The Daily Journal of Commerce on Thursday evening saluted Top Projects award winners during its 25th annual event at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.

Approximately 400 people attended the celebration of the best construction projects in the Pacific Northwest. The 91��Ƶ recognized dozens of efforts that improved structures, changed skylines and overcame obstacles. Entrants were among the top projects in Oregon and Southwest Washington substantially completed by Dec. 31, 2025.

The top award, Project of the Year, was awarded to the team responsible for the Clackamas County Circuit Courthouse.

Also, the Subcontractor of the Year Award was given to Carpentry Plus. The company was nominated by three firms: Bremik Construction, Pence Contractors and Walsh Construction.

The People’s Choice Award, voted on by event attendees, went to the Oak Lodge Library & Concord Community Center Renovation.

Many firms and organizations sponsored Thursday’s event. They included: reception sponsor – RamJack West; first drink sponsor – Colas Construction; photo booth sponsor – AGC’s Oregon-Columbia chapter; nonprofit sponsors – Business Oregon, BOLI and Child Care for Construction; VIP sponsor – I&E Construction; celebration sponsors – Mortenson and Tapani Inc.; and table sponsors – Hamilton Construction, Hennebery Eddy Architects, Hoffman Construction, Howard S. Wright, Owen Gabbert LLC, P&C Construction, PCL Construction Services, Pence Contractors, R&H Construction, SAJ Architecture, Swinerton Builders, Turner Construction, and Walsh Construction.

To learn more about this year’s award recipients, please visit .

The 51 Top Projects honorees are:

• Albina One
• Altura
• Amity Orchards
• Astoria Public Library Renovation
• Benson Polytechnic High School
• Blue Lake Park Operations and Maintenance Facility
• Boardwalk Place Apartments
• Brooklyn Carreta
• Carson Commons
• Center for Addictions Triage and Treatment – Beaverton and Hillsboro Recovery Centers
• chaku kumtuks haws & chaku kumtuks illahee
• City of Bend Public Works Campus
• City of Phoenix Government & Public Safety Center
• Clackamas County Circuit Courthouse
• Combs Flat Road Extension Segment 1A and Ochoco Irrigation District (OID) Ironhorse Piping Project
• Dartmouth Crossing North
• Gates Residence
• Glisan Landing
• Gresham-Barlow Student Health Center
• Hillsboro Hops Ballpark
• Hoffman HQ
• Johnson Creek Confluence & Milwaukie Bay Habitat Enhancement
• Joice A. Taylor Apartments
• Julia West House
• Kafoury Court
• La Plaza Esperanza
• Lam Building G
• The Merchant Block / Inn at Dayton
• Milwaukie City Hall
• Mt. Scott Community Center Seismic Retrofit and Expansion Project
• Multnomah County Library – Albina
• Nehalem Bay Health Center and Pharmacy
• Oak Lodge Library & Concord Community Center Renovation
• One26 Vista
• Oregon Parks and Recreation Department – Fort Stevens Guardhouse Historic Rehabilitation
• Plambeck Gardens
• Portal at the River District
• Portland Art Museum
• Press Blocks
• Providence St. Vincent Emergency Department Expansion
• Redmond Public Safety Facility
• Shortstack Milwaukie
• Shortstack Mississippi
• South Hillsboro Fire and Rescue Station #9
• T. Joyce Phillips Apartments
• Tistilal Village Redevelopment
• Union Gospel Mission Women’s LifeChange Center – Angela’s House
• US 101, Jefferson & Clallam Counties – Remove Fish Barriers
• Veterans Memorial Coliseum Modernization
• Virginia Garcia Newberg Wellness Center
• York Terrace Apartments

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The team preparing to redevelop a vacant Northeast Portland building into a food hall, bar and event space is seeking a construction manager/general contractor for the project.

The Prosper Portland Board of Commissioners on Wednesday voted unanimously to exempt the 910 MLK Building food hall project from the usual low-bid selection process and instead seek a CM-GC. Prosper Portland will issue a competitive request for proposals early next month.

