A 434,720-square-foot building set for Goose Hollow will be one of Portland’s largest multifamily developments after winning land use approval from the Design Commission.

Modera Main Street was approved by a 4-1 vote on Thursday. The commission’s chairwoman, Julie Livingston, cast the sole vote against the project. Commissioner Sam Rodriguez did not participate in the hearing; he recused himself because he is senior managing director in Portland for the project’s developer, Mill Creek Residential Trust.

The Design Commission approved project plans despite complaints from Goose Hollow residents that the 17-story building will be too large for the neighborhood and will worsen traffic, among other concerns.

“We heard from a lot of people, and very heartfelt testimonies on issues that I personally have a lot of empathy for,” Commissioner Zari Santner said. “Regretfully, we as a body do not have the authority to really respond to those.”

Final findings will be issued by Oct. 8. Then appeals of the Design Commission’s decision may be filed, said Ben Nielsen, a senior planner for the Bureau of Development Services.

The project’s approval comes as city officials push for more housing to meet demand. Modera Main will have 337 apartments – one more than earlier design iterations included. The building will wrap around a large-scale parking structure with 403 stalls that residents will share with Multnomah Athletic Club members.

The approval is also a milestone for Mill Creek. The national developer, based in Boca Raton, Florida, has been working for at least a decade to bring a multifamily building to the site. Mill Creek has built seven Modera-brand multifamily projects in neighborhoods around Portland, often inciting ire from local residents. Most recently, Mill Creek proposed Modera Woodstock, which would bring 194 apartments to the Southeast Portland neighborhood.

Commissioners were largely complimentary of Ankrom Moisan Architects‘ design for Modera Main. Commissioner Brian McCarter said the podium and tower are well integrated, and he praised the simplified facade, which will be broken into three-story groupings.

Commissioners also praised how well the design hides the parking structure.

“The fact that the entire garage is surrounded by program use is a very big deal,” Commissioner Jessica Molinar said. “It’s not easy to pull off.”

The garage will have only one entrance and exit, reducing conflicts with people using surrounding streets and sidewalks.

Livingston said she voted against the design because it does not activate Main Street on the ground level and thus falls short of meeting public realm guidelines.

“I look at Main Street, and I see the thinness of the program behind the facade adjacent to the sidewalk, and it’s just not enough to support real activity,” she said.

Livingston nevertheless praised the overall design.

“This is a really strong proposal and it will be a very strong building,” she said.

Commissioners attached two conditions of approval. One requires additional outdoor lighting in landscaped areas, and the other sets a minimum gauge for metal copings and exposed metal flashings.

The record was closed after a prior Design Commission hearing, so the project team did not speak at Thursday’s meeting, which was conducted virtually.

Opponents may appeal to the City Council. However, the council has not been receptive to opponents of housing projects in recent years, routinely rejecting appeals of Design Commission approvals.

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Modera Main Street, the 434,720-square-foot multifamily building and parking structure proposed for Goose Hollow, will have to wait for land-use approval from the Portland Design Commission.

A hearing that was to be held Thursday was delayed because the Design Commission could not muster a quorum, Chairwoman Julie Livingston said. A vote had been expected at that meeting.

The hearing was continued until Sept. 23. The record is closed, meaning commissioners can debate and take a vote, but no new written or oral testimony will be accepted.

Modera Main has drawn opposition from neighbors who have protested the proposed height and bulk. At 17 stories and 175 feet tall, it would be one of the largest multifamily buildings in the city. It would occupy the full block surrounded by Southwest 19th and 20th avenues, and Main and Madison streets.

The Mill Creek Residential Trust proposal has a large parking component. A portion of Modera Main’s 403 parking spaces would be dedicated to users of the neighboring Multnomah Athletic Club.

Livingston previously said she will vote against the project because it falls short of public realm guidelines on its Main Street frontage. Four other commissioners have indicated they will vote in favor of the project.

Commissioner Sam Rodriguez has recused himself from the case because he serves as senior managing director for Mill Creek Residential Trust.

The project is being designed by Ankrom Moisan Architects.

