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 Oregon Museum of Science and Industry‘s (OMSI) plans for a new neighborhood district are moving forward.

The Prosper Portland Board of Commissioners on Wednesday authorized a term sheet with OMSI related to development plans for the OMSI District. The commission also approved an intergovernmental agreement with the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) for $10.9 million of Central Eastside Tax Increment Finance (TIF) resources, and up to $16.9 million if Prosper Portland and Business Oregon execute a $6 million grant.

Amy Nagy, development manager at Prosper Portland, said the term sheet provides the framework for private or public infrastructure and vertical development projects related to the OMSI District Central City Master Plan between Prosper Portland, the city of Portland and OMSI.

The intergovernmental agreement directs funding from Prosper Portland to PBOT for design, construction and management of New Water Avenue.

“OMSI has been a cultural attraction in the city since the 1950s,” Nagy said.

The museum moved from Washington Park to the Central Eastside in the early ’90s. It welcomes over 1 million visitors a year, hosts classroom and education opportunities for over 8,000 kids a year and partners with other museums in 15 different states, bringing different exhibits and learning opportunities, Nagy said.

In 2018, OMSI retained Edlen & Co. as its master developer and ZGF Architects to lead the Central City Master Plan process. In addition, Prosper Portland coordinated city bureau participation to support master plan development. OMSI’s plan for the District is intended to be an inclusive, vibrant new neighborhood and community destination. It includes a new waterfront education park featuring public green space, plazas, restored riparian and upland habitats, and outdoor science programming. Through its partnerships with the Indigenous and Tribal communities, a Native presence will be restored along the waterfront and within the built environment. The OMSI District will ultimately become home to 1,200 new residential units, with a goal of over one-third of them being affordable housing.

Prosper Portland partnered with city bureaus to negotiate the term sheet with OMSI to identify and invest in public and private infrastructure within the OMSI District over three phases. Construction of New Water Avenue and the Waterfront Education Park are key projects for Phase One. OMSI will also identify private development projects and build out 250,000 gross square feet of vertical development.

Phase Two is focused on feasibility, including a district parking solution and private development, and an agreement between the Portland Housing Bureau and OMSI to achieve the district’s affordable housing goals. Phase Three uses the feasibility findings to continue build out of the district

OMSI and the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission will issue a Request for Proposal for design of the waterfront. The project is scheduled to reach 30-percent design by March 2027 and funding by spring 2028.

Funding in the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) will support construction of New Water Avenue, which will become the primary multi-modal street dedicated to moving freight and accommodating a new two-way cycle track. Old Water Avenue will also require some street improvements to support the new alignment.

“New Water Avenue is going to be the nerve center of the district,” Nagy said. “It’s going to hold all new utilities, including water.”

OMSI, Prosper Portland and PBOT have been working to identify public resources to build the $30 million infrastructure project. Through the IGA, Prosper Portland is providing $10.9 million in Central Eastside TIF resources to PBOT for the design, construction and management of the project. The state of Oregon is providing an additional $11 million, including a recent allocation of $6 million through the State Infrastructure Fund.

The project partners will pursue money to cover the balance of the project cost through June 30, 2025. If unsuccessful, the term sheet identifies a waterfall approach to reduce infrastructure costs that culminates with OMSI agreeing to a local improvement district to cover the financial gap.

The estimated total project cost is $90 million, which does not include plans for parking.

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Oregon Museum of Science and Industry’s vision for its future one-of-a-kind neighborhood took its first steps in the review process on Thursday at the Portland Design Commission.

At full buildout, the 34-acre master plan area expects to be home to about 3.4 million square feet of mixed institutional, commercial, retail and residential development – including up to 1,200 units of housing, where at least 20 percent plan to be for low-income families.

The site spans over 10 city blocks from Clay Street to Caruthers Street in the city’s lower east side. It includes Portland Community College’s CLIMB center, a center for continuing learning for individuals, management and business, and Portland Opera’s Hampton Center. Both are members of the master plan’s development team, which Edlen & Co. is advising.

Commissioners remarked that plans are evolving in a positive path for the district since its previous Design Advice Requests in 2017 and 2019, but like most new Central City master plans further details still need to be flushed out. For example, the tract lengths.