The property, owned by Prosper Portland, is at 910 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., near the northeast corner of the Oregon Convention Center.

In January, the board authorized the inclusion of the food hall in the Lloyd-Holladay Urban Renewal Plan and approved the revised plan for the property. Portland-based Parti Architecture LLC will submit to the city design plans for review next month.

The project scope will include a major renovation of the building’s west side; demolition of structural elements on the east side while retaining portions of the roof and structural framework; and construction of infrastructure to support food carts on the lot’s southeast side.

The CM/GC method allows for a contractor to join the process about halfway through the design phase, said Wendy Wilcox, construction and compliance manager for Prosper Portland.

“Through our work in the community, contractors have told us this is a preferred method as through the RFP, they feel they can be more fairly evaluated, the project pricing is more accurate and they have time to gather the best team by being involved from design,” she said.

The estimated total project cost is $7.5 million, including $6 million for construction. A CM/GC delivery method will likely result in cost savings over a low-bid one, according to a Prosper Portland staff report, because of time savings, value engineering, funding source security, and less risk of change orders. Use of the CM/GC method will increase confidence of the project’s partners that the work will be completed within the scheduled time frame and budget, Wilcox said.

Contractors’ proposals will be evaluated by a panel considering a set of best value criteria, Wilcox said. A CM/GC is expected to be part of the preconstruction contract in April or May, she said. The CM/GC contract is expected to be presented to the board for approval this summer.

Construction is scheduled to start in the fall and finish in summer 2027.

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A vacant building near the Oregon Convention Center will be renovated into a 14,000-square-foot food hall, bar and event space. Also, a patio on the site’s eastern end will be able to accommodate 10 food carts.

The property, owned by Prosper Portland, is located at 910 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., in the Lloyd-Holladay Tax Increment Finance District.

Prosper Portland’s Board of Commissioners on Wednesday passed three resolutions related to the project. These include a minor amendment to the Lloyd-Holladay Urban Renewal Plan to include the site as a priority project area, a revision to the property plan, and an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with Metro to seek a $3 million loan for the improvements.

Prosper Portland purchased the property in 2005 with plans to develop a hotel to serve the convention center. Metro later identified a different location for the hotel – the eventual Hyatt Regency at the Oregon Convention Center – which required a reexamination of opportunities for the property at 910 N.E. MLK Jr. Blvd., a Prosper Portland staff report states.

“We heard significant input and interest from the community about repositioning the asset, particularly as a potential to take advantage of the opportunity to bring more local food options into Lloyd,” said Amy Nagy, a Prosper Portland development manager.

The project concept calls for a highly visible, high-traffic food and drink venue that complements activities at the convention center. Design priorities include a four-season gathering space, a flexible and dynamic layout, and a safe and professional experience.

Portland-based Parti Architecture LLC has completed preliminary schematic designs for the project. The team plans to submit plans to the city for design review in March.

The business plan calls for work with a third-party operator. ChefStable, a consulting and management firm that partners with chefs to build and operate restaurants, was selected for this role and will be the master leaser of the property. Food cart owners will then lease their spaces.

The total estimated redevelopment cost is $7.5 million. Prosper Portland invested $4 million and ChefStable invested $500,000.

The $3 million loan is contingent on approval by the Metro Council, which is expected to consider the proposal in March. The IGA includes a 4 percent interest rate and a 10-year payback period. Agreement on those terms will require approval by both the Metro Council and the Prosper Portland Board of Commissioners.

The project will involve interior renovations, seismic improvements and electrical work as well as partial demolition and build-out of the patio for the food carts, said Will Thier, Prosper Portland’s real estate manager.

A request for proposals will be issued for a construction manager/general contractor in May or June, Prosper Portland spokesperson Shawn Uhlman stated in an email. Construction is scheduled to begin this fall and require nine to 10 months to complete. The estimated opening date is late summer 2027.