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LEVER Architecture‘s next design for a mass-timber building in Portland is planned for the site of a closed post office in the Northwest District.

Design commissioners got their first look Thursday at the four-story, 40,000-square-foot proposal. It would use mass timber and brick in a contemporary office building for Thesis, a local marketing and creative services agency.

Commissioners said they liked the design presented by LEVER principal Thomas Robinson.

“The architecture response and the landscape response are both sensitively thought out,” Commissioner Brian McCarter said.

However, commissioners warned Robinson that he could not expect a requested modification to minimum standards for floor area ratio (FAR). The proposed building would have a 1.2:1 ratio – below the minimum 1.5:1 ratio. The zoning regulation ensures a minimum density for projects built within the Central City.

“Minimum FAR is something Design Commission has fought hard for,” Chairwoman Julie Livingston said. “It’s asking a lot to ask for a modification on minimum FAR. That’s probably an uphill struggle.”

Reaching the minimum with the current design would require a site adjustment, the project team and commissioners said.

“Find a way to redefine the site and get to the floor area ratio,” Livingston told the design team.

Lango Hansen is on board as landscape architect. Patrick Kessi’s PHK Development is the project’s developer.

Initial plans also proposed a one-story office building on the property at 1706 N.W. 24th Ave. However, Robinson said the project team may prefer to place food carts there, potentially with an eye toward adding a larger building on that portion of the site in the future.

Commissioners said the property might be better served with food carts than a one-story building that is not meant for the long term.

“The one-story building on Thurman (Street) seems like a lot of money for very little gain,” Livingston said. “If the real plan is to do real development at a time that has not been identified, then stick to something that is easy to take away.”

McCarter agreed.

“I lean towards the food cart solution, which leaves the option to build a more substantial building in the future,” he said.

Thursday’s meeting was a design advice hearing meant to provide initial guidance. The project could proceed to a Type II design review, which would be overseen by Bureau of Development Services staff.

Also on Thursday:

Sizable project on track

Design commissioners appeared to be on the verge of approving Modera Main Street, a 17-story, 434,720-square-foot apartment building planned for Goose Hollow.

Commissioners did not vote on the Mill Creek Residential Trust proposal, and it is scheduled to return Sept. 2. Several commissioners said the latest designs from Ankrom Moisan Architects had made progress on reducing a dead zone on Main Street, relocating mechanical ventilation and other issues.

“I think they were very responsive,” Commissioner Don Vallaster said.

Livingston said she would vote no on the project because it still does not meet design guidelines. Portions of the Main Street frontage appear destined to be storage, she said.

“I so hope that when this building is constructed I am proved wrong,” she said.

Livingston was the only commissioner who still opposed the project design in a straw poll. Four other commissioners said the project would earn their vote of approval at a future meeting.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described developer Patrick Kessi’s role in the office project.

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The Portland Design Commission meets throughout the year on the first and third Thursdays of each month. Here is a glimpse of projects the commission is scheduled to examine on Aug. 19:

Modera Main Street

Address: full block bounded by Southwest Salmon and Main streets and 19th and 20th avenues

Developer: Mill Creek Residential Trust

Architect: Ankrom Moisan Architects

This is continuation of a design review hearing that began Aug. 5. Previously, the project team proposing a 17-story, 434,720-square-foot building faced significant questions from the Design Commission.

The commission’s chairwoman, Julie Livingston, said she would vote against the project as designed currently because it would fail to activate its Main Street frontage.

“We are allowing a building to go up that acknowledges the nothingness of this block of Main,” she said. “All four of these frontages need to be active to be a strong response to public realm guidelines. I feel strongly enough about this that it will cause me to vote no.”

One hour is allotted for Thursday’s meeting. A final vote may or may not take place.

Cambria Hotel Portland

Address: 105 and 135 N.W. Park Ave.

Developer: HighSide Development

Architect: SERA Architects

Engineers: Vega Civil Engineering and KPFF (structural)

HighSide Development of Denver, new to the Portland market, is seeking design advice for its proposed Cambria Hotel. It’s one of the Choice-branded hotels the developer is working on across the U.S., including downtown L.A.

