On the rise in Portland’s Gateway area is a mixed-use development that will certainly be exactly that. Halsey 106 will have affordable housing units, market-rate housing units, administrative space for owner/operator Human Solutions, space for community services, and ground-floor retail space.

Oh, and the building will be adjacent to Gateway Discovery Park, which opened in 2018.

LMC Construction is building Halsey 106, which was designed by Holst Architecture. Offices and commercial space will be in a two-story business wing along Northeast Halsey Street, near the intersection of 106th Avenue. A six-story residential wing with 75 apartments will rise behind. Both sides of the building will connect to a courtyard that is open on the west end for vehicle access.

The Portland Housing Bureau is providing money for the inclusion of 40 affordable units scattered throughout the residential portion. However, 12 additional units will be affordable as well. Rents for the remaining units will be market rate. All apartments will be studios, one-bedroom units or two-bedroom units.

The residential common area will include a computer room, a community trash area, a dog wash station, and a lounge with kitchen facilities. There will be 50 tuck-under parking spaces for motor vehicles and 81 covered parking spaces for bicycles.

Prosper Portland will manage the 11,000 total square feet of commercial space in the business wing, while Human Solutions will manage the residential units as well as relocate its business operations to the new building. Human Solutions and Gerding Edlen are co-developers of the project.

“The tenants will be small businesses – probably some restaurants,” LMC Construction project manager Ken Bello said. “Prosper Portland invested a lot of money in upgrading the shell space. We’re doing more than just a warm shell, so they don’t have to do a lot of improvements themselves. The building and the park were supposed to be done about the same time, but the building got delayed a couple of years ago so now we’re coming back.”

Right now, crews with Wood Mechanix are framing the fourth story of the residential wing, while MEP and carpentry crews with B&I Construction, Andersen Mechanical, Jet Industries, Polaris Electrical and other companies are roughing in the nine separate commercial spaces and the second-story office space. Both sections of the building feature wood framing atop a post-tensioned concrete podium.

“We had to do a lot of negotiation with the (Portland Parks & Recreation) people, because you can’t get the cladding on the back side without going onto the park property,” Bello said. “But it’s already looking very distinct.”

Ground was broken in September 2019 and completion is expected in spring 2021.

“The business section is all but complete in terms of framing,” Bello said. “And we’ll start roofing May 4. So we’re getting the roof prep work done, the parapets. We should start our exterior building wrap next week and right now we’re scheduled to top out by June.”

Halsey 106 is one project site where LMC Construction has been able to continue working. When the coronavirus crisis hit, the firm halted all work in occupied units.

“When this whole thing got started we started a tracking sheet where we track all our current and upcoming projects,” LMC Construction Vice President Kyle Anderson said. “So I started tracking the actual delays we’ve hit, and this was meant to track anything we’re hearing in the industry, like hey, this supplier is slow. As far as what’s actually hit our projects, the only substantive impact we’ve had is on our occupied renovations.”

The good news for LMC Construction is that the impact has not been significant, Anderson said.

“Normally we’re in occupied units all the time,” he said. “Luckily, we happen to be at a point where we have very few projects that were affected by that.”

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Human Solutions, a nonprofit based in east Multnomah County, and Gerding Edlen are bringing a mixed-use development – including affordable housing – to Portland’s Gateway area.

Halsey 106 is being built by general contractor LMC Construction based on a design from Holst Architecture. The new building will be roughly U-shaped, with one “arm” holding two stories of offices and the other holding six stories of housing.

The Portland Housing Bureau, Prosper Portland and Metro are among the entities helping pay for the project. Human Solutions will manage the property upon completion and also is planning to transfer its main base of operations there from two other east Multnomah County locations.

Plans call for 52 of the apartments to serve households making between 30 and 60 percent of the area median income. The remainder will be market-rate units.

The project team broke ground in September with a public ceremony attended by Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and other city representatives. Construction has since proceeded rapidly, thanks in part to drier-than-average weather this fall. That has allowed concrete crews to make better-than-expected progress on the building’s shear walls and foundation slab.

Currently, carpenters with subcontractor Whitaker/Ellis are building formwork for the concrete columns that will support a post-tensioned podium deck. The top five stories will then be constructed with standard wood framing.

Other subcontractors working on site include Polaris Electrical, Bar M Steel Commercial (rebar), Lauzon Contracting (excavation), Andersen Mechanical (plumbing) and D&R Masonry Restoration (foundation waterproofing). Once the slab-on-grade foundation is poured and cured, wood framing will begin, with Wood Mechanix carrying out the work.

Meanwhile, Holst Architecture has designed the building to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Multifamily Midrise gold certification. The building will feature a high-efficiency mechanical system, an airtight building envelope, an extensive green roof, low-VOC finishes and LED lighting.

Project completion is expected by spring 2021.

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The Portland City Council on Wednesday passed three ordinances approving $17.45 million in spending to help pay for around 200 new affordable housing units in the city. The funding, mostly via tax increment financing (TIF) from two different urban renewal areas, will go toward land acquisition for future development and provide construction financing for two new projects.