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For Colas Construction, landing the $32 million contract in 2017 to serve as construction manager-general contractor for interior renovations at the Oregon Convention Center was a landmark. At the time, it was the largest contract ever for Colas Construction, and the largest one ever to be awarded to a minority-owned firm in Oregon.

It didn’t take long for Colas Construction to top that. The Portland company has been selected as the construction manager-general contractor for an affordable housing project at 3000 S.E. Powell Blvd. for Home Forward and the Portland Housing Bureau that will exceed the value of the Oregon Convention Center project.

Colas Construction has elbowed its way into several large projects, often on behalf of government clients. In some cases, the family-owned firm has won the jobs over larger firms.

The company has striven to make a diverse workforce its calling card.

“While providing a quality product at a good value, we also are contributing to our community in a way that’s different from any of our other competitors, and that’s by being extremely inclusive and intentional about that at all levels of our business,” Colas Construction President Andrew Colas said. “Every level of management, every level of the trades, we want to make sure that our industry is more so reflective of our community.”

The company has grown rapidly since it was founded in 1997 by Hermann Colas Jr., who had emigrated from Haiti in 1969. The next generation now owns and operates the firm, with Hermann’s children Andrew Colas serving as president, Aneshka Colas-Dickson as vice president and chief financial officer, and Alex Colas as project manager.

Colas Construction has come to occupy a unique position in the Portland area as perhaps the largest minority-owned contractor. That makes the firm a natural fit for public agencies looking to fulfill diversity and inclusion goals, and demonstrate they’re making progress on including minority-owned firms in large construction projects. Colas Construction’s status as a contractor certified by the state Certification Office for Business Inclusion and Diversity (COBID) often is an edge in competitive bidding.

“Colas Construction being a COBID, minority-owned firm was definitely a factor” in it being awarded the Oregon Convention Center contract, said Brent Shelby, senior construction project manager for Metro. “We’re awfully proud of the fact that it was at the time of bid the largest award for a minority contract.”

Half of the Oregon Convention Center project funding, or about $16 million, went to disadvantaged, minority-owned or woman-owned businesses, Shelby said. Colas Construction delivered the project on time and on budget, he said.

The firm’s success in procuring public projects has led to private grumbling from some competitors. Yet the contracting policies appear to be working as designed, providing a leg up for a Haitian-American family firm.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think my father would have been able to found a construction company in the ’60s in Portland, Oregon,” Andrew Colas said. “That’s a sad reality and truth to this state and city.”

Colas said his company now competes against seasoned contractors that can lean on many decades of accumulated capital and business relationships.

“If you look at the majority of the businesses of color that are in the construction industry you won’t find many, if any, that are over 30 years in business,” he said. “So there is no advantage there. Most businesses, they’ve had the ability to have retained earnings for 50 years, and build up huge capital, and that’s a real thing in a very capital-intensive industry.”

Other contractors, including Andersen Construction and R&H Construction, have worked with Colas Construction in joint-venture partnerships. Those collaborations allowed a growing firm to gain experience on large projects.

“Our team enjoyed the opportunity to partner with Andrew Colas and the rest of the Colas family during the early years of their company’s growth as a commercial general contractor,” Norm Dowty, vice president of business development and marketing at R&H Construction, wrote in an email, in response to questions. “During that time, our teams collectively delivered several notable projects for nonprofit entities in the Portland metro area.”

Now, Colas Construction is increasingly getting sizable contracts on its own.

In September, Prosper Portland announced it had selected Colas Construction to build a five-to-seven-story building on a roughly quarter-block parcel at Northwest Fourth Avenue and Burnside Street. The two parties have entered into exclusive negotiations for the project, and Colas Construction is working with Resolve Architecture and SERA Architects on early designs. If the project moves forward, Colas plans to take a floor of the building for its own headquarters. The construction firm’s offices would move from the current location at Northwest Fifth Avenue and Couch Street.

Bow Leung Bing Kong Tong, a local Chinese cultural organization, is also involved in the project with an eye toward taking office space. The project would also include residential units and ground-floor retail space.