The six-story Cambria Hotel Portland, designed by SERA Architects, is planned for the Pearl District. It would have 174 guest rooms and  look out onto Portland’s North Park Blocks.

The first floor would contain the hotel lobby, a restaurant and bar, meeting rooms, a fitness space, and a 1,900-square-foot tenant space.

Two office buildings

Address: 1706 N.W. 24th Ave.

Architect: LEVER Architecture

LEVER Architecture aims to make another notch in its mass-timber belt – this time with a 40,000-square-foot office building to serve as the new headquarters for a Portland-based creative agency. A design advice hearing is planned for Thursday. Patrick Kessi of 1706 LLC is the owner’s representative.

The proposed plan places the four-story mass-timber structure at the corner of Northwest 24th Avenue and Savier Street. A one-story accessory office building would be oriented along Northwest Thurman Street.

The project team is seeking adjustments to the minimum FAR (floor-area ratio) and building height.

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Mill Creek Residential Trust‘s massive Modera Main Street proposal – 17 stories, 434,720 square feet, 336 apartments, 403 parking spaces – faced significant questions from the Portland Design Commission on Thursday, but eventual approval may be all but assured.

The Design Commission held an initial review hearing on Thursday, after two previous design advice meetings. At least three commissioners signaled they may vote against the proposal, and a fourth, Don Vallaster, said he wants to see changes before voting in favor.

The multifamily colossus designed by Ankrom Moisan Architects for the Florida-based developer is planned for a vacant Goose Hollow lot that neighbors the Multnomah Athletic Club. The building would be linked to the MAC via a tunnel, and have parking for club users as well as building residents.

The Design Commission’s chairwoman, Julie Livingston, said that even if the project were rejected by design commissioners, it would surely be approved by the housing-friendly City Council.

“We have not won on this issue, ever,” Livingston said, referring to height and scale concerns. “There have been several appeals to commission based on building height and building scale – FAR (floor-area ratio) – and Design Commission has gotten no traction on this issue.”

Goose Hollow has been a locus of growth, aided by accommodating zoning thanks to the Central City 2035 plan. Projects such as ART Tower, Sawbuck and Press Blocks stand to add hundreds of multifamily units to the neighborhood.

Developers have targeted the close-in neighborhood, which enjoys walking proximity to downtown and transit options including a MAX light-rail line. Major institutional projects – including a new Lincoln High School and a Providence Park expansion – also have moved forward.

Goose Hollow’s explosive growth has raised the ire of residents, who are watching the neighborhood with historic Victorians become much denser. Several residents testified against the project on Thursday.

“The sheer size, height and mass of the building are just going to destroy the neighborhood,” said Chrys Martin, who was one of several MAC members who opposed the project despite the athletic club’s agreement to use Modera Main’s parking.

Rachel Clark, daughter of former Mayor Bud Clark, said Modera Main would be one of Portland’s largest residential buildings and break a decades-old promise to not further expand MAC parking.

Erin Winn, a counselor, said she and her husband are looking to move.

“We can’t imagine staying here once the neighborhood changes so drastically with this tower right out the front window,” she said.

Winn said she values quiet in the neighborhood because she counsels trauma victims.

Modera Main would occupy a full block bounded by Southwest 19th and 20th avenues, and Main and Madison streets.

Some testifiers complained that Sam Rodriguez, managing director of Mill Creek Residential Trust in Portland, also serves on Design Commission. Rodriguez did not participate in the hearing, but that did not satisfy some opponents who expressed concern that commissioners could be biased toward their fellow commissioner. Mill Creek is one of the most prolific multifamily developers in the city.

Livingston said she would vote against the project, as presented Thursday, because it fails to activate its Main Street frontage.

“We are allowing a building to go up that acknowledges the nothingness of this block of Main,” she said. “All four of these frontages need to be active to be a strong response to public realm guidelines. I feel strongly enough about this that it will cause me to vote no.”

Livingston praised other aspects of the project, calling the landscape plan “lovely.”

