Hassalo on Eighth, a superblock development in Lloyd designed by GBD Architects and completed by general contractor Turner Construction in 2015, has received a . The project is the first multi-block development to receive such a rating via U.S. Green Building Council standards that were updated in 2018 as part of LEED version 4.

For Hassalo on Eighth, an asphalt parking lot was transformed into a new community of three mixed-use buildings. These include Velomor, Aster Tower and The Elwood Building, which have a combined total of 657 housing units and approximately 50,000 square feet of retail and commercial space.

The project, for San Diego-based American Assets Trust, was recognized for its community connectivity, resource efficiency, green infrastructure and three buildings that each earned separate LEED platinum ratings.

Some of the updates to the LEED Neighborhood Development category in 2018 include a change to require bicycle facilities (such as parking and showers) to provide connectivity to a bicycle network, as well as higher thresholds for rainwater management on-site.

Green elements of Hassalo on Eighth include a pedestrian path lined with vegetation and water features, vegetated roofs, and rooftop gardens and terraces. Together, they improve air quality and reduce cooling loads.

Also, Hassalo on Eighth is one of the first urban neighborhoods in the U.S. to treat and recycle 100 percent of wastewater generated on-site using a Natural Organic Recycling Machine.

“The architecture and landscape design are intended to create a sense of community that is focused on eco-district strategies,” GBD Architects design principal Kyle Andersen stated in a press release. “The project serves to help diversify the existing commercial real estate, and be a catalyst to other development to help stitch the Lloyd neighborhood into the urban fabric.”

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Rents in Portland have fallen for consecutive months, suggesting new supply is making a dent in meeting the city’s housing needs.

In October, rents here were 0.4 percent lower than a year earlier, and 0.8 percent lower than September, according to Apartment List. The new data indicate rental housing costs have crested after strong increases in recent years.

The median rent was $1,140 for a one-bedroom apartment, and $1,350 for a two-bedroom apartment, according to the rental website. October was the second month in a row rents declined in Portland. The city’s decline was steeper than the nation’s, where rents slipped 0.1 percent.

“Demand is weak, relative to the supply,” said Sam Rodriguez, senior managing director of Mill Creek Residential Trust, a major multifamily developer in Portland. “That’s why you’re seeing this very anemic growth compared to the growth we had before.”

Other data also indicates rents are retreating. At Hassalo on Eighth, a Lloyd District development with 657 apartments, rents were $1,671 as of Sept. 30, down 4 percent from $1,735 a year earlier. (Hassalo on Eighth is owned by American Assets Trust, a publicly traded company).

Managers of some rental properties are offering concessions, particularly in the luxury market. At Yard, for example, prospective renters are being offered a month free and a free gym membership. A month free is being offered for some units at Slate. Up to six weeks free is being offered at NV in the north Pearl District.

But the decrease in rents for luxury units has not trickled down for middle-income renters, said Jamey Duhamel, policy director for city Commissioner Chloe Eudaly.

“It’s softening at the high end,” Duhamel said. “That has not in any way translated to lower rents for folks who are stretched thin, or even the average renter.

“We definitely don’t see any slowdown in the need,” she added.

Nevertheless, supply in certain markets, including the Pearl District and Central Eastside, has surged as major apartment projects have opened.

“As developers, this is what we normally do – we overbuild,” Rodriguez said. “That puts a lid on rents for a while.”

Construction has continued apace. Portland’s crane count stood at 32 in July – more than New York, which had 18, according to Rider Levett Bucknall, a firm that tracks the data. Seattle had the most cranes, with 58.

The city of Portland has responded to a tight rental market with a slew of housing regulations. Inclusionary housing rules took effect Feb. 1, requiring developers of projects with 20 units or more to provide a portion of affordable units, or pay a hefty fee. Portland also instituted relocation assistance, requiring landlords to compensate tenants when issuing no-cause evictions or raising rent by 10 percent or more.

Developers responded to inclusionary housing by rushing to apply for projects before the rules took effect. Some of those projects are now under construction, while others are stalled.

“We’ve got a very, very large pipeline,” Rodriguez said. “I’m not sure how much of that is going to get done. A lot of it is in design review.”

Rodriguez is a member of the Portland Design Commission, which performs design review. Multifamily developers are grappling with inclusionary housing, which dents their revenue, he said.

“Everybody’s trying to figure out inclusionary housing,” he said. “We’re struggling to make deals work.”