The council approved a $6.8 million purchase of six parcels totaling 0.97 acres at the southwest corner of North Williams Avenue and Alberta Street for the creation of affordable housing. The Portland Housing Bureau will acquire the properties using TIF dollars from the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area.

Development concepts have not been created for the property, but the Housing Bureau estimates it could accommodate between 100 and 150 new permanently affordable housing units. The land is being held for future development, which will be shaped by a community input process and could include either affordable rental housing or for-sale condominiums.

The acquisition aligns with the land banking goal set forth as part of the North/Northeast Neighborhood Housing Strategy, which the council adopted in 2015 to address the impacts of the city’s role in the gentrification of traditionally African-American neighborhoods and displacement of longtime residents.

The land is owned by members of the Strong family, longtime neighborhood residents who have been in active discussions with the Housing Bureau for nearly four years to ensure the property remains a community asset.

“We didn’t want to put the property in the hands of developers who have no heart or no kind of concern … for some of the longtime inhabitants of our community,” family member Mark Strong told the council. “Over the last several years the change in North and Northeast Portland has been kind of disheartening to watch. The fingerprints of the African-American community being etched away has just been very, very painful.”

In accordance with the housing strategy, preference for tenancy or ownership at the future development will be given to current and former longtime residents of North and Northeast Portland, and those who have been displaced by prior urban renewal practices in the Interstate Corridor area.

Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty praised the Strong family for working with the city to ensure the site remains an asset to the community.

“In this time where land is being grabbed up all over the city of Portland, you could have chosen a different route,” she said. “I’m not a real estate person, but I suspect you could have also gotten more money if the goal was just about money.”

Echoing Hardesty’s statement, Commissioner Chloe Eudaly added, “I want to note how vital it is that we move as much property out of the private market as we can and turn it into permanently affordable housing. I think it’s the only way forward to preserving any kind of racial or economic diversity in the city.”

The council also approved an ordinance to provide up to $3.3 million of construction funding, using Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area TIF money, for a new 30-unit affordable condominium development in the Kenton neighborhood. The city funding leverages more than $7 million of additional financing from other sources, including donations and a loan from First Republic Bank.

The Kilpatrick townhouses are being constructed by Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East at the southeast corner of North Interstate Avenue and Kilpatrick Street. Foundation work is under way on the project’s first phase, which consists of a three-story, 12-unit building with single-level condominiums on the ground floor and two-level townhomes on the upper floors. A second phase will add another 18-unit building.

The project will ultimately contain 15 two-bedroom units and 15 three-bedroom units housing an estimated 113 residents. Homebuyers will be identified through the North/Northeast Neighborhood Housing Strategy’s preference policy. According to Dr. Steven Holt, a member of the housing strategy’s oversight committee, the policy is vital to providing ownership equity to the black community.

“Homeownership for African Americans in the city of Portland is now equaling 1965 numbers; we’ve gone backwards,” he told the council. “So opportunities like this cannot be overemphasized.”

A third ordinance will provide up to $7.35 million in construction financing for Halsey 106, a mixed-use building in the Gateway area being developed by Gerding Edlen and Human Solutions. The building will include 75 apartment units, including 52 affordable ones, as well as affordable retail space and office space for Human Solutions.

LMC Construction is expected to begin work in September on the Holst Architecture-designed project. Construction funding includes $6,602,738 in Gateway Urban Renewal Area TIF money and $747,262 in Community Housing Development Organization money.

All three ordinances passed via 4-0 votes, with Commissioner Amanda Fritz absent.

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General contractor LMC Construction is seeking sub-bids for work on Halsey 106 – a new multistory, mixed-use building in the Gateway area of Northeast Portland.

The 0.75-acre parcel, near Gateway Discovery Park, is owned by the city (Prosper Portland). Human Solutions, a nonprofit, is developing the project along with Gerding Edlen, which is serving as a consultant.

The project calls for full site development and right-of-way improvements. The structure will feature a six-story residential wing set back from Northeast Halsey Street behind a two-story office and retail wing.

The building’s residential portion will feature traditional wood framing and have 40 affordable units and 35 market-rate units.

The office and retail portion will feature heavy timber framing and have 12,000 square feet of office space as well as 10,600 square feet of commercial space. Human Solutions will occupy the office space and manage the property, project manager Ryan Winterberg-Lipp said. A small grocery store or coffee shop are possible tenants for the commercial space.

“The retail space is going to open up to the park,” Winterberg-Lipp said. “It will be a very cool project.”

Also, 66 at-grade parking spaces will be constructed, and 30 of them will be reserved for residential tenants.

Holst Architecture is designing the project, which has a tentative value of $20.5 million, according to Portland Bureau of Development Services documents.

To learn more about the project, email either LMC Construction’s Ken Bello at kenb@lmcconstruction.com or Nick Bredleau at nickb@lmcconstruction.com. All bids for this project are due by 5 p.m. on Jan. 8, 2019.

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