Commissioners said the design team had made strides in reducing the building’s apparent size since the design advice meetings.

“I think they’ve made improvements in sculpting the mass a bit more,” Commissioner Chandra Robinson said.

The building fits in an increasingly dense Goose Hollow, Commissioner Zari Santner said.

“As incongruous as this may appear, from the perspective of looking at the guidelines, I think this is contextual.”

Commissioners also scrutinized vinyl window frames planned for the façade. Isaac Johnson, managing principal at Ankrom Moisan Architects, said the frames had been used successfully in other Portland buildings.

“These are high-quality products,” he said. “I think they look very good, and they are a good value.”

The project team will return for a brief check-in on Aug. 19. That’s likely to be followed by a final meeting and a vote on Sept. 2.

Johnson said the project team is eager to apply for permits soon.

“We need to lock our design in,” he said.

Johnson added that architects would revisit the building’s Main Street frontage design.

“We have heard you and we need to take a look at it and see if we can make any improvements,” he said.

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For a seven-story, 134-unit multifamily project planned in North Portland, Ethos Development implemented a version of the city’s inclusionary housing requirements by offering three-bedroom apartments that are smaller than the one-bedrooms in the same building.

In Analog PDX, a 134-unit project planned for a North Portland site, the five rent-restricted, three-bedroom apartments will average 772 square feet. The building also would have four market-rate, one-bedroom apartments averaging 810 square feet.

The City Council hated the proposal.

In two meetings in late April, city commissioners grilled developer Paul Del Vecchio, founding principal of Portland’s Ethos Development, regarding the unusually small three-bedroom apartments. Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty called them “outrageous and egregious” and said that they didn’t meet the “sniff test” of the city’s inclusionary housing program.

Commissioner Dan Ryan, who oversees the Bureau of Development Services, said the project doesn’t satisfy the city’s goals for providing affordable housing for Portland families.

“This just isn’t high-quality family low-income housing,” he said. “This project does fall short.”

In the end, only Hardesty voted against the project’s tax exemption, and it was approved. Del Vecchio said he’ll move toward obtaining building permits with the aim of breaking ground at 1871 N. Flint Ave. in August or September.

But Portland developers said they and their investors were spooked by the council’s last-minute dive into the minutia of bedroom sizes. For developers, elected politicians meddling in floor layouts after a project had been in the city’s land-use approval pipeline for almost two years was a near worst-case scenario.

“This event today made it all the way to Boston, San Francisco and L.A.,” said Sam Rodriguez, senior managing director for Mill Creek Residential Trust, one of the most prolific multifamily developers in Portland, during the City Council’s April 21 meeting. “I had three investors call me freaking out. ‘What’s going on? Are we going to have our projects approved or not?’”

Noel Johnson, a principal with local developer Cairn Pacific, said the 11th-hour opposition to Analog PDX has already done damage, causing investors to wonder whether the council will be “playing politics with the individual project in front of them.”

“That’s just the best way to shut off new investment just as people are maybe thinking about it,” Johnson said in an interview.

Johnson also testified before commissioners on behalf of Analog PDX.

The debate regarding Analog PDX was the latest twist in the saga of Portland’s inclusionary housing policy, which was enacted in 2016 to require developers of multifamily projects of 20 units or more in certain parts of the city to offer affordable units with restricted rents or pay a fee in lieu.

In exchange, developers may apply for the city’s Multiple-Unit Limited Tax Exemption (MULTE) program. MULTE gives developers a 10-year property-tax break. City councils are empowered by state law to approve MULTE exemptions, making them the last step in the process before developers apply for building permits. (The program has a rolling cap on the exemptions to ensure that tax revenue doesn’t a hit too large in any given budget year).

Developers fear commissioners will use their power to approve or deny MULTE exemptions as an opportunity to meddle in multifamily building projects late in the process – after they’ve been designed, engineered and approved by the Portland Design Commission or Bureau of Development Services staff.

“They’re basically suggesting the MULTE program is a discretionary checkpoint,” Del Vecchio said in an interview.

