PROJECT: Fountain Place Apartments

LOCATION: 929 S.W. Salmon St., Portland

SIZE:��74 units

COST:��not provided

START DATE: April 2020

ANTICIPATED END DATE: October 2021

OWNER/DEVELOPER: Home Forward

ARCHITECT: Peter Meijer Architect

ENGINEERS: KPFF (structural), Glumac (mechanical, plumbing)

CONTRACTOR:��Lorentz Bruun Construction

CONSULTANT: Salazar Architect Inc. (affordable housing design specialists)

NUMBER OF WORKERS EMPLOYED: 100

SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECT: Work is drawing to a close on Home Forward’s renovation of the Fountain Place Apartments. Built in 1911 by local millionaire and salmon cannery owner Frank M. Warren, who died the following year as a passenger on the Titanic’s doomed maiden voyage, Fountain Place is one of the earliest examples of high-end apartment construction in downtown Portland. It also is one of the area’s first U-shaped buildings.

Each floor has approximately 7,500 interior square feet, for a building total of 45,000 square feet. The building features a wood structure and a brick exterior. The contractor is dropping in six seismic braces on top of about 60 micro piles placed below the slab on grade for attachment to the walls to provide seismic safety. The additions of two layers of plywood to the existing diaphragm will also provide a more seismically resilient building.

As part of the project, on March 4, 2020, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The renovation was made possible with financing from Oregon Housing and Community Services, Banner Bank and U.S. Bank.

A major goal of the project was to retain the 100-year-old building’s historic character while adding several future-proofed improvements, said Halla Hoffer, an associate principal with Peter Meijer Architect. The seismic upgrade will not only improve safety for occupants, but also extend the building’s useful life at least 50 more years, according to the design team.

“Building Blocks” spotlights noteworthy projects either under construction or approaching the start of construction. To submit a project for consideration, please visit: djcorprod.wpengine.com/building-blocks.

The post Building Blocks: Fountain Place Apartments appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

PROJECT: Pacific Northwest Pet ER & Specialty Center

LOCATION: Vancouver, Washington (Mill Plain Plaza shopping center)

SIZE:��19,814 square feet

COST:��not disclosed

START DATE: November 2020

ANTICIPATED END DATE: July 2021

OWNER: NVA Compassion-First

LEAD ARCHITECT: Archon Design & Construction

ENGINEER: BCCLT Consulting Engineers

CONTRACTOR:��Lorentz Bruun Construction

SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECT: This facility will provide pet owners in the Portland-metro area with emergency and specialty services 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Lorentz Bruun Construction is renovating the space formerly occupied by Whole Foods Market. Crews framed, roughed in and installed drywall for a 77-room, 18,000-square-foot hospital. Copper RF shielding and leaded drywall were installed in rooms housing sensitive equipment such as MRI scanners. About 150 people are employed on the project.

“This was a big project from start to finish with a lot of rooms to deliver,” project manager Eric Bruun said, “and despite closely following enhanced safety precautions as a result of COVID-19, the pandemic’s impact on local permitting processes, and some adverse weather this winter, we’ve stayed on track for completion.”

The center will provide emergency care, cardiology, oncology, interventional radiology, surgery, and internal medicine services. The center will feature an expansive critical care unit, including separate canine and feline ICUs, as well as advanced imaging modalities including MRI and CT scan, in-house lab and testing facilities, and three surgery suites. There also will be a physical therapy suite with hydrotherapy equipment. Staff will work closely with and act as an extension of pet owners’ primary veterinarians.

NVA Compassion-First, based in California, operates more than 80 veterinary specialty and emergency hospitals across North America.

“Building Blocks” is a 91��Ƶ feature that spotlights noteworthy projects either under construction or approaching the start of construction. To submit a project for consideration, please visit: djcorprod.wpengine.com/building-blocks.

The post Building Blocks: Pet ER & Specialty Center appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

While construction teams carry on during the COVID-19 pandemic, some are beginning to encounter a materials supply chain that has been taxed to the limit – especially beyond U.S. borders. Government-imposed economic shutdowns have left manufacturers, distributors and their customers all scrambling to keep shelves stocked and workers equipped.

