, options.

So the group decided that the homes, which must be cleared from the two-block site in Northeast Portland by the end of the month, will be reused, recycled or become a training ground for firefighters, said Denny Stoecklin, the school’s chief financial officer.

“We’re moving about nine of the homes off-site to new locations, where they will be used as affordable housing,” Stoecklin said. “We’ve deconstructed some others that we plan to recycle. And the rest will be used by Portland Fire and Rescue and Portland Community College as part of their ‘burn to learn’ program.”

The repurposed 1940s-style bungalow houses will be moved by Encore Development and Homes Worth Keeping LLC to various parts of the city, where they will be used to help low-income families.

“They’re doing this at their own expense – which is kind of an amazing story in itself,” said Madeline Turnock, a spokeswoman for the college. “We made great efforts to preserve the homes and we’re glad that they can be used again.”

Four of the homes were taken down by The ReBuilding Center, a nonprofit that will resell the materials for use in home repair or remodeling projects, and seven other homes were demolished and materials were recycled.

The other 10 homes will be used by the Portland Fire and Rescue Bureau and Portland Community College for controlled burns as part of firefighter training before they are also demolished and recycled at the end of the month.

“They’ll learn how to abate problems. They’ll do things like set a fire in a back bedroom, put it out, set it again and teach firefighters various ways to deal with situations,” Stoecklin said. “They’ll do that on site until we’re ready to break ground.”

The official ground-breaking event is on Feb. 24. Contractor Union Corner Construction Inc. of Vancouver, Wash., will then start to build the new multipurpose complex.

The facility, set to open sometime this fall, will include a 145,000-square-foot soccer and baseball field, stands, dugouts and indoor training and team rooms, said Rick Porter, president of Union Corner Construction.

“Our goal is to have everything finished by early fall,” Porter said. “We haven’t tried to finalize the schedule yet, though, because the university is still working out a few of the details.”

The university has raised about $1 million for the facility and plans to ramp up fundraising efforts soon. In the meantime, there is sufficient money for the project to get under way, Stoecklin said.

The school has been buying up properties on the site for the past 30 years, and because of the bad economy, it was able to buy the last home on the site within the last 18 months, he said.

“I’ve been here for 26 years and we’ve been working on it that entire time,” Stoecklin said, adding that it’s difficult to determine the exact cost over time for the school to buy all the properties. “I think the first one I bought was around $35,000, and the last one was about $350,000, which tells you something about rising home prices.”

The complex will be a boon for the school’s athletic programs. Right now, the university’s soccer and baseball teams must travel across town to Delta Park to compete, Turnock said.

“For the last two to three years our students have spent approximately 1,000 hours a year just traveling back and forth to games,” Turnock said. “This will be great for them, but we also want to stress that it’s a community facility. It will be a place where people from the Northeast Portland community can enjoy a game, come be fans and also use the field.”

University teams have reserved about half of the field time for play and practice, and the other half will go to the community for use in summer camps, community sports and as a recreational area, she said.

The school also has an agreement with the neighborhood so it can light the field into the evenings for games.

The field will be synthetic turf and will be lit using energy-efficient, high-tech lighting that minimizes light pollution in the neighborhood, Stoecklin said.

“We’re really looking forward to having our new field and facility all ready to go,” he said. “When our students return from summer break at the end of August, we think they’ll be excited to see the athletic complex well on the way to completion.”

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Portland-based Concordia University on Friday completed the property purchase for a new law school in Boise, Idaho.

The property, at 501 Front Street, is the site of the future Concordia University School of Law.

“We’ve actually acquired a building and a site,” said Dennis, Stoecklin, CFO for Concordia University.

The existing two-story, 17,000-square-foot building on the site will be renovated into a law library. An additional three-story, 38,000-square-foot  building will be constructed for classrooms and offices.

The total cost for the project, including property acquisition, renovation and construction, is $8.5 million, Stoecklin said.

Group Mackenzie is the architect for the project, and Union Corner Construction is the general contractor. All jobs and subcontractors are expected to be chosen from the Boise area.

Union Corner Construction is involved with other Concordia University projects, said Union Corner Construction president Rick Porter. The contractor finished the Portland campus’s library last year, and it plans to start construction this month on a soccer and baseball stadium that will take up two Portland city blocks.

Concordia is a private, Lutheran university with about 1,700 students on its Portland campus. The university has been planning to open a law school in Boise for more than two years, Stoecklin said. The university has philanthropic support in Idaho, and the city of Boise has been actively trying to attract a law school program, Stoecklin said.

The law school in Boise is expected to open in August 2011.

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Portland-based Concordia University has found a potential home for its first law school in Idaho.

The university has an initial agreement to purchase property at 501 Front Street in Boise, , a sister publication of the Daily Journal of Commerce. Concordia plans to open the law school next year.

Concordia, a private, Christian, liberal arts university, serves about 1,700 students on its Portland campus. It plans to open its law school in Idaho next year.

The university says it considered about 40 potential sites for the law school during the past year before deciding on the Front Street building. The purchase is expected to close by April 2010, following a period of due diligence. Colliers International is the real estate broker on the transaction, according to the Idaho Business Review.

The building is a two-story, 17,000-square-foot brick building. Concordia will keep the existing structure and add another 30,000 square feet of space to meet the law school’s need for classrooms, offices and amenities. Union Corner Construction, the general contractor, plans to source all jobs and subcontractors from the local Boise area.

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Two houses are being moved from the north side of the Concordia University campus to make room for a new athletic complex that will cover four square blocks. The houses, owned by the dean of the university, are being transported five blocks, and will receive new foundations, new utility lines and a bio-swale for site drainage. Mechanical, electrical and cosmetic upgrades are also planned for the houses, which will be used as off-campus student rentals. Two new detached garages also will be added. General contractor duties were performed via a joint venture between Pillar Development and SKS Development. Northwest Structural Moving transported the houses.

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