Building Façade Lengths

If approved, the master plan would create eight new developable blocks “tracts” with total heights of 250 feet with bonuses, and podium heights of 50 feet. The tract closest to the river would have a max height of 75 feet. But due to the organic nature of the site caused by the Union Pacific Railway tracks to the east and the Willamette River on the west, the building sites are larger than most Portland city blocks – varying in length from 230 feet to 750 feet — and uniquely shaped.

Commissioner Jessica Molinar said some of the tracts have a potential of creating a “visual wall” between the city’s east and central eastside and the river.

ZGF’s Nolan Lienhart, director of planning and urban design, said rather than designating where the brakes in the wall needed to be they wanted to say, “here’s the limit” and then further define the criteria from there. In the case of the PCC-owned tract on the north end of the site that has a 750-foot length, each building’s facade built upon it would be limited up to 250-feet in length.

Commissioner Don Vallaster said while a fair amount of developmental flexibility is needed because they are “really weird, shaped blocks,” there does need to be more of a limit on the building’s lengths. Currently, the PCC tract is the only one that has one.

All three existing institutional partners — OMSI, PCC and Portland Opera — plan to continue and expand their current programs within the plan area. The Portland Opera is planning a new landmark building to exist on its Opera Tract 1 site as a performing arts center.

Adjustments

The development team is seeking five adjustments to the building line standards for the site that dictate how much of the buildings needs to be pulled to the sidewalk’s edge. They are requesting that this requirement be reduced for most of the tracts from the 75 percent standard in the central eastside to 50 percent or 0 percent and have a landscaped edge instead for some.

“Because these tracks have irregular shapes and are larger than the standard city blocks,” ZGF Architects Associate Kate Brooks said, “we wanted to provide more flexibility along the tract edges.”

Ben Nielsen, senior city planner, said his first inclination was that maybe these adjustment requests were asking for too much, but agreed that it would make sense since these tracts are generally larger.

The team is also requesting three adjustments to the parking and loading access standards primarily to allow access to the different street segments the new master plan would connect too.

New Street Structure

Currently, the only roads within the site are Water Avenue, which goes past the PCC building and straight into an OMSI parking lot, and Loop Road that circles a parking lot. To accommodate future freight and commuter traffic, the master plan would add a new street that runs the length of the site and parallel to the tracks.

A new street — New Water Avenue — would be the new main arterial in and out of the area and would take hold of the Major City Bikeway designation that that exists for the current Water Avenue.

The existing Water Avenue would remain, but it be renamed to “Old Water Avenue” and be more of a quieter, slower neighborhood street.

A Return

As of Thursday’s hearing, the Portland Bureau of Transportation had not yet completed the traffic impact analysis for the new district due to a filing error by the applicant. As such, a continuation hearing was scheduled for the review and tentatively set for October.

Commissioners said they hope the project team will return with more details, including an outlined phasing approach for the open space and how wayfinding will look within the master plan area.

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Five years ago, PAE Engineers, ZGF Architects, Edlen & Co., and Walsh Construction set out to construct a building able to meet today’s most advanced sustainability metrics.

In November 2021, they completed that building.

Now, the team must wait for a full year of operation and data collection before receiving word if the PAE Living Building has successfully achieved the International Living Future Institute’s Living Building Challenge.

Systems inside the building allow it to produce its electricity, capture and treat all its water, operate efficiently, and more. But to solve big challenges, the project team first needed to turn to the little details.

One valve after another

In the back of the PAE Living Building, on the ground floor, is the mechanical room. In the far corner are two rows of tall, blue composting machines – each capable of holding five gallons of liquid waste. Above each of the 20 composters is a black-and-yellow valve.

After a 70-gallon sump fills with waste from toilets (about once per day from typical use), one composter’s valve opens for 10 seconds – waste pumps in – and then closes. The valve at the next composter then follows suit, and on down the line until the sump is empty. The system ensures that each composter fills evenly.

“If you use one composter too much, you can overload it, and then just like backyard compost would turn into a wet soggy mess,” PAE principal and lead engineer Marc Brune said. “It’s even worse here.”

The setup also allows the composters to be at the back of the building. The project team could have relied on gravity instead of pumps, ZGF principal Justin Brooks said, but that would have required alignment of the restrooms and the composters throughout the building and thus a restricted floor plan.

Project financing relied on investments, so it was important for the structure to perform not only sustainably but also economically. A 2,365-square-foot mechanical room did not help the cause. However, use of a nutrient recovery system created more leasable space.

