The Portland Design Commission has approved, with modifications, the design of RiverPlace Block 1 South — a new 30-story multifamily tower on the former RiverPlace Athletic Club site, at 150 S. Montgomery St.

This development will be Phase 1 for the RiverPlace site. The proposal includes about 344 residential units with parking provided by utilizing unused spaces in the adjacent Douglas Apartments garage. The property is an 8.03-acre site located within the University District/South Downtown subdistrict of the Central City Plan District. The site is bounded by South Harbor Way/South Harbor Way Bike Path at the west, South Montgomery Street at the north, South River Drive at the east, and South River Parkway at the south.

The proposal also includes 16,610 square feet of new public open area to be provided in two locations: in the middle of Block 1 and at the southern end of Block 1. These two open areas will provide public links from the Harbor Drive Trail on the west of the property to the new Street ‘A,’ as well as publicly accessible landscaped open space.

GBD Architects is the architect, and the owner of the project is NBP 0150 S Montgomery LLC. The project is valued at $82 million.

The Central City Master Plan was approved for the site.

Lead designer of the project, Michael Marcus of GBD, said three more translucent windows were added to the façade. A garage connection will connect to the north podium wall for a future parking garage.

“We’re proposing two glass types at this point,” Marcus said of the windows. “Going through pricing efforts on this project, glazing, among other things, is widely higher than expected.”

GBD is proposing similar glass from two different manufacturers: Solarban 70 and Guardian SNX 62/27.

“Both of these have a very low reflectance,” Marcus said. “They are very low in the reflective nature of the glass.”

Marcus said the two glass types are very similar to what GBD has proposed in the past.

GBD is also proposing patterned metal panels on the podium. The panels would stack vertically and alternate in thickness.

Mike Zilis, of GBD, said there will be a landing at the top of the stairway of the north pedestrian access and open area. All the trees will have a minimum of 48 inches in depth.

Five modifications were accepted by the project team: A request to allow an increased floor plate size from the allowed maximum 10,000 square feet to 12,500 square feet above 100′ in height; a request to modify ‘north-south’ from cardinal north-south to being 90 degrees perpendicular to the eastern and westerly street grids west of the site; a request to reduce the ground-floor window requirements from at least 40 percent to 26 percent of the ground level wall areas for the north elevation; a request to reduce the ground floor requirements from at least 40 percent to 21 percent of the ground level wall areas for the south elevation; and a request to reduce the eco-roof coverage from 60 percent to 58 percent.

The following conditions, recommended by staff, were approved by the commissioners: On the north ground level façade, nighttime lighting shall be provided to the five translucent windows; the future building to the north shall meet or exceed ground floor window requirements facing the mid-block open area; the future building to the north shall provide at least one entrance into an active space such as a lobby or a common area facing the mid-block Pedestrian Accessway open area; and a minimum of 4 feet clearance shall be provided from the top of the grade for all landscaped portions of the pedestrian accessway to the top of the structure below.

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A 30-story tower is in the making for Portland’s South Waterfront District.

The Portland Design Commission weighed in on plans for the high-rise for the first time on Thursday, during a design advice hearing. The development is anticipated to be the first within the newly approved RiverPlace Central City Master Plan.

The NBP Capital project’s value is $160 million, according to the Bureau of Development Services.

As designed by GBD Architects, the building would have approximately 329 residential units and rise on the southern parcel of Block 1, at 150 S. Montgomery St. The former RiverPlace Athletic Club located on the property is to be demolished, but The Douglas (apartments and townhomes) on the northern portion is to stay – for now.

No parking or retail space is planned for the development. Instead, residents would use 385 unused parking stalls nearby in The Douglas’ garage.

The eight acres between South Harbor Way, South Harbor Drive, South Montgomery Street and South Harbor Place are designated for the RiverPlace master plan. This initial tower, RiverPlace Phase 1, is poised to become the first of six potential high-rises on the site – along with thousands of new residential units, substantial office space, a new park plaza, and possibly a new regional attraction.

