Design commissioners on Thursday suggested significant changes to a developer’s proposal for a mass-timber multifamily project near Forest Park in Northwest Portland.

Noel Johnson, an independent local developer, is proposing to build 13 structures containing 219 total multifamily units at Northwest 29th Avenue and Nicolai Street. Each building would have 16 to 19 units.

The development, known as Northbound 30 Collaborative, would be a companion to Johnson’s adjacent Wilson Forest Park Townhomes; construction of its final units is nearly complete. Both developments feature low-slung residences made from cross-laminated timber, but they have distinct investors and are separate legal entities.

Eight of the Northbound 30 (NB30) buildings were previously approved, with designs by Waechter Architecture and Jones Architecture. On Thursday, Johnson sought design advice for five additional buildings designed by Leeb Architects. The site gained room for more buildings after the Northwest Children’s Theater and School found a downtown location that better suited the organization’s needs, Johnson said.

The Design Commission awarded the previous design for NB30 a citation for design excellence. The newly proposed buildings still need some work, commissioners said Thursday.

“I don’t think the design of the new buildings fits in with the design of the previous buildings,” Commissioner Jessica Molinar said. “I think it’s just too many moves.”

Commissioner Don Vallaster agreed.

“This thing doesn’t work for me,” he said. “This thing has to be simplified. … It’s too dense, it’s confusing and it muddles the whole concept.”

The site has a base 3:1 floor-area ratio, and a height limit of 65 feet. Materials were chosen to echo Forest Park and the industrial sanctuary to the north, Johnson said.

Commissioners criticized a pedestrian walkway that they said leads to little except a leasing office and interacts too much with vehicle traffic. They also criticized a column holding up one of the building corners.

NB30 Collaborative would furnish 98 vehicle parking spaces, including 12 surface spots. Bicycle parking would total 345 spaces, including 219 in-unit spots.

There was some disagreement Thursday about whether the development met bike parking requirements when calculated separately with the five newest buildings, or overall. There are also limits to how many bike parking spaces can be provided in units, and even how far from the door they can be, Bureau of Development Services planner Grace Jeffreys said.

“We believe we fully meet code,” Johnson said.

Johnson told commissioners he and Leeb Architects would work to address their concerns.

“You’ve given us a lot of changes that we can incorporate to show respect for your opinions,” he said. “We will go back and attempt to do so.”

Most of the suggested changes were minor and could be accomplished, Johnson said.

“I thought this was a pretty purely design-driven discussion, and that’s something I respect,” he said.

The massing scheme of separate buildings means the project is not subject to inclusionary housing requirements, which apply only to buildings of 20 units or more. Johnson, who has criticized the affordable housing policy, said the site lent itself to the broken-up massing.

“It’s the right massing for the neighborhood to have multiple small buildings,” he said. “It’s just the right design response.

“Separate from that – I don’t think our inclusionary housing program is working.”

The NB30 Collaborative project team is scheduled to return before the Design Commission on June 2.

Johnson said he expects to use I&E Construction as general contractor. The Wilsonville firm built the Wilson Forest Park Townhomes.

The post A dense development for Northwest Portland appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Portland developer Cairn Pacific is moving forward with plans to construct eight small multifamily buildings near Forest Park in Northwest Portland.

The Northbound Collective development would feature cutting-edge architecture and building materials in a unique checkerboard site plan to maximize open space and corner units.

The buildings would be constructed of mass timber – either cross-laminated timber or mass-plywood panels – and range from 15 to 19 units. In total, the development would have approximately 144 units.

The concept is for something better than a typical apartment box, Cairn Pacific principal Noel Johnson said.

“In a post-COVID world, people will value their home even more,” he said.

The proposed development is part of a roughly 3-acre group of properties Cairn Pacific has collected in the area of Northwest 29th Avenue and Roosevelt Street. Nearby, the firm is proposing to build 14 East Coast-style attached row houses. Those are being designed by local architect Richard Potestio.

For Northbound Collective, Johnson invited Waechter Architecture and Jones Architecture to split the design task. Each firm is designing four of the buildings. Each building is unique – similar to, but not quite like any other.

Johnson described the idea as “variations on a theme,” as in classical music.

Each lot in the checkerboard layout will have no-build easement to create implied property lines and space for window openings on adjacent buildings.

