A 175-foot-tall multifamily building project, years after surviving challenges from Pearl District neighbors, is advancing between Northwest Naito Parkway and the Willamette River.

Designed by TVA Architects for Lincoln Property Company, Fremont Place will ascend as high as 17 stories and hold 236 apartments above ground-floor retail space and amenity space.

General contractor Andersen Construction and subcontractors are getting ready to tackle the foundation. Pacific Foundation crews are installing over 100 steel pipe piles to support the building, while Andersen Structures Inc. workers prepare the necessary formwork.

DCI Engineers performed the structural engineering, which was complicated due to the riverfront location (1650 N.W. Naito Parkway).

“They are now working on the structural excavation, but we have fully excavated out to the elevation that’s needed to install all the steel pipe piles,” Andersen Construction project manager Katie Hoyt said. “We have an initial foundation permit, which is approved and signed off, and then we’re very close to getting the remainder of the building permits from the city.”

The Portland Design Commission approved the design for Fremont Place in 2018, but that decision was appealed to the City Council by the Pearl District Neighborhood Association. That appeal was at first upheld, but then reversed by the City Council, allowing the project to finally move forward.

The new building will have one level of below-grade parking featuring car stackers. The ground floor will have bike storage, two artist studios and a commercial space with an outdoor patio connected to an adjacent greenway. Meanwhile, the upper levels will have a mix of studios, one-bedroom units and two-bedroom units, with lounges and roof terraces on the second and seventh levels.

The massing, designed to minimize view obstructions for neighboring buildings to the west, steps down as the structure approaches the river. The full 17-story height is reached in the northwest corner, with eight stories on the northeast podium and six stories on the southwest podium.

Exterior materials will include brick pillars, curtain wall and storefront window systems on the ground floor, a window wall system on upper floors, fiber cement panels and metal panels.

The riverfront soil led to a unique foundation design, Hoyt said.

“From the middle of the building out to the river it’s been very sandy,” she said. “And then it starts to be a mix of sand and your typical soils we encounter right around the railroad tracks.”

Along the building’s east face, closest to the river, deep soil mixing was used to construct the below-grade retention wall. On the south and the west there is standard shoring and lagging walls; on the north there is a laid-back wall. Shotcrete will be the main material for the vertical walls below grade.

“And we have over 100 steel pipe pile, which per design are supposed to go down 106 linear feet,” Hoyt said, noting that the piles arrived on site via a barge equipped with a crane. “But it’s going 25 or 30 feet beyond that so that it hits bedrock.”

Initial excavation started in October 2020. Crews are expected to require 25 months to reach substantial completion. Westech Construction did the excavation work. Subcontractors currently on site include Ocean Park Mechanical, Bergelectric and Patriot Fire Protection. All are performing below-grade work at present in preparation for the first of three large foundation concrete pours.

“They’re putting sewers in, getting conduit ready for electrical – that kind of stuff,” Hoyt said. “And our (project engineers) are working on submittals for all the exteriors.”

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A two-building office property in Portland’s Pearl District has sold to a fund managed by Rialto Capital Management LLC for $36.5 million.

The purchase comprises Fremont Place I and II – one two stories and the other three stories – at 1650 and 1750 N.W. Naito Parkway. The buildings offer a total of 123,600 square feet of office space. The buildings are 63 percent leased to tenants in the telecommunications, engineering, health care and other industries, according to a Jones Lang LaSalle news release.

The transaction equates to $295 per square foot.

Multnomah County recorded the transaction on Feb. 14. Rialto used a limited liability company, RREF III-P Fremont Place, registered in Miami. The seller was Fremont Place LP, an entity linked to Lincoln Property Co. of Dallas.

JLL secured a $37.3 million five-year acquisition and bridge loan from a debt fund. The loan will be used for the acquisition as well as interior and exterior renovations.

Rialto Capital aims to transform the buildings, constructed in 1987, into an “urban waterfront campus,” according to JLL. The buildings are along the Willamette River just south of the Fremont Bridge.

The new owner plans to build an outdoor amenity space.

JLL’s Capital Markets team representing Rialto Capital was led by Managing Director Casey Davidson and Director Zachary Kersten.

Lincoln Property Co. will continue to manage the office properties, and is moving forward with plans to build the Fremont Apartments, a 17-story multifamily building, on an adjacent parcel that currently serves as a surface parking lot for the office structures.