That is not something that was part of the inclusionary housing program when it was promulgated in 2016, Housing Bureau Director Shannon Callahan said.

“We had not contemplated when we drafted the original housing code a situation where an individual MULTE would be denied,” Callahan told commissioners. “But we did contemplate at some point we would reach the overall cap,” she said, referring to the agreement on tax exemptions with Multnomah County.

Hardesty’s and Ryan’s offices did not respond to interview requests. But in council meetings, the commissioners suggested Del Vecchio was doing an end-run around inclusionary housing rules.

“I just want to know if any of you would live in those bedrooms – a three-bedroom unit that is smaller than a studio,” Hardesty said.

Del Vecchio expressed frustration that he was hauled before commissioners to defend the project. He said the meeting cost him thousands of dollars to compensate his project team experts who testified – Allison Reynolds, a land-use attorney at Stoel Rives, and Carrie Strickland, founding principal of Works Progress Architecture.

Analog PDX meets inclusionary housing requirements via what is known as the reconfiguration option. Essentially, developers may provide an equivalent number of affordable bedrooms rather than units. Former Commissioner Steve Novick pushed for the option to encourage developers to build affordable family-size apartments rather than just studios or one-bedrooms.

“Our strategy to reconfigure to three bedrooms was a genuine attempt to provide what we believe to be the most needed affordable housing type,” Del Vecchio wrote to the City Council.

Ethos isn’t the only developer to propose small multi-bedroom apartments, Callahan said in an interview.

“We’ve been seeing some units that are smaller than a unit of lesser bedrooms,” she said. “It was one of the more extreme examples.”

The MULTE approval process has given the City Council a deep familiarity with the multifamily housing pipeline, Callahan said.

“Council is able to see – because they have approval over the MULTE – at a very granular level what is being produced in the market,” she said.

Part of the push and pull between developers and commissioners is over the council’s goal to provide affordable housing for low-income families. Commissioners said such small three-bedroom units could be filled by groups of singles, and not families.

Del Vecchio said he has no control over who rents his apartments, and isn’t even allowed to ask because of Fair Housing rules.

“You’re just creating caricatures of people,” he said. “Who knows who’s going to move into anything? You just don’t.”

The inclusionary housing program has had a series of unintended consequences during the past five years. Among them: developers building many 19-unit apartment buildings to remain just below the threshold required to provide affordable units.

As a result of Analog PDX and other projects, the City Council instructed the Portland Housing Bureau to regulate bedroom sizes in inclusionary housing projects. New administrative rules, which became effective April 23, require reconfigured units to be larger than the average size of each of the unit types with fewer bedrooms.

The Housing Bureau will also issue a request for proposals, probably this summer, for a consultant to evaluate the city’s inclusionary housing program, Callahan said.

Meanwhile, Ethos Development is selling off its land holdings in Portland, Del Vecchio said. After Analog PDX is completed, Ethos will do no new multifamily projects in the city for the foreseeable future, he said.

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The team developing a 175-foot tower in the Goose Hollow neighborhood is continuing to refine the design. The Portland Design Commission on Thursday got another look at plans.

Modera Main Street was proposed as a 16-story building with 340 residential units at the southeast corner of Southwest 20th Avenue and Main Street – slightly south of Providence Park. The lower four stories would be a podium with 408 structured parking spaces and residential units wrapping around. Atop the podium would sit a 12-story L-shape tower with more residential units.

The applicant, Francis Dardis of Ankrom Moisan Architects, filed for the request for design advice on behalf of property owner Mill Creek Residential Trust. This was the second design advice hearing; the first was held in November 2020.

Commissioner Sam Rodriquez is the senior managing director for Mill Creek Residential Trust in Portland. As such, he recused himself from the meeting.

The Design Commission expressed concerns need for a more dramatic setback of the tower from the podium.

The podium would sit on a hillside from 20th Avenue, Madison Street and 19th Avenue. The tower would step down to the southwest corner. The 19th Avenue façade would start at the base and go 16 stories up without a break.

