Relief following Gov. Jay Inslee’s announcement that “low risk” construction can resume in Washington has quickly given way to questions and concerns.

How expensive will it be to staff a COVID-19 safety coordinator at each job site? How can contractors manage the ongoing shortages of masks and other personal protective equipment? And is it even possible for workers to maintain 6 feet of distance from each other, at risk of being shut down?

“The proof will be in the pudding about whether we can make them work,” said Mike Salsgiver, executive director of the Associated General Contractors‘ Oregon-Columbia chapter, which includes Southwest Washington. “But right now, I put any movement toward reopening construction in the state of Washington as a good thing.”

Washington construction was largely shut down for nearly a month. The COVID-19 pandemic slammed to a halt a decade-long construction boom that transformed skylines in Vancouver, Seattle and other cities.

Inslee’s order, issued Friday, will allow Southwest Washington contractors like Robertson & Olson Construction to return to work. The company is building projects including The Aria apartments, a six-story, 127-unit multifamily building; and a tower for local developer Al Angelo Co.

Matt Olson, president of Robertson & Olson, said the firm was fortunate to have projects in Oregon that continued during the Washington shutdown. The company also kept working on a project for Vancouver Clinic that was deemed essential. Olson said he was empathetic for contractors that were not as diversified.

“It’s not an equal playing field,” he said.

Some of Inslee’s rules will be difficult or impossible to implement perfectly, construction industry executives said. Perhaps most difficult will be social distancing. Industry officials said there are many scenarios, from installing heavy equipment to finishing apartment interiors, where it’s unrealistic to keep workers 6 feet apart.

“It’s hard for government to sit down and think through everything,” Olson said. “It’s going to be next to impossible that we do 100 percent social distancing, and that’s going to be across the board.”

Safety equipment remains in short supply.

“I can’t go and buy 2,000 N95 (masks), so we’re doing like everyone else: We’re getting what we can, and asking our contractors to do the same,” Olson said.

Robertson & Olson will do everything it can to adhere to the state rules, Olson said.

“What we’re doing is putting the best practices possible in place for social distancing, cleanliness and education.”
Inslee, in a news conference on Friday, emphasized that social distancing is not optional.

“If it can’t be done with social distancing, then it cannot proceed at this time,” he said.

Inslee arrived at the rules along with health and local government officials in consultation with a working group of construction and labor representatives.

“We have been working toward this measure for some time, and this work has allowed us to create a very comprehensive safety plan,” he said.

The work group included representatives of the Building Industry Association of Washington, the Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council, the Association of Washington Business, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 302, Associated General Contractors, and the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters.

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A Vancouver, Washington-based firm plans to break ground in August on a seven-story AC Hotel by Marriott on the Vancouver riverfront.

The $50 million hotel, expected to appeal to business travelers, will have 150 guest rooms and two floors of above-ground parking on the second and third floors. It’s the latest ground-up project for Vesta Hospitality, which in the past has mostly used a different strategy.

“Our primary focus has been acquisition of product and repositioning for better value of product,” Vesta CEO Rick Takach said.

The building will also have about 5,000 square feet of top-floor office space that Takach said he may take for Vesta.

In the case of the AC Hotel, Vesta took a gamble on the chance to be part of new development on Vancouver’s south-facing Columbia River frontage.

“We wanted to be down on the waterfront,” Takach said.

The project comes amid a rapid transformation of the area. Gramor Development is overseeing a massive 20-block redevelopment of a former Boise Cascade paper mill site nearby.

The AC Hotel will occupy land leased by the Port of Vancouver USA. Takach agreed to build the hotel to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold standards as a result of negotiations with the port. He also agreed to build 160 parking spaces for the fast-growing area.

Takach said he turned his attention to the port’s land after declining to meet Gramor’s asking price for a parcel at The Waterfront Vancouver.

Takach said he’s interested in bringing in additional investors for the AC Hotel project, which is in an opportunity zone. The tax designation helped attract construction financing from Rockbridge Capital of Columbus, Ohio, a frequent Vesta partner.

DLR Group is designing the AC Hotel, and Camas, Washington-based Robertson & Olson Construction is serving as the general contractor. Otak is the engineer, and Urban Resources Inc. is the developer’s representative. Robertson & Olson’s experience working on the Vancouver waterfront and its relationships with subcontractors made it an obvious choice, Takach said.

Meanwhile, Vesta is also closing in on a purchase of the Cannery Pier Hotel, a 15-year-old, 46-room hotel that juts into the Columbia River in Astoria. Vesta is under contract to buy the hotel for $13 million, Takach said. The property is being offered by the estate of Astoria developer Robert “Jake” Jacob, who died last year.

