Residential development is booming in Beaverton, and the city is spurring growth in its downtown by selling or leasing land to developers.

Cheryl Twete, Beaverton’s community development director, predicts that the city’s Old Town neighborhood will be dramatically transformed by development in the next five years. The city is stimulating it by buying property there and sponsoring residential development competitions.

One development competition site is an entire city block at Southwest First and Lombard streets. A four-story apartment building, The Barcelona at Beaverton, being built there by nonprofit Community Partners for Affordable Housing will offer rent-controlled senior housing. A second four-story building called La Scala, with more market-based rents, will be built on the same block by RKM Development Inc.

Construction of The Barcelona began in 2014 and is set for completion by the end of the year.

According to information at , the four-story building will hold 41 one-bedroom units, three two-bedroom units and three studios. The building will include community rooms, an office and laundry rooms. Eight of the units will be fully accessible, including one with features to aid individuals with sight or hearing impairments. Each unit will have an outdoor balcony and be oriented to maximize views and natural light.

Most La Scala units will be market rate, but some will be affordable, with rents in the range of 60 to 120 percent of median income, said Tyler Ryerson, Beaverton’s senior development project manager.

Jeff Oberst, construction manager for RKM Development, said his company will break ground on the La Scala development in June and that construction will last about a year. The building will be mixed use, with 44 apartment units over 5,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor.

Old Town is prime for development, Twete said, with “good bones” like good streets and sidewalks.

“Our Old Town is on a street grid much like the east side of Portland with a mix of uses,” she said. “It feels like a downtown and it feels urban.”

The city is also working with Rembold Properties to build an 85-unit market-rate multifamily building on city-owned land in Old Town at First and Angel streets with ground-floor commercial spaces, Twete said.

“Rembold will buy the land at closing when they are ready to start development,” she said. “We bought the property and helped relocate businesses, did some cleanup and made it development ready.”

With both developments at the First and Lombard block, the city will retain ownership of the land but lease it long-term.

“There is a big need for housing here, but we are being very strategic in what we want to strengthen and activate in our Old Town area,” Twete said. “We want to make sure we provide housing for a whole range of people.”

Private developers are also busy in Old Town, Twete said, planning for a 70-unit apartment complex between Franklin and Tucker streets.

“It’s a great site and developers recognize there’s a desire that people want to live closer in to transit and the urban core,” she said.

That shows the city investment is paying off, Twete said.

“The city is taking the lead by sponsoring a couple of projects and the private sector is following suit and moving forward with their own projects,” she said.

The only holdups to development in downtown Beaverton, she said, are old families hesitant to give up land to development.

“Beaverton is an old farming community founded in the 1800s,” she said. “We have a lot of history in the community and several families have held their property for generations.”

But the markets and community have changed, she said, and the land is not farmland any more. Twete said the city is working with those families to see if agreements can be reached to open their land up for development.

“We want to change from an emotional discussion about land to doing something good for the community,” she said.

Beaverton watches Portland “pretty carefully” to see what works, Twete said, and like Portland, Beaverton is trying to attract a young workforce with specific needs.

“We hear CEOs talking about proximity to transit or where employees can go to lunch or run errands on their lunch hour,” Twete said. “It’s mind-boggling in an exciting way and creates a lot of new opportunities.”

Beaverton is always looking for new opportunities, but in a systematic way. After three years of an extensive public process, the city recently adopted the Creekside District Master Plan for 50 acres in downtown.

As part of that master plan vision, the city recently closed acceptance for requests for qualifications for development of its Westgate site. The city and Metro own the four-acre site, which is adjacent to the city’s central light rail station. Three RFQs have been received, Twete said, and Beaverton City Council will consider them in early June.

Also, in 2011 Beaverton adopted an urban redevelopment plan that Twete said is just now beginning to generate tax increment dollars to help the city foster more development.

“Next year we are expecting over $1 million (in tax increment money),” she said. “Now we can go out and implement policy directions established by the (city) council and create an urban renewal plan and decide how to spend the (dollars).”

Up to 49 percent of the tax increment money can be spent on infrastructure, she said. It can also be spent on development and redevelopment, but not on public buildings.

As Portland grows, so Beaverton grows, Twete said, but Beaverton has some advantages, like lower rents and land values, and a city government actively involved in development.

“We view as our job to work with the development community and help ease some of the risks or concerns,” she said. “Pave the way and others will follow.”

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The city of Beaverton announced today its plans to develop two mixed-use buildings on city-owned space in partnership with a private development team.

One of the buildings, developed by , will have 48 units of affordable housing with 1,700 square feet of open-to-the-public community space. will develop a separate building with 55 units of workforce/market-rate housing with 7,200 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.

“Roy Kim and Central Bethany Development have a very successful track record in developing this type of project in a suburban setting,” said Beaverton Mayor Denny Doyle in a statement today. “Their development of the Bethany area is one of the best in all of Washington County—I know that Mr. Kim will deliver an outstanding development in Central Beaverton.”

Both buildings will sit on a block at the corner of Southwest First Street and Lombard Avenue, a property the city purchased in June for $1.07 million. Beaverton issued a request for proposals for developers in July, and Community Partners for Affordable Housing was one of two firms that submitted applications.

Beaverton Community Development Director Don Mazziotti said the details of the public-private partnership will be laid out in a disposition and development agreement to be negotiated soon. The city’s contribution might include a long-term lease of the property, he said.

