A 97-year-old single-story warehouse slightly north of Portland’s Pearl District has received several renovations over the years. The latest one might be the most extensive.

The Premier Gear & Machine Works building, on nearly a full block bounded by Northwest 17th and 18th avenues and Savier and Thurman streets, is being gutted and transformed into creative office space. Sturgeon Development Partners is the developer. The project team includes LRS Architects, Lorentz Bruun Construction and Catena Consulting Engineers.

“Overall it’s an addition, square foot wise because we’re adding a second level,” Lorentz Bruun Construction project engineer Mark Drahota said. “Right now it’s about 40,000 square feet, and with the second level we’re going to add roughly 15-20,000 more square feet, so it will be roughly 60,000 square feet when it’s all said and done.”

The adaptive reuse project includes a substantial seismic upgrade. Steel, buckling-restrained brace frames and shear walls were installed to connect the roof to the rest of the building.

The outside of the building is not going to experience wholesale change. That’s reserved for the interior, where crews are adding a mezzanine level, new entrances, new windows for the south side of the building and a large covered outdoor terrace.

The new design incorporates the building’s original features and pays tribute to the legacy throughout the additional space, which is being constructed with heavy timber – mainly glulam beams and columns and Douglas fir car decking flooring on the mezzanine level.

An elevated sky-bridge will connect the north and south halves of the mezzanine level, while an outdoor patio for tenant use will be notched into the building on the south side.

Construction crews are continuing to encounter remnants of previous building expansions, Drahota said.

“As we’ve dug into the building we’ve found different issues, old-school stuff,” he said. “That’s definitely been the biggest challenge.”

Different construction types were used for each project, leading to some unique discoveries last summer during the demolition and abatement phase.

“There was asbestos abatement and little bit of lead abatement, but not very much,” Drahota said. “It was mostly just warehouse space, but there was some existing office space that had some stuff we had to do. But it definitely had to be taken care of. It was a lot of work to remove all the existing beams and clear the space.”

The building’s south side featured newer concrete tilt panels, but the older north side was mostly board-formed with a heavy timber interior. The latter featured some hefty 14-inch-by-30-inch solid Douglas fir beams carved from old growth that is long since gone.

“It’s a menagerie of styles,” Lorentz Bruun project superintendent Bruce Fabian said.

Approximately 150 window openings had to be cut into the existing concrete exterior walls as part of demolition, according to Fabian.

“At one we had four saws running at one time just to make schedule,” he said.

Then there are vintage overhead gantry cranes, including at least three that formerly graced the warehouse. One will remain on its rails as a reminder of earlier times.

“A lot of the crane rails were supported by timbers, as well, and we actually left some of those existing crane rails up,” Drahota said.

But now, carpenters with Framing Force of Molalla are installing the last of the car decking flooring and glulam beams, while mechanical, electrical and plumbing subcontractors prep for rough-in work. Crews with Nuwave Concrete of Forest Grove are also on site finishing the massive new floor slab.

Other members of the project team include: Humber Design Group, which performed civil engineering; MFIA Inc., which carried out MEP design and engineering; and Shapiro Didway Landscape Architecture.

Project completion is scheduled for June 2020, although the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to that date changing.

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An upcoming adaptive reuse project will convert a former machine shop slightly north of the Pearl District into a creative office space with nods to the building’s industrial past.

The building encompasses nearly a full block on a parcel bounded by Northwest 17th and 18th avenues and Savier and Thurman streets, and for decades was occupied by a machine shop that now operates in Canby. Sturgeon Development Partners purchased the building in 2017 and will name it the Premier Gear & Machine Works building after its former longtime occupant.

A core and shell improvement to the building – actually multiple structures that have been added over the course of the past 100 years – is slated to begin this month. Lorentz Bruun Construction is the general contractor for the LRS Architects-designed project.

The renovation will update the space to highlight the building’s industrial past, including old-growth timber beams, sawtooth skylights and crane equipment. Existing crane rails will remain in place throughout the building, two of which will be repurposed to support a bridge connecting two areas of an added second level.

“There’s all kinds of amazing machinery and equipment in there that we are cleaning and repurposing, and it will be part of the building structure,” said Vanessa Sturgeon of Sturgeon Development Partners.

The new second level will add approximately 28,000 square feet to the existing 39,000-square-foot structure. The mezzanine level will open to the ground floor and be built with heavy timber and tongue-and-groove decking. The building’s second floor will feature a 555-square-foot covered outdoor terrace.

