Work has begun in Hillsboro on a mixed-use development that will be the largest cross-laminated timber project to date in Oregon.

AmberGlen South will have a total of 495 housing units in three buildings. At 449,457 square feet combined, the CLT buildings have more space than the First Tech Federal Credit Union office building, also in Hillsboro, or the Marshall Elementary School and McLoughlin Middle School projects in Vancouver, Washington.

AmberGlen South comes from The Wolff Co., a major developer based in Scottsdale, Arizona. The development comprises twin six-story market-rate apartment buildings and a five-story senior living facility. The southwest building will have 197 housing units, with two levels of structured parking in a double-podium design. The northwest building will be similar, with 155 units along with two levels of structured parking. A senior living facility, Revel AmberGlen, will have 143 units in five stories, with parking below grade.

“We’ve been a big believer in the Hillsboro area for a long time,” said Rob O’Dea, a spokesman for The Wolff Co. “Obviously, there’s a ton of jobs out there.” Major nearby employers include Nike, Intel and Salesforce.

The project site is at 91st Street between Northeast Wilkins Street and Gibbs Drive, just south of Tanasbourne and Sunset Highway. A fourth block is expected to be developed at a later date. The use of that block has not been determined, a spokesman for the developer stated in an email.

Hillsboro has long planned high-density development in the AmberGlen area. The City Council in 2010 adopted the to guide development there.

“What we really sought to do was take a somewhat underutilized office park and turn it into a high-density neighborhood,” said Dan Dias, economic and community development director for the city of Hillsboro.

The project is being designed by LRS Architects, with Katerra serving as the architect of record and general contractor. The project team plans to use CLT from Katerra’s factory under construction in Spokane Valley, Washington.

Site work is under way at AmberGlen. Excavation has begun, and construction cranes are being moved into place. The project is expected to go vertical this summer, with the CLT on track to be installed in August.

CLT has proved attractive in Oregon to developers who prefer the material’s faster construction timelines and lower carbon footprint, along with a link to the timber industry. Portland has been the epicenter of CLT construction in the United States, and this week again hosted the annual International Mass Timber Conference at the Oregon Convention Center.

Katerra, a vertically integrated housing firm based in Menlo Park, California, has entered the CLT market with factories in Phoenix and Tracy, California, in addition to the one in Eastern Washington. Competitors include D.R. Johnson of Riddle, in Southern Oregon, and Canada’s Structurlam.

“From our standpoint, there’s a couple of things that make it a really attractive material,” O’Dea said. “It allows us to do some things from a design standpoint. It allows us to run longer spans of material.

“Aesthetically, it’s a beautiful product,” O’Dea added. “The third piece of it is, it’s faster to build, which improves the economics of a project and gets the project to market more quickly.”

The city of Hillsboro is considering using CLT for a planned community center on 53rd Avenue, Dias said.

Future residents of AmberGlen South will have easy access to Portland via the MAX light-rail line.

“It is a hot spot,” said Cynthia Schuster, a senior projects manager with LRS Architects. “There’s just a need for housing, and people find the rents are a little cheaper.”

The project team also seeks to meet increasing demand for multigenerational housing.

“Seniors, they don’t necessarily want to go to a home where they’ll be isolated,” Schuster said. “They want to be in a community.”

LRS had worked on the site for previous developers before The Wolff Co. took over the project.

“Originally, Wolff would have preferred to do lower density on the site,” Schuster said. “The city was pretty adamant they wanted their four blocks and higher density. Obviously, it stuck and that’s what’s being built.”

The Wolff Co. previously developed The Arbory, a 276-unit multifamily development with 2,200 square feet of retail space in Hillsboro. The developer was under contract on a riverfront property below the west end of the Broadway Bridge in Northwest Portland, but walked away from a $9 million deal in 2016 with the Portland Development Commission (now Prosper Portland).

“We were under contract on that one, but we stepped out of the contract and terminated the deal,” O’Dea said this week. “There were some pretty significant design constraints on that site, and there were also some environmental constraints that made the project untenable.”

O’Dea said The Wolff Co. is interested in future development opportunities in Hillsboro.

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The location of a proposed homeless shelter at the west end of the Broadway Bridge has for years been the subject of development plans that did not come to fruition.

Oregon Harbor of Hope proposes to erect in Portland a temporary homeless shelter on the city-owned property at 1053-1201 N.W. Naito Parkway. The so-called “navigation center” would offer shelter for up to 90 days and connect the homeless to nearby social services.

