The team proposing to construct near the east end of the Burnside Bridge a mixed-use development featuring two six-story buildings with a facade inspired by wrapping paper has applied to the Portland Bureau of Development Services for another design review hearing.

Phillip Chubb, an associate with FFA Architecture and Interiors, on Dec. 3 submitted the request to address modifications made to the Fair-Haired Dumbbell since a previous hearing before the Portland Design Commission. Ross Caron, a spokesman with the BDS, said no date has been set for the next hearing.

The development, designed by Kevin Cavenaugh of Portland-based Guerrilla Development, would be on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and bordered by Burnside and Couch streets. Plans presented to the design commission in January called for a wood-frame building with ground-level retail and parking. The second through sixth floors were designed with heavy timber construction to give the new building the feel of an old warehouse.

Commissioners expressed several concerns with the proposal, including the inclusion of ground-level parking and how it could cause traffic congestion.

When Cavenaugh approached banks for a loan to complete the approximately $15 million speculative project earlier this year, lenders led him to believe he’d have an easier time getting funding if he included parking.

“It probably looks about the same as it did to the average passerby,” Cavenaugh said of the revised design. “But I think we addressed 100 percent of the commission’s concerns.”

Initial designs included 72 ground-level mechanized parking spaces, but commissioners worried about impacts of cars entering and exiting the parking area. Now that 40 percent of the space has been pre-leased, lenders seem less concerned about parking, Cavenaugh said.

“When you’re in architecture school, they teach you that form follows function,” he said. “Then you get to the real world and realize function follows parking, and it’s kind of a sock in the gut.”

Cavenaugh intends to present three modified design options to the commission – one with 36 parking spaces, one with 14 and one with none.

“The no-parking scheme has the best ground floor presence,” Cavenaugh said. “The submittal we’re offering has parking, but my hope is that the design review board and I can get at it and nibble away at the parking.”

The modified design moves the elevators inside the building so that they’re no longer visible from the street. Also, construction material for the wrapped facade now would allow the color and image to stay strong in the long term, Cavenaugh said. Initially, the plans called for color to be applied to metal sheeting in a process similar to painting a car. Cavenaugh said the new method, which he declined to expand upon, is a “better solution” that brings with it a 20-year warranty from the manufacturer.

“I feel great about it,” he said. “The building as it sits now is sexy as hell.”

The post Design review on tap for Fair-Haired Dumbbell appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Burnside Bridgehead – a four-acre, four-block chunk of property purchased by the Portland Development Commission for $11 million in several deals between 1998 and 2006 – originally was going to be developed by now-defunct Opus Northwest. When it was unable to get large-scale development off the ground, the PDC opted to let several other developers pursue it in smaller increments. One of those projects could finally get a green light next week.

The Portland Bureau of Development Services has recommended approval for Myhre Group Architects‘ design of a six-story, mixed-use building at 419 E. Burnside St. for Seattle-based Trinsic Residential Group. Plans call for 157 residential units, two live-work units, ground-floor commercial space and rooftop terraces.

Also, the development will hold 50 residential parking spaces – including 11 tandem spaces – and 12 spaces for the adjacent building, according to a BDS staff report.

At a Design Commission meeting on Sept. 4, the developer and commissioners discussed moving the proposed location of a garage gate from Northeast Grand Avenue to Couch Street. The commissioners believe an entrance on Couch Street would be better suited for in-and-out vehicle traffic, because Grand Avenue has been identified in a Central Eastside design plan as a street best suited for pedestrian-friendly retail.

Relocating the garage entrance changed the building’s overall orientation, which now features a primary residential entrance on Grand Avenue and a continuous arcade along East Burnside Street.

The Design Commission will meet Dec. 4 to review the staff report and hear testimony from the applicant and any concerned citizens. The commission will then be able to adopt, modify or reject the proposed development.

Meanwhile, construction of a $58 million, 21-story tower at Block 67 is under way. The project team – Guardian Real Estate Services and Hood River-based Key Development Corp., Skylab Architecture and Andersen Construction – put together a development that will include 20,000 square feet of commercial space, 284 apartments and 200 parking spaces.

Andersen Construction began site work in October, and Brad Nile, a project executive with the contractor, said vertical construction will begin in January and require approximately 22 months.

Also, Key Development is planning to develop Block 76W, a small piece of land on the west side of the Couch Street couplet, with a two- to three-story commercial building that will mirror the larger tower.

Developers of a 10-story, mixed-use project on Block 75 – 111 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. – on Nov. 18 submitted permit applications to the BDS. The Design Commission in August approved Works Partnership Architecture‘s design that calls for ground-floor retail space, office space on the second through fourth floors and 75 apartments on levels five through 10.