According to Patrick Gilligan, an executive vice president with Lincoln Property Co., the firm is partnering in a joint venture with Utah-based opportunity zone funder Bridge Investment Group. A $7.2 million foundation permit for the project is under review; Gilligan said the firm hopes construction will start this spring and finish in 2022.

The TVA Architects-designed project received the go-ahead in 2018 when the Portland City Council rejected an appeal from the Pearl District Neighborhood Association of prior approval issued by the Design Commission. Andersen Construction will serve as general contractor.

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Fremont Place won preliminary approval after design changes satisfied earlier objections from Pearl District residents and the Portland City Council.

The council voted 4-0 Thursday to reject an appeal from the Pearl District Neighborhood Association of prior Design Commission approval.

In response to earlier council opposition, TVA Architects and the developer, Lincoln Property Co. of Dallas, reworked the design of the 275-unit mixed-use building. The redesign pushes back the building façade an additional 15 feet from the seawall, to 32 feet, 9 inches away.

The additional space allows for a wider (now 20 feet) Willamette River Greenway between the building and the river. The revised design reduces bike parking from 206 spaces to 140. It does not change the number of residential units.

The 17-story building reaches 175 feet in height, includes 305,936 square feet and uses 84 percent of the allowable floor area ratio. Designers worked to preserve neighbors’ views as much as possible, said Tim Wybenga, principal at TVA Architects.

“Although the council has made it quite clear that views are not a consideration, they were a design factor,” he said. “And so a lot of the massing of this building and the way it’s pushed has to do with consideration of views and sight lines of Pearl District neighbors.”

Fremont Place will not include any affordable apartments; the project entered into the city’s approval process before inclusionary housing rules took effect.

Commissioners praised the redesign.

“The revised plan feels less cramped,” Nick Fish said. “It’s more open, more airy.”

The changes “have satisfactorily addressed the concerns of the Pearl District Neighborhood Association,” said Stanley Penkin, president of the group.

“The applicant has made significant improvements to the greenway, which now better serves the neighborhood and the city,” he said.

Commissioners, responding to criticism from one Pearl District resident, defended their role providing a final check on the Design Commission’s decisions.

“I don’t think this is the right forum to constantly second-guess the Design Commission,” Fish said. “But in the rare instances we’ve done that, I actually think those conversations were quite principled.”

Fish suggested the City Council should raise the bar for appeals of Design Commission decisions. The council could change city rules to choose which appeals to take up, much like the U.S. Supreme Court does, instead of automatically taking each appeal, he said.

Commissioner Amanda Fritz objected to that idea.

“If we narrow who gets to appeal, or how those appeals happen, that means that some people are left out, and the whole process here in Portland is about having people have their say to their elected officials,” Fritz said.

Thursday’s vote was preliminary; a final vote is scheduled for May 31. Commissioner Dan Saltzman was absent from Thursday’s hearing.

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For developers contemplating multifamily projects in Portland, the City Council‘s appeals process represents a perplexing puzzle.

After the City Council upheld the Pearl District Neighborhood Association‘s appeal of the Design Commission’s approval of the Fremont Apartments, developers began to wonder where the council stands on new housing projects.

“It’s chilling for anyone who goes down the fairway with entitlements,” Cairn Pacific principal Tom DiChiara said.

The City Council reconsidered its decision to uphold the appeal and opened the door for further discussion. Now the council is scheduled to revisit the appeal on May 10.

In the case of the Fremont Apartments, if the development team were required to go back to the drawing board, the project would change substantially. The proposed 17-story tower would no longer be vested under pre-inclusionary housing rules, so any new application would have to include affordable units.

Inclusionary housing rules require developers to either set aside 15 percent to 20 percent of multifamily units as affordable units or pay a hefty fee. Fremont Apartments was part of a flood of multifamily projects – totaling 19,000 units – that were submitted for city approval before inclusionary housing rules took effect on Feb. 1, 2017.

The developer of the Fremont Apartments, Lincoln Property Company of Dallas, did not respond to interview requests.

The back-and-forth regarding the Fremont Apartments has added to a sense of uncertainty for multifamily projects that come before the City Council. The council also voted to allow a height increase for NBP Capital‘s proposed multifamily towers in the RiverPlace area; that project has not been examined by the Portland Design Commission yet. Instead, NBP Capital reportedly circulated project information at City Hall.