“What’s cool is that the combination of a scheme we worked on jointly – and then we each went our own direction in architecture – has resulted in something that’s much richer than we would have come up with collaboratively,” said – Alan Jones, principal at Jones Architecture.

About 70 percent of the units will sit on building corners, far more than in a typical apartment building, providing more natural light and views.

“We’re able to put window openings on that property line façade,” said Ben Waechter, principal of Waechter Architecture. “Even though these are zero-lot-line buildings, we’re essentially able to put windows on all four sides on all of our buildings.”

The buildings will be different than most. The Waechter-designed structures are arranged in a donut shape, with a central landing or atrium on each floor. That enables the apartments to have no hallways.

Johnson, who previously lived next to the site for about 10 years, said he’s eager to provide housing in a growing neighborhood near Forest Park and employment centers such as Montgomery Park.

“I’ve been trying to figure out how to make this totally underutilized area into something cool since about 2004,” Johnson said.

It’s a different approach for Cairn Pacific: The developer, with Johnson and founding principals Tom DiChiara and Rob Hinnen, has been a major force in transforming the Slabtown neighborhood with large-scale mixed-use projects including the L.L. Hawkins and Leland James buildings.

Northbound Collective appears likely to become one of the largest multifamily projects to avoid Portland’s inclusionary housing ordinance. It requires developers of buildings with at least 20 multifamily units to designate a portion of them as rent-restricted or pay a fee in lieu.

“There’s no inclusionary housing encumbrance,” Johnson said. “The unit count was driven by design considerations that are unique to each building.”

Mechanical parking will be provided in a ratio of 0.45 spaces per unit.

On Monday, the Portland Bureau of Development Services sent other city bureaus a request for responses to the developer’s proposal.

For now, the project team is waiting on permission to extend roads in the area. Cairn Pacific plans to build portions of Northwest 30th Avenue, Roosevelt Street and Wilson Street around the development.

The streets were supposed to have been built out after a 1982 City Council resolution, but the Portland Bureau of Transportation simply never built them, Johnson said. Cairn Pacific must record plats for the new development, but can’t do so until the roads are built, he said.

The project team is in discussions with general contractors experienced in building with mass timber. The developer and architects are aiming to bring the efficiency, visual warmth and environmental benefits that mass timber has given large office projects to a residential scale.

“We think there can be quite a bit of efficiency using CLT in a smaller footprint,” Jones said.

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A new proposal in Northwest Portland shows how developers are getting increasingly creative to avoid Portland’s inclusionary housing thresholds.

Cairn Pacific is proposing six buildings, each with approximately 18 apartment units. With that arrangement, the developer can build about 108 units, with none required to be offered to low-income renters.

Portland’s inclusionary housing rules exempt buildings with fewer than 20 units. For larger buildings, developers must provide a proportional amount of apartments at rents affordable to people who earn less than either 60 percent or 80 percent of the Portland area’s median income, or pay a fee in lieu.

Noel Johnson, a principal at Cairn Pacific, said the proposed project would not be built if it had to include affordable units, which bring in less revenue for the developer.

“The reality is basically no projects pencil with inclusionary zoning,” he said.

Other developers have moved forward with projects that fall just below the 20-unit threshold. A 19-unit building is under construction at 4130 S.E. Division St. That building is from a limited liability company that lists Anita Chan as manager. It was designed by Baysinger Partners Architecture.

In a September 2018 report, the Portland Housing Bureau said the pace of constructing buildings with fewer than 20 units was in line with recent years. In 2017, 13 percent of building permits were for structures with fewer than 20 units, according to the Housing Bureau.

“This proportion is consistent with what has been occurring since 2012 as Portland emerged from the recession,” the report stated.

Still, 2017 saw the most such buildings constructed since 2012. Data for 2018 were not immediately available.

Gerard Mildner, a Portland State University real estate professor, said it’s not surprising developers are finding a way around inclusionary housing rules.

“Folks are really scratching their heads over this, and if it takes a lot of 18-unit buildings, they’ll do it,” he said. “I think a more likely reaction is to go to the suburbs.”