GBD’s design shown Thursday indicates what the new district could look like.

“Our big idea here was to reintroduce the layout, the river and the beautiful landscape of the Northwest, which is a big part of all of our everyday lives,” GBD Architects Associate Principal Michael Marcus said.

Plans call for an exterior with a “rippling” water effect, in a slender frame, with protruding balconies.

The project team intends to take full advantage of 200 feet in bonus height to construct a 325-foot-tall building. The bonus comes from the “Height Opportunity Area” requirement written into the master plan, which also limits floor plates to 10,000 square feet.

However, the team is seeking a modification to allow 12,500-square-foot floor plates. That would allow the exterior to be sculpted and 75-80 additional apartments included, GBD Architects Design Director Agustin Enriquez said. That request could gain approval, commissioners said, if the team is able to better present how the public would benefit from the change.

Three other modifications are being sought: one to the code language on what constitutes “north-south,” a second to move the eco-roof to the second-floor podium and a third to reduce the percentage of ground-floor windows required.

One expert said during Thursday’s hearing that green roof elements wouldn’t survive at 325 feet high. Plus, currently, mechanical equipment would occupy much of the roof, according to the project team. Design commissioners responded that they need to see more evidence that plantings wouldn’t survive at that height before they allow such a change.

Also, the project team stated that 75 percent of the ground floor would not be conducive to windows because of the site’s slope. Design commissioners said they would like to see either lush greenery or a wall be included to improve activation at ground level.

Overall, commissioners praised the sculpted design. Commissioner Don Vallaster said it has the potential to be “a really outstanding building for Portland.”

In addition to the 30-story tower on the southern parcel, Block 1 of the master-planned area is due to gain 6,600 square feet of pedestrian access as well as another development on the northern parcel. The latter is expected to enter the design phase immediately after building permit applications are submitted for the first tower, according to the project team.

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After two years of work, the RiverPlace Central City Master Plan received the Portland Design Commission‘s unanimous approval on Thursday.

NBP Capital‘s grand plan is to redevelop the 8-acre site adjacent to the South Waterfront Park into a new mixed-use neighborhood. At full build-out, the site could accommodate thousands of new residential units, substantial office space, as many as six high-rise buildings, and 70,000 square feet of new open space – as well as a possible ­­hotel. A new park with a plaza will also front South Waterfront Park.

Commissioners had seen RiverPlace plans in two previous design advice meetings, two prior land use hearings and a three-and-a-half-hour special session on Feb. 10. In the special session, several conditions of approval were written and refined; one was the requirement that each building proposed for the site be submitted for Type III design advice.

Some of the conditions required some rewriting to gain favor with design commissioners, city planners, and applicant GBD Architects – and others not so much.

For instance, parking was a snare. In the language presented during Thursday’s hearing, no parking areas would be allowed within 25 feet of frontages facing a sidewalk, plazas or publicly accessible open area. That meant no above-grade parking would be allowed.

The project team could not accept the condition as written, GBD Architects design director Agustin Enriquez said, because it doesn’t exist for any other master plan in the city. “It’s extremely restrictive,” he said, adding that the team has had success hiding above-grade parking on blocks in Portland. He also cited the Henry Condominiums as an example.

However, this was a point the commissioners did not budge on. Unlike the Broadway Corridor, near the Broadway Bridge, for example, Commissioner Zari Santner noted that RiverPlace is next to a significant natural resource – the Willamette River – and thus the context changes. Commissioner Chandra Robinson echoed that sentiment.

The condition of approval was changed to read: “No above-grade parking areas shall be allowed within 25 feet of frontages facing a street lot line, sidewalk, plaza or other publicly accessible open area or right‐of‐way.”

The previous special session ended with the record staying open as requested during public comment. When the Design Commission reconvened on Thursday, the record was closed and the final staff report was accepted with one addition stating that B Street, a new public street, be designed to be closed off periodically for events.