“We do not intend this facility to house people on a long-term basis,” said Don Mazziotti, a board director for Oregon Harbor of Hope, the nonprofit organization led by developer Homer Williams.

The purpose of the center is “not to permanently shelter people but rather navigate to the services that will meet their needs best,” Mazziotti said.

The property has had a history of ambitious development plans that fizzled. The 2-acre parcel is bifurcated by the bridge, and complicated by a bridge easement. Vehicle noise, sight lines and proximity to the waterfront are among the many development obstacles.

The agency purchased the property in 1987 as part of the larger Union Station acquisition. Developers have unsuccessfully sought to build on the property. Most recently, in 2016, the Portland Development Commission (now Prosper Portland) entered into negotiations with The Wolff Company, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Wolff submitted a $9 million offer to build two apartment buildings totaling 340 units.

Wolff’s proposal did not move forward. The sale agreement went through several amendments before Wolff terminated it in June 2017, Prosper Portland spokeswoman Anne Mangan stated in an email message. The company’s development director did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Before Wolff, Winkler Development Corp. proposed to build on the parcel an office and garage project known as One Waterfront Place. The PDC terminated the agreement in 2011, more than a decade after Winkler became involved, when construction still had not begun.

The PDC listed the property with CBRE in June 2015, attracting offers from Wolff and Winkler.

Oregon Harbor of Hope’s push for the downtown navigation center comes after the announcement of a $1.5 million donation from Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle. The timeline for the shelter’s operation depends on city permitting, Mazziotti said. Oregon Harbor of Hope has scheduled pre-application meetings with the Bureau of Development Services and other relevant city bureaus.

“It’s not clear from the code whether this is an outright allowed use,” Mazziotti said.

The city’s emergency housing ordinance could provide some leeway, he said.

Mazziotti said he has also met with representatives of the Pearl District and Old Town-Chinatown neighborhood associations.

The proposed structure would be a “pavilion” – a 9,000-square-foot heavy-mill acrylic membrane cover stretched on an aluminum frame. Similar structures are used for homeless shelters in San Diego and San Francisco. They are also used for a church in Tigard, at Portland International Airport and Intel, Mazziotti said.

The pavilion is fully insulated and can be erected in about six weeks, Mazziotti said.

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A four-building apartment project will bring 276 units to the AmberGlen area of Hillsboro when crews complete construction next year. LMC Construction is building The Arbory for Scottsdale, Arizona-based developer The Wolff Company, on a four-acre parcel along Northwest Amberglen Parkway.

The Myhre Group Architects-designed project consists of four buildings – two large, four-story buildings measuring 125,000 square feet each, and two three-story buildings – one at 66,000 square feet and another at 33,000 square feet. The structures feature a combination of wood framing, steel and post-tensioned concrete podiums.

Around 150 tradespeople are on site daily working on the project. The buildings will be leased in phases beginning next spring, and total completion is slated for fall 2018.

Residential units will range in size from studios to three-bedrooms. Amenities will include a weight room, a yoga studio, a dog wash area, a bike repair and storage space, a community kitchen and a rooftop deck. Both tuck-under and surface parking will be offered.

The project team includes Atlas Landscape Architecture, civil engineer Humber Design Group, and structural engineer Froelich Engineers. The buildings are being framed by Wood Mechanix, and Jet Industries is performing electrical, HVAC and fire sprinkler systems installation, with Point Monitor subcontracted for low-voltage systems. Roger Langeliers Construction Co. is performing concrete work. Tapani Plumbing, Westside Drywall and Floor Solutions are also working on the project.

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An Arizona-based developer plans to build 340 apartment units in two buildings at the west end of the Broadway Bridge on land purchased from the Portland Development Commission.

The commission approved the $9 million sale to The Wolff Company, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, at a public meeting earlier this month. The developer has committed to designating 20 percent of the units – approximately 68 – as affordable for people earning 60 percent of the median family income for a period of 10 years. The developer’s representatives said 55 of those units will be maintained as affordable units for 20 years.

The site has long been targeted for development, but the PDC is connecting with a new developer after years of working with Portland’s Winkler Development Corp. A development agreement between the parties was terminated in 2011 after eight years of no construction.

The Wolff Company plans to begin construction by late 2017, with completion to follow in August 2019. The total development cost is anticipated at $75 million to $80 million, said Chris Rossman, Pacific Northwest director of development for The Wolff Company.

Project plans also call for 164 below-grade parking spaces.