Rodriguez predicted rents will again grow in about a year as the current supply is absorbed and few additional apartments get built.

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The team behind the water-management system at Hassalo on Eighth will deliver a presentation on their experience at a national green-building conference.

The system at Hassalo on Eighth is the largest of its type in the United States, said Vanessa Keitges, president and CEO of Columbia Green Technologies. The Portland company is responsible for the development’s green roofs.

Keitges will join Wade Lange, vice president and regional manager for developer American Assets Trust; Kyle Andersen, principal at GBD Architects; and Thomas Puttman, president and CEO of Puttman Infrastructure Inc. in Portland, to discuss the project. The group will be featured speakers at Greenbuild, the world’s largest green-building conference, on Nov. 7 in Boston.

Hassalo on Eighth, a massive mixed-use development in Portland’s Lloyd District, in September was named the national LEED Homes project of the year by the U.S. Green Building Council. The development features green roofs, stormwater planters, green streets, rainwater harvesting and on-site wastewater recycling.

Developers and planners are looking for ways to mitigate flooding, Keitges said.

“The movement across the country is how can cities and developers manage the flooding, because the flooding is causing all the problems,” she said.

Columbia Green Technologies rooftop systems can absorb 80 percent of the stormwater that hits a rooftop, Keitges said. The systems cost $15 to $20 per square foot to install, she said.

American Assets Trust earned a significant reduction in its system development charges – from an estimated $3 million to just $1.4 million – for not using the city’s wastewater infrastructure, Keitges said.

Columbia Green Technologies recently installed green roofs at Nike’s campus in Washington County, Portland State University’s business school and a downtown hotel, among other locations.

Hassalo on Eighth, completed in 2015, has 657 apartments in three buildings. As of Sept. 30, units were 93 percent leased with an average monthly rent of $1,671, according to a federal securities filing.

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Hassalo on Eighth, a mixed-use project in the Lloyd District that was developed by American Assets Trust, was named the LEED Homes project of the year by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The development, completed in 2015, has 657 apartments in three buildings centered on an outdoor plaza. It was designed by GBD Architects. Turner Construction served as general contractor.

The USGBC, in an announcement Tuesday, said the building features that separated Hassalo on Eighth from the competition include rainwater harvesting and treatment, on-site wastewater treatment and reuse with infiltration, district energy, use of natural light and access to public transportation.

LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the most popular green-building certification program in the U.S.

Each of Hassalo on Eighth’s three buildings individually has a LEED platinum rating. The developer is also pursuing platinum status as a neighborhood development, said Wade Lange, American Assets Trust’s vice president and regional manager.

Building to LEED standards was no more expensive than otherwise, Lange said.

“It worked out cost-effective for us to do it,” he said. “But more than that, in Portland LEED platinum makes you competitive in the market. LEED certification of some kind is almost necessary, and with LEED platinum, we wanted to differentiate ourselves in the market.”

Hassalo on Eighth was approximately 90 percent leased with average rents of unit of $1,665 as of June 30, according to a securities filing. American Assets Trust, based in San Diego, is traded publicly.

Hassalo on Eighth was the only project in Oregon to be honored. Portland-based developers Gerding Edlen and Urban Development + Partners were named LEED Homes Power Builders; the designation is given to developers that have consistently produced LEED-rated buildings.

American Assets Trust is working to finalize a design for Oregon Square, a large office development in Northeast Portland.

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The developer of Oregon Square, the four-block mixed-use development in the Lloyd District, is weighing a major change that illustrates how developers consider the best use for their properties.

American Assets Trust last month quietly proposed changing schemes in Oregon Square’s second phase in a design advice request submitted to the city of Portland. Block 103 would become a speculative office building, instead of one with apartments.

Wade Lange, vice president and regional manager at AAT, said office use is just one option the developer is considering.

“We have no direction yet,” he said. “We’re just looking at options.”

The project description submitted to the Bureau of Development Services isn’t binding. It is meant to give the developer and city staff a framework to discuss an upcoming project.

Yet the indication that AAT is considering a change to offices just months after the Design Commission issued approval bolsters an evident trend among developers toward offices and away from multifamily.

It’s not uncommon for developers to change schemes during the development process, but doing so can be costly.

“It’s a big lift,” said Chris Nelson, co-founder of Portland-based developer Capstone Partners. “To make that change, it’s a pretty big change. You’re going to completely rethink how that property is going to be used and utilized.”