The project development team includes representatives of Beam Development and Urban Development Partners as well as Carrie Strickland and William Neburka, both principals at Works Partnership Architecture.

Expectations are for Beaverton-based Yorke & Curtis General Contractors to finish the project in time for a May 2016 opening.

The Fair-Haired Dumbbell, two six-story buildings connected by sky bridges, is the first speculative office complex proposed for development at the Burnside Bridgehead. Guerrilla Development owner Kevin Cavenaugh, designed the buildings with a Florentine pattern wrap to resemble gift boxes.

Guerrilla Development collaborated with Fundrise to raise more than $5 million from 1,200 accredited investors to pay for the project, according to Katie Brotherton with Norris, Beggs & Simpson.

Carter Beyl, a broker at Norris, Beggs & Simpson, said the building “epitomizes the tech pilgrimage to Portland,” with its open space, timber-frame construction, expansive wood floors and robotic, stacked parking system.

Crews are expected to break ground in the second quarter of 2015 and finish by the end of the year, according to Brotherton.

The post Burnside Bridgehead project’s design on track appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

After Kevin Cavenaugh, managing member of Portland-based Guerrilla Development, purchased a century-old former horse barn in Southeast Portland, he decided to convert the industrial-style building with no windows and 24-foot-tall ceilings into four residential lofts.

The challenge included peeling away a portion of the roof to create a central courtyard that lets light inside.

“It’s fun because it’s an experiment,” said Cavenaugh, a designer. “It was more about: Can anybody live in here? Can I make this thing habitable?”

Now the building, called Dr. Jim’s Lofts, is where Cavenaugh and his family call home.

Dr. Jim’s Lofts is one of eight urban infill developments that will be featured Oct. 11 on a hosted by the American Institute of Architects’ Portland chapter.

“For the most part, they’re really creative uses of old lots,” said Dave Otte, president-elect of the AIA Portland board, said of the structures included on the “” tour.

A committee of AIA members selected the homes – all completed either this year or last year – as prime examples of custom urban infill projects designed in harmony with inner Portland neighborhoods. Several of the homes strive to bridge the gap between residential and commercial areas. Others balance out contemporary designs by taking cues from nearby structures.

Designs by Portland-based Works Partnership Architecture for the Bowstring Truss House and Overton 19, adjacent developments in Northwest Portland on the tour, fit their surroundings, Works Partnership principal Carrie Strickland said. The live-work lofts blur the line between industrial buildings across the street and townhomes to the west, she said.

“I think it works really well in that neighborhood because it’s sort of a transition neighborhood,” Strickland said. “You set up a project scale that helps blend that transition line.”

When Portland architect Rick Potestio was tasked with helping turn a Southeast Portland parking lot into a contemporary three-story apartment building, he took a close look at the neighborhood first. His design for the Gragg Apartments, including the home of University of Oregon John Yeon Center for Architectural Studies Director Randy Gragg, will be featured on the AIA Portland tour.

The concrete base of the apartment building uses materials that are common in the neighborhood and colors that are compatible with nearby structures.

“I designed the base of it to reflect the rest of the buildings on the block,” Potestio said. “That’s actually my philosophy is work with your context.”

Like the Bowstring Truss House and Overton 19 projects, the Gragg Apartments sits between industrial and residential areas. It’s one reason why Potestio said he decided to incorporate a large covered porch into the top-floor unit.

“The porch is a homage to the big covered porches on the residential side,” he said.

Another home on the tour, the Pavilion House in Northeast Portland, matches the setbacks, massing and scale of neighboring single-family homes, said Portland architect Ben Waechter, who designed the project. Yet it’s distinctly contemporary.

The design features an open central room on the first floor with a second-story “pavilion” supported by pillars around it.

“The house could be described as having a second-story body that’s supported by four legs kind of like a table,” Waechter said. “The idea was to place these legs strategically in places where they create privacy within the room that aside from these legs is all glass.”

Along with taking cues from surroundings, designs for Dr. Jim’s Lofts and the Bowstring Truss House take advantage of the context within the existing industrial buildings.

Preserving the open warehouse feel of the Bowstring Truss House was important, Strickland said.

“We didn’t want to interrupt that visual continuity across the space,” she said. “None of those walls go all the way to the ceiling, so you can always see over them.”

When Cavenaugh opened some of the roof of Dr. Jim’s Lofts, he left the truss system in place. This created a dynamic setting, he said.

“It’s take-your-breath-away space, and I have nothing to do with that,” he said. “The building, I just let it go.”