The uncertainty comes amid broader signs of oversupply in luxury apartment housing and increased costs for land and construction. Developers have expressed concern that the economic expansion, now in its ninth year, can’t keep going forever.

Rents have declined in Portland, slipping 0.6 percent in March compared to a year earlier. Many managers of new luxury apartment buildings have taken to offering concessions.

“There is a lot of fear and hesitation and challenge to keep our development cycle going,” Brad Malsin, principal of Beam Development, said at a City Council meeting in March. “Land prices are escalating, construction prices are escalating and people are fearful – developers are fearful that (with) inclusionary zoning, we can’t make a lot of projects work.”

Malsin began to criticize the City Council’s initial move to uphold the neighborhood association’s appeal of the Fremont Apartments, but he was cut off by Mayor Ted Wheeler.

“That process is not closed,” Wheeler said. “Move on.”

In a subsequent interview, Malsin added that allowing neighbors to halt a project at City Council sends a bad message to developers.

“I think it’s problematic, and you’re sending out mixed messages,” he said. “The Fremont Place Apartments are a prime example of people – citizens – intervening at the wrong stage of the development process.”

The public has ample time to comment on development proposals during early stages, Malsin said.

“To have people come in at the last minute and have people say you’re blocking my view, I find that incredibly disturbing and undermining public process and public planning,” he said.

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Overturning its previous tentative decision to uphold an appeal and deny Lincoln Property Company‘s proposed 17-story Fremont Apartments project between Northwest Naito Parkway and the Willamette River, the Portland City Council on Wednesday voted to reconsider the application.

As designed by TVA Architects, the proposed structure at 1650 N.W. Naito Parkway would be 306,000 square feet. It would have 275 residential units above 6,600 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space. A parking garage would have 152 spaces.

The project had received the Portland Design Commission‘s approval in December, but the Pearl District Neighborhood Association appealed that decision and presented its arguments at a public hearing in February. In a tentative vote last month, the City Council upheld that appeal, effectively rejecting the project.

The council’s latest vote will continue the hearing until May 10 and reopen the record. The applicant will have until April 11 to submit revisions to its application. City staff will mail notice of the continued hearing and the opportunity to submit testimony in response to revisions. Participants may submit written testimony on the revised plans, and the council will accept oral testimonies on May 10 at 2 p.m.

Mayor Ted Wheeler, who voted in favor of reconsidering the project, said he’s not concerned about the building’s height or its impact on views of the Fremont Bridge. Instead, the main issue he wants to see addressed is the width of the greenway.

Commissioner Chloe Eudaly agreed.

“My primary concern is the greenway and how this building is going to affect our built environment and integrate or not integrate into the community,” she said.

However, Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Dan Saltzman voted against the motion to reconsider, arguing that allowing the applicant to submit revisions will set up the city council to act as the city’s Design Commission. Fritz said she doesn’t think the changes requested are minor and would rather see a new application submitted from scratch.

Ultimately, the motion to reconsider and allow TVA Architects to submit revisions passed with a 3-2 vote.

“I believe that, in this instance, giving the applicant the opportunity to address the concerns we raised and redesign the project and come back to council is in the public interest,” Commissioner Nick Fish said.

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Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler seemed to believe the City Council was in for a long day at a public hearing in early February.

Thirty-six residents, mostly members of the same neighborhood association, had signed up to testify in support of an appeal of approval given to a subdivision proposal.

“You don’t have to use your full three minutes,” Wheeler told people who were signed up to testify. “You are of course entitled to your three minutes. I just want to suggest alternatives if people would prefer.”

For the next three hours, Wheeler and his fellow city commissioners saw something extraordinary. One neighbor after another testified against the Macadam Ridge subdivision proposal. But unlike other groups, their testimony was professionalized, coordinated and synchronized with a PowerPoint presentation illustrating their main points.

The property owners, the Griffith family, were pushing to build 21 homes on a 14-acre lot off of Taylor’s Ferry Road. The South Burlingame Neighborhood Association appealed a hearings officer’s decision approving the development, citing landslide risks and other issues.

Carol Hazzard went first, introducing herself as a 52-year resident of Portland. She focused on the landslide risk to existing homes built uphill from the Macadam Ridge property.

“It is my opinion this development would put hundreds of people and their homes at risk,” she said.