All liquid from the urinals drains into the system, beginning with a 1,000-gallon collection tank. The liquid then runs through a distillation column (about once a month), which separates the leachate from the urine and creates both liquid and powder fertilizers that will be sold.

Without separation of the urine from the urinals and the waste from the toilets, the building would have needed 23 composters, Brune said. Each composter costs substantially more than $10,000, said Ed Sloop, chief estimator for Walsh Construction, so use of just 20 represented a significant cost savings.

As far as the project team knows, no other Living Building has a nutrient recovery system.

Nuances in materials

Holding the 58,000-square-foot structure together are cross-laminated timber panels, glulam structural columns, and beams with concrete shear walls in the center for additional reinforcement.

“It’s basically a wood building wrapped around a concrete building,” Sloop said.

So, when it came to the stairway that travels up the center of the building. Brooks said the team needed to make a design decision: Should the wood and the concrete touch? In the case of the stairway, they do not.

Also, by not adding finishes to connect the surfaces, Brooks said, the team limited its use of materials, energy, carbon … and money.

Similarly, CLT panels lay flat across the floor beams, and just a thin line separates them. But to ensure that it would be a thin line and not a gap, KPFF engineers and Walsh Construction team members needed to engage in hours of back-and-forth and prep work.

Each glulam beam is engineered to have a precise arch (camber) so that only a certain amount of it leaves when the CLT is placed. Then the rest of the camber comes out from the concrete’s weight from the roof, leaving a flat line.

A lot of the back-and-forth, Sloop said, was on how to pour the concrete and ensure the weight was proportioned correctly for the beams.

“We said, ‘OK, we’re going to pour it uniform thickness and trust the math,’” he added. “And it came out great. You can walk around … and you don’t see ‘smiles’ because it just landed flat.”

Hidden systems

Small vents scattered atop the building are the only visible markers of the unique system that allows the roof to “breathe.”

The day the roof was placed there was “bad weather,” Sloop said, and a vapor barrier had to go down. When the concrete top was poured, an abundance of moisture was left under it and within the exposed structure.

“We couldn’t get a warrantable roof unless we could do something with the moisture,” Sloop said.

That difficulty as well as the one posed by the Living Building Challenge‘s restrictive Red List of “worst in class” materials led to a new roofing system being invented for the project. A special waffle-pattern insulation allows air to circulate under the membrane. The vents atop the roof then let the air escape.

“You don’t see it; it’s not sexy,” Sloop said, “but it’s super important to how this building got built and the longevity of the roof.”

A few windows in the walls give peeks at the inner workings, but most of the systems are tucked away.

“I just think about how much is contained in a relatively small container,” Sloop said. “There are more systems on this building than any building I have ever participated in.”

Completion of the PAE Living Building is realization of a dream, Brune said, especially since it holds the engineering firm’s new headquarters.

“I’m hoping we’ve pushed the bar a little further and (we’re) a lot closer to seeing a lot more of these because of this project,” he said. “To me, it’s just an inspiration to work in here every day that I come in.”

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More than 7,000 construction jobs will be created by the 3 million-square-foot mixed-use development proposed by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

The master plan, designed by ZGF Architects, was formally submitted to the city of Portland for approval in December after roughly 14 years of planning. The site will span over 10 city blocks from Clay Street to Caruthers Street in the city’s lower east side.

The new neighborhood expects to produce more than $11 million in annual property tax revenue at full buildout and generate $22 million in annual income tax revenue, based on a report by EcoNorthwest.

Edlen & Co. is advising as the developer for the site.

What will the site include?

Little details are known about the projects that will appear in the district as it is still early in development. However, two main aspects of the district have been unveiled, one of which is a third-of-a-mile waterfront park along the Willamette River. The other is housing — the site expects to have up to 1,200 units, where at least 20 percent will be for low-income families.

The vision behind the district is centered on innovation, culture and science. OMSI’s CEO Erin Graham said it expanded from the museum’s mission and hours of community listening.

A direct output of those conversations, Graham added, was the park.

OMSI is working with Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians and the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission on the park concept to recenter the tribal presence on the Willamette River. It will include a public green space, plazas and hands-on outdoor science programs around indigenous ecological knowledge and culture. The project also aims to restore the riverfront habitat.