Changing the proposed use of a building in development can easily set a project back a year for redesign and a return to the Design Commission for re-approval, Nelson said. Project teams that change schemes also must go back for different financing because the cost and revenue structures change.

Oregon Square was approved by the Design Commission on Oct. 6, 2016. It was the second trip through design review for Oregon Square, this time with a phased approach and more apartments. The development was first approved by the Design Commission in November 2015.

As approved last year, the building on Block 103 was to be a 30-floor mixed-use building with 347 apartments over ground-floor retail space.

The new proposal would do away with the apartments, replacing them with office space, and adding below-grade parking for prospective office tenants.

Lange met with architects from GBD Architects on Monday to discuss the options for Oregon Square’s second phase. Lange said no decisions have been made, and AAT will take a long view toward the likely market dynamics.

“We’re really looking down the road because we’re quite a ways from putting a shovel in the dirt,” he said. “We just want to examine all the different options and arrive at the highest and best use from an investment standpoint.”

The San Diego-based company acquired more than 16 acres in the Lloyd District in 2011. The four-block development is seen as a keystone property for the district.

AAT was earning an average $24.95 per leased square foot on its Lloyd District office properties, according to an April securities filing. The 581,670 square feet was 75.8 percent leased as of March 31.

Lange said the possible switch to office space is not driven by softening in the luxury apartment market.

“No, it really is just kind of keeping all of our options open as we start working through the details,” he said.

AAT’s Lloyd District apartments were performing well as of March 31, when the company most recently reported public investor data. Hassalo on Eighth‘s apartments have largely filled up after opening for leasing last year. The Velomor building’s 177 units were 92.7 percent leased at average monthly base rents of $1,638. The Aster Tower’s 337 units were 91.4 percent leased at $1,626 average rents. And the Elwood building’s 143 units were 94.4 percent leased at $1,497 average rents.

There was no change in scheme for Hassalo on Eighth, which was AAT’s first development in Portland and was completed in 2015.

“It was always going to be residential,” Lange said. “It was what the market needed; it was what Lloyd needed.”

Nelson said it makes sense for AAT to explore office uses for future phases, particularly in the Lloyd District, where an office submarket is already established.

“To switch some portion of the business plan to office seems like the natural thing to do,” he said. “It’s an established area for office and if you see the supply-demand fundamentals changing, it makes sense to make a shift depending on the property and the market.”

The pace of submissions for new multifamily proposals has slowed dramatically since the city of Portland adopted an inclusionary zoning program that went into effect Feb. 1. Oregon Square is not subject to those regulations because it went through the entitlement process before then.

Making multifamily projects profitable has become challenging, Nelson said.

“The economics of ground-up multifamily right now are really difficult,” he said. “They were before the inclusionary zoning regulations, and they were before the relatively new construction excise tax. The economics are really challenging.

“It’s not a rent-growth market anymore – there’s more choice,” he added.

Developers constantly attempt to forecast the likely market for when they develop a given product. In both the office and multifamily sectors, significant new inventory is expected to come to market this year and in 2018.

Office developments by their nature depend on fewer tenants than multifamily ones, making it imperative to score tenants who will take significant space.

“The speculative nature of office has a higher risk,” Nelson said.

Developers in general are trending away from designs that are tied to specific uses. That’s part of the reason for the renewed popularity of historic warehouse structures, which can be used for residential, office, retail or even hospitality purposes, said Noel Johnson, principal at Portland developer Cairn Pacific.

“A good building’s a good building,” he said.

Johnson said Portland’s design review process should be agnostic to how a building is used. More employers are offering the “comforts of home” at work, blurring the tidy definitions of residential and office. Additional trips through the design review process because of a change in use add costs with little benefit, Johnson said.

“It’s an interesting illustration of how our land use and development codes are broken,” he said. “Why is design review concerned with use?”

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American Assets Trust is downshifting as it plans for Oregon Square, the massive superblock development expected to serve as an anchor for the Lloyd District.

The revised plan to split the project into two phases comes amid efforts to attract tenants to American Assets Trust’s most recent multifamily project, Hassalo on Eighth.

Wade Lange, vice president and regional manager for American Assets Trust, confirmed that the developer now prefers to build Oregon Square in two phases.

“We’re looking at that as an awful big piece to add right now,” he said Tuesday. “We’re looking at a phased approach.”

Early assistance from the city of Portland’s Bureau of Development Services has again been requested for the project. Oregon Square previously won approval from the Design Commission in November.