If you go …

What: American Institute of Architects Portland Homes Tour: Crafted + Creative Urban Infill

When: Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Where: Eight contemporary Portland homes. Participants in the self-guided tour will receive a printed booklet with maps and descriptions of each home.

Cost: Tickets are $40

More information: aiaportland.org/aia-portland-homes-tour-2014

The post Creative infill designs given spotlight appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A geyser of construction activity is about to erupt at the east end of the Burnside Bridge, and one final development is bubbling to the surface.

Hood River-based Key Development is purchasing from the Portland Development Commission the tiny spit of land (Block 76W) on the west side of the Couch Street couplet, and planning to build a two- to three-story commercial building. The firm already is preparing to break ground in August on a 21-story mixed-use tower on Block 67, due west of Block 76W, and other developers are hot on its heels with projects.

PDC commissioners on Wednesday unanimously approved Key Development’s offer for the 8,414-square-foot sister site. Given its small size, sharp slope and the presence of submerged support structures for the Burnside Bridge, the property was not expected to draw an offer.

“When I looked at this plan I never thought that piece of property would get developed,” PDC Board Chairman and Melvin Mark President Scott Andrews said during the hearing. “It’s got a 20 percent slope (and) it’s holding up Couch Street … God bless Key Development.”

Development of the small site wasn’t initially part of Key Development’s plan, principal Jeff Pickhardt acknowledged, but was instead born out of a need to create a stronger pedestrian connection with the bridge.

Key Development’s original plan was to make that connection via Block 67, but Pickhardt said that fizzled when his team learned that the railing on the Burnside Bridge is historically significant – and therefore untouchable. Then, during a design assistance meeting with the city, team members shifted their attention to the grassy island.

“I have to give credit to Skylab (Architecture) in coming up with the design,” Pickhardt said. “They took it upon themselves to create the first run at the design, and then reintroduced it as part of the larger project.”

The proposed 20,000-square-foot building looks like a miniature version of the nearby tower’s podium structure. A large, glass storefront system, triangular frame and green roof suggest a mountain or steep hillside.

The Block 76W development is estimated to cost $6.4 million; Andersen Construction is Key Development’s general contractor for both that project and Block 67.

The PDC is selling the property to Key Development (via Block 76 LLC) for a July 2013 fair market value of $336,000, but the true price will be the cost to perform “extraordinary” geotechnical work – estimated at $361,000. As the development firm pays for that work, the PDC will reimburse it the purchase price.

Key Development also is required to make a $33,600 earnest payment that will be nonrefundable following a 30-day due diligence period. The deal is scheduled to close within 90 days, and the development firm must begin work within three years or the PDC can buy the property back for the original purchase price. The PDC also would gain a 10 percent interest in any resulting sale of the developed site within five years of completion.

Block 76W was the PDC’s last property at the east end of the Burnside Bridge. A planning effort for the bridgehead began some 15 years ago. In 2004, the PDC selected Opus Northwest to develop all of the properties at once; however, that plan dissolved during the recession.

Momentum picked back up in 2009, when the PDC tweaked its framework plan to attract smaller projects in lieu of a larger one. Beam Development got the ball rolling with its redevelopment of the Eastside Exchange building.

Many other projects are planned in the area. Guerrilla Development has a six-story commercial building on tap for Block 76E (the other two-thirds of the block divided by Couch Street); Beam Development and Urban Development Partners are planning a mixed-use project at Block 75 (due north of Block 76); the Seattle office of Texas-based Trinsic Residential Group is preparing to begin a 159-unit mixed-use project on the block due east of Block 76E; and NFN Investments and Arthur Mutal are remodeling the R.J. Templeton Building on the south side of the bridge.

All of those projects are expected to be under way by early 2015.

“We expect that to be a pretty serious construction zone starting in about two months,” said Eric Jacobson, a senior project manager for the PDC.

He added that the tiny commercial building proposed for Block 76W will play an especially important role for the Burnside bridgehead.

“Our design objective was to treat this as a gateway to the entire Burnside Bridge,” he said. “This is – especially for (bicyclists) and pedestrians coming to the bridge – this is the first property they’re going to encounter. So it was really important for us for it to be activated.”

For Pickhardt, the project has been a long time coming. His company has been working on the Burnside bridgehead development since responding to a PDC inquiry in July 2010.

Pickhardt and Jeff Kovel, a Skylab Architecture principal, first presented drawings of the 21-story tower to the Portland Design Commission in April 2013, to mixed reviews. They received the commission’s approval in December.

“It’s been a really interesting project for us,” Pickhardt said. “And it’s certainly rewarding getting to a point where we’re actually ready to come out of the ground.”

The post Burnside bridgehead development finale appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Portland’s Central Business District is poised to gain more than 176,000 square feet of office space in 2015 via just one 30-story building.