Then Mary Lee Carr, wearing a reflective safety vest in council chambers, testified as leader of the Neighborhood Emergency Team – volunteer first responders who are trained by Portland Fire & Rescue.

“As I assess hazards around my neighborhood, I look at houses set upon slide-prone ground as coffins,” Carr told commissioners.

By the end of the presentation, commissioners had been persuaded. They voted unanimously to uphold the neighborhood association’s appeal.

“I don’t remember a more thoughtful set of presentations,” Commissioner Nick Fish said.

In recent weeks, the City Council has proved receptive to appeals from development opponents. In addition to Macadam Ridge, commissioners upheld an appeal challenging approval of the Fremont Apartments project in the Pearl District and declined to consider a proposal from NBP Capital for a series of downtown towers.

Macadam Ridge was lower stakes: a small subdivision planned by family landowners best known for running the Riverview Abbey Mausoleum. Yet the neighborhood association’s well-organized presentation, aided by local professionals, could offer a template for other groups fighting developments.

“We conveyed the message,” said Robert Lennox, president of the neighborhood association.

The presentation was assembled with the help of Shannon Hiller-Webb, a neighborhood association member who has professional experience in marketing and advertising. She worked with other neighbors and an environmental legal group, Crag Law Center, to hone the message. They also hired Carrie Richter, a Portland land-use attorney.

The neighbors divided their presentation into storyboards, much like a film. With only three minutes allotted per speaker, they realized they could be more effective coordinating topics into a cohesive presentation.

“We realized we needed to tell a story in a narrative arc,” Hiller-Webb said. “By changing our kind of approach so we didn’t duplicate our efforts and told one story as a collective voice, we came to find that impactful.”

South Burlingame Neighborhood Association members have shared their experiences with representatives of Friends of Overlook Bluff, which is fighting to save a historic tree in its North Portland neighborhood, and the Southwest Hills Residential League, which is weighing in on plans to develop the ex-Strohecker’s grocery store property for housing.

“Every neighborhood association is having to pretty much to start from scratch, so we were hoping to inform of what we’ve learned in four years of doing this,” Hiller-Webb said.

The Macadam Ridge fight is far from over. The Riverview Abbey operators, the Griffiths, have appealed the City Council’s decision to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals. LUBA could override the City Council and allow the development to proceed.

The Griffiths also have filed a grievance with the South Burlingame Neighborhood Association, objecting to an emergency board meeting the association held.

“They’re required to follow the rules, and the grievance basically says they didn’t follow the rules,” Stephen Griffith said. He filmed the proceedings of a recent neighborhood association meeting with his cellphone.

Lennox said the Griffith family’s grievance has little merit.

“Our feeling is they’re just looking for a thread to pull to void the City Council decision,” he said.

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In a tentative vote, the Portland City Council unanimously upheld an appeal to deny the proposal for Lincoln Property Company’s Fremont Apartments, planned in the Pearl District between Northwest Naito Parkway and the Willamette River. The council will hold a final vote at 11 a.m. on April 4.

TVA Architects‘ design, with several modifications, received the Portland Design Commission‘s approval in December with a 3-1 vote. But the Pearl District Neighborhood Association (PDNA) appealed that decision, and got its opportunity to present arguments at a public hearing before the council in February.

“Because this is an iconic location, and because this building will set the standard for that location, I want us to set that standard very high,” Mayor Ted Wheeler said.

Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who previously served on the city’s planning commission, said the proposed building’s height and its impact on views of the Fremont Bridge from Fields Park were not relevant to her decision. She brought up several concerns, including the height of the rooftop mechanical equipment, the reduced width of vertically-hung bicycle racks and the narrow width of the greenway by the building.

Overall, she said, plans do not meet city criteria with the modifications requested.

Wheeler and Commissioner Nick Fish agreed that the greenway in the proposed design would be too narrow.

“What we do here with this development will set the standard for the rest of the development that will take place along that corridor,” Wheeler said. “It is my belief that we need to aggressively protect the greenway.”

Fish mentioned the emerging greenway in the South Waterfront District as an example of a wider one, with dedicated spaces for bicyclists and pedestrians.

“You can make a very persuasive case that the fact that the buildings are set back further enhances the experience of the neighborhood, of the residents, and of the whole feeling of the emerging neighborhood,” Fish said, adding that the greenway in the Fremont Apartments design is unsatisfactory because of the narrow “choke point” at the southern end. “As someone who likes to ride his bike down by the river … that is not a successful greenway.”