New plans call for a western phase fronting Seventh Avenue with two buildings, one 11 stories and another 24 stories, with an eastern phase to follow.

The first phase would encompass approximately 560 residential units, depending upon the mix of apartment sizes (still under review), and about 14,000 square feet of retail space.

“We’ve asked our architects to keep it as close to the previously approved design (as possible),” Lange said.

American Assets Trust is working with GBD Architects of Portland. GBD’s Kyle Andersen is listed as the applicant.

American Assets Trust still intends to move forward, Lange said, even though more developers are openly worrying that supply of multifamily units is outpacing demand.

“We’re still excited about the potential, particularly in the Lloyd District, close in, eastside,” he said. “The options with transit and such make this an ideal location. Even if the market slows, we’ll have a location and a product that appeals.”

The retail space’s design is still being developed by GBD and American Assets Trust.

“Our meeting with the city is going to be very helpful in that,” Lange said.

A contractor has not yet been selected for Oregon Square.

“That’s a ways down the road,” Lange said.

Hassalo on Eighth was completed in 2015. Lange said the aim is for the 657-unit complex to be 95 percent leased by the end of the year.

“We’re really tickled with where we are right now, but ideally if we could be stabilized on the project before we phase the next phase (at Oregon Square), if you will, that’d be great,” he said.

Overall, 364 units, or 55.4 percent, at Hassalo on Eighth were leased by March 31, according to American Assets Trust’s first-quarter financial results. The Velomor building was the most fully leased at 85.3 percent, up from 81.9 percent at the end of 2015. But Aster Tower was only 44.8 percent leased, up from 29.1 percent, while Elwood was 43.4 percent leased, up from 24.5 percent.

At the same time, rents declined. The average monthly base rent per leased unit fell from $1,584 to $1,500 at Velomor, from $1,447 to $1,353 at Aster Tower and from $1,309 to $1,302 at Elwood.

Portland’s apartment market has been among the hottest in the nation, but there are some signs of cooling at the top. Park Avenue West‘s luxury apartments are only 15 to 20 percent full. And six weeks’ free rent reportedly is being offered to attract new tenants to Block 17 Apartments in the Pearl District.

A pre-application conference for Oregon Square is scheduled for June 14.

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The concept of a “superblock” – a combination of commercial, retail and housing – has roots in Europe, but has not been common in American urban building.  However, projects finished recently in Portland’s Lloyd District offer a model for the viability of a superblock in the city.  The Oregon Square project, funded and developed by American Assets Trust, incorporates four towers around a large public plaza with 820,000 square feet of residential space, 50,000 square feet of retail space, 240,000 square feet of office space, 1,200 underground parking spaces and parking for 1,200 bicycles. The project incorporates Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum-level sustainable features throughout the development.

American Assets Trust also recently completed Hassalo on Eighth, a mixed-use development featuring three buildings incorporating nearly 600,000 square feet of residential space, 272,000 square feet of office space and 58,000 square feet of retail space.

Both Hassalo on Eighth and Oregon Square come on the heels of two other American Assets Trust-funded projects: the iconic First & Main Building and the Lloyd Center Tower.

Naysayers were plentiful several years ago as the projects were proposed, due in part to the Lloyd District’s high crime rate at the time as well as problems with infrastructure and concerns about the area’s economic feasibility. Unfazed, American Assets Trust and its partners stuck to their vision to make a strong impact on Portland’s real estate market.

“By focusing on creating a neighborhood with retail and residential incorporated into the commercial buildings, we’ve made a more efficient, vibrant place to live and work,” said Wade Lange, a regional manager and vice president with American Assets Trust. “The entire 14-block area is an eco-district. It has the largest wastewater treatment facility in North America, treating 45,000 gallons a day, saving seven million gallons of water a year with nothing going into the sewer system. What we don’t reuse, we put back into the aquifer.  We believe it’s one on the most sustainable living areas in the city.”

It’s also an area that now features a true multimodal transportation system. Lloyd District transportation surveys indicate that 7 percent of people working in the area commute by bike. Hassalo on Eighth and Oregon Square also are located in areas with highly pedestrian-friendly thoroughfares and easy access to light rail and buses.

“It’s not just a place to come to work,” Lange added. “It’s a very livable environment. These projects incorporate the best of both worlds.”

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After six hours of discussion at a Thursday meeting, the Portland Design Commission seemed pleased with parts of the latest design of a huge development in the Lloyd District. But other areas need more work, so the developer was asked to come back for another review in October.