Takach is waiting on approval of a waterway lease from the Oregon Department of State Lands before the transaction closes.

“I think it’s arguably an irreplaceable asset,” Takach said, noting development of the hotel took more than a decade.

Takach said he meets with Vesta’s acquisition team every Friday to review hotels for sale across the United States. Currently, the company owns 12 hotels, but that could change, he said.

“It’s a good time to sell,” he said.

Notably, the company has avoided the crowded hospitality market in Portland’s Central City. Takach described Portland’s hotel market as “in one word: scary.”

More than 1,900 hotel rooms are in development or under construction in central Portland, including the 600-room Hyatt Regency at the Oregon Convention Center, the 486-room Toyoko Inn, the 251-room Ritz-Carlton at Block 216, the 170-room Hyatt Place in the Pearl District, the 250-room Hyatt Unbound and the 179-room Moxy.

“As an industry, we try to do this to ourselves every few years,” Takach said of the rapid expansion.

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Barry Cain, president of Gramor Development, paused to catch his breath at the top floor of a seven-story office building at The Waterfront Vancouver, near the Columbia River.

Workers below were finishing staircases and elevators. A block away, heavy equipment was being used to drive piles to support excavation of what will become the Indigo Hotel and condominiums. Construction management trailers occupied surface parking lots.

With breathtaking speed, The Waterfront Vancouver is becoming a real place. Restaurants are poised to open soon. White-collar professional firms have signed leases for office space under construction. Apartments could begin being leased as soon as next week. There will be parks, a seven-mile trail and a hotel.

“We wanted to get the project started and have a little bit of everything,” said Cain, whose company is managing the build-out of the 20-block site.

Visiting The Waterfront Vancouver these days is a bit like venturing inside a bee hive. Workers are everywhere – hundreds of them in brightly colored T-shirts and safety vests, shouting and stomping among scaffolding and staged equipment in a heat wave. The din of steel slapping into place is matched only by blaring backup alarms from construction vehicles and the roar of F-15 fighter jets taking off from Portland International Airport across the Columbia River.

The numbers give only a sense of the magnitude of the development – 3,300 residential units and 1.5 million square feet of office space. Robertson & Olson, a Southwest Washington firm, is the general contractor handling construction of the first three buildings.

“There’s a big, pent-up demand for this kind of development in Vancouver,” Cain said.

Gramor Development aims to attract many of the 70,000 workers who commute daily from Vancouver to Portland. Cain believes many companies have offices in Portland only because Vancouver lacked good options.

“We think pretty quick we’re going to get a lot more office interest,” he said.

Last week, McKean Smith, a law firm with offices in Portland and Hillsboro, agreed to lease 3,600 square feet in the Block 6 building, Gramor announced.

The legal practice joins Murdock Charitable Trust, Chicago Title and Fidelity National Title in taking office space at The Waterfront Vancouver. The Block 6 office building is more than 50 percent leased.

The Waterfront Vancouver started as a partnership among five parties from real estate and construction backgrounds who were eager to invest in Vancouver’s future. They jumped at the opportunity to land riverfront property when Boise Cascade decided to close a paper mill on the site and sell. Gramor Development agreed to lead the development with backing from retired managers of Kiewit Corp., a construction firm based in Vancouver. The partners formed Columbia Waterfront LLC.

“It sounded like something where you could come in and really change the face of the town,” Cain said.

The plan was never for Gramor Development to build everything itself, Cain said. Already, two blocks have been sold. Gramor sold Block 3 to Summit Development, which plans to break ground in January on a 12-story cross-laminated timber building with approximately 250 residential units and ground-floor retail space. Kirkland Development purchased Block 4, where ground has been broken for an 11-story tower that will have the 138-room Hotel Indigo and 40 condominiums.

Gramor Development is in negotiations on a deal for another block, Cain said.

“We’re happy to have someone come in and do it all,” he said.

Restaurants will open in the first wave in a bid to attract visitors. Sometime in August, WildFin American Grill will open. The seafood restaurant will have a sidewalk-facing window to serve fish tacos to outdoor diners on nice days. Twigs Bistro and Martini Bar is poised to open about a month later. Barlow’s Public House should open by the end of the year, Cain said.

The development is already attracting jet boat users interested in checking out a mast installed as a piece of public art. A 180-foot-long water feature from artist Larry Kirkland that maps the Columbia River and its tributaries is in development.