The 20-unit threshold is embedded in the 2016 state law that permitted municipalities – with Portland foremost in mind – to enact inclusionary housing ordinances. The law says inclusionary zoning rules “may apply only to multifamily structures containing at least 20 housing units.” Developers have responded by building multiple structures of fewer than 20 units on the same site.

Johnson said he expects to see more such projects.

“That’s kind of I think the new normal in terms of how Portland’s going to be producing housing in the short run,” he said. “The reality is we either produce housing, or we don’t produce housing.”

Portland has no flexibility to change the 20-unit threshold without a corresponding change in state law. Some small projects have included affordable units anyway.

“The Housing Bureau is encouraged that 14 residential projects with less than 20 units have voluntarily opted into the inclusionary housing program (paying the fee-in-lieu or providing affordable units) due to the incentives provided, and many others are considering doing the same,” stated Eileen Park, spokeswoman for Mayor Ted Wheeler, in an email. “The city will continue to consider options to incentivize more affordable housing.”

Cairn Pacific is best known for developing a series of large mixed-use projects in Northwest Portland’s former Con-way area, now rebranded as Slabtown. These include the Leland James and L.L. Hawkins buildings, with tenants such as New Seasons Grocery and Breakside Brewery.

This new proposal calls for a series of five-story buildings at 2123 N.W. 30th Ave., and the adjacent block. Jones Architecture is designing the buildings on 30th Avenue, and Waechter Architecture is designing the others.

Using different architects is meant to provide some variety in design, Johnson said. The new buildings will be next to townhomes designed by architect Rick Potestio for Cairn Pacific.

“I’m trying to get a potpourri of designers working in that area to get an eclecticity of design,” Johnson said.

Cairn Pacific’s intention is to create a walkable, livable neighborhood for families within a short jaunt to Forest Park, Johnson said.

The multifamily buildings will have amenities such as bike rooms, storage, common areas and at-grade parking. Cairn Pacific plans to use cross-laminated timber. The material has become popular for office projects in the Portland area, but not multifamily projects.

The proposed buildings are in early-stage design, Johnson said. They’re likely to be a mix of one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, with perhaps some three-bedroom units.

The small buildings will be sited on corners wherever possible, to give them more light and air and better energy performance, Johnson said.

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The Portland Design Commission shot down the St. Johns Neighborhood Association‘s appeal of staff approval given to the Central Lofts project at 8608 N. Lombard Street, by a 4-0 vote on Thursday. Bureau of Development Services staff had approved the project during a type II review in October.

“The building is very richly detailed and the materials have been well thought out,” Commissioner Don Vallaster said. “My sense is this works pretty well in sense of the diversity criteria in the guidelines. In general you could put the building in my neighborhood and I’d be happy.”

Jones Architecture‘s vision for developer Farid Bolouri‘s project is for a 44-foot-tall, 27,000-square-foot structure featuring cross-laminated timber. The ground level would hold a restaurant and retail space, and the upper three stories would hold six one-bedroom apartments and 24 studios.

The neighborhood association based its appeal on three concerns. First, the group said, the design failed to apply characteristics and traditions of the St. Johns/Lombard Plan area. Also, the main entrances were not prominent or interesting, and the development diverged too much from the area’s established architecture, according to the group.

“The neighborhood is generally supportive of this development and excited about the project,” said Josh Guerra, who spoke for the neighborhood association. “The stakeholder group determined that three of the guidelines were not met.”

Of particular concern were the building’s entrances. Their small size, the neighborhood association stated, could negatively impact both the streetscape and the plaza at the corner of North Lombard Street and Philadelphia Avenue. Various community activities, including a weekend farmers’ market, take place there.

Alan Jones, founder of Jones Architecture, countered that given the size of the lot and the likely tenants, the openings were appropriately sized. The entrances’ locations could be altered to suit the types and sizes of tenants, he said.

“It is very likely that retail spaces in St. Johns are going to be smaller spaces geared toward local business,” he said. “That dictates the entrances.”

Another neighborhood concern was that the project would not blend with its surroundings. Designers countered that St. Johns has an eclectic and diverse collection of buildings.

“(The St. Johns/Lombard Plan) goes as far as to say future development should go on the path of diversity,” Jones said. “We take that to mean that future development should be of the time period it is built.”

In response to a claim that this building wouldn’t be on the same scale as others nearby, designers pointed out other projects significantly larger than their proposal.