Plans for the Oregon Square, which is being developed by San Diego-based American Assets Trust, call for four mixed-use buildings situated around a large public plaza. Two of the buildings will be 11 stories, a third will be 21 stories and a fourth will be 30 stories.

“They still have some work to do,” city planner Staci Monroe said. “There was support for a lot of the elements in the plaza and the northwest building. But other buildings needed some more work, and they were given some pretty specific guidelines.”

The project, bordered by Northeast Seventh Avenue, Northeast Oregon Street, Northeast Ninth Avenue and Northeast Pacific Street, will provide 940 residential units, 50,000 square feet of retail and underground parking for 200 cars.

Plans for the public plaza include a large, shallow reflecting pool that can be drained for events, a dog run, seating areas, plantings to help mitigate stormwater and treat wastewater from the buildings, and an open-air pavilion leading to stairs and an elevator to underground parking.

Plans also call for plantings and resident areas for rooftops and pass-through lobbies for ground-floor retail outlets.

Oregon Square is the second Lloyd District superblock redeveloped by American Assets Trust. The first is the Hassalo on Eighth project, a development consisting of three mixed-used buildings. The first of those buildings, the Velomor, opened in July.

Kyle Andersen of GBD Architects led the presentation along with Mauricio Villarreal of PLACE Studio and Wade Lange, vice president and regional manager of the Portland area for American Assets Trust. Lange pointed to the success of Hassalo on Eighth.

“Phase one is currently occupied and under leasing,” he said. “It’s a unique place in the city to living across from office buildings.”

The Lloyd Center has been dominated by office space for years. With the development of the superblocks, Lange has said he wants to make the Lloyd District more of a residential neighborhood and a second city center.

Oregon Square will add to that atmosphere, Andersen said.

“We are creating a neighborhood on the coattails of commercial development,” he said.

Design Commission vice-chair Ben Kaiser said his main concern with the Oregon Square design is the massing of the four buildings, which he thought should be concentrated in the southwest corner of the 300-foot by 300-foot site.

“So far that is the most unfortunate aspect of a terrific project,” he said.

Commissioner Tad Savinar complained about the lack of a plan for artwork to be included in the project. He stressed that planning for the type and preservation of artwork should have been part of plans from the beginning.

“What’s going to give it soul?” Savinar said. “It needs to be something beyond bricks and mortar, and it doesn’t have that.”

Kaiser agreed that “art drives development,” but he said there are still many good aspects of the overall plan for the project.

“It’s fantastic to see a setting with such a high bar for LEED platinum and treating 60,000 gallons of water onsite,” he said.

Commissioner Julie Livingston said she likes the idea that the plaza area will be able to accommodate food carts. She also gave a thumbs up to the overall design, but echoed Kaiser’s concerns about the massing of the buildings.

“I think the overall design is just lovely, sophisticated but also light-hearted,” she said. “What’s not working for me is the way the sun travels across the sky, and the southwest corner is most problematic.”

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The nature of the Lloyd District will go through big changes in the coming years that will make it more of a residential community, starting with the Velomor, which is opening this week.

Wade Lange, vice president and regional manager of American Assets Trust, said the 177-unit Velomor is the first completed structure of three apartment buildings planned for the Hassalo on Eighth development.

“This used to be a parking lot and now we are creating a neighborhood,” Lange said. “People look at the Lloyd District as a business district, but now we’ll have street traffic in the evenings and on weekends.”

Covering four city blocks, Hassalo on Eighth will eventually build out to 657 housing units and a 1,200-car, three-level underground parking garage with public bike parking for 1,000 bicycles.

The Lloyd District for years has been dominated by office space, said Stephanie Shaffer, senior residential asset manager for the developer, but will now become more of a residential neighborhood. Hassalo on Eighth will also include renovation work on the Lloyd 700 office tower, which will remain open during construction, she said.

But for now, Shaffer’s focus is on the Velomor opening.

“July 2 is the opening day for Velomor with a big portion of the plaza courtyard opening in about a week,” she said.

The next two apartment buildings to be finished, the Elwood and the Aster, will open Oct. 2.

The Velomor contains studio units as well as one- and two-bedroom apartments. Studio units begin at 558 square feet for $1,298 per month. The two-bedroom units, which start at 1,179 square feet, range from $2,437 to $2,812 per month.

“We have housing for empty nesters and for people just starting out,” Shaffer said. “Another great amenity is that we’re right on the corner of the MAX and streetcar right outside our front door, one of the best transportation hubs in Portland.”