“If we were to move forward with this project … we’d want to make sure that it represented as best as possible some of the cultural heritage – Chinese culture, Japanese culture, even African-American culture – within this neighborhood,” Colas said.

Colas Development Group LLC, a new entity formed in June, would serve as the project’s developer.

“We’re not looking into development,” Andrew Colas said. “This is more of an opportunity to put our construction company’s headquarters in what I think is a very unique neighborhood, and we want to add to the fiber and fabric of this neighborhood.”

Another upcoming project would bring a sizable affordable housing development to 3000 S.E. Powell Blvd. The city purchased the former Safari Club parcel near Cleveland High School for $3.72 million in 2017. The Housing Bureau later announced it would use affordable housing bonds to develop the site.

Colas Construction has been tapped to build the project, which will have approximately 175 apartments on four stories over one story of retail space.

Colas Construction is also working with Beam Development to build the ODOT Blocks project in the Central Eastside Industrial District.

Colas Construction executives are well-connected with public agencies. Aneshka Colas-Dickson served a term on Prosper Portland’s board. Andrew Colas currently serves on the Board of Trustees at the University Oregon, his alma mater. Colas said the firm has avoided projects in Eugene during his time on the board to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest. Colas Construction worked on projects in Eugene prior to Andrew Colas’ time on the board.

“We’re a business that stands out and is looked at, so I would never want to do anything that would create that perception,” Colas said. “Long-term-wise, we’ll look to move into other markets. But for now we’re just focused on being really, really good at what we do on our home turf.”

Civil court records show no major cases involving Colas Construction, but only a lien with a developer that was moved to arbitration and a pair of personal injury matters related to vehicle collisions – not uncommon for a construction company. The developer did not respond to a request for comment.

Hermann Colas Jr. came from a family that owned the second-largest rum distillery in Haiti. He started Colas Construction after becoming frustrated with an incompetent contractor who was building his house.

Hermann still comes into the office regularly, even though he sold the business to the second generation years ago. He said he was not surprised Colas Construction has grown large enough to tackle major projects on its own.

“There was never a thought to do something small,” he said.

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An effort to align government policy on construction sites is gaining steam, with Prosper Portland‘s board voting last week to endorse a framework plan for the Construction Career Pathways Project.

The project, spearheaded by Metro, is an effort to increase participation in the construction industry by women and people of color.

Metro is developing what it calls a “tool kit,” including template language for diversity goals.

William Myers, a Prosper Portland board member, said the Hyatt Regency Portland at the Oregon Convention Center project showed the need for better coordination. That project involves Metro, Prosper Portland, TriMet and various city bureaus.

“We had conflicting policies that needed alignment,” he said at the Oct. 9 board meeting.

Myers noted the Construction Careers Pathway Project comes alongside other efforts to diversify the workforce.

“We’re starting to see the industry take over and course-correct a lot of these things,” he said.

Myers pointed to the positive jobsite culture training being conducted by the Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute, as well as an effort being discussed that would provide child care to workers.

Raahi Reddy, Metro’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion, said the project is meant to provide a flexible framework.

“That’s up to each agency what the workforce agreement looks like,” she said.

Contractors will benefit from standardized language on workforce goals, said John Cárdenas, Prosper Portland’s construction, business and workforce equity project manager.

“The best reaction I can ever hear from a contractor or subcontractor is, ‘Oh, I’ve seen that before,’” Cárdenas said. “That familiarity breeds comfort, and that comfort gets us closer to achieving our goals.”

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It’s indisputable that women and people of color are underrepresented in the architecture, construction and engineering industries. However, regional government agency Metro is engaged in efforts to help change that by bringing on a number of minority-owned firms in important projects.

One notable example is the current to modernize the 30-year-old building’s public areas and establish a better visitor experience. A in 2017 to Colas Construction to serve as construction manager-general contractor; it was the largest public contract in Oregon ever earned by a minority-owned firm.

“We competed against some of the biggest teams in town,” Colas Construction CEO and President Andrew Colas said in reference to Hoffman Construction and Walsh Construction. “That in itself was an exciting win.”