“It feels much larger than it actually is,” Commission Chairwoman Julie Livingston said.

The tower’s proposed mass drew outcry from the community because of neighborhood context.

“It’s absurdly larger than the surrounding (buildings),” community member Sean O’Donnell said. “I think the public realm is disadvantaged by this design.”

While the tower’s height received the most disputes, the Central City plan allows for a building up to 175 feet high.

“(We) wrestled with how we break the massing down,” said Paul Jeffrey, design lead at Ankrom Moisan.

The team is looking at two slightly different design schemes. The first approach would keep the base, midsection and top one color. The other would make each one a different color.

The podium would be a highly textured brick, and as it goes into the mid-section of the tower, it would smooth out. The top of the tower would transition to metal panels to give a completely smooth look.

“We had hoped to see some more aggressive sculpting of the tower,” Commissioner Brian McCarter said.

Commissioners agreed that materials and details are moving in the right direction, but there needs to be a clear shift from the tower’s lower and upper portions.

The next step for the project is a land-use review hearing.

In the meantime, the team is developing the project’s public realm. The site is an empty lot that has operated as a community green space for many years.

The community expressed loss for the green space, and Jeffrey said the team would work to incorporate a soft, grassy landscape into the design to make up for it.

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Modera Davis, a new 204-unit building in Portland’s Pearl District still awaiting an occupancy permit, has sold to an institutional investor.

Virtu Investments of Carlsbad, California, snapped up the 12-story, 225,000-square-foot building at 255 N.W. 10th Ave. It was developed by Mill Creek Residential Trust, a national firm based in Boca Raton, Florida, that has invested heavily in Portland’s multifamily market.

The purchase price was not immediately available, and a Portland-based Mill Creek Residential Trust executive could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Modera Davis’ apartments average 658 square feet. The building also has 8,307 square feet of retail space and 136 parking stalls in two underground levels.

The building sits on half of a block that also holds Deschutes Brewery‘s Portland pub and Bearing Service Co. Powell’s City of Books and major employers including Vacasa and Wieden + Kennedy are nearby.

Modera Davis is the sole Portland property in Virtu Investments’ portfolio. The firm in 2015 purchased the 145-unit Courtyard at Cedar Hills in Beaverton. Then in 2017, Virtu added the 146-unit Barclay Village in Oregon City.

SERA Architects designed Modera Davis, and Mill Creek Residential Trust’s construction arm, MCRT PNW Construction, built it.

JLL Capital Markets marketed Modera Davis on behalf of the seller. The JLL team was led by Senior Managing Director Ira Virden, Senior Director Carrie Kahn and Associate Frank Solorzano.

Mill Creek Residential Trust has developed and built six Modera-branded properties in Portland. A seventh, Modera Woodstock, is in development in Southeast Portland.

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Multifamily production fell 5.2 percent in Portland in 2019 as developers reacted to rising costs and a flood of project deliveries by pulling back.

The Bureau of Development Services issued permits for projects comprising 4,634 multifamily units last year. That was down from 4,887 permitted units in 2018.

“I think it’s going to slow down even more,” said Sam Rodriguez, senior managing director at Mill Creek Residential Trust, a major multifamily developer in the city. “The deals have gotten thinner. Cost has gone up. Construction costs are escalating across the board at about 5 percent a year, and then rents have flattened. And there’s still concessions in the market.”

Multifamily housing production has fallen far from 2017’s high mark of 5,993 units permitted. That year, developers racing to get ahead of inclusionary housing requirements pushed projects across the finish line at a clip that was an astonishing 44.4 percent gain from the prior year.

That boom in housing production continues to echo, with new buildings stabilizing slowly and competition for tenants holding the lid on rents.

While lower, 2019’s housing production rate was in line with the years prior to 2017.

The Bureau of Development Services does not regularly publish permit data totals. The city agency released the numbers in response to a 91��Ƶ public records request.

The multifamily market has bifurcated since inclusionary housing requirements took effect on Feb. 1, 2017, according to developers and permits. More small multifamily projects are moving ahead with fewer than the 20 units that trigger inclusionary housing requirements. Weekly permit intakes released by BDS are replete with 19-unit building proposals.