Tim Wybenga of TVA Architects stated in an email that the project team has no specific plans on how to move forward at this point, but is looking at all options.

“For the project to have gone through all of that process and get rejected by council is extremely disheartening and frustrating,” he stated.

Wheeler noted that any development along that corridor will likely be tall.

“We are a growing city; there will be more height and there will be more density,” he said. “I believe this design team and this development team has the capacity and spades to be able to deliver a building that will meet their objectives as well as meet the community objectives and be celebrated for many, many generations to come.”

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Pearl District residents unhappy about plans for the Fremont Apartments project, between Northwest Naito Parkway and the Willamette River, took their complaints before the Portland City Council on Wednesday.

TVA Architects‘ design, with several modifications, received the Portland Design Commission‘s approval in December with a 3-1 vote. But the Pearl District Neighborhood Association (PDNA) appealed that decision, and got its opportunity to present initial arguments.

The hearing will continue at 10:15 a.m. March 7, when the City Council will have three options: deny the appeal and uphold the Design Commission’s decision to approve the proposal, deny the appeal and approve a revised proposal or grant the appeal and deny the proposal.

The main point of contention is the proposed height – the building would top out at 175 feet, exceeding the maximum allowed height of 100 feet. This requested modification met approval because the lower floors of the building extend out, which design commissioners found allowed for a better view of the Fremont Bridge than alternatives.

“This project does set, if approved, a very dangerous precedent for riverfront development in this area, which will wipe out the view of the Fremont Bridge,” said PDNA’s attorney Jeff Kleinman, who prepared the appeal. “There will be no further argument against such development if it is approved.”

As designed, the proposed structure at 1650 N.W. Naito Parkway would be 17 stories and include 306,000 square feet. It would have 275 residential units above 6,600 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space. A parking garage would have 152 spaces.

The proposal also calls for a 60-foot-wide pedestrian plaza on the north side, and reconstruction of the greenway trail on the site. Currently, the parcel is serving as a surface parking lot.

“The Design Commission found that the proposal supports the river and greenway trail, has a massing concept that takes the view of the Fremont Bridge into account, incorporates a similar scale and massing as other developments in the North Pearl, and incorporates balconies, large areas of glazing, active ground-floor spaces and large plaza which reflect the North Pearl context in orient towards the river,” senior city planner Ben Nielsen said.

The appeal contends 13 design guidelines are not being met, and challenges six of the seven modifications. The PDNA’s appeal states it wasn’t mandatory for the Design Commission to approve any of the requested modifications.

“Basically what we’re talking about in a nutshell is a project that might work elsewhere on a city block removed from the river,” Kleinman said, adding that the height and massing are inappropriate for the site. “The application depends upon several modifications, none of which can be justified.”

The appeal isn’t the first hurdle for the project’s developer, Dallas-based Lincoln Property Company. In November, the Design Commission heard from neighboring residents unhappy that the building would block views of the bridge.

Patrick Gilligan, Lincoln Property Company executive vice president, said at the hearing the company owns about 50 buildings in Portland.

“We’re very committed to Portland and making the city a better place as much as we can through our projects,” he said.

The proposal has an inappropriate massing concept that doesn’t reflect the identity of the Pearl District neighborhood, according to Peter Gramlich, owner of Gramlich Design and Planning and an instructor at Portland Community College.

“This proposal violates the most basic principle of design: first, do no harm to your surroundings,” he said. “It detracts from the character of the waterfront area rather than reinforcing it. It seals the Willamette River greenway off from the neighborhood and the public as a whole, effectively seizing it for private benefit.”

The proposed building, Gramlich said, would not complement existing ones in the neighborhood.

“The case of the Fremont Apartments represents a crucial decision point for Portland,” said George Galster, professor of planning at Wayne State University.

Galster argued that the modifications approved by the Design Commission do not meet city design standards, such as increasing access to sunlight along the greenway, facilitating access along the riverfront, creating opportunities for views of the river, and ensuring bonus height granted to sites next to the Fremont Bridge not affect views of the bridge.

“The Design Commission essentially approved modifications that allow the Fremont Apartments to be taller and fatter than are permitted by code,” he said. “This development will set in motion a long-term development pattern that will be the poison pill for the Pearl.”

