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.

The post A three-bedroom unit fit for a family? appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The first piece of Downtown Development Group‘s Ankeny Blocks plan is quickly coming together in Portland’s Skidmore/Old Town Historic District.

230 Ash, rising on a half-block parcel along Southwest Ash Street, between Second and Third avenues, will offer five stories of apartments above ground-floor retail space. The former surface parking lot’s transformation is providing something rarely seen in the immediate area: new residential units.

General contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis is building 230 Ash, which was designed by GBD Architects.

“It’s a nice, exciting time for the project,” Cesar Aviles, project manager for Lease Crutcher Lewis, said last week. “Currently we’re working on our wood framing, where we’re up to level four, starting level five. We did all the concrete, and we’re starting on our exterior mock-up … we should get steel started in late February for the curtain walls that support the brick, and we’re shooting to have our roofing around March.”

Then crews will start drying in and performing interior work, Aviles said.

“We’re working on metal framing down on the ground floor, and then a lot of MEP rough-in throughout the building,” he said. “Where people can find space, they’re getting stuff done.”

Design requirements were stricter for 230 Ash than for typical projects because the property is within a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Nevertheless, the team plans to pursue a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum rating for the project.

The 133 apartments on floors two through six will be either studios or one-bedroom units. Developers took advantage of Multnomah County’s Multiple-Unit Limited Tax Exemption (MULTE) program to gain a 10-year property tax abatement by offering 20 percent of the apartments below market rate to people making 80 percent of the median family income or less.

At the ground level, 7,955 square feet of retail space will be available for multiple tenants – likely at least one restaurant. 230 Ash also will provide 58 motor vehicle parking spaces underground as well as 201 long-term bicycle parking spaces. A rooftop space will provide additional tenant amenities.

Exterior work is expected to continue through the end of July, while interior work will proceed through at least September. A certificate of occupancy is expected to follow, likely in October if current schedules hold steady.

Downtown Development Group will retain ownership of 230 Ash once it’s finished. HSM Pacific Realty is handling leasing of those spaces.

“It’s an interesting location,” Aviles said. “Voodoo Doughnuts is just up the street and you get a bunch of tourists. And yesterday, actually, the restaurant Mother’s (Bistro & Bar) was doing their grand opening, so they had probably a 300-person parade with a band and stilt walkers that was going on while Northwest Natural was doing their gas tie-in … there was a lot going on, a lot of fun stuff.”

The post ‘Exciting time’ for Ankeny Blocks project appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A new mixed-use building on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard marks the first mid-rise infill venture for TMT Development – a firm most known for building downtown towers including Park Avenue West, Fox Tower and 1000 Broadway.

The Marilyn is a four-story building with nearly 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 59 apartments, 12 of which are affordable to households earning 60 percent or less of the area median family income due to the developer utilizing Portland’s Multiple-Unit Limited Tax Exemption (MULTE) program. Residential amenities include a top-floor community room and outdoor patio, bike storage, a pet area, and an at-grade parking garage with 22 spaces.

The building is named after the late Marilyn Moyer; she was the wife of TMT Development founder Tom Moyer and grandmother of current President Vanessa Sturgeon. TMT has owned the property since the gasoline shortage of the 1970s, when Tom Moyer purchased what was then a filling station to ensure that supplies could reach his chain of movie theaters throughout the western United States. Most recently, the site was used by Kruger’s Farm as an open-air market and produce distribution point.

LRS Architects designed the building, which includes lower, set-back corners in order to fit with the scale of the neighborhood. The project team spent a lot of time with neighbors discussing the design, and Sturgeon says there’s potential for TMT to tackle more developments like this one.

“This project has gone much better than we would have expected,” she said. “You have to be very careful in a residential neighborhood like this, and we don’t want to disrupt people’s lives. But this project has gone very well in that way, so I think we might be ready to try it again.”

Bremik Construction served as general contractor for the project, which has a slab-on-grade foundation, second-floor post-tensioned concrete deck, and wood framing on the upper floors. AAI Engineering was the structural engineer, Humber Design Group was the civil engineer, and Shapiro Didway served as the landscape architect. Commercial Realty Advisors NW is representing the commercial space, and Guardian Real Estate Services is managing the residential portion.

