A 93-year-old single-story retail building in downtown Portland is being demolished to make way for a new six-story office building developed by Menashe Properties. Konell Construction and Demolition began demolishing the building this week for general contractor Turner Construction. The demolition is expected to last approximately one more week, at which point crews will begin digging for the quarter-block building’s foundations.

A tower crane will be erected at the site in November, and topping out of the post-tensioned concrete building is expected for May 2017, with core and shell completion slated for mid-August of that year. The LRS Architects and Design Department-designed building will have five stories of office over ground-floor retail, and a basement with M.E.P. systems and bike facilities.

Interface Engineering is the project’s mechanical engineer, Nishkian Dean is the structural engineer, and Shapiro Didway is the landscape architect.

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Another piece of old metro Portland fell this week as Konell Construction and Demolition Corp. crews began tearing at the exterior shell of the Multnomah Greyhound Park.

After months of environmental abatement and interior demolition, the Caterpillars went to work on a cool, overcast morning, with PDX-bound jets descending overhead.

The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde acquired the 31-acre Wood Village property in December. Tribal and city officials are considering options for the site; most likely, it will feature a hotel.

“Hopefully it’ll center around something like a motel with some meeting space, maybe a brewery or a winery,” Grand Ronde Chairman Reyn Leno said. “We’re looking at some type of entertainment, family or maybe adult entertainment. And we’ll build out from there, whatever complements the Town Center (shopping center).”

Construction of a hotel on the site would add to a spate of such projects in the Portland-metro area. But Leno said the location offers a unique position.

“It’s close to the airport, and you’re actually right at the gateway to the (Columbia River) Gorge,” he said.

Barring a rule change, Leno said, the only gaming on site will be types allowed by the state, such as lottery games. But he left the door open to a small casino if the state loosens restrictions on gaming in the future.

“There would be a lot of hurdles to getting it done now,” he said. “Of course, if the rules changed, maybe we would invest in a small gaming facility, but obviously we’ve invested a lot in Spirit Mountain, and we’re not looking to take business away from there.”

Spirit Mountain Casino, about 60 miles southwest of Portland, has 90,000 square feet of gaming space and a 254-room hotel.

The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde is in the midst of a master planning process with the city of Wood Village, a small municipality of 4,017 residents that hugs Interstate 84 west of Troutdale. After the planning process is complete, tribal officials plan to begin designing the project.

A mix of retail and residential also is possible at the site, said Jesse White, engineering and public works manager for the Grand Ronde.

IRS Environmental and Amec Foster Wheeler have spent about three months performing major environmental abatement at the former dog track. The main grandstands building had major asbestos and lead paint contamination, White said.

In total, the site contained 16 buildings, including dog kennels, paddocks, ticket booths and maintenance sheds. Concrete is being crushed and recycled, and timber also is being recycled.

“They’ve been taking it apart piece by piece and salvaging pretty much everything,” White said.

The four-story structure was built in 1957 as an open-air grandstand. It was enclosed with glass in 1986.

Magna Entertainment Corp. opted to not renew its greyhound track lease when it expired in 2004. The company blamed competition from tribal casinos and widespread video lottery terminals.

Even before demolition, the structure had seen better days. Infield grass grew tall, and grandstands were sullied by graffiti and accumulation of dirt and dust.

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