Dozens of people, mostly Pearl District residents, testified at the hearing. Many said the view of Fremont Bridge from Fields Park is iconic and would suffer from construction of the proposed building. Others agreed with attorney Kleinman’s slippery slope argument.

“I love our views, our mountains, our bridges, our waterway,” said Jeanie Coates, who said she has lived in the Pearl District for four years. “I want to call upon you to look for what is right for the city of Portland. Use your vision. Use your power. Let’s get this project redirected.”

Tim Wybenga of TVA Architects said there is no protected view of Fremont Bridge from Fields Park, but the company recognizes the view is important to residents.

“This is an important part of Portland, so from the beginning we said, ‘Let’s see what we can do from a good neighbor standpoint from day one of this project,’” he said.

Architects studied the mass of the building to take the view of the bridge into consideration in the design, Wybenga said. TVA Architects staffers have met with the PDNA several times throughout the design process, he added.

“We’ve spent a lot of time on this with the neighbors, and we did so not as a requirement but because we wanted the neighbors to be on board and we wanted to get that input,” he said.

As a result, architects redesigned the public plaza and greenway portion of the site to encourage use of the riverfront, Wybenga said. Trees on the site in its current condition block views and access to the river, he said, adding the proposed L-shape of the building steps down toward the river.

“This tower belongs in the Pearl,” he said regarding testimony that the proposed building doesn’t complement the neighborhood. “Most towers in the Pearl are substantially larger than this.”

Following testimony, the council agreed to leave the record open for 14 days before it votes. The record for new evidence is open to both the architect and the appellant until Feb. 28 and rebuttals to new testimony is open until March 6.

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Lovejoy Square, a 10-story mixed-use development proposed for a half-block parcel in the heart of the Pearl District, won praise from the Portland Design Commission on Thursday. The updated design reflects major changes from an earlier version.

The project comes from developer Killian Pacific, based in Vancouver, Washington. The project was cut in half from an earlier proposal that envisioned two towers atop the full block at 930 N.W. 14th Ave. The revised design is one tower on a half block.

The program mixes retail, office and residential space. The ground floor will have retail and commercial space. The second, third and fourth floors will have office space totaling 33,891 square feet. The upper six floors will house 78 residential units.

The project was submitted prior to when the city’s inclusionary housing policy took effect and contains only market-rate apartments.

The first three floors form a podium that is topped by a seven-story tower. The structure, designed by Bora Architects, reaches 150 feet in height. Two levels of underground parking can be accessed from Kearney Street.

An earlier design proposal ran into resistance from Bureau of Development Services staff. The Killian Pacific team declined to request a design advice meeting, opting instead to pursue design review.

An Oct. 12 staff memo detailed issues with the initial design. Killian Pacific proposed to build the south tower first, with the north tower to follow at an unspecified later date to allow existing retail leases on the block to expire.

BDS staff questioned the east-west orientation of the towers, as many other buildings in the Pearl District are oriented north-south. Staff also questioned the massing and requested step-downs to respond to the lower scale of buildings in the neighborhood.

The revised design responds to those concerns, said Christopher Linn, a principal at Bora Architects.

“We’ve taken all of that to heart in our new proposal,” he said.

Linn pointed to substantial setbacks and a continuous ground floor canopy along Northwest 13th Avenue.

“I think in general we’ve listened to all of the great concerns you’ve had and we’ve reacted in a positive and forceful way,” he said.

Killian Pacific also agreed to back a protected bike lane on Northwest 14th Avenue with a $250,000 fund. The bike lane is intended to fulfill a “public amenity” requirement for the applicant’s request for 60 feet of bonus height.

Commissioners praised the revised design.

“I like the simplicity of the building,” Commissioner Andrew Clarke said. “It’s a very handsome building.”

Julie Livingston, chairwoman of the Design Commission, added: “It all seems to work pretty well together. It’s a nice architectural expression.”

The building will incorporate concrete, glass and mass timber.

Killian Pacific’s proposal will return to the Design Commission on Jan. 25 for a likely vote. Two commissioners – Don Vallaster and Tad Savinar – were absent from Thursday’s meeting. The project faces a Jan. 31 deadline for land-use approval.

Also on Thursday:

Fremont Apartments

The Design Commission approved plans for a 275-unit apartment complex at 1650 N.W. Naito Parkway.