Overall, the commission sided with the development team.

“Ultimately it is about that corner,” Commission Chairwoman Julie Livingston said. “That corner is just fantastic and its relationship to the plaza is fantastic.”

Commissioners also failed to find enough discrepancy from the St. Johns/Lombard Plan guidelines to justify overturning the approval.

“Regarding the guidelines, they seem to be nebulous enough that either side can find support or not support for this design,” Vallaster said.

Also on Thursday:

550 S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

The Portland Design Commission approved, by a 4-1 vote, Works Progress Architecture‘s design for a seven- or eight-story mixed-use building on Southeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Market conditions will determine which version of the building developers Beam Development and Urban Development + Partners decide to build.

Livingston was the only commissioner to vote no. She had concerns about the building‘s response to neighborhood context.

Providence Park

The commission approved, by a 3-1 vote, alterations to the Providence Park expansion that was approved in August. Allied Works Architecture will make several changes – the most notable being the type of roofing material and the viewshed.

Vallaster cast the lone dissenting vote because of concerns about how changes would impact the view of the field from outside the park.

The post Design Commission’s decision aids project appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A debate about ground-floor apartments on Southwest River Parkway didn’t keep the Block 41/44 project from winning the approval of the Portland Design Commission on Thursday.

The discussion focused on whether to configure units on the busy street as retail or residential units. After nearly an hour of wrangling, the Commission and the design team agreed to a live/work format and give the units street-level entrances.

The South Waterfront project, which was approved 4-0, will include more than 500 residential units, 10,000 square feet of retail space and 385 parking spaces. The original plan called for ground-floor residential units on the Block 44 portion of the project on Southwest River Parkway to be elevated above grade to give residents more privacy.

Commissioner David Wark voiced concerns that such an arrangement might hurt the vitality of the street, and said he wanted the design to encourage more retail.

“There is a very good example of the exact same set up of a mixed-use housing project just north of the Convention Center,” Wark said. “That whole north side has the same exact (ground-floor residential) units and it’s 100 percent dead. I just don’t see why we would support that.”

GBD Architects principal Kyle Andersen said the project design team, which included Jones Architecture, wanted to concentrate retail where it had the best chance of success – toward Abernathy Way. The complex will be bordered by Southwest River Parkway to the west, the Willamette River to the east, Southwest Lowell Street to the south and Southwest Lane Street to the north. Abernethy Pedestrian Way will separate Block 44 and Block 41.

Other projects in the south end of the South Waterfront District had incorporated ground-floor retail in the past, Andersen said. The strategy didn’t pay off.

“ … None of it was successful; it all failed,” Andersen said. “It was eventually converted back to residential. It’s very quiet up there.”

He added that the Block 44 units were designed in a way that allowed them to be converted into retail if the shopping climate proved it could support more space of that type.

However, Wark remained unconvinced. He was concerned that the level of renovation needed would make such a conversion difficult.

Commission Vice Chairman Tad Savinar had another concern – ground-floor residential units possibly resulting in a long line of closed blinds at the street level.

During the meeting, the Design Commission offered several approaches that would create enough privacy to encourage residents to leave blinds up, and finally settled on a live/work arrangement as the preferred choice for the ground-floor area.

In the end the design team agreed to that suggestion, with a condition to lower the units to on-grade units with accessible entrances from the sidewalk.

Commissioners complemented other changes that the architects, developer Cairn Pacific and landowner Prometheus Real Estate Group brought from earlier hearings. Those changes included darker roof material that wouldn’t reflect sunlight into other buildings, more signage on pedestrian walkways, and changing the color of pavement on Abernathy Way to show a difference between areas for autos and pedestrians.

A UNANIMOUS APPROVAL FOR TEN WEST

Efforts to renovate the five-story Ten West building at 1017 S.W. Washington St. earned the approval of the Design Commission by a 4-0 vote.

The project overcame concerns about the entrance at the southeast corner of the building, specifically the doors and saving the storefront transom.

Commissioners and project architect Jones Architecture were able to come to an agreement to work with city staff on a design that would simulate the look of the entrance without involving the construction issues that would have been required by saving the transom. Other renovations included replacing 126 windows, seismic upgrades and interior renovations.

