The PacWest Center in downtown Portland has sold to an Alaska buyer at a steep discount, according to a report.

Willamette Week late Wednesday that the property sold for $55.7 million, or $101.64 per square foot. The price is less than half its most recent pre-pandemic transaction, but higher than the price for another iconic tower that recently sold.

A deed of trust filed with Multnomah County on Thursday shows the buyer used a $44.58 million loan from the First National Bank Alaska, based in Anchorage. Another public filing, the special warranty deed, shows the property sold for $10 “and other good and valuable consideration,” hiding the true purchase price.

Fountainhead Development, based in Fairbanks, Alaska, purchased the 30-story office building, the fourth-tallest building in Portland, from an entity linked to Lincoln Property Co.

The 547,992-square-foot building at 1211 S.W. Fifth Ave. was developed beginning in 1984 by Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Estate Co. and completed in 1988. It was extensively renovated in 2019. The sleek silver tower is well-known locally for its outdoor tree, planted on the 25^th floor.

The building last traded hands for $161.5 million in December 2007. Commercial real estate in Portland has traded at much lower prices since the pandemic emptied out downtown office towers. The city has approximately 9 million square feet of vacant office space.

PacWest’s recent sale gave it a significantly higher valuation than the U.S. Bancorp Tower — better known as Big Pink — earned when it sold for $45 million, or about $39.13 per square foot, in July.

Newmark Vice Chairman Nick Kucha, Senior Managing Director James Childress and Directors Kellen Kollmorgen and Jakob Nicholls represented the seller.

“PacWest exemplifies resilience and opportunity in Portland’s evolving office market,” Kucha said in a prepared statement. “With its transit-oriented location, market-leading amenity package and premium view space, the buyer recognized the tower’s ability to cater to both traditional and creative tenant requirements in a location with enduring demand drivers.”

The property is 50 percent leased, primarily by legal, banking, wealth and investment management firms, according to Newmark.

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Law firm Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt is remodeling its office space after renewing its Portland office lease at PacWest Center in July. The building, owned by Lincoln Property Company, is located at 1211 SW Fifth Ave.

Schwabe has leased its office space for four decades and was the building’s first tenant. The office space spans 2-1/2 floors. Lincoln Property Co. and CBRE also played crucial roles in Schwabe’s lease resigning, Schwabe stated in an email.

The firm is partnering with project manager JLL, architect Ankrom Moisan and general contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis.

According to Schwabe, the remodel is designed to create a stimulating work environment by incorporating natural light, panoramic city views and a reconfiguration of the space to include open office areas and hallways. A variety of finishes have been selected to maintain the space, while focusing on reuse opportunities for sustainability initiatives.

The updates aim to foster collaboration among Schwabe’s hybrid workforce by reorganizing the workspace to better unite intersecting services, according to a press release.

A $9,340,119 facility permit is currently under review for the alteration with Portland Permitting & Development. Work on floors 16-19 would involve demolition of walls and construction of new ones to create offices, open office areas and hallways. The 17th floor would gain a phone room, an entry area, an IT storage/​work room, a server room, a coffee area, a file storage room and a records room. The 18th floor would gain conference rooms, a restroom, storage rooms, an AV room, a closet, a mail/​print room, a catering kitchen and a break room. It would also involve remodeling the reception area, elevator lobby, restrooms and a shower room. The 19th floor would gain a shower room, a copy room, a switch room, phone rooms, a coffee area, a storage room, a wellness room, a meeting room, a lounge, a bar area and a workroom. It would also involve remodeling restrooms and elevator lobby and connecting stairs with handrails. The work would involve ceiling, flooring, finishes, plumbing and electrical.

Construction is scheduled to start in January, pending issuance of the building permit.

The remodel is expected to be complete in the summer of 2025.

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Portland design commissioners agreed that exterior alterations proposed for the PacWest Center are headed in the right direction, but not yet ready for approval.

“I think it’s a very sensitive intervention of a very interesting building,” Commissioner Samuel Rodriguez said during a design review hearing on Thursday.