The Waterfront Vancouver is unfolding largely with public dollars. Columbia Waterfront laid the groundwork for the development with new streets or extensions of Columbia Way, Grant Street and Columbia Street. The development also contributed to construction of a railroad trestle that provided access to the property. The city of Vancouver is paying for the new park.

Calls to Vancouver officials were not returned promptly.

That stands in contrast to Zidell Yards in Portland’s South Waterfront District, where development has halted because of a disagreement between ZRZ Realty Co. and the city of Portland regarding the amount of public funding for streets and other infrastructure. In Vancouver, the developer largely paid for the infrastructure.

In comparison to Portland’s bureau structure, Cain praised Vancouver’s city manager-led government.

“The government here is effectual,” he said.­­

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(Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct project architect.)

A pair of multi-tenant restaurant buildings overlooking the Columbia River will be the first structures completed at The Waterfront, a sprawling development rising in Vancouver, Washington. Core and shell work is wrapping up on the two-story buildings; both are part of the first phase of Gramor Development‘s $1.5 billion transformation of 32 acres near the city’s downtown.

Robertson & Olson Construction is building these first two structures; others planned in the first phase include a seven-story building with residential units and ground-floor retail space as well as another mixed-use building with offices, residential units and retail space.

The two restaurant buildings total about 40,000 square feet of space and were designed by LRS Architects. One, Block 9, will have more than 17,000 square feet. WildFin American Grill will occupy the entire ground floor. A tenant has yet to be named for the second floor. The second building, Block 12, will have 28,000 square feet, including an expansive deck overlooking the river. Twigs Bistro and Martini Bar and Ghost Runners Brewery have leased space on the first and second floors, respectively. All three restaurants are aiming to open this summer.

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A grand opening was held March 12 for the 1510 Technology Center, a former PGE operations facility in the Central Eastside Industrial District that is now the expanded office of Viewpoint Construction Software. The building’s owner and project developer, Killian Pacific, enlisted general contractor Robertson & Olson Construction, Inc. and design firm Mackenzie to convert the 60,000-square-foot building into a modern office space that retains the structure’s industrial identity.

Contamination from highly toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which were used as a coolant in transformers, required extensive decontamination work on the building, including the removal of the top two inches of concrete slab.

The project included installation of a radiant cooling system in the building’s concrete floors, major structural upgrades, replacement of an old gabled roof, and installation of new industrial-style operable windows that retain the historic look of the old ones.

Sustainable design features include using old-growth Douglas fir wood reclaimed from the roof in the building’s interior design elements, including ceiling treatments, walls, and stairs, as well as stormwater treatment facilities, 100% LED lighting, and electric vehicle charging in the basement parking garage. Developers are seeking LEED platinum certification on the project.

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started construction this week on a new Chase bank branch in Southwest Portland.

Located at 2121 S.W. Fourth Ave., the 7,457-square-foot space composes the entire ground floor of the building. previously occupied the space.

Jon Thornburg, senior project manager for Chase, said the bank was completely remodeling the space’s interior to reflect standard Chase finishes, furniture and equipment. The project’s general contractor is Vancouver, Wash.-based Robertson Olson Construction and the project architect is Seattle-based .

In addition, Josh Schlesinger, vice president and asset manager for , said his company would also be doing a complete renovation of the HVAC system. He said the space was on the market for six months prior to the lease agreement with Chase and that the bank was an excellent long-term tenant.

Construction began on Jan. 9 and Thornburg said the branch is expected to open for business in April.

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Certified Public Accounting firm Barrett & Company will break ground on a new 6,000-square-foot building on Friday. The firm, which specializes in construction, manufacturing and transportation accounting, will eventually move to the new Camas, Wash., building from its current headquarters near the Westfield Mall in Vancouver, Wash.

The new building, which was designed by Portland firm Tiland Schmidt Architects, will be built on a lot in Camas adjacent to the Camas Meadows golf course. The land was in foreclosure, said business development advisor Drew Barrett, and the opportunity was “too good to pass up.”

“We will have our own building and our own space to bring clients and build new relationships,” Barrett said.

Barrett & Company plans to use 4,000 square feet of the building for 12 employees, starting in the fall. The firm plans to rent the remaining 2,000 square feet to a professional services firm.

The general contractor for the Barret project is Robertson & Olson Construction, based in Vancouver.

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Two retail buildings are being constructed in Brush Prairie, Wash. The brick veneer buildings totaling 12,000 square feet are in the Bowyer Marketplace at the corner of Northeast 117th Avenue and 199th Street. The shells are scheduled to be finished and ready for tenant improvements by June 1. Robertson & Olson Construction is the general contractor and Tiland/Schmidt Architects is the designer of the project.

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