Other projects that are moving ahead tend to be large: full-block or superblock developments such as Security Properties‘ Pepsi Blocks and Press Blocks projects, and NBP Capital‘s RiverPlace development. Conspicuously missing are the midsize projects that characterized multifamily development before 2017.

“It’s a pretty difficult environment,” said Gus Baum, director of development for Security Properties. “Construction pricing continues to be unpredictable, but high.”

Within weeks, Security Properties is planning to seek permits for Pepsi Blocks’ first phase, Baum said. The first phase includes an approximately 200-unit multifamily building and construction of a woonerf, a shared street through the property at Northeast Sandy Boulevard and 25th Avenue.

Security Properties is phasing the project to allow the bulk of market-rate units to hit the market later.

“The Pepsi Blocks, because it’s a planned development, we’ll hopefully do a greater than minimum share of affordable units in the first phase,” Baum said.

Funding for affordable housing is washing over the housing market in the wake of the city’s $258.4 million housing bond and Metro‘s $652.8 million bond.

“There’s a lot of money for affordable projects because of the bonds, and that’s taking away resources for market-rate projects,” Baum said.

For now, flat rents and steadily escalating costs give little reason to expect a turnaround in Portland multifamily development, developers said.

“It’s still a pretty soft market to be delivering product,” said Chris Nelson, co-founder of Capstone Partners, a Portland-based developer.

After years of steep increases, rents in Portland have flatlined, making multifamily development less enticing. Average rent for a two-bedroom Portland apartment was down 0.1 percent in February compared to a year ago to $1,330, according to an Apartment List report.

Rents nationally grew 1.7 percent during the same period, led by Phoenix (3.5 percent), Austin, Texas, (3.4 percent) and Charlotte, North Carolina (2.5), Apartment List reported.

Developers have reacted by diversifying their portfolios by product type and geography. Capstone is one developer that has looked to the suburbs, building a multifamily project in downtown Tigard.

Tigard and Beaverton have worked to attract developers including Capstone and Rembold Properties to bring urban-style projects to the suburbs.

“It’s been a strategic focus of those municipalities to activate their urban cores, and part of that is bringing households to the urban cores,” Nelson said.

Otherwise, Capstone has largely stepped back from multifamily development, instead building industrial facilities for Amazon and other users, and some office spaces.

Policymakers and developers are evaluating the city’s inclusionary housing policy. In the past three years, the city has permitted or is in process to permit at least 601 units from 91 projects. The City Council softened certain requirements, but developers have called for further changes.

Other regulations have added costs, developers said. A requirement for bird-safe window glazing in the Central City has dented project pro formas. For one Mill Creek project, the cost for the window package almost doubled, from $500,000 to $900,000, because of bird-safe glazing, Rodriguez said.

“Things like that are just making it more difficult,” he said.

Portland multifamily permits

Apartments/condominiums in projects with three or more units

2019: 4,634

2018: 4,887

2017: 5,993

2016: 4,149

2015: 4,582

2014: 4,344

2013: 2,763

2012: 1,835

2011: 900

2010: 638

Source: Bureau of Development Services

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Florida-based developer Mill Creek Residential Trust has kept busy in the Portland market in recent years with multifamily projects. Its latest proposal is for a 13-story building on a full block in Goose Hollow, bounded by Southwest Main and Madison streets and Southwest 19th and 20th avenues.

As submitted to the Portland Bureau of Development Services, the building would hold 330 apartments, and below-grade parking would accommodate up to 399 motor vehicles. Parking would be split between building residents and members of the nearby Multnomah Athletic Club.

A site plan submitted to BDS shows a U-shaped building with a central courtyard, which would open to Madison Street. Two rooftop amenity decks – one on the east wing and one on the west – would be included.

BDS staffers on Wednesday met with representatives of Ankrom Moisan Architects, the firm designing the project, during a pre-application conference. Mill Creek Residential Trust will serve as both developer and general contractor.

The project team now will seek Type III design review.

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