MIXED-USE PROJECT SENT BACK FOR REVISIONS

A 200-foot tall proposed mixed use building at 140 S.W. Columbia St. was sent back to GBD Architects for revisions.  The building will include 347 residential units, 15,000 square feet of retail and office, and 244 parking spaces.

Commissioners wanted revisions to improve the coherency of the building, especially focusing on the materials on the second through fourth floors. The project will return for a short work session on Sept. 7 before another full hearing is scheduled for the project.

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Despite a recommendation of conditional approval from staff at the Portland Bureau of Development Services, the Portland Design Commission on Thursday decided designs for Blocks 41 and 44 in the South Waterfront need more revisions.

Developer Cairn Pacific and land owner Prometheus Real Estate Group want to include two 7-story buildings with a total of 524 market-rate apartments, 10,500 feet of retail space and parking. The complex will be bordered by Southwest River Parkway to the west, the Willamette River to the east, Southwest Lowell Street to the south and Southwest Lane Street to the north. Abernethy Pedestrian Way will separate Block 44 and Block 41.

“The building massing took an approach to create a hard urban edge to create some rhythm along the streetscape and create a lot of activity to reinforce the street edge,” Kyle Andersen, principal with GBD Architects, said. In addition to handling the design for Block 44, GBD teamed up with Jones Architecture for the design of Block 41.

The design team tried to soften the urban edge as it approached the river and tried to create space between the two structures, according to Andersen.

“In particular, (Blocks) 41 and 44 share some massing elements, which create some negative space between them,” he said.

However, some commissioners thought the buildings shared too many elements and suggested designers try to vary some design features to give each building a more distinct look.

“When I look at these two buildings, although I know you in your designer mode see them as two completely different buildings, with their muscularity and scale of the setbacks, they read kind of like twins,” said Commission Vice Chairman Tad Savinar. “I know that is not your intent. You’re working very hard not to have that.”

Of particular concerns for the design panel were the north elevation of Block 41 and the west elevation of the Block 44. Both elevations currently present long stretches with minimal elements breaking up each wall.

“I think there is an issue of extremely long, by Portland standards, walls that could use some attention. … The massing seems monolithic.” said Commissioner David Wark, who relinquished his seat as chairman to Julie Livingston earlier this month.

Another issue that concerned both commissioners and neighbors near the proposed development focused on the tops of the two buildings. The proposed designs for both buildings show white rooftops around HVAC equipment in order to maximize energy efficiency and reduce cooling needs of the structures.

Diane Pelaski said she and others living in buildings near the proposed development are concerned that such a treatment could reflect light and cause glare for people living in nearby apartments.

Neighbors said they also were concerned about possible conflicts between cars and pedestrians on Abernethy Pedestrian Way. In the current design Abernethy serves as both a driveway to the garages for both buildings and a pedestrian way that leads to the greenway and river to the east.

Commissioners recommended adding signage and possibly using different materials for pedestrian and vehicle areas to differentiate them.

“It seems like there is a logic and safety here that might help everyone out,” Savinar said. “You give (pedestrians) one color and cars another.”

For the the Block 41 structure, commissioners asked the development team to look at ways to increase retail along the waterfront

“We still don’t have a restaurant along that stretch of the waterfront,” Savinar said.

Commissioners were also concerned with massing and coherency of the Block 44 building, saying changes in color and height gave the impression of too many interlocking sections of different buildings.

One area of the project that drew compliments from commissioners was the use of landscaping, including how trees were used in the complex. Place Studio is the landscape architect for the project.

“The tree diversity and the use of different species (are) fantastic,” Savinar said. “In that landscaping strip, the diversity of trees is some of the best I’ve seen in the project, so I appreciate that.”

The project will return to the commission on Aug. 17.

Also on Thursday, the design commission unanimously approved a design for The Pearl Apartments, a new seven-story, market-rate apartment building at  1319 N.W. Johnson St.

Developed by The Paul Properties LLC, the 39,000-square-foot structure will include 58 residential units and approximately 3,400 square feet of ground-floor retail.

TVA Architects’ design for the project was approved on its second attempt before the commission. Commissioners were very enthusiastic of design revisions that they made.