Currently, development plans for the site include two phases: Block 1 and the “conceptual” build-out of the remaining site.

As part of the first land use review submitted for Block 1, all spaces identified as “open area” within that phase, which might include circulation paths or easements, must be designed and constructed.

“The result of this project up to this point has been just tremendous,” Commissioner Jessica Molinar said, “because of the suggestions and ideas that came from both the neighborhood and the applicant’s responsiveness and cooperation and collaboration with us. So, I think this is (a) much, much better master plan.”

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More work must still be done on the RiverPlace Central City master plan; however, most of that work involves final details.

The master plan, proposed by GBD Architects on behalf of site owner NBP Capital, calls for redevelopment of the 8-acre site in Portland between South Montgomery Street, River Parkway, Harbor Way and River Drive. During a review hearing on Thursday, Portland Design Commission members, city staffers and GBD Architects designers continued to discuss details and lingering issues.

At full build-out, the site could accommodate thousands of new residential units, substantial office space, a possible hotel, as many as six high-rise buildings, and 70,000 square feet of new open space. And a future regional destination – potentially a grocery store, food hall or entertainment venue – also is in the plan, GBD Architects principal Agustin Enriquez said.

Allowable building heights for the site range from 150 to 325 feet.

The plan is to build out the development in two phases, starting with Block 1 (70,763 square feet), Enriquez said. Then development of the other blocks would follow with the hope that Block 6 (the future park) could meet one of the blocks’ development requirements.

Many lingering issues brought up Thursday involved the building code language. A near snafu occurred when city planner Grace Jeffreys pointed out that shadow studies would not be required for individual buildings’ future design review hearings based on the current code language. This meant that the building massing conceptualized by GBD Architects for the shadow study would have to stay.

“I don’t think it’s practical to say that the massing that is shown at this stage is the massing that will be there in the future,” Enriquez said.

The Bureau of Development Services agreed to pause the conversation for GBD Architects to come up with stricter language on the shadow study requirements for developments within the master plan.

Another code language issue involved the Block 1 development and open space requirements. As proposed Thursday, the percentage of bicycle and pedestrian pathway allowed was too high. Concerns were raised by design commissioners and city staffers that if phase one is the beginning and the end to the RiverPlace master plan, then it wouldn’t meet code.

Design commissioners opted to allow the proposed design to stay in hope that the full master plan’s vision could come to fruition.

Since more details are still needed, a second hearing has been scheduled for the RiverPlace master plan in three weeks.

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A major affordable housing developer has requested an exemption to proposed legislation that would decouple Oregon’s tax treatment of opportunity zone projects from federal tax benefits.

Legislators are considering a bill that would eliminate state tax benefits for one year while the federally recognized opportunity zones play out in Oregon and across the nation.

While most opportunity fund investments in Portland have flowed to large and expensive market-rate projects, some affordable housing developers are using opportunity zone benefits to attract investors.

“We are using opportunity zones – mostly in affordable housing deals,” said Cynthia Parker, chief executive of BRIDGE Housing, one of the West Coast’s largest developers of affordable housing.

Parker submitted written testimony to the Oregon Legislature lobbying for an exception for affordable housing if the bill, House Bill 4010, is passed.

“Since the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was passed, BRIDGE has worked diligently with investors to educate and promote usage of the (opportunity zone) program for the benefit of affordable housing developments,” Parker wrote. “We strongly recommend that a carve-out be made that would allow (opportunity zone) investors to receive tax benefits from both the federal and state if the underlying Qualified Opportunity Zone Business were an affordable housing development.”

A carve-out would create a 10 percent to 20 percent increase in yield for investors, Parker estimated. That makes it appealing for socially minded investors.

“It’s going to be a special-impact investor who wants to make a difference,” Parker said. “It’s not a deep subsidy; it was never intended to be a deep subsidy.”

BRIDGE Housing is seeking investors for an affordable housing project in Southwest Portland’s RiverPlace area, Parker said.