The post Tower developer scales down on Hawthorne appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Marathon Acquisition and Development, a Wilsonville developer responsible for building hundreds of apartment units in the Portland-metro area in recent years, is quickly moving forward with its latest project.

The firm’s construction arm, Marathon Construction Services, is piecing together the two-building mixed-use project in North Portland, at North Vancouver Avenue and Shaver Street. The complex will have a total of 133 apartment units, more than 5,600 square feet of retail space and 3,500 square feet of office space. Also, a restaurant will have private elevator access to a second-floor rooftop terrace overlooking Vancouver Avenue.

Because the project is receiving financial assistance through the Portland Multiple-Unit Limited Tax Exemption program, at least 20 percent of the residential units will be reserved for tenants earning less than 80 percent of the median family income for the metro area.

The project is being built in two concurrent phases, with the north building approximately 70 percent finished and the larger south building close to 50 percent complete. Crews working on the south building are now completing wooden framing on the top floors, while those working on the north building are installing drywall, plumbing, HVAC and glazing.

The project is expected to be substantially complete sometime in early 2019.

“There’s roughly $40 million worth of work here,” Marathon Construction site superintendent Jay Coalman said. “We started dirt on this one (north building, phase two) ahead of that one (south building, phase one). What happened was there was some kind of permit deal with the city where it couldn’t get through as quickly as this one, so we went ahead and started this one. It’s kind of backwards because we’re 70 percent done on phase two and we’re 50 percent done on phase one.”

Both buildings feature four stories of wood-framed construction above post-tensioned concrete on the ground floor. What’s unique about this project compared to similar ones are the second-floor outdoor terraces. They will be atop the primary commercial spaces in each building.

In addition, the north building will have a pair of ground-floor residential suites that will feature 12-foot ceilings and other features not normally found in apartment buildings of this type, Coleman said.

“They’re really nice on the ground level,” he said.

Covered parking will be provided at the rear of each building, while a sizable fitness center, indoor bicycle storage and bicycle repair facilities also will be open to tenants.

The Vancouver Avenue Apartments is just one project of many Marathon has tackled in North Portland in recent years. Arris, a two-building mixed-use development with 152 apartments, is being constructed at the junction of North Mississippi Avenue and Fremont Street. Previously, in 2016, the firm constructed the Wilmore, a mixed-use development with 75 units, at 4357 N. Williams Ave., as well as the Glendoveer Woods Apartments, a building with 112 units, at 333 N.E. 146th Ave.

Farther north, Marathon also in 2016 finished the Bridgeton Apartments at 10445 N.E. Sixth Drive, near Marine Drive.

The post North Portland multifamily project proceeding appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Wilmore, a five-story apartment building in Portland’s Humboldt neighborhood, has sold to an investor for $28 million two years after the project’s completion.

The 75-unit building at 4357 N. Williams Ave. sold to a limited liability company, MSL Vancouver Oregon Investments, which lists a principal place of business in Mountain View, California.

The seller was N Williams Avenue Apartments, another limited liability company connected to the original developer, Marathon Acquisition and Development of Wilsonville.

The building includes 50,720 square feet of residential space and 5,760 square feet of retail space. It was designed by Studio 3 Architecture.

Phil Oester, Joe Nydahl and Josh McDonald of CBRE‘s Portland office represented the seller.

“The Wilmore is a generational asset in Portland’s burgeoning North Williams neighborhood,” Oester, CBRE senior vice president, stated in a news release. “The community’s contemporary features, amenities and finishes are complemented by its incredible location and popular ground-floor retail.”

The retail tenants are Rovente Pizzeria, Open Tandoor and Coco Donuts.

The Wilmore – a combination of Williams and Skidmore – was built with the help of Portland’s Multiple-Unit Limited Tax Exemption (MULTE) program, providing 20 percent affordable units at 60 percent of area median income in exchange for a 10-year property tax exemption.

The post North Portland mixed-use building fetches $28M appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A proposal to transform an existing Southeast Portland building into a small apartment complex is the latest multifamily project to qualify for the city’s tax exemption program.

The City Council voted 4-0 on Wednesday to approve the application for the 52nd Avenue Apartments to participate in the . MULTE is one option developers can pursue to satisfy inclusionary housing rules.

The project at 6615 S.E. 52nd Ave. involves the conversion of an existing office building into 32 apartments.

