A six-story apartment project under construction in Northeast Portland is the second and final phase of the Glisan Commons affordable housing development. R&H Colas Construction began construction of the Carleton Hart Architecture-designed structure in February after completing work on the 67-unit first phase designed by Holst Architecture.

The second building will feature five wood-framed stories of senior apartments over a concrete podium. The project is a joint development between REACH Community Development and Human Solutions, and is slated for completion in spring 2015.

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Eric Chavez, left, and Troy Erkenbeck, both laborers with Whitaker/Ellis, pour footings for Glisan Commons in Northeast Portland.

The mixed-use building is being built by general contractor R&H Colas Construction.

Holst Architecture designed the five-story building, which will hold workforce housing as well as office space for Ride Connection, a nonprofit transportation group.

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Plans will be finalized at today’s Portland City Council meeting for the Glisan Commons development.

The Portland Housing Bureau, which is co-developing the project, will purchase a property on 604 N.E. 99^th Ave. from , another developer on the project. The $1 purchase will create the final piece of the project’s master plan, which includes combining multiple properties on Northeast Glisan Street and 99^th Avenue.

City Council will vote to approve the purchase; the housing bureau expects full support on the vote.

The Glisan Commons will be a mixed-use, two-building development constructed in two phases. The first includes building 67 units of workforce housing, while the second includes 60 units of senior housing. In between the buildings will be a large courtyard that will hold vans and buses.

and , a nonprofit that provides transportation to the elderly, are also developing the project.

The buildings are designed by . Construction will begin in December and will be handled by and .

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The design team at on Thursday got positive feedback from the Portland Design Commission for the firm’s revised plan for a mixed-use project called the Glisan Commons.

“It went very well,” Holst principal Jeff Stuhr said. “We got a very good response.”

It was the second time Holst had presented its design for the project, which is being developed jointly by , , and . Phase one includes the construction of 67 units of workforce housing, while phase two would see 60 units of senior housing.

During the previous meeting in December, Stuhr said the commissioners requested Holst review the design of six architectural items. Their biggest concerns were the southeast corner of Northeast Glisan Street and 100^th Avenue and the building’s use of a single, gray-metal siding material. Stuhr said the team revised the design to include more color and larger windows.

“It just opens it up a lot more and brightens it up,” he said.

Commissioners also had early concerns with the location of the building’s public plaza and its access to sunlight. Holst has since re-oriented the courtyard to a sunnier position.

Stuhr said the area’s Urban Renewal Advisory Committee and the Hazelwood Neighborhood Association have both signed off on the proposed design, but not everyone at the meeting was happy with the plans. Stuhr said some neighborhood members had issue with the property’s parking code and questioned whether the future building’s use of vans and buses would violate it.

Stuhr said those objections, while unfortunate, are not uncommon for residential neighborhoods that have been rezoned to include larger developments.

“There are always these tensions and pressures with the scale of development and it causes heartburn for some people I would say, to put it lightly,” he said.

During the meeting, Stuhr said one of the opponents requested that the public record remain open, so commissioners could not take a vote on the development’s design. He said another hearing has been scheduled for June 7.

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At the city Design Commission this week, architect Dave Otte presented an update on the Glisan Commons project, a mixed-use project that is going into the Gateway neighborhood at Northeast 99th Avenue and Glisan Street. The project is a partnership between four organizations: s, , and . The project will include office space, apartments and parking in two buildings, and it will be built in two phases.

In phase one, the project will have 67 units of workforce housing developed by Human Solutions and offices for Ride Connection, which provides van transportation and transit education for seniors and people with disabilities. Phase two will include 60 units of housing for seniors, developed by REACH. In between the two buildings will be a large courtyard/plaza which will hold vans and busses for Ride Connection, but which can also be cleared for weekend events.

Holst Architecture is currently performing the master plan for the entire project and design for phase one.

At the Design Commission on Thursday, the project was presented for a “design advice request” hearing. Otte presented renderings of the phase one building and showed a building with two types of material on the siding: a Hardie plank siding material and metal panels that combine in a puzzle-piece fashion. Bedroom windows for the apartment units, which come out onto the metal panel material, are smaller than living room windows, which come through onto the plank. Design commissioners recommended that Holst make the bedroom windows larger.

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In 2007, housing and homeless services organization Human Solutions purchased land at Northeast 99th Avenue and Glisan Street. When the recession hit, chances for financing a housing development on the site plummeted, and Human Solutions sold the land to the city of Portland.

Now, the site is again being targeted by Human Solutions. Its proposal to develop the land in partnership with other nonprofit organizations was selected by the Portland Development Commission through a request for proposals. This time around, funding from state and federal tax credits and private foundations will help make the project feasible, said Jean DeMaster, Human Solutions’ executive director.

The Glisan Commons project also will be funded by tax increment financing from the .

“A lot of the impetus is coming from the 30 percent set aside for affordable housing in urban renewal areas,” said Holst Architecture project manager Dave Otte. “That’s what’s driving this project.”

The organizations involved – Human Solutions, Ride Connection, REACH Community Development and Housing Development Center, which is coordinating funding and housing for the project – will each contribute money as well, and one or more of the eventual occupants will likely carry a mortgage for their portion. Financing will be easier with public and charitable contributions, DeMaster said.

A warehouse, a barn and two single-family houses will be torn down to clear space at the site. When completed, the approximately $33 million, transit-oriented development will include 60 units of workforce housing developed by Human Solutions, 60 units of senior housing developed by REACH, 16,000 square feet of office space for Ride Connection and a parking structure.

Officials expect construction to start by next spring on the Human Solutions housing, office space and parking structure. The REACH senior housing will be built later, atop the parking structure. Project phases will be scheduled around the state’s release of affordable housing money. The plan is for each housing portion to be included in a different funding cycle, to maximize benefits for the project, DeMaster said.

The project will create the first permanent home for Ride Connection. The organization provides door-to-door van transportation service for seniors and people with disabilities, as well as special shuttles and education about safe driving and the city’s transit system. The 25-year-old organization has steadily expanded its mission and number of employees, and has hopped from one office space to another every few years.

“Each space we’re leasing we’ve outgrown,” said Ride Connection development manager James Uyeda.

The nonprofit joined the Glisan Commons project because shared occupancy and multiple public funding opportunities increased feasibility.

“We didn’t want to do a capital campaign and make our donors choose between getting us a new space and providing services,” Uyeda said. “And as far of the location goes … the Gateway District is truly a gateway to the metro area. It was an ideal location.”

“The area is a hub – a short distance from Gateway Transit Center and shopping centers,” DeMaster said. “You really will be able to function without a car, and spend money on other things than gasoline and auto repairs.”

Many of the parking structure’s spaces will be used by Ride Connection staff, Otte said.

“There’s a lower-than-average parking ratio, because it is supposed to be focused on transit-oriented development,” he said. “If it was a standard, market-driven project there would be at least 50 percent more parking.”

Human Solutions recently was awarded Oregon Affordable Housing Tax Credits that DeMaster hopes can be used as leverage to entice private investment. Holst Architecture and contractor partnership R&H Construction/Colas Construction are now working on schematic design and cost analysis. Otte expects design review to begin in the fall.

“There are a bunch of decisions that need to be made before we know what it’s going to look like,” Otte said.

Some ideas include community spaces both indoors and outdoors, with a large courtyard providing a vegetable garden for the senior housing, a picnic shelter for the workforce housing, and storm-water planters as landscape for the offices.

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