“This will be a fantastic addition to the Pearl District,” said Commission Chair Julie Livingston. “It’s very well done and well executed. The quality and permanence guidelines you’ve just knocked out of the park as well.”

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A celebration was held last week for the topping out of The Union at St. Johns, a four-story mixed-use apartment being built in North Portland by R&H Construction for developer Farid Bolouri. The Jones Architecture-designed building features three stories of wood-framed construction over a ground-floor concrete podium and a below-grade parking garage with around 90 spaces. It will have 103 residential units including studios, one- and two-bedrooms, 20,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.

All of the project’s wood framing was prefabricated by Pacific Wall Systems in Medford and installed by Wood Mechanix. The weather-resistive barrier application is 25 percent complete, and window installation began last week. Next month, drywall installation will begin, masons will begin installing the brick veneer finishes, and the tower crane will come down. The project is under budget, on schedule and gaining on the completion date, which is slated for this December.

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Portland architecture firms are facing a sharp downturn in multifamily housing work as the city phases in new inclusionary housing rules.

The lack of design work for new apartment projects is just one unintended consequence of the city’s inclusionary housing program that is already being felt.

The drought stems from developers and architects rushing to beat the Feb. 1 effective date for inclusionary housing rules.

Sizable projects submitted beginning Feb. 1 must include affordable apartment units, or a hefty fee must be paid in lieu.

The deadline resulted in a rush of permit application submissions for multifamily projects. City officials say at least 14,000 units are in the pipeline – enough to keep developers busy for at least a couple of years.

The city’s Bureau of Development Services saw dozens of applications for apartment projects land in the weeks leading up to Feb. 1.

The upshot is that architects, developers and others expect few apartment projects of 20 units or more to be submitted in coming months. Already, Portland architecture firms are facing an immediate dry spell.

“The pipeline is empty,” said Alan Jones, principal at Jones Architecture. “We don’t have anything.”

The firm typically designs multifamily projects totaling 300 to 500 units a year, Jones said. The firm has 10 employees.

“We do a lot of housing for a firm of our size,” Jones said.

Now Jones is among the architecture firms looking for work in Portland’s suburbs and other markets that are not affected by the city’s inclusionary housing rules. Architecture firms are also expecting to place more emphasis on office and commercial design work.

“We’re trying to diversify and shift into other sectors,” Jones said. “There’s quite a bit of office work going on, and we’re talking to developers about multifamily projects outside of Portland.

“We’ve been busy with multifamily, but it’s certainly changing.”

Jones said he believed there would be enough design work to avoid laying off staff.

“It’s certainly a concern, but I don’t suspect that’s going to be a problem,” he said.

Other firms are facing similar shortages of multifamily design work.

Five major architecture firms – LRS Architects, Ankrom Moisan Architects, GBD Architects, Bora Architects and SERA Architects – that were contacted by the Daily Journal of Commerce agreed to share information on their multifamily development pipelines on the condition that projects would be reported in aggregate. Only two had any multifamily work in the city of Portland that was not submitted before Feb. 1. One firm is in the early stages of designing a 225-unit apartment project. Another began designing two projects in January with a combined 127 units.

The other two firms had no apartment projects on their drawing boards that had not already been submitted to the city before the Feb. 1 deadline.

“Clearly, the (inclusionary housing) changes are having an impact on the viability of the local market,” said Christopher Linn, principal at Bora Architects.

The architecture firms are doubling down on projects in Portland’s suburbs and other markets, and non-multifamily design work. Bora, for example, is designing a 61,000-square-foot academic building at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Ground was broken Jan. 30.

The city’s design approval decisions extend for three years, so a developer who submitted a project before Feb. 1 has until 2020 to begin construction. That means years could pass before developers get around to building affordable units as envisioned by the inclusionary housing policy.

As developers rushed to meet the Feb. 1 deadline, some projects appeared to be less than fully formed. An application submitted Jan. 27 for a proposed six-story multifamily project in Northwest Portland said the “intention at this time is to be vested under the current code; information to complete the application will be provided at a later date within the allowed 180 days.”

A slew of multifamily projects landed just ahead of the deadline. Cairn Pacific submitted an application Jan. 30 for 350 to 400 residential units at 2135 N.W. 29th Ave. in an industrial area between Slabtown and Forest Park. The project also calls for 150 to 200 parking spaces.