Colas Construction is a family affair. The firm was founded in 1997 by Andrew’s father, Hermann Colas Jr., who moved to the United States from Haiti in 1969. Andrew’s sister Aneshka Colas-Dickson serves as vice president and chief financial officer, and their brother Alex Colas is a project manager.

Another minority-owned firm, Raimore Construction, is also involved in the Oregon Convention Center project. It’s primarily working on the exterior.

“We’ve been able to start breaking that glass ceiling,” Andrew Colas said. “There’s no reason there can’t be 100, 200 other firms like us.”

Two others are serving Metro. When Portland’5 Centers for the Arts sought a roof replacement for Hatfield Hall, a building that contains several theatre venues, general contractor Pacificmark Construction and roofing/waterproofing company Sterling-Pacific, both minority-owned businesses, earned the contracts.

Nancy Strening, a Portland’5 project manager, said the organization has been trying to find ways to get more minority-owned firms involved in its projects, and has recently been working with the National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC) in this regard. Historically, one of the hiring challenges, she said, has been that Portland’5 has had to abide by government regulations to accept the lowest bidder.

Strening said there was an argument to be made that using minority-owned firms is still in the public interest, because having diverse perspectives on a project is always beneficial. The hiring process was very competitive, and the two firms that earned the contracts were the best choice, she said.

“Price and value aren’t always the same thing,” she said. “I think we are getting better results; I don’t think we are sacrificing anything.”

One of the main barriers to entry for minority-owned contractors, Strening said, is that many of the older, larger and more established firms (mostly white-owned), have entire teams of administrators able to secure subcontractors and bid on many projects. Nascent minority-owned firms might not have staff dedicated to outreach, and might not even know about some of the projects available.

Nevertheless, Metro’s efforts have been noticed by at least some members of Portland’s building industries.

“I would put them kind of at the top,” Andrew Colas said. “It’s been really important for us to have a strong partnership.”

Ray Leary, commissioner of the Metropolitan Exposition Recreation Commission (MERC), a division of Metro, said the agency does perhaps more than any other government entity in Oregon to increase opportunities. MERC’s job is to protect investment in the Expo Center, the Oregon Convention Center, and Portland’5, which he said is especially important right now.

With more conventions scheduled than ever before, Metro’s venues are a welcome mat to the rest of the world, Leary said, and there is a responsibility to utilize Portland’s diverse workforce when improving these spaces.

“Historically, the city of Portland does not have an enviable record in terms of opportunities,” he said. “I believe (Metro) will ultimately be the leadership in integrating people of color into the economic opportunities that our government manages and facilitates.”

Nate McCoy, executive director of NAMC-Oregon, said Metro has been making huge strides in the past few years. While he would like to see greater diversity in the agency’s leadership, he said the kind of projects they’ve been contracting for are what take minority-owned firms to the next level in terms of business and size.

NAMC-Oregon has partnered with Metro on many of its biggest contracts, and McCoy echoed Strening when commenting on the difficulty smaller firms have in marketing themselves to subcontractors. NAMC’s partnership with Metro has alleviated some of that, because NAMC-Oregon can brings its members directly into contact with the agency.

McCoy said the partnership with Metro has been strong, and the fruits of their labor have already begun to show.

“They’re willing to take risks and be bold about these concerns,” he said. “They’ve taken those steps to show that they’re listening and responding.”

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As crews approach the finish of the Hyatt Regency at the Oregon Convention Center hotel project, others at the adjacent parking garage are also looking to wrap up work.

General contractor Mortenson Construction is building both projects for Metro. Currently, workers at the six-story, 442-space parking garage project are completing storefront elements and mechanical systems, as well as new sidewalks, stairways and other hardscape. The structure itself is six decks of post-tensioned concrete.

“The garage and hotel both are scheduled to be in sync with each other,” said Dan Mehls, vice president of Mortenson Construction‘s Portland office. “They need to open at the same time, but we’re at a point where the parking garage will be ready before the hotel; we wanted to be comfortable that the garage would be ready.”