A commercial building permit is under review for the project. Occupancy is changing from “B” to “R-2.” Associated site work includes a seismic upgrade, a new driveway and curb cut and restriping the parking lot.

Of the 32 units, five will be affordable – indexed at 80 percent of the Portland area’s median family income. In exchange for the affordable units, the property will receive a 10-year property-tax exemption on those units. The building was completed in 1981, according to information from the Multnomah County assessor’s office.

The true owner of the property is not clear from public records. The property is owned by 52nd Avenue Apartments LLC. That manager of that entity is listed as a Delaware limited liability company that identifies Jonathan Graves of Fairview as the registered agent.

Mayor Ted Wheeler said there are 34 private-sector projects in the Bureau of Development Services‘ pipeline that would provide a minimum of 225 affordable units.

“It seems to me that we’re starting to see an uptick there,” he said.

Commissioner Amanda Fritz, in casting her vote in support, said: “It may just be a few units, but every bit helps.”

The City Council declared a housing emergency in October 2015 amid rampant rent increases and evictions, and has extended it since. In recent months, surveys have indicated that average rents in the Portland area have seen modest declines.

The post Portland project getting boost from MULTE program appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Portland City Council on Wednesday voted to make property-tax breaks available in exchange for affordable housing units from developers who beat the 2017 inclusionary housing deadline.

At Mayor Ted Wheeler’s urging, commissioners voted 4-0 to make the Multiple-Unit Limited Tax Exemption (MULTE) program available to development projects that vested before the Feb. 1, 2017 – the effective date of inclusionary housing requirements.

An enormous wave of applications beat the deadline, meaning those projects are not required to provide affordable housing. Without extending the MULTE program, up to 19,000 market-rate housing units could be built as developments with no affordable units included, Wheeler said.

“MULTE is a proven tool that we can use to get affordable units in the pipeline in the near term,” Wheeler said. “We’re in a housing crisis – as you’re all aware – and the need is immediate.”

Commissioner Amanda Fritz expressed serious reservations about extending the MULTE program after hearing testimony from Housing Bureau officials that the subsidy amounts to about $900 per unit per month.

“I am concerned about a $900-a-unit subsidy for new construction,” she said. “When I was a low-wage earner, I didn’t expect to be able to live in new construction.”

Fritz declined to vote on the matter, stepping out of council chambers to allow the rest of the council to approve the ordinance in her absence. As an emergency ordinance, the MULTE extension required unanimous support for passage. After the four remaining commissioners approved the measure, Fritz returned to her seat.

Commissioner Nick Fish said offering the MULTE program to developers is better than doing nothing.

“The mayor has proposed a tool, and it’s an imperfect tool and it’s not even my favorite tool, but it does offer the promise of getting some affordable units, and I think in a crisis we should be opportunistic,” Fish said. “I’ve heard some criticism around the margins, but I haven’t heard something that convinces me that we shouldn’t try. I’m persuaded that this is worth trying.”

The ordinance takes immediate effect. It allows developers to opt in to the MULTE program, providing a 10-year property-tax exemption to the residential portion of a development. In exchange, the developer must provide 20 percent of bedrooms in a given project at rates affordable to renters at 80 percent of the Portland area’s median family income or less.

Only developments with 20 or more housing units are eligible. The program has a $3 million cap on a rolling five-year basis due to an agreement with Multnomah County that limits how much tax revenue the city of Portland can forgo.

The program can support only about 300 affordable units in any five-year period, interim Housing Bureau Director Shannon Callahan said.

Brad Malsin, whose firm Beam Development has played a major role in redeveloping the Central Eastside, said he supported extending the MULTE program as a way to buttress the housing market. A downturn is coming, he warned.

“The development cycle takes three to four years between concept and delivering to market,” he said. “So we’re reaching that point where things will change. We’ll hit a cliff, and I believe residential development will fall significantly unless we take some action.”

Applications for the program will be accepted through June 30, 2020.

The post Portland extends MULTE eligibility to woo developers appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Portland’s City Council on Wednesday approved a property-tax exemption for a multifamily development in Northeast Portland that will include 18 affordable units.

The exemption is part of the city’s Multiple Unit Limited Tax Exemption, or MULTE, program, which provides a 10-year property tax exemption in exchange for providing rent-restricted apartments for 10 years.