The site, at 1053-1201 Northwest Naito Parkway, comes with several challenges. The Broadway Bridge cuts across the property from above, essentially dividing the 2-acre lot in two. One building, containing approximately 230 units, will be built north of the bridge, while another structure containing 110 units will be constructed south of the bridge.

“You definitely are limited in terms of how you can program the site due to the relationship with the bridgehead,” said Rossman, who is based in Seattle. “We’re looking at the areas north and south of the bridge; they’re unencumbered.”

The Wolff Company has not decided what it will do with the center of the property. The developer is looking at ways to link the buildings and provide for outdoor uses, Rossman said.

The company has long sought a large property to develop in Portland, Rossman said. Previous potential development opportunities fell through.

“It hasn’t been a lack of interest in Portland – quite the opposite,” he said.

The company recently began construction on a 279-unit apartment project in Hillsboro’s AmberGlen area. The as-yet-unnamed development will have only market-rate units.

“In urban Portland, finding these larger parcels is difficult,” Rossman said.

The Wolff Company has a national profile, but is particularly active in the Northwest, with numerous developments and acquisitions in Eugene, the Seattle area, and Spokane, Washington. The developer also has a significant footprint in California.

The developer has not yet selected an architect or general contractor for the Broadway bridgehead project, Rossman said.

Portland’s strong population growth is one of the economic forces driving the project, Rossman said. The Portland-Vancouver, Washington metro area gained an estimated 40,621 residents from 2014 to 2015, according to the Census Bureau.

Another driving factor is demand for urban housing, Rossman said.

“That’s more of a social trend that we’re seeing across the country, not just in the Pacific Northwest,” he said.

In many cities, established business districts are gaining residential units at a strong pace, he said.

The section of Portland around the Broadway bridgehead is likely to be transformed in coming years. The development site is near the 14-acre parcel that the PDC purchased in May from the U.S. Postal Service for $88 million. A preliminary framework plan calls for developing buildings totaling 3.8 million square feet, including nearly 2.1 million square feet of residential space.

The Broadway bridgehead project will use the city’s multiple-unit limited tax exemption, or MULTE, a Portland Housing Bureau property-tax exemption program.

The Wolff Company has had success in other cities using incentive programs that offer property tax abatements in exchange for affordable units, Rossman said.

“We’ve found that a great mechanism in the markets we work in,” he said.

The program is similar to others in Seattle and other cities, Rossman said.

“Ultimately, we look at that as the ability to provide immediate affordable housing, and the incentive allows an economic offset to the development cost to the developer,” he said.

The units could remain affordable for even longer than the 20-year period mandated by the MULTE program. The Wolff Company plans to employ tax-credit financing that would require the units remain affordable for 30 years, Rossman said.

The Housing Bureau last year revamped the MULTE program after it initially failed to attract developers’ interest. The agency raised an annual cap on the tax exemptions from $1 million to $3 million, and eliminated a rule that capped the return on market-rate units at 10 percent.

The PDC purchased the Broadway bridgehead property in 1987 as part of the larger Union Station acquisition, and it has since been redeveloped in pieces. The Wolff Company’s purchase follows a development process by Winkler Development Corp.’s that ultimately fizzled.

Winkler Development partnered with the PDC beginning in 2000 to build an office and garage project know as One Waterfront Place, but the development agreement was amended eight times to allow for additional time and other changes. The PDC terminated the agreement in 2011 when construction still had not begun.

The agency listed the property with CBRE in June 2015. The listing garnered two offers: a $2 million offer from a limited liability company backed by Winkler Development, and the $9 million offer from The Wolff Company.

“We’re certainly glad we’ve been able to come to a place with an acquisition,” said Anne Mangan, a PDC spokeswoman.

The city saw 5.1 percent annualized rent growth during the second quarter – still robust, but below double-digit rates seen recently, according to Portland State University’s Center for Real Estate. The regional vacancy rate was unchanged at 3.5 percent, suggesting a landlord’s market.

A wave of multifamily construction is under way in the Portland area. To date this year, 95 building permits have been issued in the metro area for structures of five units or more, totaling 3,813 units, according to PSU.

The Wolff Company’s project will help address a need for multifamily housing in Portland’s urban core.

“We can use more,” Mangan said.

The project was approved earlier this month by the PDC’s board without any questions. Mark Edlen, a board member and a developer himself, lauded The Wolff Company for its proposal.

“Welcome to Portland,” he said. “I’m glad you’re here.”

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