The Burnside Bridgehead – a four-acre, four-block chunk of property purchased by the Portland Development Commission for $11 million in several deals between 1998 and 2006 – originally was going to be developed by now-defunct Opus Northwest. When it was unable to get large-scale development off the ground, the PDC opted to let several other developers pursue it in smaller increments. One of those projects could finally get a green light next week.

The Portland Bureau of Development Services has recommended approval for Myhre Group Architects‘ design of a six-story, mixed-use building at 419 E. Burnside St. for Seattle-based Trinsic Residential Group. Plans call for 157 residential units, two live-work units, ground-floor commercial space and rooftop terraces.

Also, the development will hold 50 residential parking spaces – including 11 tandem spaces – and 12 spaces for the adjacent building, according to a BDS staff report.

At a Design Commission meeting on Sept. 4, the developer and commissioners discussed moving the proposed location of a garage gate from Northeast Grand Avenue to Couch Street. The commissioners believe an entrance on Couch Street would be better suited for in-and-out vehicle traffic, because Grand Avenue has been identified in a Central Eastside design plan as a street best suited for pedestrian-friendly retail.

Relocating the garage entrance changed the building’s overall orientation, which now features a primary residential entrance on Grand Avenue and a continuous arcade along East Burnside Street.

The Design Commission will meet Dec. 4 to review the staff report and hear testimony from the applicant and any concerned citizens. The commission will then be able to adopt, modify or reject the proposed development.

Meanwhile, construction of a $58 million, 21-story tower at Block 67 is under way. The project team – Guardian Real Estate Services and Hood River-based Key Development Corp., Skylab Architecture and Andersen Construction – put together a development that will include 20,000 square feet of commercial space, 284 apartments and 200 parking spaces.

Andersen Construction began site work in October, and Brad Nile, a project executive with the contractor, said vertical construction will begin in January and require approximately 22 months.

Also, Key Development is planning to develop Block 76W, a small piece of land on the west side of the Couch Street couplet, with a two- to three-story commercial building that will mirror the larger tower.

Developers of a 10-story, mixed-use project on Block 75 – 111 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. – on Nov. 18 submitted permit applications to the BDS. The Design Commission in August approved Works Partnership Architecture‘s design that calls for ground-floor retail space, office space on the second through fourth floors and 75 apartments on levels five through 10.

The project development team includes representatives of Beam Development and Urban Development Partners as well as Carrie Strickland and William Neburka, both principals at Works Partnership Architecture.

Expectations are for Beaverton-based Yorke & Curtis General Contractors to finish the project in time for a May 2016 opening.

The Fair-Haired Dumbbell, two six-story buildings connected by sky bridges, is the first speculative office complex proposed for development at the Burnside Bridgehead. Guerrilla Development owner Kevin Cavenaugh, designed the buildings with a Florentine pattern wrap to resemble gift boxes.

Guerrilla Development collaborated with Fundrise to raise more than $5 million from 1,200 accredited investors to pay for the project, according to Katie Brotherton with Norris, Beggs & Simpson.

Carter Beyl, a broker at Norris, Beggs & Simpson, said the building “epitomizes the tech pilgrimage to Portland,” with its open space, timber-frame construction, expansive wood floors and robotic, stacked parking system.

Crews are expected to break ground in the second quarter of 2015 and finish by the end of the year, according to Brotherton.

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Site clearing and excavation for the $58 million Burnside bridgehead mixed-use tower began Monday.

The Portland Development Commission on Friday issued the foundation permit for a 21-story building to be constructed on block 67 in Southeast Portland. When completed, the development will feature 20,000 square feet of commercial space, 284 apartments and 200 parking spaces. The permit paperwork indicates that the project will be a 16-story tower atop a five-story podium.

Project executive Brad Nile of Andersen Construction said Skylab Architecture will submit the building permit later this week.

“The deep shoring and foundation construction will take the next two months,” he said. “In January we will start going up with the vertical structure.”

The project team – Guardian Real Estate Services and Hood River-based Key Development Corp., Skylab Architecture and Andersen Construction – has been working on the effort for the past three years.

Nile said construction of the entire development would take about 22 months.