Lange said he hopes to attract more retail for the mixed-use portion of Hassalo on Eighth and attract a grocery store to anchor the ground floor of the Elwood apartment building.

The Velomor’s mostly white walls and spots of bright color give the new building a spacious feel. Each floor features a large original piece of art supplied by Vida Designs, Shaffer said.

Building amenities for residents include a roof-top garden area and seating area that looks down on a large grassy courtyard at ground level, and a fenced dog park.

One unusual feature of the Velomor and the whole Hassalo on Eighth development is its on-site water treatment facility called NORM, which stands for Natural Organic Recycling Machine. The machine will recycle all of the gray and black water from the apartment buildings, which will then be used for irrigation and cooling.

“The city gave us some discounts for using NORM,” said Kyle Andersen of GBD Architects.

The building is aiming for a LEED platinum rating.

Turner Construction is the general contractor with building design by GBD Architects. Engineers on the project include Glumac, KPFF Consulting Engineers, Harper Houf Peterson Righellis and Geotechnics LLC. Place Studio LLC is the landscape architect. Biohabitats Inc. engineered the wastewater system and reuse system for water conservation. Puttman Infrastructure will operate the wastewater system.

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The dream of Ralph B. Lloyd to transform the Lloyd District into a second city center is well on its way to coming true, according to developer Wade Lange. That’s what he told about 80 guests last week at an event at the Hotel Eastlund sponsored by Commercial Real Estate Women Portland.

Lange, vice president and Portland regional manager of American Assets Trust, said Lloyd died before his dream could come true, but his descendants continued to foster development.

“Ralph died before he could see it, but his daughters carried on,” he said. “The Lloyd District had a bad reputation, but now it’s the safest district in the city.”

American Assets Trust is tackling many Lloyd District developments. One is Hassalo on Eighth, which includes a 21-story tower with 337 apartments, a six-story building with 143 apartments and a five-story building with 143 apartments, all with retail space on the ground floor. A grand opening is planned in September.

“We have 1,000 people who live in the Lloyd District and our developments would double that,” Lange said.

He also mentioned other future or in-progress developments in the district. For instance, the headquarters hotel – a 600-room Hyatt Regency to serve the Oregon Convention Center – is on tap to go up near the Hotel Eastlund.

Lange also said a California company is planning to start construction in about a year and a half on a 900-unit market-rate apartment building next to the Lloyd Center shopping mall, which is receiving improvements.

“Cypress Equity (officials) purchased the mall about a year ago and said they would put $50 million into the property.

“The Lloyd District used to be called ‘the Lloyd void.’ But that’s not the case anymore and we are seeing the results of foundations raised many years ago.”

Also at the CREW event, Alan Battersby, owner of the Hotel Eastlund, said transportation development has helped the district, even though many observers had doubts.

“The south end wasn’t getting the traffic, but I’m guessing in the end we were right,” he said. “This is a building no one wanted. But with mass transit we can see how it will benefit the community.”

The four-star hotel, formerly a Red Lion, recently opened and is taking reservations, he said. Rebuilding was a big job, he said, and included extensive removal of hazardous materials such as lead paint, mold and asbestos. The hotel was given a completely new design.

Battersby, as he spoke, pointed out the glass walls overlooking the city from the hotel’s sixth-floor conference room.

“The windows on the sixth floor were once corridors and you couldn’t see out,” he said. “And the restaurant terrace was terrible. They built the bar to block off all views to the south. Now it may be the finest space to dine in Portland.”

Battersby gave a tour of some of the hotel rooms and the restaurant – the Alta Bira City Tavern – where staffers were busy polishing their skills and getting everything ready.

Now the walls of the restaurant, which opens this week, are all made of glass. The adjoining outdoor area can seat more than 100 diners at tables and on sofas around fire pits.

Battersby said the hotel market in Portland is hot and will continue to be so for some time to come.

“Many hotels have sold in the last 18 months and will continue for the next 18 months,” he said. “When I came here in 2008 Portland wasn’t even considered a primary city on the West Coast. Now these same Fortune 500 companies think it is. Things are changing rapidly.”

According to the Lloyd District Community Association website at www.lloyddistrict.org/hist.asp, when the Lloyd Center opened in 1960, it was the largest shopping center in the country and gave the district its first big boost for future development.

Although Lloyd died in 1953, his four daughters and their families carried out his dream, the site states.

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