Lead times on orders are increasing. Material shortages are persisting. It’s the new norm, and no one really knows when that will change.

“Two weeks ago, (if) you would have asked how is a particular project in Hillsboro going for us … I would (have said), ‘Fine; no issues,’” said Eric Wiesmann, purchasing manager for Rosendin Electric‘s Hillsboro facility. “And three days later, factories are shut down and materials are put off until June. So I’d say today it’s undetermined; next week I’m probably going to tell you every one of our projects is going to be impacted.”

Many countries have required factories to suspend or severely limit operations. Outputs are slowing, and delivery times are growing – and U.S. customers are noticing. Andersen Construction Vice President Brian Knudsen said international shipments of a number of items –elevators, doors, flooring, thin brick and others – are being delayed.

“We have had a thin brick product on a project delayed not only due to the German factory being closed, but also because the broker for the product is from New York and they are closed,” he said. “So getting the delivery information has been difficult, causing uncertainty.”

Meanwhile, for the Halsey 106 mixed-use building in Portland, general contractor LMC Construction is trying to ensure there won’t be a shipment problem.

“On this one, we have quartz countertops coming from Vietnam, and at this point we haven’t heard of any issues,” project manager Ken Bello said. “But what we’re trying to do is procure and get this stuff on ships as soon as possible so we have them here.”

LMC Construction has tried to be proactive, Vice President Kyle Anderson added.

“Everything we’re hearing is be prepared for materials coming from China to take a lot longer,” he said. “But right now it hasn’t hit us because we’ve tried to get ahead of it … and get material on-site and get additional storage.”

A similar approach is being taken by Hoffman Construction, according to Vice President Dan Drinkward. The firm has been able to work through supply chain issues so far, he said, but there are concerns about long lead times – especially for items coming from overseas.

Locally, even before state emergency measures were being taken, builders were working to mitigate supply chain issues. For the Robert Libke Public Safety Building project in Oregon City, procurement of items like rooftop HVAC units and storefront systems was moved up to accommodate a wider delivery window, P&C Construction project manager Will Somme said.

“We have to get out in front of it,” he said. “It’s been minor, but the whole shipping industry is overwhelmed right now.”

LMC Construction expects to see more of that, Anderson said.

“All we can do with our clients is be as transparent as we can about what’s potentially coming up and what we’re seeing,” he said, “and then we just react to it on a case-by-case scenario.”

While issues vary for each project, Hoffman Construction has adjusted by ordering materials earlier than usual, forgoing factory inspections in distant locations, and working with subcontractors and distributors to try and identify potential problems before they become critical.

“We’re trying to set up projects up front and avoid sole-source specifications that could lead us into a bottleneck that would put a project in a difficult position,” Drinkward said. “We’re trying to build some flexibility into the supply chain anticipating we’re going to have impacts and understanding we don’t know what we don’t know yet.”

What is known is that numerous fabrication shops in Clark County, Washington – including ones that work with steel – have closed. That impact has stretched across the Portland-metro area.

“We’ve had some subcontractors and suppliers from Washington basically tell us they’re shutting down,” Anderson said. “Most of our Washington-based subs are still working. The ones we’ve heard of are the ones with an actual fabrication shop in Washington, where they feel like they have to shut it down.”

Much of that burden is being shouldered by distributors, Wiesmann said.

“We’re going to distributors and asking them to find new light fixtures, panel boards, breakers – different brands of those products – and we’re going to multiple distributors,” he said. “Everybody is working harder, and it’s this very odd blend of circumstances that leaves people working harder and making less money.”

Fortunately for LMC Construction, the material impacts it has experienced so far have not been critical, Anderson said. The closure of a door manufacturer in another state forced project managers for a renovation of the Silvertowne Apartments in Silverton to hunt for alternatives. Meanwhile, a team handling a different project ran into difficulties sourcing bath hardware. Other items that are proving more difficult to procure, Anderson said, include sheet metal products and steel products.

“We made the substitution from a different manufacturer for a slight material increase, and that’s what we’re seeing for the most part,” he said. “But the other thing we’re starting to see more and more of is suppliers and manufacturers warning us that their lead times are going to be longer.”