The so-called “decoupling” bill would dent the tax benefits for investors in Portland’s opportunity zone, which has received national attention for its location in highly desirable areas including downtown, portions of the Pearl District and Central Eastside Industrial District.

By reducing the tax benefit investors could expect, it could also make it more difficult for affordable housing developers to raise funds.

Democrats and tax-fairness critics have blasted opportunity zones for offering capital gains tax benefits that go to wealthy investors. Critics argue that many opportunity zone projects would still get built without the subsidies.

“Who’s going to not invest because they got a haircut?” said Bennett Minton, a tax policy watchdog with Tax Fairness Oregon. “Either the projects work or they don’t.”

Bill sponsor Rep. Nancy Nathanson, D-Eugene, did not directly answer questions about Parker’s carve-out request. Nathanson serves as chairwoman of the House Revenue Committee.

“The conversation is ongoing about the opportunity zones legislation and the issue remains in flux,” she stated in an email. “I remain committed to a conversation about the value of opportunity zones.”

In Portland, opportunity zone investments have so far gone to large market-rate projects including the Block 216 mixed-use tower, the PAE Living Building and a proposed Sturgeon Development Partners office building.

Opportunity zones offer a number of tax benefits. Primarily, they encourage investors to hold onto a property for 10 years to avoid capital gains tax.

Other affordable housing developers are watching and waiting. Dan Valliere, CEO of REACH Community Development Corp., said the nonprofit is not actively pursuing opportunity zone funding. He questioned whether opportunity zones will help spur investment where it’s most needed.

“The way it’s structured now, there’s very little accountability to make sure this is creating social impacts,” Valliere said. “They’re just standard real estate investments, which is fine. But it doesn’t really make sense to give it a tax benefit.”

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A plan for a massive and wide-ranging mixed-use neighborhood near the Willamette River in downtown Portland continues to progress, though issues surrounding transportation and massing linger along with opposition from residents concerned about displacement and density.

During a second design advice hearing Thursday for the master plan of NBP Capital‘s planned redevelopment of the RiverPlace area, Portland Design Commission members, city staff and GBD Architects designers fleshed out the details of the 8-acre site.

The project would include thousands of new residential units, a possible hotel, commercial space and public open spaces between as many as six new high-rise buildings. GBD is working with Kengo Kuma and Associates, an internationally renowned Japanese architecture firm, to design the immense project.

Changes from an initial design advice hearing held in October include shifting a large public plaza from a stepped design to one that has more space at-grade, and an updated open space configuration from a single space that continues through the development to a series of smaller, “discovered” spaces scattered throughout. The proposed programming has also evolved.

“Frankly, there are just a lot more housing options,” said Agustin Enriquez, a principal with GBD Architects.

Enriquez said he envisions a “broad mix” of housing totaling upward of 1,800 units across multiple buildings. One hundred units would be condominiums, he said, with market-rate apartments and at least 20 percent affordable units, as required by the city’s inclusionary housing requirements. A senior living facility is also envisioned for at least one of the several towers on the site, along with a 219-room hotel, 250,000 square feet of office space up to 100,000 square feet of retail space. Parking for up to 1,600 vehicles in mostly below-grade space could also be included.

Allowable building heights in the 8-acre master plan area range from 150 to 325 feet.

Multimodal connectivity throughout the site remains an issue, as do building massing and the final composition of open spaces, according to a Bureau of Development Services staff report presented Thursday. Concerns persist about a possible block measuring 200 feet by 460 feet, which would likely be the site of as many as four towers. Such an unusually long block could interfere with other street and pedestrian connections, as well as a popular multi-use bike path.

“It’s used by many people,” BDS Planner Grace Jeffries told commissioners during Thursday’s hearing. “It’s not just a blank wall. At grade, that is a used area and staff is concerned about a really long site with no access through it.”

The proposed length of the block is significantly shorter than the initially proposed length of about 725 feet.

“Sending Hall (Street) through to split up the giant block was good,” said Commissioner Chandra Robinson. “We’re really happy to see Hall Street go through with a connection to Harbor Way.”