Construction of the 30-story PacWest Center finished in 1984. It’s part of the transit mall, on the block surrounded by Southwest Madison and Jefferson streets and Southwest Fifth and Sixth avenues. Lincoln Property Co. owns the skyscraper.

Plans call for remodeling the Fifth Avenue entrance, removing the canopy at the Sixth Avenue entrance, removing and replacing granite planters, sidewalk material, steps and landscaping by the Fifth and Sixth entrances as well as the east corner of Madison Street, and altering the third-floor roof terrace.

“This is an important project for the city,” Vice Chairman Tad Savinar said. “This is a fantastic building that serves fantastic tenants. It’s a dream and we’re fortunate to have it.”

The project goals are to create presence through the entries, cultivate and activate the ground-floor experience and enhance the landscaping, according to GBD Architects‘ Dustin White.

“We’re trying to offer better opportunities and enhance opportunities for pedestrians,” he said.

Along the main entrance on Fifth Avenue, designers proposed removing the existing one-story entry vestibule and partially removing the existing metal panels and glass at the second level façade, and then adding a two-story vestibule and a new metal canopy above it.

They also proposed removing the granite planter that is partially in the sidewalk and replacing it with two smaller planters in an effort to open up the pathway to the entrance.

“We feel that it struggles because the sense of identity as an entrance is not there,” White said about the existing layout.

The design team also wants to replace the large canopy over the office entryway along Sixth Avenue and a portion of the storefront with a new all-glass entrance. However, commissioners didn’t approve the proposed change to pavement material on the sidewalk adjacent to the building.

For the corner retail space along Madison Street, the team proposed removing the brick planter, stair and railing, and installing a granite planter, retaining wall and glass railing.

Retail has struggled in the building for quite some time, White said, so the goal is to highlight the retail space by increasing the visibility and improving the entrance.

However, commissioners didn’t like revisions to the Madison Street corner and asked for the design team to come back with alternatives.

“I think in general the concept is a good idea, but not the execution,” Commissioner Jessica Molinar said. Commissioner Andrew Clarke agreed, saying he doesn’t think the alterations create a successful retail space.

For the third-floor terrace, the design team proposed replacing the existing planters and landscaping with new metal planters, wood benches and lighting.

Overall, most commissioners said they like the direction of the proposal, but want to see some revisions.

“What you’re proposing is waking up that area, that whole pedestrian experience,” Clarke said. “You’ve been able to add a lot more usable space for the tenants and a lot more spaces for people who have to walk around this whole entire building and experience it from a whole block perspective.”

The design team will come back on April 26 to present design alternatives.

Also on Thursday:

Pearl District storage facility design approved

The Design Commission voted 5-0 in favor of a proposal by developer Hoyt Street Properties to build a new 129,520-square-foot self-service storage facility in the Pearl District, on a vacant site at Northwest Savier Street and 14th Avenue.

MCA Architects‘ design calls for a six-story, 97-foot-tall building with an 8,400-square-foot plaza and six ground-floor retail spaces. A 20-foot-high rose sculpture by artist Ivan McClean has been proposed within the plaza.

The building’s upper stories will be clad in metal panels, with alternating gray tones, and glass. Entry to the storage facility and surface parking area will be along 14th Avenue.

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PacWest Center, a 30-story office tower in downtown Portland, has sold to a Dallas-based institutional buyer for $170 million.

LPC Realty Advisors, an affiliate of Lincoln Property Co., purchased the 545,000-square-foot building, Holliday Fenoglio Fowler announced Wednesday.

HFF represented the seller, The Ashforth Co. of Stamford, Connecticut, and an institutional investor.

The sale is the largest commercial office transaction in Portland in 2016, according to HFF.
The building, at 1211 S.W. Fifth Ave., is 76 percent leased to tenants that include Merrill Lynch, Markowitz Herbold, Schwabe Williamson and Wyatt, KeyBank and Perkins & Co.

The buyer intends to renovate the tower’s common space, main lobby and shared amenities, HFF said.

PacWest, completed in 1984, occupies a full block bordered by Madison and Jefferson streets between Fifth and Sixth avenues.

The HFF investment sales team representing the seller was led by senior managing directors Nick Kucha and Michael Leggett of Portland.

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