Andersen Construction has multiple tower projects under way in downtown Portland. It’s receiving similar messages, Knudsen said.

“We have received notices from most of our trade partners about material delays on all of our projects,” he said. “Many times they are not specific, only that there will be delays, but the timing is not specific or is given as a range of weeks or months of delay.”

Not every contractor in the Portland-metro area is dealing with such uncertainty. Yes, larger materials, and especially ones not standard sizes, seem to be problematic. And of course, many international shipments appear likely to be slower for the foreseeable future. But some firms have yet to face material shortages or delivery delays.

“It is definitely an important topic to examine, and seems to be coming up a lot on some of the calls with developers,” said Angie Cole, director of marketing for general contractor Lorentz Bruun Construction. “We are very fortunate, however, in that we have not experienced any of the challenges you mentioned. We may be a lucky exception.”

Ultimately, as the pandemic continues, no one is sure what the long-term effects will be, either on their projects or the wider construction industry. Everyone is responding to the situation at hand.

Nevertheless, Drinkward and others say the industry is already adapting to the new realities – including supply chain challenges – in a more cooperative fashion than in the past.

“It’s ever-changing, but we’ve figured out largely how to do it,” he said. “And we’re seeing with the (resumption of construction) now in Washington, with our projects up there, although many of them were considered essential, now they’ve got new guidelines and the new normal. It’s actually one of the things we’ve hoped and offered up. As other businesses start up, we have a lot of lessons we’ve learned on how to do it.”

The post Proactive approach aiding construction industry appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A 97-year-old single-story warehouse slightly north of Portland’s Pearl District has received several renovations over the years. The latest one might be the most extensive.

The Premier Gear & Machine Works building, on nearly a full block bounded by Northwest 17th and 18th avenues and Savier and Thurman streets, is being gutted and transformed into creative office space. Sturgeon Development Partners is the developer. The project team includes LRS Architects, Lorentz Bruun Construction and Catena Consulting Engineers.

“Overall it’s an addition, square foot wise because we’re adding a second level,” Lorentz Bruun Construction project engineer Mark Drahota said. “Right now it’s about 40,000 square feet, and with the second level we’re going to add roughly 15-20,000 more square feet, so it will be roughly 60,000 square feet when it’s all said and done.”

The adaptive reuse project includes a substantial seismic upgrade. Steel, buckling-restrained brace frames and shear walls were installed to connect the roof to the rest of the building.

The outside of the building is not going to experience wholesale change. That’s reserved for the interior, where crews are adding a mezzanine level, new entrances, new windows for the south side of the building and a large covered outdoor terrace.

The new design incorporates the building’s original features and pays tribute to the legacy throughout the additional space, which is being constructed with heavy timber – mainly glulam beams and columns and Douglas fir car decking flooring on the mezzanine level.

An elevated sky-bridge will connect the north and south halves of the mezzanine level, while an outdoor patio for tenant use will be notched into the building on the south side.

Construction crews are continuing to encounter remnants of previous building expansions, Drahota said.

“As we’ve dug into the building we’ve found different issues, old-school stuff,” he said. “That’s definitely been the biggest challenge.”

Different construction types were used for each project, leading to some unique discoveries last summer during the demolition and abatement phase.

“There was asbestos abatement and little bit of lead abatement, but not very much,” Drahota said. “It was mostly just warehouse space, but there was some existing office space that had some stuff we had to do. But it definitely had to be taken care of. It was a lot of work to remove all the existing beams and clear the space.”

The building’s south side featured newer concrete tilt panels, but the older north side was mostly board-formed with a heavy timber interior. The latter featured some hefty 14-inch-by-30-inch solid Douglas fir beams carved from old growth that is long since gone.

“It’s a menagerie of styles,” Lorentz Bruun project superintendent Bruce Fabian said.

Approximately 150 window openings had to be cut into the existing concrete exterior walls as part of demolition, according to Fabian.

“At one we had four saws running at one time just to make schedule,” he said.

Then there are vintage overhead gantry cranes, including at least three that formerly graced the warehouse. One will remain on its rails as a reminder of earlier times.

“A lot of the crane rails were supported by timbers, as well, and we actually left some of those existing crane rails up,” Drahota said.