The land, the river and the tracks

Unlike the Broadway Corridor and the Conway master plan in Northwest Portland, which fit seamlessly into Portland’s grid, OMSI is in a tricky spot. The 18.5-acre site is separated from nearby neighborhoods by bridges on either side and the river and the Union Pacific Railway tracks surrounding it.

ZGF’s Nolan Lienhart, director of planning and urban design, said this distinguishes its form from other urban networks around town. Graham added it will make the site feel more organic.

However, developer Jill Sherman said the site’s location is a challenge the district will have to overcome. In many ways, she added, it is a great site, especially with the access to the river, but there is a disconnect that will hopefully change over time.

The project already had two significant wins in this department and potentially a third on the way. In 2015, TriMet completed the MAX Orange Line and Tilikum Crossing connecting the OMSI site to the greater Portland Metro area. In addition, last year, the state of Oregon committed $5 million toward the construction of a new Water Avenue, a critical infrastructure piece of the plan.

The new street would run the length of the site and parallel to the train track connecting the entire east end of the district to an arterial.

Currently, the only roads in and around the site are Water Avenue, which swoops past a Portland Community College building and goes straight to the OMSI parking lots, and Loop Road that circles a parking lot.

In the proposal, the current Water Avenue would stay (listed on site plans as Old Water Avenue), and the new arterial would bound the street with Loop Road.

The third win may come in a bicycle and pedestrian pathway. The city of Portland included the OMSI District Masterplan in the for the future Green Loop. A portion of the 6-mile bike and pedestrian way would run through the south end of the OMSI District and over Tilikum Crossing. A pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the rail tracks is also under consideration by the city.

The future phases of buildout

The entire buildout will likely take 10 to 20 years – dictated mainly by the market.

As the developer, Sherman said she’s hoping to see a relatively balanced amount of housing and commercial office uses within the district. The key will be to have people around during the day, primarily workers and residents, in the evening, so the neighborhood is active, and the ground-floor retail is supported.

The neighborhood plans to be a hub for innovation, art and learning.

“I think that can make it a really exciting place for businesses that work in STEM industries or who are makers,” Sherman said.

Process of Approval

According to a representative for OMSI, the first land-use hearing is scheduled for March 31. From there, it could take at least six months with city planners before a vote of approval occurs.

The post The vision, the plan, the cost – OMSI District master plan appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A wrap date is just around the corner for the PAE Living Building, which is expected to eventually be certified as the world’s largest commercial living building.

Lead team members from PAE Engineers, Edlen & Co., ZGF Architects and Walsh Construction gathered Thursday during the 91��Ƶ’s latest Builder Breakfast event to discuss lessons learned during the project in downtown Portland.

That team sought to construct a building that would meet perhaps the world’s most stringent sustainability metrics. The project spent 28 months in preconstruction to ensure that all systems would pencil out, Walsh Construction chief estimator Ed Sloop said. Now the structure is anticipated to be self-sufficient in terms of energy use, water use, waste treatment and more.

But to achieve the International Living Future Institute‘s Living Building Challenge, the building will need to demonstrate that all sustainability goals were met. Certification is given only after a full year of occupancy and systems testing.

The project team has received the green light to turn on all of the building’s systems, PAE Engineers principal Marc Brune said. The one-year audit is predicted to begin in May or June 2022, once the building is at 80 percent occupancy.

All metrics associated with building occupancy, such as energy use and water use, will be measured during that year. Then other systems will be audited separately.

Design/mechanical engineering + plumbing

The first challenge for the project team was solar energy, Brune said. Downtown Portland has a protected grid network, and if the five-story, 58,000-square-foot building were to send excess energy to the grid, a 12-block radius blackout could result.

The team engaged with Portland General Electric, Brune said, to find an appropriate amount of energy the building could feed back to the grid. That ended up being 50 kilowatts, so a battery in the building will store any surplus.

The next challenge was the building’s size – specifically its roof. The urban site meant the building’s space was up rather than out, ZGF Architects principal Justin Brooks said, so there was less space on the roof for solar panels. Also, the Skidmore/Old Town Historic District cannot accommodate reflective surfaces (i.e., solar panels can’t be visible from the street).

As a result, the project team donated 215 kilowatts of solar panels to Renaissance Commons, an affordable housing building within the same utility district, to benefit both buildings. Carly Harrison, development manager at Edlen & Co., said it’s about $20,000 worth of power every year.