The building will undergo a full structural upgrade that will include new CMU shear walls, steel buckling restrained brace frames, new roof diaphragms and out-of-plane anchorage between the walls and floor and roof diaphragm. The project will also include new openings in existing concrete wall panels, added skylights, entries, and new windows, installation of an elevator, restrooms, and bicycle storage.

The core and shell work is expected to last through late fall. The final 65,000-square-foot space will be dividable, but Sturgeon isn’t ruling out just one lease.

“It would be great if we were able to get one tenant for the entire building,” she said. “Right now we’re marketing it to any tenant that is interested in the space.”

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Portland’s oldest commercial building is receiving a major renovation intended to restore the look and feel of the original brick masonry and cast iron.

Owner John Russell has tapped Emerick Architects and Bremik Construction to conduct historically sensitive improvements to the Hallock-McMillan building at Southwest Naito Parkway and Oak Street.

The Hallock-McMillan building was completed in 1857 – two years before Oregon became a state – but hasn’t had a tenant since Peter Corvallis Productions left about 15 years ago, Russell said.

Bremik has removed the east-facing façade. Much of the original brick was salvaged and will be restored, and a moment frame will be added to bolster strength.

Russell envisions a creative-office tenant occupying the two-story, 5,000-square-foot building.

“The tenant has to want visibility and values that, and the prestige of a building of real significance,” he said.

The Hallock-McMillan building was designed and developed by architect, surveyor and engineer Absalom B. Hallock in a short-lived partnership with contractor William McMillan. The east façade used cast iron to support three large arches. The wood and glass entrance is more than 10 feet tall. Some of Portland’s earliest structural brick was used in the building. The project team is looking to protect the historic brick from moisture, possibly by using a clear coating product, said Aaron Vogel, a project manager with Bremik Construction.

After the building was completed, Hallock moved his own office into the ground floor. He rented the top floor at one time to an agent of the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. Hallock lived on the second floor at times, according to materials from the Oregon Historical Society.

The project team has found photos of the building from circa 1870.

“We’re going back to try to create the original look and feel of the façade,” said Keith Daily of Emerick Architects. “You’ll get the old-school warehouse look as much as we can.”

Russell, a longtime figure in Portland’s commercial real estate industry, owns five buildings on the same block. Their common ownership enables the project to link the Hallock-McMillan building to its neighbors, the Dielschneider and Fechheimer buildings.

On the south side facing Oak Street, a new glass façade and stairway will join the Hallock-McMillan building with the neighboring Dielschneider building to the west.

A second phase will involve additional seismic bracing. In the event of an earthquake, the three buildings will support each other, Vogel said.

Russell has planned the project for years after purchasing the Hallock-McMillan building in 2010. Nearby development, including Wyndham Resort Development Corp.‘s 75-unit vacation time-share project at 221 S.W. Naito Parkway, helped spur Russell to go ahead. There are also plans for numerous properties in the area owned by the Goodman family’s Downtown Development Group.

“I wish all of these blocks would be developed,” Russell said. “They will be.”

New office developments commanding about $40 per square foot are boosting rates for older office space, Russell said.

“It’s roaring and there’s what I call a price umbrella,” he said.

The Hallock-McMillan building could also host a small shop or restaurant, but the project team is moving forward with the intention of attracting a creative office tenant, Daily said.

For Russell, the project is more about preserving the history of the Victorian-era building.

“It’s more philanthropy than anything,” he said. “It’s such an important building.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“That’s always a possibility,” ODOT spokesman Don Hamilton said. “There’s nothing in the works on that right now.”

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Guerrilla Development‘s Fair-Haired Dumbbell has begun to attract a mix of hip retail shops and creative agencies drawn to the two colorful, connected buildings that were constructed in 2017.

Fifty percent of the 56,000 square feet of speculative office space is leased, Kevin Cavenaugh, principal of Guerrilla Development, stated in an email message.

The buildings opened for leasing amid strong competition in the Portland office market, and in particular the Central Eastside submarket, where developers are rushing to deliver projects.

Plastic Sunshine, a creative agency that offers brand, digital and activation services, has taken 2,000 square feet on the sixth floor of the north building.

TenPod, a co-working company, is taking the second floor of both buildings and will open in early June, Cavenaugh said. Fuzzco, another branding agency, also is an office tenant.

On the ground floor, Crema Coffee plans to open soon. And 11:11, a new retailer of modern office furnishings, is also working toward opening.