But now, carpenters with Framing Force of Molalla are installing the last of the car decking flooring and glulam beams, while mechanical, electrical and plumbing subcontractors prep for rough-in work. Crews with Nuwave Concrete of Forest Grove are also on site finishing the massive new floor slab.

Other members of the project team include: Humber Design Group, which performed civil engineering; MFIA Inc., which carried out MEP design and engineering; and Shapiro Didway Landscape Architecture.

Project completion is scheduled for June 2020, although the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to that date changing.

The post Ex-industrial building becoming creative office space appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A historic apartment building in downtown Portland is undergoing a seismic retrofit, and general contractor Lorentz Bruun Construction is seeking subcontractors for work on the project.

Fountain Place, at 929 S.W. Salmon St., is a five-story (plus a basement) unreinforced brick masonry structure owned by Home Forward. The 45,336-square-foot building is listed in the city’s Historic Resource Inventory for its architectural significance.

The proposed scope of work includes seismically upgrading the entire 105-year-old building, providing a new, rated egress stair, a new elevator, a new community room, and office space for residential services and property management.

Peter Meijer Architect is designing the retrofit, which is awaiting issuance of a building permit from the Bureau of Development Services. Other members of the project team include KPFF Consulting Engineers, Reyes Engineering, Glumac and Salazar Architect Inc.

According to the design team, Fountain Place was built in 1914 in Second Renaissance Revival style. The raised basement, bracketed sheet metal cornice and belt course with brick corbels all correspond with the style.

Nonmandatory job walks for prospective bidders will take place at 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 31. Any questions about the project are due by 5 p.m. on Nov. 1. Bids are due by Nov. 12.

For more information on this project and others, visit the 91��Ƶ Project Center online at www.djcoregon.com/projectcenter/.

The post Seismic retrofit forthcoming for historic building appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A renovation of a former industrial building under way in Southeast Portland will provide 46,000 square feet of craft manufacturing, light industrial and creative office space in the Central Eastside Industrial District.

ScanlanKemperBard (SKB) is partnering with Denver-based Tryba Architects and Lorentz Bruun Construction on the Glass Lab, which will contain multiple speculative light industrial suites ranging in size from about 2,000 to 4,800 square feet. The building’s ground-floor suites will cater to industrial users, with concrete floors and interior roll-up doors providing access to a shared loading dock. The fully air-conditioned second-floor spaces are designed for creative office users.

“We’re big believers in a localized manufacturing economy,” said John Olivier, senior vice president of acquisitions & development for SKB. “For lack of a better term, I call it an urban industrial concept. This building is not just industrial; it’s also creative office or creative industrial.”

The project is a core-and-shell remodel of the 59-year-old building, which was constructed for a glass manufacturer. It later was used as an antique furniture showroom and most recently as the home of Eastside Distilling. SKB purchased the property last summer for $6.3 million, and is investing about $8.9 million in the renovation.

The two-story tilt-up concrete building features old-growth timber beams, tongue-and-groove wood floors and 20-foot ceiling heights. It will feature common amenities including break room and kitchen space, bicycle commuter facilities, a conference room, and a ground-floor gathering area. The second floor is being expanded by 4,000 square feet, and new interior mezzanines will be added to select ground-level suites.

As with the Iron Fireman building, an SKB-owned light industrial building in the Brooklyn neighborhood, the idea for the Glass Lab is to provide a home for craft manufacturers in an area where availability of affordable space is becoming increasingly rare.

“The smaller tenants are having trouble finding stuff in the Central Eastside,” Olivier said. “We really want to cater to the manufacturers, probably tech manufacturing, but we can still do any kind of light manufacturing.”

SKB has been working with Prosper Portland to capitalize on Enterprise Zone tax benefits, giving tenants the benefits of the capital improvements along with whatever money they invest into their individual spaces. According to Olivier, initial estimates equate to about a $1.40/square foot savings for the first five years of occupancy. Rental rates will be about $25-28 per square foot, triple-net.

“We think it’ll be some of the least expensive space in the Central Eastside, certainly of the newly-delivered stuff,” Olivier said.