Financial

Project financing came via a developer-driven model with investors. That means the building needs to not only perform in terms of sustainability but also economics, Brooks said. To the project’s team knowledge, this type of financial model hasn’t been done yet for a potential living building – or at least at such a scale.

The financial model was intentionally designed to make this type of project more replicable, Harrison said. Typically, living building projects are subsidized by grants – a model much more difficult to repeat.

“The biggest challenge was really how to thread the needle of the cost and the rent needed to make it pencil,” Harrison said.

Team members did not mention the project’s cost on Thursday; however, Portland Bureau of Development Services permit information in April 2020 placed a $20.5 million value on the building’s structure.

Much of the project cost is associated with the special systems, especially for plumbing, electrical and solar. Also, the water treatment and waste treatment composters require a large mechanical room, reducing the amount of usable/leasable space. From that standpoint, the building is inefficient, Harrison said. But with approximately half of the building serving as PAE Engineers’ new headquarters, team members were able to discuss appropriate lease rates, Harrison added.

Construction

The structure is primarily made of cross-laminated timber panels, heavy glulam structural columns and beams, and a concrete core. About 60-70 percent of the finished product, Sloop said, is the structure itself. Protecting that was challenging, he said, after the construction start date was moved from January to April. Some of the work planned for drier weather, like roofing, was pushed to wet-weather months, he said.

Additional complexity for construction came from the project team needing to ensure that items on the ILFI “red list” – materials and chemicals considered “worst in class” to people and the environment – were not used. More than 3,000 products were vetted, Sloop said, to see whether they met Living Building Challenge requirements. The construction team had to develop a roofing system never used before, Sloop added.

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Pursuit of the Living Building Challenge can require creativity, flexible thinking and a willingness to embrace alternatives to ideals. That is certainly the case for PAE Engineers‘ new headquarters building in downtown Portland. When limitations precluded creation of a net-positive-energy structure, the project team formed a unique partnership with a local nonprofit developer in order to meet requirements.

“Honestly, I think it’s one of the better stories of the project,” said Ed Sloop, a project manager and chief estimator for general contractor Walsh Construction Co.

The PAE Living Building is expected to become one of the largest commercial buildings in the world to gain certification from the International Living Future Institute. For that to happen, the building must demonstrate over one year that it is producing more energy than it consumes, producing more clean water than it consumes, recycling all wastewater produced on-site, and more.

The ILFI uses seven “petals” – place, water, energy, materials, equity, beauty, and health and happiness – to measure building performance. Energy petal requirements at first stumped designers from ZGF Architects, MEP engineers from PAE and project managers from Walsh Construction. Two years ago, the problem boiled down to simple math: A five-story, 58,000-square-foot building on only a quarter-block would have nowhere near sufficient roof space for enough solar panels to produce needed electricity.

“As a team we were all kind of disappointed we couldn’t do it all on site,” said Marc Brune, a PAE principal and a project team member. “There’s something that’s just elegant about the concept of really modeling it after a plant or tree that’s in the forest that’s doing all of its own energy production and water harvest.”

The building’s innovative solar array, with panels facing east to west and assembled in an undulating, articulated manner to maximize surface area, is projected to have maximum output of 133 kilowatts – only around one-third of energy needed.

“If it were a smaller building for the floor area you might be able to get away with it here,” said Walsh project manager Kent Usher, who recently oversaw subcontractor EC Electric‘s installation of the rooftop array.

The project site, in the Skidmore/Old Town Historic District, limited potential solutions. Unlike the well-known Bullitt Center in Seattle, a certified living building also engineered by PAE that has solar arrays overhanging its roof edges, the PAE Living Building could not follow suit.

“Being a downtown historic district,” Usher said, “we had to keep it hidden and under the parapet height so you can’t see it from anywhere.”

Fortunately for the project team, version 4.0 of the ever-evolving Living Building Challenge allows off-site energy production solutions if they are within the same utility district as the project. And after looking around the district, the team targeted the Renaissance Commons affordable housing development on North Argyle Street in the Kenton neighborhood.

Developed by REACH Community Development Corporation and also built by Walsh Construction, the four-story, two-building complex was solar-ready; it already had the structural and electrical components needed to accept a solar array. And Renaissance Commons had three times as much roof space as the PAE Living Building would have.