The project at 2821 N.E. Everett St. comes from Urban Development Group. Of the building’s 119 units, 18 apartments, or 15 percent, will be affordable at the level of 80 percent of area median family income.

The building will have 33 studio apartments (including five affordable units) and 86 one-bedroom apartments (including 13 affordable).

The city and Multnomah County will forego an estimated $210,000 of property tax revenue.

“Developers, who are taking full stock of their options, are choosing to opt in to these offsets,” Housing Director Kurt Creager told commissioners. “We think this is the beginning of a trend, and we’re very closely interested in all of their success.”

Portland has sought to persuade developers to include affordable units in projects that vested before the city’s inclusionary housing rules took effect on Feb. 1. Creager, pointing to Portland’s years-long pipeline of housing projects, said the Housing Bureau is open to any developer who wishes to opt in to MULTE.

“We remain open for business and will work with any developer with a project in the pipeline,” Creager said.

Separately, the City Council also set a formal goal to create 2,000 additional supportive housing units by 2028 as part of the Joint Office of Homeless Services. Supportive housing pairs housing units with intensive services to enable residents to stay in their homes.

Portland officials said supportive housing is the best way to get homeless people off of the streets for good.

“We can show other communities up and down the West Coast how to actually make progress on this seemingly intractable issue,” Mayor Ted Wheeler said.

Commissioner Chloe Eudaly said supportive housing could be expanded. “This is only a next step, and not a solution, to the need for supportive housing,” she said.

Multnomah County, which also contributes to the Joint Office of Homeless Services, was expected to approve a similar resolution at Thursday’s Board of County Commissioner’s meeting.

The post City approves tax exemption on Northeast Portland apartments appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

As many developers have held off building apartments in the face of new city regulations and rising costs, Koz Development has plunged in with a series of high-density, low-priced housing projects.

The Snohomish, Washington-based developer has six separate projects either under construction or in development in Portland; they total approximately 533 multifamily units.

In the process, Koz is providing affordable housing through Portland’s inclusionary housing rules and an older program that inclusionary housing replaced. Koz is developing approximately 80 affordable units while many other developers are building projects with none.

Koz’s projects are unusual. They include only micro-units, some smaller than 500 square feet. Many of the developments have no parking for residents, while others include a modest number of parking spaces.

Koz performs in-house architecture, seeking to replicate its model as cheaply as possible. The developer has stuck with one general contractor for its Portland projects, Seabold Construction. For some projects, Koz doesn’t even use a general contractor.

Koz – the name is short for “cozy” – has targeted Portland for its fast-growing population and employment base. The developer locates projects in Portland’s urban core, typically in dense areas close to public transit.

Of the six projects, two were conceived under Portland’s now-defunct MULTE program, which was replaced by inclusionary housing. Two newer apartment projects are in development according to the city’s inclusionary housing guidelines. The other two planned projects are condos, and therefore don’t include affordable rental units.

As the developments have proceeded, Koz has had to adjust to the city’s shifting rules for providing affordable housing. MULTE was a better fit, because the 10-year affordability period matched a 10-year property tax exemption, Koz CEO Cathy Reines said.

“From a financial perspective, (MULTE) is a program that is easier to justify,” she said. “The inclusionary housing program obviously is a little tougher. That reduction in rent goes out well beyond any kind of tax benefit you might get on the project itself.”

The inclusionary housing program’s fee-in-lieu option, which gives developers the ability to pay their way out of building affordable housing, isn’t feasible, Reines said.

“For our projects, paying the fee is not an option,” she said. “It’s cost-prohibitive.”

Koz’s business model is likely to appeal to 20-somethings in search of cheaper rents. As a business proposition, Koz makes less rent on each unit than more spacious apartments, but makes up for it with a higher price per square foot.

“Chunk rent is much lower than standard units,” said Brian Wilson, development partner at multifamily developer Mainland Northwest. “In terms of dollars per square foot on the property, and getting it financed and leveraged, it’s really good.”

Some neighborhood groups have raised objections to Koz’s projects on the grounds that their tenants are likely to use scarce street parking. Koz executives say many of their tenants are interested in urban living and don’t have cars.

Removing parking from the equation helps developers keep costs down, Wilson said.

“It’s one of the most expensive parts of the project, and you don’t get much return on it,” he said.

Koz is also considering building in downtown Salem, which has recently seen an uptick in development.