The Glass Lab is being outfitted with new mechanical/electrical/plumbing systems, including an electrical upgrade from 208-volt service to 480-volt service, new water and sewer systems, rooftop mechanical units, and an upgraded fire suppression system. The building’s energy model is being brought up to code, and new insulated glass, window frames, storefront systems and roll-up doors are being installed.

The core and shell work is expected to last through the summer, at which point tenants will be able to begin building out their white box spaces. The building’s leasing is being handled by Colliers International.

SKB is also in predevelopment on a 140,000-square-foot creative office building on an adjacent parcel at 1919 S.E. Third Ave. The firm is working with Scott | Edwards Architecture to design the building. Olivier hopes construction will begin early next year.

“We see our ability to develop that area over time,” he said. “We think we’ve got the capability to bring all of these elements together and create a mini-campus, ultimately.”

The post Team getting creative in the Central Eastside appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

An upcoming adaptive reuse project will convert a former machine shop slightly north of the Pearl District into a creative office space with nods to the building’s industrial past.

The building encompasses nearly a full block on a parcel bounded by Northwest 17th and 18th avenues and Savier and Thurman streets, and for decades was occupied by a machine shop that now operates in Canby. Sturgeon Development Partners purchased the building in 2017 and will name it the Premier Gear & Machine Works building after its former longtime occupant.

A core and shell improvement to the building – actually multiple structures that have been added over the course of the past 100 years – is slated to begin this month. Lorentz Bruun Construction is the general contractor for the LRS Architects-designed project.

The renovation will update the space to highlight the building’s industrial past, including old-growth timber beams, sawtooth skylights and crane equipment. Existing crane rails will remain in place throughout the building, two of which will be repurposed to support a bridge connecting two areas of an added second level.

“There’s all kinds of amazing machinery and equipment in there that we are cleaning and repurposing, and it will be part of the building structure,” said Vanessa Sturgeon of Sturgeon Development Partners.

The new second level will add approximately 28,000 square feet to the existing 39,000-square-foot structure. The mezzanine level will open to the ground floor and be built with heavy timber and tongue-and-groove decking. The building’s second floor will feature a 555-square-foot covered outdoor terrace.

The building will undergo a full structural upgrade that will include new CMU shear walls, steel buckling restrained brace frames, new roof diaphragms and out-of-plane anchorage between the walls and floor and roof diaphragm. The project will also include new openings in existing concrete wall panels, added skylights, entries, and new windows, installation of an elevator, restrooms, and bicycle storage.

The core and shell work is expected to last through late fall. The final 65,000-square-foot space will be dividable, but Sturgeon isn’t ruling out just one lease.

“It would be great if we were able to get one tenant for the entire building,” she said. “Right now we’re marketing it to any tenant that is interested in the space.”

The post Gearing up for conversion to creative office space appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

An adaptive reuse project under way in Southeast Portland is transforming a former retail building on Southeast Foster Road into the home of Assembly Brewing – an upstart business from a pair of partners focused on the Mt. Scott-Arleta neighborhood.

Owners Adam Dixon and George Johnson had kicked around the idea of starting their own brewery for years, and when they decided to pull the trigger on opening a brewpub, the Foster area was a natural choice.

“I felt like this area was a brewery desert for Portland,” said Johnson, Assembly’s head brewer and an area resident. “Might as well do it in my neighborhood.”

The pair enlisted Steelhead Architecture and Lorentz Bruun Construction to transform a 7,000-square-foot former Korean grocery store into the home of their new brewing operation. The building was erected in 1948 and then expanded with additions over the years. Faulty methods used for construction of parts of the building necessitated the structure being essentially demolished down to the frame and rebuilt.

“We had to start from scratch,” said Ryan Shoop, project superintendent with Lorentz Bruun Construction. “It’s basically a ground-up build, for the most part.”

The building underwent a full seismic upgrade, including installation of C-channel horizontal bracing throughout the structure’s cast-in-place unreinforced concrete walls. Old-growth timber beams, which were exposed during demolition and media-blasted with nickel slag and walnut shells, have been braced to the steel reinforcements.

The front of the building along Southeast Foster Road has been outfitted with new storefront systems and roll-up doors, and skylights were added to the dining area. The building has been outfitted with all-new plumbing, fire/life safety elements and electrical systems, including new three-phase power service. The $2.2 million project is slated for completion in early March, and the brewery is expected to open later that month.