“I happened to be working with Kent (Usher), who was in the same role on this other project,” Sloop said. “So, having knowledge of both projects – and the other project had a very large roof and a big footprint; I knew it had good solar orientation – so I just threw it out there.”

However, installation of the solar array at Renaissance Commons required financial support from PAE Living Building developer Edlen & Co. The firm, which has backed sustainable elements in many of its projects, agreed to cover the $670,000 cost of placing a 207-kilowatt array at Renaissance Commons.

In addition, the arrangement fulfilled a key requirement of the equity petal, which calls for donation of half a cent or more of every dollar spent on the project to a charity or ILFI’s Living Equity Exchange Program. In this case, REACH CDC qualified because of its affordable housing work.

“From my perspective, it’s really like a best-case scenario when you have a problem and you come up with a best-case solution,” Edlen & Co. partner Jill Sherman said.

REACH CDC’s CEO, Dan Valliere, said the nonprofit was simply taking advantage of an opportunity presented to it. REACH CDC agreed to pay for operations and maintenance of the Renaissance Commons array in exchange for being able to use the power generated on-site.

“We didn’t have to do a lot at the outset,” Valliere said. “It was a great opportunity to add a feature to the building with our partners doing most of the heavy lifting and still learn through the process.”

Meanwhile, the PAE Living Building will serve as an example of how project teams can creatively pursue living building certification.

“I personally think it’s a way of thinking of net-zero-energy production that has the potential to increase the benefit of it beyond the one-building footprint and into the broader community,” Brune said. “It can achieve the same goal as if you’re putting it on your roof, but with benefits for more people.”

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Albina Vision Trust will work with Edlen & Co. to develop in Lower Albina a seven-story building with 120 affordable housing units as well as an adjacent theater.

The residential building will serve families earning between 30 percent and 60 percent of area median income. The theater will serve artists and youths, and connect the North Portland neighborhood to its rich cultural heritage, Albina Vision Trust stated.

Albina Vision Trust, a community nonprofit, will own the building. Edlen & Co. – the recently rebranded successor to Gerding Edlen – will serve as developer.

Colas Construction, Lever Architecture and Kidder Mathews are project team members as well.

The property is located between North Flint and Wheeler avenues north of the Moda Center. It is owned by Betsy and Rich Reese, who have committed to the project’s mission and goals, Albina Vision Trust stated.

“The Albina Vision team is determined to lead the redevelopment of Lower Albina and the re-rooting of Black people, families and culture there,” stated Rukaiyah Adams, chairwoman of the trust’s board. “That work includes making sure that we are reflected in the built environment and that we participate in the wealth generated by our presence as owners of our homes and business. We aim to thrive, not just survive – and it begins with this project.”

Albina Vision Trust was founded to reverse the 20th-century displacement of Black families in the area for projects such as Interstate 5, the Rose Quarter and the expansion of Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.

“Recovery from the present-day consequences of forced displacement, the theft of Black wealth and the pandemic-induced economic downturn will require us to lead with our values,” stated Winta Yohannes, managing director of Albina Vision Trust. “This modest but significant action to prioritize the arts, create affordable housing and ensure community ownership is how we move from talking about equity to seeing it in action.”

Mark Edlen, co-founder of Edlen & Co., said the firm was approached by the property owners about two years ago; they sought a project with affordable housing and transit. The firm wants to be part of helping right past wrongs alongside Albina Vision Trust, Edlen said.

“We share that belief and that’s why we’re partnering with AVT,” he said.

The proposed project addresses two realities, Yohannes wrote in an email.

“There is no longer a single neighborhood in Portland considered affordable for the average African-American family and … creative organizations and artists also continue to be priced out of the city despite their importance to the fabric of our civic and economic identity,” she stated. “For these reasons, it was important that we anchor our first project and Lower Albina’s rebirth with housing and a theater, which recognizes both the rich cultural heritage of the district and our aspirations for its future as a thriving arts district.”

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What was once Gerding Edlen is moving into the future with a new name and a reorganized corporate structure.

One of Portland’s most prominent development firms has shed co-founder Bob Gerding’s name to become Edlen & Co.

At the same time, the investment management part of the firm, which became independent last year, has rebranded as The Green Cities Co.

“It’s kind of a natural transition,” said Mark Edlen, who co-founded Gerding Edlen and now Edlen & Co.