Also, Key Development purchased Block 76W, a small piece of land on the west side of the Couch Street couplet, with plans to erect a two- to three-story commercial building that will mirror the larger tower.

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Construction of a $60 million, mixed-use tower at the Burnside bridgehead will begin in August, now that Block 67 LLC has closed on a $1.5 million land purchase.

The project has been three years in the making: A disposition and development agreement has been worked out with the Portland Development Commission and the city design process has been completed, said Jeff Pickhardt, principal of Hood River-based Key Development Corp.

The project team – including Key Development, Skylab Architecture, Andersen Construction and Guardian Real Estate Services – this week submitted foundation permits. It’s planning to build a 21-story tower with 284 apartments and 20,000 square feet of commercial space, Pickhardt said.

The tower project also will have 200 parking spaces, he said.

“We’ve all been involved in the project for some time,” he said, citing an integrated project delivery model with Andersen as the contractor, Guardian as the property manager and Skylab as the architect. All were involved in the development process from the get-go.

Construction is likely to take 20 months, Pickhardt said.

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A geyser of construction activity is about to erupt at the east end of the Burnside Bridge, and one final development is bubbling to the surface.

Hood River-based Key Development is purchasing from the Portland Development Commission the tiny spit of land (Block 76W) on the west side of the Couch Street couplet, and planning to build a two- to three-story commercial building. The firm already is preparing to break ground in August on a 21-story mixed-use tower on Block 67, due west of Block 76W, and other developers are hot on its heels with projects.

PDC commissioners on Wednesday unanimously approved Key Development’s offer for the 8,414-square-foot sister site. Given its small size, sharp slope and the presence of submerged support structures for the Burnside Bridge, the property was not expected to draw an offer.

“When I looked at this plan I never thought that piece of property would get developed,” PDC Board Chairman and Melvin Mark President Scott Andrews said during the hearing. “It’s got a 20 percent slope (and) it’s holding up Couch Street … God bless Key Development.”

Development of the small site wasn’t initially part of Key Development’s plan, principal Jeff Pickhardt acknowledged, but was instead born out of a need to create a stronger pedestrian connection with the bridge.

Key Development’s original plan was to make that connection via Block 67, but Pickhardt said that fizzled when his team learned that the railing on the Burnside Bridge is historically significant – and therefore untouchable. Then, during a design assistance meeting with the city, team members shifted their attention to the grassy island.

“I have to give credit to Skylab (Architecture) in coming up with the design,” Pickhardt said. “They took it upon themselves to create the first run at the design, and then reintroduced it as part of the larger project.”

The proposed 20,000-square-foot building looks like a miniature version of the nearby tower’s podium structure. A large, glass storefront system, triangular frame and green roof suggest a mountain or steep hillside.

The Block 76W development is estimated to cost $6.4 million; Andersen Construction is Key Development’s general contractor for both that project and Block 67.

The PDC is selling the property to Key Development (via Block 76 LLC) for a July 2013 fair market value of $336,000, but the true price will be the cost to perform “extraordinary” geotechnical work – estimated at $361,000. As the development firm pays for that work, the PDC will reimburse it the purchase price.

Key Development also is required to make a $33,600 earnest payment that will be nonrefundable following a 30-day due diligence period. The deal is scheduled to close within 90 days, and the development firm must begin work within three years or the PDC can buy the property back for the original purchase price. The PDC also would gain a 10 percent interest in any resulting sale of the developed site within five years of completion.

Block 76W was the PDC’s last property at the east end of the Burnside Bridge. A planning effort for the bridgehead began some 15 years ago. In 2004, the PDC selected Opus Northwest to develop all of the properties at once; however, that plan dissolved during the recession.

Momentum picked back up in 2009, when the PDC tweaked its framework plan to attract smaller projects in lieu of a larger one. Beam Development got the ball rolling with its redevelopment of the Eastside Exchange building.

Many other projects are planned in the area. Guerrilla Development has a six-story commercial building on tap for Block 76E (the other two-thirds of the block divided by Couch Street); Beam Development and Urban Development Partners are planning a mixed-use project at Block 75 (due north of Block 76); the Seattle office of Texas-based Trinsic Residential Group is preparing to begin a 159-unit mixed-use project on the block due east of Block 76E; and NFN Investments and Arthur Mutal are remodeling the R.J. Templeton Building on the south side of the bridge.