The project team also includes WRK Engineers, Christianson Electric, Protemp Associates, V & K Construction, and Allco Drywall.

The post Something’s brewing in Southeast Portland appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A second phase of core-and-shell improvements is wrapping up as part of a project to convert a pair of Southeast Portland buildings into light industrial and maker space. The Iron Fireman Collective, as the project is now known, consists of two joined buildings on Southeast 17th Avenue in the Brooklyn neighborhood. The structures were originally built as furnace factories, and most recently used by airplane parts maker PECO Manufacturing; it put them on the market following the expansion of Southeast 17th Avenue for TriMet’s orange line.

John Olivier, a senior vice president in acquisitions and development for project owner ScanlanKemperBard, says the firm saw potential in the buildings’ structure and location.

“We thought that it would be a great location for a lot of these craft manufacturers and makers that just can’t find space anymore in the central eastside – certainly not affordable space,” he said. “We’ve got good parking, which is tough to find in the Central Eastside, as well.”

ScanlanKemperBard purchased the buildings in early 2016 and set about renovating the first of the two structures, a 108,000-square-foot industrial building completed in the mid-1920s. General contractor Lorentz Bruun Construction carried out a Mackenzie-designed core-and-shell renovation of the building, which included restoration of historic elements such as exposed masonry and old-growth timber beams. It also included seismic upgrades, a partial roof replacement, and installation of new demising walls to create tenant spaces, a large main hallway, roll-up doors, and space for restrooms/showers.

That work was completed last year, and tenants including a brewery, an apparel designer, a robotics manufacturing and design group and a retail merchandiser have moved in. The second phase of work has involved the renovation of the north building, a 35,000-square-foot former warehouse that was connected to the south building via a garage roof. Second-phase work includes adjoining the two buildings with new ramps and stairs as well as construction of shell tenant spaces, and restoring historic industrial elements. Painted beams and columns were sandblasted to expose wood grain and large windows were restored.

Nine units are being built in the current phase, three of which will be turnkey spaces; the remaining six will be basic core-and-shell spaces. Additional work includes dividing a larger tenant space that was completed with the first phase into multiple “maker space” areas.

“We’re doing much smaller bays where folks can come in and rent space on a shorter-term basis that’s a little more affordable,” Olivier said.

SKB is also weighing whether to convert some of the space – likely second-floor areas that were formerly used as offices – into smaller art studios.

“We know there’s been a need because of conversion of some other buildings that used to have a lot of the artists,” Olivier said. “There’s not really a collective, synergistic place for them to go closer in.”

Lorentz Bruun Construction’s work on the core-and-shell portion of the project is slated to wrap this month. Then the firm will continue with some tenant improvement work.

The post Photos: More space coming for light industrial tenants appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The rush of industrial office projects in the Central Eastside Industrial District shows no signs of abating.

Last week, ScanlanKemperBard, in partnership with Tryba Architects and Lorentz Bruun Construction principals, announced the group has closed on the purchase of 1805 S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., with a 46,000-square-foot, two-story industrial building, for $6.3 million.

The project team plans to spend $8.9 million more on renovations to create an industrial office product they’re calling The Glass Lab.

The 1960s-era concrete building was originally the home of Morehouse Glass, a glass factory. The project is “designed to cater to creative craft manufacturing, advanced manufacturing and office users requiring 2,500-to-5,000-square-foot suites,” according to a news release.

Developers, prodded by zoning rules that limit residential and retail uses in the district, have flooded into the Central Eastside with projects designed to appeal to so-called “industrial office” users. Some have been adaptive reuse projects, such as the Towne Storage building and the Custom Blocks. Others have been new construction, including the proposed Platform and ODOT blocks projects.

The Glass Lab project is eligible for participation in Prosper Portland‘s Enterprise Zone program, which provides five-year property tax exemptions.

Also, the property is located within the Innovation Quadrant, where an effort is under way to link various developments in Southeast and Southwest Portland; they include the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Oregon Health and Science University and Zidell Yards.

The post Project team purchases Central Eastside property appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.