But the restart of construction of Park Avenue West isn’t necessarily a good barometer for the local office market, according to Greg Goodman, co-president of Downtown Development Group.

“It’s not indicative because it is (involving) someone that decided to pay above market rent,” he said. “It wasn’t a market-driven deal. You had a tenant, just like ZGF a while back, who said, ‘You know what? There’s value to me to be in a new building and I’m willing to pay above market to be in a new building.’ ”

Stoel Rives will occupy the top nine floors, or approximately 131,000 square feet, of Park Avenue West when it opens. ZGF Architects made a similar move in 2010, when Twelve | West opened.

However, when Stoel Rives relocates, it will leave behind approximately 160,000 square feet in the Standard Insurance Center – a move that Goodman said will add to the approximately 1.25 million square feet of Class A space currently available in the Portland market.

According to Goodman’s calculations, that is 14 times the net Class A absorption over the past five years. And while the office market is improving along with the general economy, he said financial feasibility will be challenging for new developments in Portland.

“You can be in a Class A office space downtown for $26.50 per square foot,” Goodman said. “… To build a new building you need about $38 per square foot.”

Office rents have been growing, but not nearly enough to justify the expense of new construction. While rents from a year ago were up 38 cents overall, and 50 cents in the Central Business District, they were down slightly from the second quarter across the board, according to a recent report from Colliers International. The report attributed much of that decline to the large blocks of space left behind after various government agencies relocated to the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building.

Rents are expected to go back up once that space is absorbed, but that could take a while because many firms are choosing to condense – Stoel Rives, for example, will occupy 29,000 fewer square feet in Park Avenue West than in the Standard Insurance Center. One exception, however, is in the creative office industry.

“It feels like everybody is talking about creative office space, and this different kind of environment from traditional Class A,” said Jill Sherman, a vice president of development for Gerding Edlen. “(It’s) not just creative firms anymore, but even law firms and accounting firms in terms of being able to attract their employees. So (an opportunity might be) how maybe new construction might be able to create that aesthetic … because there are only so many old warehouses that can be renovated.”

Gerding Edlen is drafting plans for a mixed-use housing, retail and creative office development in Old Town Chinatown. Another nine-story office development was proposed recently in the Pearl District, though few details are available yet. Sherman said banks are still unwilling to lend for speculative office projects without a tenant lined up.

Nevertheless, demand for creative office space is strong, and some companies have taken to repositioning their Class A spaces as creative ones. Unico Properties, for instance, has used the strategy to attract four large tech companies to its U.S. Bancorp Tower.

Additionally, while the overall vacancy rate for office space in Portland was 10.3 percent in the third quarter – an increase of 10 basis points over the previous quarter – Melvin Mark CEO Jim Mark estimates vacancy for creative office space is less than 5 percent. His company recently partnered with Becker Capital Management to acquire a 65,000-square-foot creative office building in Northwest Portland for $12.3 million.

“The opportunity for creative spaces are few and far between, especially in the Pearl District, and to get an opportunity for a building like this … they just don’t come along very often,” Mark said.

Few available downtown core spaces – especially for creative use – are larger than 20,000 square feet, Mark said. But several creative office projects are in the works.

One is Guerrilla Development‘s approximately 35,000-square-foot Dumbbell building planned on East Burnside Street. Also, Beam Development reopened its remodeled 97,000-square-foot Convention Plaza building nearby. Other examples are farther from downtown.

“They’re doing this out in Kruse Way now,” Mark said. “Who would have thought that? That’s about as traditional an office (market) as is out there.”

Meanwhile, Goodman is watching employment and hoping for improvement. New construction of office space may not be imminent, but he said increased investment activity indicates demand is growing.

Just this month the California State Teacher’s Retirement System purchased Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon‘s two downtown office buildings at First and Main. Kevin Shannon, vice chairman and managing director for CBRE in El Segundo, Calif., brokered that deal and said Regence planned to continue to lease two-thirds of the approximately 296,000 square feet. The remainder will become creative office space, which Shannon said factored heavily in the sale. CalSTRS isn’t reporting the sales price, but public records value the property at approximately $49.5 million.

“We had over a dozen bids,” Shannon said. “Most capital is looking at repositioning creative, so many (competing buyers) picked up on this as an opportunity for that strategy.”

Meanwhile, TMT Development and its president, Vanessa Sturgeon, are moving ahead with Park Avenue West. Mark said a few of his firm’s clients are looking at its office space.

“The buzz I’m hearing is pretty positive,” he said. “I think Vanessa’s timing is excellent. I think it’s going to prove to be very successful.”

The post Checking the pulse of Portland’s office market appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.