All of those projects are expected to be under way by early 2015.

“We expect that to be a pretty serious construction zone starting in about two months,” said Eric Jacobson, a senior project manager for the PDC.

He added that the tiny commercial building proposed for Block 76W will play an especially important role for the Burnside bridgehead.

“Our design objective was to treat this as a gateway to the entire Burnside Bridge,” he said. “This is – especially for (bicyclists) and pedestrians coming to the bridge – this is the first property they’re going to encounter. So it was really important for us for it to be activated.”

For Pickhardt, the project has been a long time coming. His company has been working on the Burnside bridgehead development since responding to a PDC inquiry in July 2010.

Pickhardt and Jeff Kovel, a Skylab Architecture principal, first presented drawings of the 21-story tower to the Portland Design Commission in April 2013, to mixed reviews. They received the commission’s approval in December.

“It’s been a really interesting project for us,” Pickhardt said. “And it’s certainly rewarding getting to a point where we’re actually ready to come out of the ground.”

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Downtown Portland’s West End may be a burgeoning hot spot today, but Alix Nathan, one of the second-generation owners of the Mark Spencer Hotel, said that several years ago it was not so hot.

“We had all these security problems,” he said. “We had drugs. We had prostitution … I would come up myself and walk the block at night if I didn’t have security to try and keep that activity down.”

Now Nathan is preparing a hefty remodel of the West End’s Dinihanian Building to suit Roche Bobois, a French high-end furniture retailer. He sees the company’s arrival as a kind of bellwether for the area, and vindication for a long-term strategy that started 20 years ago – when all he could do was buy land and wait.

“In the ’90s, we acquired the buildings around the hotel because the neighborhood was so bad and it was the only way to provide a little more security for the hotel patrons,” he said. “We had prostitution in the street up until seven to eight years ago.”

In 1994, Nathan family members – who purchased the Mark Spencer Hotel in 1977 – bought the adjacent, 18,000-square-foot building at the corner of Southwest 12th Avenue and Stark Street. It was a parole office at the time. A few years later, they bought the Washington Plaza building and the Portland Telegram building on the same block. Over the course of two decades, they invested millions of dollars in methodical renovation work – sometimes at great risk.

“(The Portland Telegram Building) was a disaster for us,” Nathan said. “It nearly bankrupted our family and our company. It was terrible.”

Following a $6.5 million renovation of the Portland Telegram Building, its three main tenants fell on hard times and vacated – leaving Nathan without income to pay for the project. But the building eventually gained new tenants. Other property owners in the area have since followed with improvements of their own.

“It’s (the result of) a group of local property owners (and tenants) that all bought into the same vision,” said Greg Goodman, co-president of Downtown Development Group.

For instance, Skylab principal Jeff Kovel’s remodel of the building at Southwest 12th Avenue and Alder Street brought in the popular restaurant �Ұ�ü�Ա��, and Goodman’s revamp of the building across the street brought in Tasty n Alder and Lease Crutcher Lewis. Also, Project Ecological Development renovated the Black Box on Southwest 13th Avenue, Nathan renovated Washington Plaza, McMenamins opened the Crystal Hotel and A&R Development opened the Ace Hotel.

Combined, those projects and others molded the West End into a marketable destination – especially for brunch.

“Saturdays and Sundays – we’re just slamming,” said Cheryl Casey, owner and co-founder of Cheryl’s on 12th.

One of the next big projects for the area will be Goodman’s new high-rise to mirror the 23-story Twelve | West a block away. Ideally, he would like to include housing on the top, some sort of hip hotel in the middle, and a market on the ground floor. He’s ready to start that project as soon as he has leases in hand.

“The unfortunate thing about the district is everyone wants to be here and there’s no more space,” he said.

Property owners also jointly hired street cleaners and security guards, and installed solar-powered BigBelly trash cans on the corners. Nathan is adamant about maintaining cleanliness – he said he’s inclined to pick up items such as empty cans as he walks by.

Another challenge Nathan and others faced in attracting high-end retailers to the area was balancing that activity with the many low-income housing units present – many that previously were hotbeds for crime, he said. Communication become critical – Nathan knows the names the longtime low-income tenants in his buildings by name.