A potential pedestrian bridge stretching over Southwest Harbor Drive to connect the development with downtown would have to be considered separately from a future land use application for the RiverPlace master plan, Jeffries said. This leaves an open question going forward.

“It’s not clear whether these spaces will be public if the bridge is not part of the proposal,” she said.

Commissioners also noted that a completed traffic study of the affected streets is needed before it will be possible to judge the potential impact of the development. In addition, the intersection of Southwest Hall Street and Harbor Drive will likely need to be revamped to handle additional traffic.

“That is something we absolutely feel is necessary,” said Commissioner Zari Santner.

Enriquez also told commissioners that a plan for the “Portland Steps,” a series of cascading plates totaling over 35,000 square feet and organized into the primary pedestrian open space, will incorporate a much greater amount of at-grade space than before while still allowing for a possible bridge connection to a podium above.

“We’re trying to find the types of uses that on the podium don’t require a lot of foot traffic to succeed,” Enriquez said.

None of that helped assuage concerns of local residents, many of whom would be displaced or impacted by the proposed development. Thirty-six of them signed up Thursday to offer their testimony.

“Some of the most concerning issues have not been addressed in the revised plan,” said Carolyn Whitney, a resident of The Strand condominiums, which border the site. “We believe the density on this limited site, it’s like a tiny island between the river and the freeway with limited infrastructure, and we fear the significance of this has been underestimated.”

Other concerns raised by testimony included questions about the development’s phasing, its connection with existing infrastructure and transportation networks and the impact on local residents.

“People on a medium income have a very difficult time finding rentals here,” said local resident Jan Campbell. “So please think very carefully about how you’re going to impact the lives of people living here. I am not advocating against development, I am advocating against displacement.”

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NBP Capital‘s ambitious plans for a mixed-use neighborhood in the RiverPlace area in Portland will have to overcome issues with the site and transportation challenges, in addition to complaints from hundreds of current residents who would be displaced.

The Portland developer proposes for the 8-acre site near the South Waterfront District a series of towers that would have thousands of new housing units, perhaps a hotel, retail shops and public spaces. The Portland Design Commission held a design advice request hearing on Thursday.

GBD Architects of Portland is working with Kengo Kuma and Associates, a well-regarded Japanese architecture firm on designs for the massive project. A Central City master plan is required.

NBP Capital’s plans would result in the demolition of existing buildings, including The Douglas apartments and townhomes. Dozens of residents overflowed the hearing room to give their thoughts on the project.

Much of the public testimony was organized by the Portland Downtown Neighborhood Association and residents of the Strand condos on River Drive, which border the development site.

Agustin Enriquez, a GBD Architects principal, presented plans for the site, including a Kengo Kuma concept for what’s called the Portland Steps. Renderings show a cascading series of horizontal plates organized in a 35,000-square-foot public square planted with native vegetation. Retail shops would be incorporated into the steps.

“We envision retail being in, around and actually within these Portland Steps,” Enriquez said.

The images were “obviously very early and conceptual,” he added.

Kuma’s involvement sparked buzz about the project when it began circulating at City Hall months ago. The architect responsible for the new National Stadium in Tokyo previously worked on an expansion of the Portland Japanese Garden and an interior redesign of Shizuku, a downtown Portland restaurant.

RiverPlace’s development program is not yet set and will depend on the arrangement of blocks within the site, architects and planners said. A hotel is being considered at the site’s northwest corner, Enriquez said. Multifamily development is also likely. Overall, four towers and open space are planned.

Maximum allowable building heights on the site range from 150 feet to 325 feet.

A block on the western side of the site would be 300 feet by 725 feet – more than five times the typical Portland block size – sparking staff concerns. Designers must also contend with view corridors, including one from Terwilliger Boulevard to the Willamette River that shows Mount St. Helens.

A pedestrian bridge being considered would stretch over Harbor Drive and link RiverPlace to downtown, according to the applicant’s presentation.