Here’s how the corporate reorganization breaks down:

The Green Cities Co.

What is now The Green Cities Co. traces its history to 2009, when Gerding Edlen founded Gerding Edlen Investment Management. The investment company owns and manages real estate and invests of behalf of institutional partners.

It quickly grew, establishing significant footprints in Boston, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area, in addition to Portland. (Holdings in Los Angeles and Seattle have been sold).

Green Cities has $2.7 billion in assets under management, said Molly Bordonaro, one of four managing partners.

In April 2020, Bordonaro and three other managing partners – Kelly Saito, Brent Gaulke and Patrick Wilde – bought out Mark Edlen and Roger Krage. The move made the investment management company independent of Gerding Edlen, and kept the investment company in local hands instead of an outside third party’s.

“It’s the best thing to create alignment with our investors and create greater value moving forward,” Bordonaro said.

Commercial real estate has absorbed a major blow from the COVID-19 pandemic, with rents and occupancy rates falling as office users reevaluate their needs and wait out the disruptions.

“We feel very strongly about multifamily and the markets we’re in,” Bordonaro said. “As far as office, we do believe it will take a little bit longer. But people are going to return to the office.”

Locally, Green Cities is looking to fill the office space at 5 MLK – the recently completed 17-story building that it owns through a fund. The mixed-use building has 120,400 square feet of office space, all of which is vacant. 5 MLK also has 220 apartments and 15,000 square feet of commercial space. The project is part of a boom in development at the east Burnside bridgehead that includes Yard, Sideyard and the Fair-Haired Dumbbell.

“We’re very bullish on the opportunity in that neighborhood,” Bordonaro said.

The multifamily sector has also shown resilience through the pandemic, she said.

“We’re very confident in multifamily,” she said. “And to be honest – even urban multifamily, we’ve not seen real degradation in value.”

The company will continue to focus on investments with environmental sustainability and social value, Bordonaro said. Green Cities is both a minority- and woman-owned enterprise.

Green Cities has also formed its own development and property management companies. While most employees are working remotely for now, Green Cities inherited Gerding Edlen’s former offices in the Pearl District.

“We are very confident that we’ll be able to continue to grow the firm as we have over the last 10 years,” Bordonaro said.

Edlen & Co.

Edlen & Co. is the direct descendant of Gerding Edlen, a Portland powerhouse that developed 5 MLK, Oregon Health & Science University’s Center for Health and Healing, The Ardea, Eleven West (with Downtown Development Group) and many other buildings locally and throughout the United States.

Bob Gerding, who founded the firm with Mark Edlen, died in 2009. The firm had kept the original name until announcing the change Jan. 8. The partners are Edlen, Roger Krage, Jill Sherman and Matt Edlen.

Sherman, who joined Gerding Edlen in 2003, said the company’s record of innovation remains part of its DNA.

“We’ll never forget the origins of the company, and Bob and Mark and what they founded is special and unique,” she said. “That legacy – regardless of the name – will always be our foundation.”

Gerding Edlen had long pushed projects with an affordable housing, equity and environmental sustainability ethos. Edlen & Co. is doubling down on those commitments, Mark Edlen said.

“Where I’m at in my career, I want to focus on projects that are much more community-based,” he said.

Edlen & Co. has under construction in Gateway an affordable housing project that will be completed this spring. The developer is also working on a De Paul addiction treatment center in East Portland.

A multifamily project in partnership with Albertina Kerr will have 150 units, including some for people in need of social services and others for low-income renters.

Edlen & Co. also has properties in Spokane, Washington, and Salt Lake City, Utah, and Bend that are planned as future sites for workforce or affordable housing.

The firm has “observed the divergence of haves and have-nots” grow wider in recent years, Edlen said.

“The biggest challenges cities are going to face in the next 20 years are social equity,” he said. Affordable housing “has always been a subset of the business. As I step back from day-to-day management, basically we’re trying to see if we can scale it up and serve more people.”

Edlen has long had a fascination with cutting-edge sustainable development. He serves on the board of the Bullitt Foundation, which oversees the Bullitt Center, a net-zero office building in Seattle. Edlen & Co. is now developing the PAE Living Building, which is intended to be the largest Living Building Challenge-certified structure in the world with net-zero energy, water and sewage.

Edlen & Co. plans to occupy an office in the PAE Living Building upon its completion, likely in August or September.

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