In St. Johns, a limited liability company connected to Maryam E. Bolouri applied for a four-story mixed-use project at 8608 N. Lombard St. The Jan. 30 application calls for ground-floor retail space and parking.

At 2620 S.W. First Ave., near the South Waterfront, a six-story project with 160 units and 80 tuck-under parking stalls was proposed in a Jan. 31 application.

At 829 N. Russell St., a project proposed in a Jan. 31 application would bring 78 micro-studio apartments in five stories.

If the early returns are any indication, Portland may see few new multifamily projects proposed in coming months. No multifamily residential projects were submitted to the Bureau of Development Services Feb. 1-5.

The bureau saw an uptick in applications in the weeks leading up to Feb. 1, said Ross Caron, spokesman for the BDS.

“It’s been busy in general for us for two years now, but I think we did see an increase,” he said.

Caron said it’s unclear if permit applications will slow substantially. It’s a matter of keen interest to the bureau, which receives 97 percent of its revenue from fees for service.

“What we don’t know, obviously, is if this change is going to impact the market to the extent that there won’t be any additional permits to come in,” he said. “We don’t have an answer to that.”

The city’s inclusionary housing rules require developers of projects with 20 units or more to include affordable units. Apartment buildings in mixed-use zones must include 15 percent of apartments affordable at 80 percent of median family income, or 8 percent of units affordable at 60 percent of median family income. Beginning in 2019, the requirements rise to 20 percent and 10 percent of total units, respectively.

In the central city, apartment projects must include 20 percent of units affordable at 80 percent of median family income or 10 percent of units at 60 percent of median family income.

Developers and architects warned of potentially dire economic consequences in the run up to the City Council’s unanimous December vote enacting the affordable housing rules.

Tim O’Brien, president of Urban Asset Advisors, said that some projects are no longer feasible under the new rules.

“Right now, we can’t make projects work in an (inclusionary housing) zone with the cost and the reduction in income,” he said.

The post Portland multifamily design work waning appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Singer Properties and Jones Architecture are at work on a major renovation of Ten West, a five-story office and retail building in Portland’s West End.

The 110-year-old, 44,524-square-foot property at Southwest 10th Avenue and Washington Street was once known as the Mekka Building. Now named Ten West, it sold for $3.5 million in 2007, according to city records.

The quarter-block property, 1003-1017 S.W. Washington St., will be remodeled in accordance with its art deco motifs, said Alan Jones, principal architect at Jones Architecture.

“We’re restoring the stucco and the brick work, and putting in historically correct wood-framed windows,” he said.

Also, Portland’s Lango Hansen Landscape Architects has designed a new roof deck – an amenity desired by office tenants, Jones said.

An entrance on 10th Avenue will serve a basement space designed for use by a restaurant or a bar. A second entrance, on Washington Street, will serve office space in the upper four floors, which have long been vacant.

A seismic retrofit and upgrades to the building’s mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems are also part of the renovation.

The ground floor is home to retailers Frances May, Animal Traffic, Chrome and Backtalk. Employees of firms involved with the project said they could not comment on the retailers’ future in the building, but added that they were not aware of any plans to end the retailers’ presence. Building owners Dick and Don Singer could not be reached for comment.

The property may be ripe for redevelopment. Downtown’s West End is flourishing with trendy shops and restaurants. Across 10th Avenue from Ten West in the Pittock Block are multiple retailers, including feminist clothing shop Wildfang. Powell’s City of Books, one of Portland’s most enduring tourist draws, is only two blocks away. Tasty n Alder, Heart Coffee Roasters and SuperBite also have found a home in the West End.

More development is coming. A skyscraper is on the drawing boards for Downtown Development Group’s property at Southwest 11th Avenue and Washington Street.

Central City office space remains a sought-after commodity, said Patricia Raicht, senior vice president for research at Jones Lang LaSalle.

Almost 1.5 million square feet of office space was delivered in the Portland market in 2016, and 85 percent was pre-leased or committed by the time of delivery, she said.

“While we added quite a bit of space, the demand for that space has been pretty strong,” Raicht said.

Tech firms including Puppet Labs, Act-On Software, New Relic and Google have invested in downtown Portland offices. But tech firms aren’t the only ones seeking modern, open-plan offices, Raicht said. Increasingly, legal, marketing and other professional services companies are looking for creative spaces that rival those made for tech firms.