Upon completion, the garage will gain a nine-story addition. ZGF Architects‘ design for developer Prosper Portland received approval from the Portland Design Commission earlier this month. The 100 NE Multnomah Office Building will also be constructed by Mortenson.

“We’ve been working with Prosper Portland through the different stages of design,” Mehls said. “Work wouldn’t start until after the tenants have been identified, and that could be anytime in 2020.”

The mechanical systems built into the garage are robust and intended for commercial use beyond vehicle parking. Concrete columns, meanwhile, extend upward from the roof of the structure so additional post-tensioned decks can easily be stacked on top of the garage.

“Part of the expansion goes alongside the existing garage and most of it is up on top,” Mehls said. “It’s a unique way to add to the building.”

Mehls added that it would be a “misnomer” to call the project a parking garage in the first place.

“It’s really the first phase of a mixed-use development,” he said. “It’s got retail on the first floor and it’s built to receive a tower on top and it’s designed to accompany the hotel.”

Both the parking garage and the hotel are on schedule to be completed this fall, Mehls said.

Minneapolis-based Mortenson has maintained a presence in the Pacific Northwest for more than 30 years, but the two projects have helped cement the firm’s presence in Portland, Mehls said.

“This project kind of helped put us on the map, visibility-wise,” he said. “We’ve been always kind of an under-the-radar developer and builder, and it’s helped us grow our business here.”

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After two and a half years of work, Mortenson Construction is exactly where it wants to be with one of the most prominent projects under way in Portland.

Crews broke ground on the Hyatt Regency at the Oregon Convention Center hotel in early 2017. Now, as the team prepares to deliver the building this fall, executives with Mortenson, the project’s developer and design-builder, are starting to relax a bit.

“Honestly the project is going really well, and we are about four hours ahead of schedule,” Dan Mehls, general manager of Mortenson’s Portland office, said recently. “It was a tough schedule, a challenging project and a challenging site in a very busy construction market, but we were lucky to have some of the best trade partners in the community contributing to the project.”

The hotel sits along MAX light-rail tracks, across Northeast Holladay Street from the northern end of the convention center. The project team is on track to hit remaining milestones on schedule, Mehls said.

“The project is on track for getting the building to the point this fall where the Hyatt folks can start their training process and get acclimated to the building,” he said. “There are multiple steps in the late summer, early fall this year, and all of that is on track.”

The hotel will hold 600 guest rooms as well as large meeting, food service and retail spaces. It will be owned and operated by Hyatt Hotels. Metro, the owner and operator of the Oregon Convention Center, has long sought a hospitality partner of this sort since the venue opened in 1990. The Hyatt Regency is tentatively scheduled to open in February 2020.

Currently, numerous finishing trades are on the site. Subcontractors include Delta AV, which is installing sound and video equipment; Otis Elevator, which is installing elevators; Oregon Electric Group, which is wrapping up electrical work; ISEC Inc., which is performing finish carpentry, and others. Elements remaining to be added include furniture, fixtures and equipment as well as carpeting, painting, landscaping, and more.

“It’s not super exciting to say the good news; it makes for an easy story,” Mehls said. “For us and the construction business, when so many projects have their challenges due to shortages in the marketplace right now, to say we’re right on schedule as planned two and a half years ago, we’re proud of that.”

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A major project to upgrade the Oregon Convention Center is under way and on pace for completion at the end of this year to coincide with the opening of the 600-room Hyatt Regency hotel one block to the north.

The $39 million renovation will modernize public areas of the 30-year-old structure, providing an enhanced guest experience while establishing better connections to entries and improving wayfinding for hotel guests and transit users disembarking from the adjacent MAX platform.

The $27 million contract awarded by Metro to Colas Construction to serve as construction manager-general contractor is the largest public contract in Oregon history to go to a minority-owned business. Raimore Construction, also a minority-owned firm, is heavily involved in the project, and handling most of the exterior work.