“It’s great to have the diversity that we have as long as we can also keep the neighborhood safe and clean and business friendly,” he said. “That’s where businesses sometimes – retail businesses particularly – won’t come here if we have problems with safety, drugs or otherwise. I think for the most part we’ve really solved it.”

Roche Bobois officials think so too. They searched for space in Portland for approximately seven years before finding the “right” space in the Dinihanian Building, according to company representative Tyler Benz. Jon Kellogg, Kathleen Healy and Ashley Heichelbech of Commercial Realty Advisors Northwest presented Nathan with the prospect of Roche Bobois joining the building after realizing that the lease of the current tenant, Vinopolis, was about to expire. Vinopolis is relocating to 1610 N.W. Glisan St.

The remodel of the Dinihanian – the name of a family that previously operated an Oriental rug business in the building – will involve removal of existing canopies from the facade and creation of a larger glass storefront system. A series of metal fins will jut from the second-story windows, and with LED lights will make the building – at 1025 S.W. Washington St. – glow at night.

The existing “rug/carpet” rotating sign will be preserved and restored. Nathan expects work to begin later this month; Waterleaf Architecture is the project’s designer.

Nathan also has plans to convert the former parole building at Southwest 12th Avenue and Stark Street into creative office and retail space. He’s already garnered interest from Bamboo Izakaya, Kure Juice Bar and San Francisco-based bag manufacturer Timbuk2.

After waiting patiently, Nathan is glad to see his investments picking up steam.

“It’s a 35-year-plus, long-term vision,” he said. “We’re just starting to see it come together, but there’s a lot more to come.”

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The Portland Design Commission on Thursday unanimously approved two Portland high-rise projects.

Commission members first OK’d the modified 30-story design for TMT Development‘s Park Avenue West mixed-use tower, between Southwest Yamhill and Morrison streets, and Park and Ninth avenues. Members later helped clear the way for construction of Key Development Corp.’s Block 67 mixed-use tower between Northeast Couch and North Burnside streets, and Northeast Second and Third avenues.

Crews are scheduled to begin building the $55 million Block 67 project, also known as the Burnside Bridgehead, early next summer, said Jeff Kovel, principal with Portland-based Skylab Architecture, which designed the building. JE Dunn Construction will serve as the contractor, he said.

Skylab received design approval for two versions of the building. One design would have 21 stories – 16 floors of apartments on top of five floors of retail and office space – and a parking garage with 200 spaces. A second version of the building would have three fewer floors of apartments.

Kovel presented revisions to the project based on feedback from the commission. A planter in the entryway was changed, trees were added, and a covered walkway on a plaza above the building’s office and retail space was modified.

He highlighted the way the building facade transitions from glass at the top to mostly metal panels at the bottom.

“We think that it’s going to be a unique aesthetic,” he said.

Design commissioner David Keltner told Kovel he worried that the lower floors wouldn’t have enough windows.

“My concern is that the bottom part gets heavy with all that metal,” he said.

Overall, commission members said they were pleased with the project design. Commission vice chairman David Wark praised Skylab’s efforts to make the building’s ground floor inviting to pedestrians.

“I think it’s a very compelling first floor,” he said. “Whether it’s a gateway project or not, it definitely marks its place. It’s going to mark its place in a creative way.”

Commission members gave Park Avenue West, designed by Portland-based TVA Architects, final approval. The general design was OK’d by the commission twice previously, first as a 33-story tower in 2007 and then as a 26-story tower in 2009.

Hoffman Construction restarted construction of the $175 million project recently after it stalled during the recession because of a lack of financing. In October, TMT Development announced that it had secured a construction loan from Pacific Coast Capital Partners LLC and could resume work on the project.

In September, labor union SEIU Local 49 appealed the updated 30-story tower design – 15 floors of apartments, 13 floors of office space and two floors of retail space – because it would lack affordable housing. Before the Design Commission approved the revised design, chairwoman Guenevere Millius said she believed the union’s appeal was inappropriate.

“To ask a development team to change use becomes a slippery slope,” she said. “The request made me extremely uncomfortable.”

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