“It’s a great market,” said Joshua Scott, co-owner of Koz and leader of its design and construction teams. “We’re just looking for the right opportunity.”

Here’s a look at Koz’s projects in Portland:

• The furthest along is at 2165 S.W. Yamhill St., just west of Providence Park and south of Burnside Street. The project is relatively small at 30 units; six will be rented at 60 percent of the area median income. The building is currently being framed. Reines said the building should earn its certificate of occupancy in early 2018.

The units average about 290 square feet each, with 215 square feet on the ground floor and an additional 75-square-foot bedroom loft accessed by a staircase.

• Koz broke ground in early October at 1075 N.W. 16th Ave. in the emerging Slabtown neighborhood. The project will have 128 apartments in studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom configurations.

Twenty percent of the units will be affordable, pegged to 60 percent of area median income. The project is immediately west of the Interstate 405 overpass.

• Koz plans its first Portland condominium project at 1111 N.W. 16th St. The building will have 65 condominiums – all studios. The units will be partially furnished with built-in Murphy beds. The condos will average 425 square feet, with “higher-end finishes” and air conditioning. The project is “truly intended to be an affordable, upscale condominium project there in the Northwest District.”

The condominium project will have some parking at grade level, but the number of spaces is to be determined, Reines said.

• Koz plans to break ground by the end of October at Southeast 13th Avenue and Ankeny Street, in the Buckman neighborhood. The project will be Koz’s first that falls under inclusionary zoning rules. Approximately 15 percent of the 87 units will be offered at rates affordable to 80 percent of the area median income. The project will have a mix of studio and one-bedroom units.
• A 108-unit apartment project is awaiting permits so that construction can begin at Southwest Fourth Avenue and Grant Street, near Portland State University. Twenty percent of the units will be affordable, pegged to 60 percent of area median income. Koz hopes to break ground in mid-November.
• Koz plans a condominium project at 4708 N.E. Sandy Blvd. The mixed-use building will have 114 residential units over ground-floor commercial space. The project replaces an Umpqua Bank branch.

The post Developer banking on micro-apartment projects appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Work is under way to erect a mixed-use high-rise that will be one of the tallest buildings in the Pearl District. Holland Partner Group earlier this month held a ceremonial ground-breaking event at the construction site at Northwest 14th Avenue and Glisan Street. Currently, crews are excavating to create space for a three-story underground parking garage with space for 206 motor vehicles.

“We are kind of lucky with weather,” said Doug Burges, development manager for Holland Partner Group. “It’s kind of perfect. We will be in concrete right before the rainy season. (Rain) could cause all kinds of issues.”

The development team is still trying to come up with a name for the building. What is certain is that it will include ground-floor retail space, residential units and a roof-top community room and terrace.

Holland Partner Group will take advantage of Portland’s Multiple-Unit Limited Tax Exemption (MULTE) program. It provides developers a 10-year property tax exemption for projects’ housing units that are affordable for people at 80 percent of median family income.

“We are excited to deliver these units to the Pearl,” Burges said.

According to project plans, 46 of the building’s 244 residential units will qualify for participation in the MULTE program. The tower will provide some of the few affordable units in one of Portland’s trendiest and most expensive areas.

“We wanted to try to do our part (to address the affordable housing issue in Portland),” Burges said. “We talked to our investors and wanted to do it if it made sense.”

The project has changed significantly during navigation of Portland’s permitting and design processes.

Originally, developers had hoped to retain a food cart pod near the site; however, the plan was scrapped in favor of a small park. That elicited concern from design commissioners, including Julie Livingston; she said the park could become “a great place to sleep, camp and shoot up,” the 91��Ƶ reported in August 2016.

Planners took steps to attenuate sound emanating from the park. The green space won’t be a problem for the neighborhood, Burges said.

“It’s more of like a pocket park,” he said. “There will be more plantings and benches. It will be a nice amenity.”

Another change was the elimination of a bike share station that had been considered. The Portland Bureau of Transportation “didn’t want to do the bike share there,” Burges said.

So far, the project is on schedule. The development team expects to open the $80 million building in the first quarter of 2019, after 21 months of construction.

“So far, we haven’t run into any surprises,” Burges said. “With our timing, it’s kind of perfect.”

The post Affordable housing being built in Pearl District appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.