Nearly three years after the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission approved plans for a mixed-use project in the Central Eastside, crews are nearly done constructing it.

Grand + Belmont, at 514 S.E. Belmont St., in the Buckman neighborhood, will have five wood-framed stories above a two-story post-tensioned concrete podium. The 131 apartments will be a mix of studios, one-bedroom units and two-bedroom units. The ground floor will hold commercial space.

General contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis is leading the team building Grand + Belmont, which is part of an ongoing boom in east Portland. Numerous projects – including the Hyatt Regency Portland at the Oregon Convention Center, 5 MLK, District Office and others – are under way.

Ankrom Moisan Architects designed Grand + Belmont for owner and developer Urban Asset Advisors. The building’s exterior is dominated by brick and dark stucco. Also, there are fiberglass storefronts, black fiberglass windows, metal trim and metal canopies with wood soffits.

“The thing I’ve heard a lot about is that it fits in really well,” Lease Crutcher Lewis senior project manager Matt Baker said. “I think they did a really good job of meeting Landmarks’ expectations on that one.”

Ground was broken on the project in spring 2018, and now the expected completion date is mid-October, Baker said. Earlier this month, tradespeople responsible for drywall, painting, carpentry, cabinetry, elevator mechanics, and mechanical, electrical and plumbing were on site wrapping up their respective scopes of work.

“We’ve got a couple of floors that are in the punch-list phase right now,” Baker said. “Exteriors are pretty much done, and you can see on the penthouse units there still is stucco being done. We’re finishing up the metal, but we’re pouring sidewalks and starting to do all our public improvements so we can get the rest of the storefront up. And that will enclose it all.”

After that, he added, the last critical piece will be the building lobby and finishes, along with the commercial spaces – including at least one restaurant.

Grand + Belmont will also feature a car-stacking machine able to hold up to 44 motor vehicles. The parking is technically at-grade, but the car stacker extends below grade to allow for three levels of vehicles. This allows the machine to circulate the vehicles between levels and return them for driving upon command.

“The stacker pit was interesting,” Baker said. “It’s not in working order yet, but it’s out there and a lot of it’s put up now. That’s probably the most unique part. A lot of these developments go below grade, but these guys saw this, priced it both ways, and found it paid off to go with a huge car stacker matrix with a full-time valet.”

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The proposed Grand Belmont building at 514 S.E. Belmont St., got approval from the Historic Landmarks Commission, but at a cost. Originally planned in 2015 as a 23-story tower, it now is due to be a seven-story mixed-use structure.

The original design called for 214 residential units, a rooftop common room with an exterior terrace, three ground-floor retail spaces totaling 6,500 square feet and 102 parking spaces in the podium portion. A smaller 14-story version was also presented as an option.

What finally gained the commission’s approval is a seven-story building with 121 residential units and 6,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Parking for 14 cars and 184 bicycles will also be included.

The 81-foot-tall building, however, will stand much shorter than the 240-foot-tall one proposed first. The development will replace a parking lot and Dutch Bros. coffee stand.

The project has been through multiple design iterations and two architects since it was first proposed. Vallaster Corl, the original architect, submitted several proposals for soaring buildings all taller than 10 stories; however, none could get past the landmarks commission.

Design advice requests for the project were submitted to the commission three times, first in August 2015 for a 15-story structure. The building went before the commission again in September 2015 and once more in March 2016.

“It became clear that the commission was most likely not going to support a tower,” said Scott Passman, an architect with Ankrom Moisan Architects.

Facing potential denial for the project, developer Urban Asset Advisors had to choose whether to appeal that likely denial to the Portland City Council or go in an entirely new direction.

“There are a number of factors when determining whether to appeal a project,” said Seth Henderson, Urban Asset Advisors’ vice president of project management. “What is the legal basis for the appeal and the recent history of successful appeals? What are the chances of the appeal being successful based on the individuals sitting on the appellant body? What is the duration of said appeals as well as cost? Who will be paying the cost and will market conditions have improved or declined during the delay? The decision to modify our development approach for this specific property was a culmination of these factors.”

Once the decision was made to change course, the next was to turn the project over to Ankrom Moisan Architects to work on a lower-density design that could pass muster with the Historic Landmarks Commission.

“Ankrom Mosian was originally contracted as the project architect to support Vallaster Corl as the design architect,” Henderson said.

A number of factors led Urban Asset Advisors to turn the project entirely over to Ankrom Moisan, Henderson said. These included the firm’s previous success with the Historic Landmarks Commission as well as experience with a historic overlay of its new headquarters.

“Ankrom Moisan has taken over completely, and we began our design work on the current design beginning in September,” Passman said.

The new design and its 5.73:1 floor area ratio finally got the go-ahead from the commission on Dec. 12.

“It was unanimous, 6-0 (in favor), and the commission could not have been more complimentary,” Passman said. “This is the best we could have gotten.”

The project team will now need to navigate the permitting process before construction can begin. It anticipates a four-month review period and a 16-month construction schedule, with completion targeted for late 2018.

“We will be submitting for a building permit in March and the team hopes to begin construction this summer,” Passman said.

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A 23-story multifamily project proposed for a parking lot near the Morrison Bridge’s east end is a little closer to city approval.

Urban Asset Advisors is the developer of the Grand Belmont tower at 514 S.E. Belmont Street, and Vallaster Corl Architects is the designer. Portland’s Historic Landmarks Commission – and not the Portland Design Commission – is charged with approving the design because the building is located in the East Portland Grand Avenue Historic District.

The only other high-rise in the district is the 12-story, 1920s-era Weatherly Building on Southeast Morrison Street. The proposed height for the Grand Belmont previously was identified by the Historic Landmarks Commission as a problem. But Chris Jones, project designer with Vallaster Corl, said that at the Grand Belmont’s third design advice hearing March 7 commissioners seemed to be more concerned about the building’s appearance than its height.

Jones said the commission was shown a preferred design for a 23-story tower with 214 residential units, a rooftop common room with an exterior terrace, three ground-floor retail spaces totaling 6,500 square feet and 102 parking spaces in the podium portion. Commissioners were also presented a second option for a 14-story building, he said, but seemed to prefer the taller building.

“Most commissioners expressed support for the taller, more slender scheme,” he said. “But there was much discussion on the exterior skin and how to complement the historic district.”

Jones said commissioners may offer some trade-offs to allow the higher building, but nothing is guaranteed until the design is approved in a formal review.

“They made concessions in terms of height, but said it will be contingent on the level and quality of materials, fenestration patterns, types of windows and how it all works with neighboring resources,” he said.

Jones added that his firm was pleased overall with the advice hearing. He believes the commissioners’ consensus was to allow a floor area ratio (FAR) of 12:1.

“They, by and large, were not pushing back on the big issues of height and FAR,” he said.

Jones said this is the first major project proposed for the East Portland Grand Avenue Historic District since it was established in the 1990s.

“The whole area started to boom in the 1920s as an alternative city, a separate city (from Portland),” he said. “The construction of the Weatherly Building, the landmark our design is responding to, was the last great hurrah of development on the east side before the Great Depression.”

No date has been set for a formal design review before the landmarks commission, Jones said.

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