In a recent JLL analysis of 2016 leases, creative spaces attracted prices 15 to 20 percent higher than comparable Class A spaces.

R&H Construction will be the general contractor for the Ten West project. Peter Andrews of Melvin Mark is the leasing agent.

Ten West

Location: 1003-1017 S.W. Washington St.

Size: 44,524 square feet

Owner: Singer Properties

Architect: Jones Architecture

General contractor: R&H Construction

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In the Fisk Tire Co. Building, in the Pearl District, traces of Cargo are now barely perceptible – cartoon animals painted the plywood heavily scuffed by work boots and equipment.

Those boards will soon be ripped out to make way for a new wood floor tied in to the walls for seismic support; it’s just one aspect of the project to convert the historic brick and concrete warehouse into a modern retail space. Crews working under general contractor Joseph Hughes Construction (JHC) have been hard at it in the 92-year-old building at Northwest 13th Avenue and Glisan Street – a project involving equal parts preservation and modernization.

But getting to the construction stage wasn’t so simple, Hughes said. Acquiring permits from the city of Portland for the relatively small renovation took around 14 to 15 months, in part because all aspects – seismic upgrades, as well as exterior refurbishments, energy upgrades and other work subject to historic resource review – had to be bundled together.

“Had this thing gone through a bit more expeditiously, we’d have been done months ago and they’d have been collecting rent,” Hughes said.

A similar job at 11th Avenue and Glisan Street, four years earlier, breezed through permits in four hours, Hughes said.

“Granted, things were a bit slower then,” he added.

Built in 1924, the building originally housed an outlet of the Fisk Tire Company, a major manufacturer/retailer that rose and fell quickly in the decades straddling the roaring twenties. Its most recent retail tenant was the colorful importer Cargo, which for 15 years was a staple of the Pearl known for the knick-knackery draped around it, inside and out. That business relocated to the Central Eastside when its lease ran out two years ago, to gain space and pay less rent.

American-made furniture seller Room & Board will move in next. The Minnesota-based business signed a five-year lease plus option in September. It will be Room & Board’s 15th location, but far from its first involving historic reclamation.

Preservation is integral to the company’s image, according to Chief Financial Officer Mark Miller. A Room & Board location in Washington, D.C., is a converted Ford Motors Model T showroom.

“We’ve never built a store from new,” Miller said. “We’ve always gone in, made improvements and tried to fit in with the neighborhood and not make a big splash.”

Currently, Room & Board’s nearest location to Portland is in Seattle’s University Village. The company chose Portland for its latest store in response to customer-tracking data from its website and call center.

“We kind of follow our customers,” Miller said.

Miller said Pearl District rents don’t worry him.

“It’s not an expensive district,” he said. “I think it’s definitely a district that’s in demand. It’s a beautiful retail area and I think a lot of our customers like to shop there. I think we signed a great lease.”

The project is essentially restoring a concrete and brick building to its historic look, plus a lot of seismic work triggered by the change in occupancy from warehouse to retail.

Architect Alan Jones said he wanted to be as respectful as possible to the historic structure and district. One update involves enlarging the loading dock on Northwest 13th Avenue. Another involves a pair of sliding red wooden doors – heavily historic but impractical for modern use.

“We had an interesting conversation about those doors,” Jones said. “They asked us to keep them, but Room & Board felt they weren’t ideal for a retail situation. So we came up with an innovative solution.”

The doors will be left in place and kept pinned back and out of the way, with new doors overlaid to provide access to the building.

Several support columns in the basement have been removed, with steel I-beams added above to cover the load. The move is intended to aid drivers in the 32-space garage.

“Imagine cars weaving around all those – it’d be difficult,” JHC project manager Clark Zeller said. “So we removed some columns and added steel.”

So far, only project workers have used the basement garage.

“It’s been pretty nice,” Zeller said.

380 Building/Fisk Tire Co. Building

Address: 1236 N.W. Flanders St.

Contractor: Joe Hughes Construction

Architect: Jones Architecture

Size: 20,000 square feet

Anticipated completion: winter 2017 (anchor tenant Room & Board hopes to open by spring 2017)

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