Work on the three-phase project began last fall with renovations of a lobby, pre-function areas, exhibit halls and meeting rooms at the building’s northern end. The southern end was re-carpeted, while demolition work was conducted on the exterior plaza at the property’s northeastern end.

A second phase that began earlier this month includes demolition of structural canopy and erection of new cantilevered canopy at the main entrance along Northeast Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. The MLK lobby, a pre-function hall and concourse are all being renovated as workers continue to update the northeast plaza and improve pedestrian connections and wayfinding.

Work will commence this spring on the project’s third phase, which will include the renovation of the main ballroom and a pre-function area serving the space. A structural upgrade to the ballroom will include new steel beams with pick points that will expand the capacity for rigging.

According to Alex Colas, project manager with Colas Construction, the biggest challenge of the project has been working around the venue’s busy programming schedule. The contractor has created a sound calendar to identify days when noise must be limited, and has worked to get buy-in from subcontractors while holding weekly meetings with the center’s events staff to coordinate schedules.

The landmark contract is a chance to prove what is possible to young minorities coming up in the trades, Colas said. The firm has utilized upwards of 50 percent minority subcontractors on the project to date.

“Our focus is to bring people together and build a pipeline and a future so that other minority contractors can have these kind of opportunities, and not get looked at with a stigma that in the past you’ve generally seen,” he said.

The renovations were designed by Seattle-based LMN Architects. Merryman Barnes Architects is the associate architect, and Mayer/Reed is the landscape architect and environmental graphics designer. Glumac is the MEP engineer, Seattle-based Magnusson Klemencic Associates is the structural engineer, and KPFF is the civil engineer.

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Prosper Portland‘s board has approved a $1.1 million predevelopment contract with Mortenson to move forward on a 10-story office building atop a parking garage near the Oregon Convention Center, despite some misgivings.

The funding will advance design of the 140,000-square-foot building at Block 49 in the Lloyd area. ZGF Architects is designing the project.

“We realized that just building a stand-alone parking structure wouldn’t fully realize the opportunities available at this site,” Eric Jacobson, a Prosper Portland project manager, said during a Board of Commissioners meeting on Jan. 16. “That’s when we began planning for an office tower atop the building.”

Commissioners allowed the design process to go forward, but some said they had unanswered questions regarding the strategy behind the project and its commercial viability.

“It’s a massive investment,” Commissioner Peter Platt said, adding that he wants more information about the project’s future financial performance and public benefits.

The building should be at least 50 percent preleased before construction moves forward, Commissioner Francesca Gambetti said.

“The risks are very real and significant,” she said.

The 442-space garage, now under construction, is expected to be completed in June, Jacobson said.

Designs for the building project could change during the city’s design review process. The predevelopment contract will enable the project to gain design approval, Jacobson said.

At the board meeting, Jacobson estimated hard costs for the project at nearly $57 million, with financing and other costs bringing the total to approximately $77 million. The agency has since dropped plans for an additional 100 parking spaces on one-plus decks, reducing expected costs to around $72 million, he said.

Parking was eliminated after a feasibility study pointed out that office and hotel parking peak at different times, he said.

Demand for office space should be robust in the Lloyd area, Jacobson said. The office vacancy rate in Lloyd was 2.2 percent, compared to 11.6 percent in the Central City overall.

“This is really a great piece of real estate,” Jacobson said. “It has tremendous access within the Central City. It has tremendous access to transit service. It has great visibility, and it has tremendous access to (Interstate 5).”

Prosper Portland would own the office space. The agency does not plan to move its own offices there, spokesman Shawn Uhlman said.

Prosper Portland has contracted with Jeff Falconer of Capacity Commercial to pursue potential tenants.

“The Eastside is a cool place to be,” Falconer told the board. “People live here, work here and it is really becoming a desirous location for all of these tenants. Who thought Autodesk would come in and take the entire Towne Storage building? I don’t think anybody thought that.”

Jacobson said he hopes to receive the Design Commission‘s approval for the project by May. The Prosper Portland board will be able to weigh in on future design work, leases, financing commitments and a construction contract.

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