The existing buildings on the site are currently being deconstructed.

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Two development teams have submitted proposals to redevelop a block at the corner of Southwest First Street and Lombard Avenue in Beaverton that the city purchased earlier this year.

Both and submitted proposals before the city’s Sept. 20 deadline to do so. An evaluation team made up of city officials and staffers will now take the month of October to evaluate the proposals and interview the project teams before selecting a development partner for the project.

A development team made up of Catholic Charities and Caritas Housing had prequalified along with the other two teams to submit a plan on the request for proposals, but decided to pull out after learning more about the project, according to Jordan Imlah, a spokesman for the city of Beaverton.

While the details of the project proposals have yet to be released, Community Development Director Don Mazziotti has made it clear the city is hoping for a mixed-use development with about 70 to 80 units of workforce housing over ground-floor retail.

The city purchased the property in June with $1.07 million of general fund money that had been set aside for strategic property investments. City officials saw the site, which had a building on it before being demolished in the summer, as a good development opportunity that could help connect Old Town Beaverton to downtown.

According to the timeline set out in the RFP, city officials expect to have a development team selected by the end of August, a non-binding memorandum of understanding signed by mid November and negotiations beginning for a disposition and development agreement by the end of the year.

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The city of Beaverton is one step closer to finding a developer to create workforce housing on a land parcel it purchased earlier this year.

Three developers are prequalified to purchase and redevelop a city-owned block at the southwest corner of First Street and Lombard Avenue. The teams – Portland-based Blankslate Development, Catholic Charities/Caritas Housing and Community Partners for Affordable Housing – now will go through a request for proposals process.

The city of Beaverton purchased the property in June with $1.07 million of general fund money that had been set aside for strategic property investments. A building on the property was deconstructed last month. Don Mazziotti, community and economic development director for the city, envisions the property being transformed into a four- or five-story building with 70 or 80 units of workforce housing over ground-floor retail space.

The firms have three months to respond to the RFP with a detailed plan of how they plan to purchase and develop the property. A firm should be selected sometime in October, Mazziotti said, and could potentially start construction by November.

Though the city owns the property, Mazziotti doesn’t expect much public investment. The site sits in the city’s proposed new urban renewal area, but construction would likely start before voters even get a chance to vote on the URA.

City officials hope the project will not only provide workforce housing – essentially housing for families that make less than $66,900 a year – but also help bridge the gap between Beaverton’s Old Town and downtown areas.

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After spending $525,000 over 20 months to develop a 20-year plan – the – for achieving community vision, city officials are taking another big step.

Beaverton City Council last week authorized the purchase of three parcels – to become one city block – at the southwest corner of First Street and Lombard Avenue. City officials hope the property, which is being earmarked for redevelopment into workforce housing, can help spur private development.

“This purchase is the first in what I hope to be several strategic property acquisitions to help facilitate redevelopment and to begin bringing the recently adopted Civic Plan to life for (Beaverton),” Mayor Denny Doyle said. “Property acquisition is a key priority.”

The city will pay $1.07 million for the parcels in a deal expected to close June 10. Doyle, who took office in 2009, said the city has set aside small amounts of general fund money so that it can jump on opportunities like this one.

The Civic Plan, an update of Beaverton’s 1981 planning effort, outlines the vision that citizens and government officials have for the city. One of the key goals is to make the central city, which includes Old Town, into a business and residential district.

Community Development Director Don Mazziotti envisions the lot, which houses three part-time businesses that will relocate, being transformed into a four-story building with housing for workers making approximately $66,900 – the city’s median annual income. The upper three floors would consist of 70-80 two- or three-bedroom units, while the bottom floor would be neighborhood retail, he said.

“We’re guessing that this site is ideal for housing, and that’s my personal intuition, but we will listen to any developer with a good idea and capital,” Mazziotti said.

Gary Winkler, a principal with multifamily brokerage firm Winkler & DuPont Real Estate Services, said city governments typically don’t buy land to serve as a pass-through to a private developer.

“It’s an aggressive move by Beaverton, but I think Beaverton needs to be aggressive right now,” Winkler said. “I can’t think of any projects that have moved forward out there recently.

“They need to create structure around downtown in Beaverton, and this lets them control what happens with a site they see as a catalyst.”

Paul Roder, chairman of the Central Beaverton Neighborhood Association, said that purchases such as this one are exactly what his organization believes will spur redevelopment downtown and initiate the Civic Plan.

“Maybe this isn’t a keystone of the area and the Civic Plan, but it can serve as an example of what’s to come. It’s an exciting opportunity for that area.”

Mazziotti added that the purchase will bring construction to Beaverton after several years of relatively few projects.

“Growth has been slow over the past few years and we want to make things happen,” he said. “We believe this can serve as a catalyst site.”

The city will combine the three sites into one and issue a request for qualifications. Once city officials have a list of qualified bidders, they will conduct a detailed request for proposals process and select a developer. Mazziotti expects a developer to be selected by September.

City officials don’t expect much public money to go into the project. The site is in the city’s proposed new urban renewal area, but both Doyle and Mazziotti doubt this project will receive any urban renewal money. They both expect work to start on the Old Town project before bonds would be issued for the proposed URA, which won’t go before voters until November.

“We want to get this going quickly,” Doyle said. “We think this is a good time to get something out of the ground that could bring about more development.”

More information about the Civic Plan is available at .

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