The 17-story, 309,000-square-foot building would be located on the Willamette River on a parcel currently serving as a surface parking lot.

The commission voted 3-1 to approve the design by TVA Architects, with Livingston voting against it. The project’s developer is Lincoln Property Co. of Dallas.

Livingston, in an interview, said she has concerns about the building’s context in the neighborhood.

“That building was not an appropriate response in the North Pearl adjacent to the (Fremont) bridge, given the characteristics of other buildings in the neighborhood,” she said.

Some neighbors – particularly residents of the Encore Condominiums at Northwest Ninth Avenue and Overton Street – have objected to the building’s height blocking views of the Fremont Bridge.

The Design Commission’s decision may be appealed to the City Council.

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The Portland Design Commission on Thursday got its second look at a proposal for a $75 million project to build four mixed-use buildings in the Lloyd District.

Two seven-story buildings would be constructed near the northwest corner of Northeast Multnomah Street and 16th Avenue, and face the latter. An additional seven-story building and a five-story building would be constructed at the southwest corner of Multnomah Street and 16th Avenue. The development would replace the Lloyd Cinemas and a surface parking lot adjacent to the Sears building in the Lloyd Center mall.

For the most part, commissioners liked what they saw.

“I think the whole thing is moving in the right direction,” Commissioner Don Vallaster said during the design advice request (DAR) hearing.

Revised plans call for the seven-story buildings to stand 85 feet and have a 3.75:1 floor area ratio. In total, the development would hold 560 residential units (40 more than in the original design) and 26,000 square feet of retail space.

The parking ratio for the development would range from zero spaces per unit to 0.7 spaces per unit. The developers are counting on proximity to public transit and a variety of retail businesses to limit the need for residents to have automobiles.

Commission Chairwoman Julie Livingston credited the design team of Holst Architecture and landscape architect 2.ink Studio for listening to advice given during a previous hearing in March.

“You responded almost point-by-point to the issues raised in the first DAR,” she said. “It does a great job knitting these two neighborhoods together.”

That was one of the major challenges for designers as they sought to achieve developer Portland Lloyd Center Community’s vision. The structures will straddle the border of the Sullivan’s Gulch and Lloyd District neighborhoods.

The team wanted to use a combination of structures and open space to create a seamless tradition between residential and retail areas, Holst principal Dave Otte said.

“We had a residential type of articulation with deep overhangs and porches at the ground-floor residential and then a more retail articulation in the retail space,” he said.

Movement and light were key aspects taken into consideration for this phase of development, said Tommy Solomon, an associate with 2.ink Studio. Phase one was approved earlier in the year, and the team expects to begin construction early next year.

“It has, I think, a lot of fluid moments along the street edge similar to phase one where you have the ability to spill off the street and fill in,” he said. “In the lobby areas, you have the opportunity to have the more private moments.”

Weaving together various elements in the rapidly changing area led to one of the more unique ideas of the development. Currently, plans call for two stories of one of the seven-story structures being built over the top of the five-story building facing Multnomah Street. The two buildings would share a lobby and stairwell.

The designers also plan to use a series of pocket parks and water elements to balance urban and retail aspects.

While the three commissioners in attendance were highly complementary of the plans, they did warn the designers that certain areas would get special attention during a type III design review hearing. Adding balconies or juliets could help the proposal gain the full commission’s approval, Livingston said.

“Public art will also be an area that will be discussed,” she said.

The project team plans to submit its package for a full review in January 2018, Otte said. That would likely result in a hearing in March.

“I think it is right there on the right track,” Commissioner Samuel Rodriguez said. “I think it’s a matter of refinements.”

Also on Thursday:

Fremont Apartments

The Portland Design Commission heard from neighboring residents unhappy with the planned height and scale of the Fremont Apartments at 1650 N.W. Naito Parkway. The scheduled 30-minute hearing was extended to more than 75 minutes, largely to accommodate public comments.

Alterations made to the Lincoln Property Company development included removal of a protruding mass from the building’s L-shape portion and addition of a floor to the facade on Northwest Naito Parkway.

While the commission appeared ready to give TVA Architects‘ design the go-ahead with a tentative 3-1 vote, two citizens asked for the record to be held open for seven days for further testimony. The record will be held open until Dec. 15, and another hearing will take place on Dec. 21.

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