Neighbors were critical of plans. Phil Gilbertson, who lives a few blocks west of the proposed development, said the project would not integrate well with downtown.

“The problem is that the boxed-in building site is not reasonably accessible to downtown to the west,” he said. “RiverPlace, as proposed, has its back turned to downtown.”

Gilbertson also criticized the Portland Steps.

“The grand staircase is more of a grand impediment,” he said.

NBP Capital is a Portland-based firm backed by Los Angeles billionaire Nicolas Berggruen. It has been among the busiest real estate development and investment firms in post-recession Portland, buying the historic Multnomah County Courthouse for office redevelopment and the Sunshine Dairy site for a major mixed-use project. NBP Capital has also recently created the Woodlark Hotel via renovation in partnership with Gordon Sondland’s Provenance Hotels and Arthur Mutal, and constructed a full-block apartment building in Sellwood-Westmoreland.

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NBP Capital is moving ahead in the planning process for development of the RiverPlace area south of downtown Portland. It could gain up to 3 million square feet of new space in coming years.

A pre-application conference was held Tuesday for representatives of GBD Architects and various city bureaus to discuss infrastructure and planning issues related to redevelopment of the 8-acre site.

GBD plans to submit a design advice request for a master plan around May, Katherine Schultz, director of GBD Architects, said at the meeting. Final design review could come in 2020.

No decisions have been made on how to program the site, Schultz said.

“The master plan is, for us: how do we set up success as the program evolves?” she said.

But the development, Schultz added, is likely to include more housing than any other element, which could include retail, hotels and office.

“It’ll be more housing than all of those other things,” she said.

The development would likely be required to include inclusionary housing units if a minimum threshold of 20 units in a building is met, said Brett Eisenbrown, a Housing Bureau program specialist. The inclusionary units could be clustered in one building or spread throughout several buildings on the site.

Maps from GBD Architects show eight potential tower sites within the RiverPlace property ranging from approximately 25,000 to 47,000 square feet.

NBP Capital’s plans would displace existing housing at the site. Several residents of those buildings attended Tuesday’s meeting. One woman asked Schultz when demolition of the existing buildings might begin, but Schultz did not commit to a time frame, saying the developer hasn’t made those decisions yet.

“My guess is the soonest it would start is early 2021,” Schultz said, adding that the developer may choose to start with the unoccupied RiverPlace Sport & Spa building. The gym business closed in 2015.

The site is bounded by Southwest Harrison and Montgomery streets, River Avenue and Harbor Way. It is governed by the Central City 2035 plan approved by the City Council in June 2018.

The site has a number of issues, from transportation access to contaminated soils. An existing parking garage acts as a cap on contaminated soil, and one looming question for NBP Capital is whether it wants to disrupt the cap and remove the soil or build around it.

“We probably don’t want to do a lot of digging,” Schultz said.

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Kengo Kuma and Associates is in exploratory discussions with the city of Portland regarding a South Waterfront project that would provide a combination of affordable housing, optimized open space and a living environment, according to a company statement.

Renderings published by Willamette Week are only “preliminary images” that were meant for internal use only, according to the internationally renowned Japanese architecture firm. The height limit for the site would need to increase in order to accommodate the proposed structure.

“Preliminary images meant for internal discussion do not depict a fixed final design; rather they are intended to be a demonstration of what an increased building height limit would allow,” firm principal Kengo Kuma stated. “The images were shared with the public prematurely. The project anticipates a design process that should and will involve multiple iterations, discussion, revision and review at appropriate stages.”

GBD Architects and NBP Capital would also be involved in the development, which would stretch from Portland State University to the Riverplace Marina and Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

Despite involvement in multiple projects in Portland – including the Portland Japanese Garden and Shizuku by Chef Naoko restaurant – Kengo Kuma and Associates is not looking to establish an office here.

“KKAA continues to operate out of its headquarters in Tokyo, and has no plans to expand its overseas locations,” Kuma stated.

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