The sixth floor of the south building and the fourth floor of both buildings are taken by tenants that Cavenaugh could not yet disclose.

The Fair-Haired Dumbbell has attracted outsized attention in part due to the exterior mural of vibrant, abstract paint designed by Los Angeles artist James Jean. Cavenaugh also became the first developer in Oregon to use an innovative crowdfunding model to attract small investors.

Several of the office spaces are being built out to suit tenants.

“While the Dumbbell looks slow and empty now, we have crews in there building out the office spaces as fast as we can,” Cavenaugh stated. “Tenants are ready and I’m trying to keep up.”

Plastic Sunshine moved into its space in January after searching for something suitable in a newly constructed building, said Danica Wilson, co-founder of the agency. Most of the available office space in Portland was arriving via adaptive reuse, she said.

“Everything looked like it was in the old, dark, converted warehouse-y buildings,” she said.

Wilson was attracted to the lighter, modern look of the Fair-Haired Dumbbell.

“For us, the building looked really odd from the outside, but from the inside the building is beautiful and full of light, which is key to our creative inspiration,” she said.

The Fair-Haired Dumbbell’s seismic resiliency was another strong selling point, Wilson said.

The building has no vehicle parking. Wilson said that hasn’t been an issue because of street parking existing nearby, employees commuting by bicycle and easy access from the Portland Streetcar.

11:11 started with a successful pop-up at The Cleaners – the Ace Hotel‘s rentable space. Plans call for the new store at the Fair-Haired Dumbbell to softly open May 31, with a grand opening June 21.

Paloma Medina, the store’s proprietor, said she looked for seven or eight months before finding the right spot for 11:11 in the Fair-Haired Dumbbell. She drove by the building several times and grew to enjoy the colorful exterior.

“I really wanted to hate the building, but I kind of love it,” she said.

The building was built by Andersen Construction, with a design by FFA Architecture and Interiors.

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A renovation under way at the historic Meier & Frank Building in downtown Portland will transform the former Macy’s department store space into one the most unique creative office spaces in the city. When completed next year, the building will feature office spaces with 40,000-square-foot floor plates and ceiling heights up to 19 feet.

The renovation is a joint development between Chicago-based Sterling Bay and KBS Realty Advisors of Newport Beach, California. The owners purchased the space from Macy’s last year for $54 million. It includes the building’s first five floors and 84,000 square feet of basement space; the building’s upper floors are occupied by The Nines hotel.

General contractor Turner Construction began interior demolition in May, and is now performing core and shell improvements. The scope of work includes installing a new lobby on Southwest Morrison Street, new and re-opened retail entries, and tenant amenity space on a below-grade floor that will include a lounge, private conference room, a catering kitchen, and bicycle commuter facilities. It will also feature a full-service fitness center with towel service, classes, and personal training.

The building was designed by A.E. Doyle, and is notable for being the first of many white glazed terra cotta structures to be erected in Portland. Bora Architects took inspiration from the ornamentation on the face of the building and brought some of those design ideas to the interior.

“We definitely were trying to borrow from this really beautiful history of the building in some of the details, and to add something modern but to make sure that it fit in with that context,” said Bora principal Amy Donohue.

New brass mesh screens that will be incorporated into several common areas in the building’s interior were derived from the patterns of exterior terra cotta, and match brass detailing around the elevators and inlays in the poured terrazzo flooring. An oversized clock that was synonymous with the old Meier & Frank store is being relocated from the center of the ground floor to the elevator lobby.

A pair of historic entries to the building – one each on Southwest Fifth and Sixth avenues – will be re-opened, and a canopy along Southwest Alder Street that has regularly been struck by delivery trucks will be reduced in depth from 12 feet to eight feet. Non-historic fabric awnings around the perimeter of the building will be removed, providing a better street-level view of the terra cotta façade and the ornate metal canopies.

Storefront improvements include taking window film and display windows away from the building’s edges, allowing light to penetrate into the retail spaces, and giving pedestrians a view inside for the first time ever.

On the building’s upper floors, light penetration will be increased thanks to the removal of multiple mechanical louvers that were installed during a 2006 renovation. They will be ganged together on the north side of the building so that as much vision glass as possible can be installed in their place.

With the unique offering of such large open floor plates, the owners are looking to ideally lease to tenants looing to take entire floors. The office spaces are being marketed a $37 per square foot, triple net. Core and shell work is slated for completion by April 2018, with tenant improvements to follow and office occupancy by next summer.

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