If things had gone a different way, Tom Moyer might never have found his way into the world of development – and the landscape of Portland would have been the poorer for it.

Moyer, who died this past November at the age of 95, dropped out of high school as a freshman to embark on a career as a boxer. Building impressive amateur and professional records, he narrowly lost a five-round amateur bout to Sugar Ray Robinson and missed out on an Olympic appearance due to the start of World War II.

In 1966, he opened the region’s first multi-screen theater in Portland. One theater grew into a chain, and Moyer earned a reputation for having an eye for finding the best spot for each location.

He eventually decided to sell the chain and sail around the world with his wife, who died while the theaters were being sold.

“He got to the end (of his plans) and she was gone,” Moyer’s granddaughter, Vanessa Sturgeon, said, “so his plans got completely broken.”

Alone and grieving, Moyer sailed around the world several times. Then he got bored, and decided it was time to start yet another career, this time as a developer, Sturgeon said.

From a handful of properties, Moyer went on to develop some of the Portland’s most prestigious buildings.

His willingness to walk, sail and develop the path less traveled extended to his choice for his successor at his company, TMT Development. Sturgeon was pursuing her dream of becoming a judge when her grandfather asked her to join the company.

“Not many people of his generation would give a young woman with no experience a chance,” said Sturgeon, now the president of TMT Development. “But he was very gender-blind and color-blind when it came to people.”

Under her grandfather’s guidance, Sturgeon learned about the world of development. The most valuable lesson he taught her: “He taught me to go with your gut; data and numbers aren’t enough,” she said.

Moyer’s last project, Park Avenue West, was still rising when he died. But while the tower will finish next year under Sturgeon’s watchful eye, she says it will always be her grandfather’s project.

“Park Avenue West is entirely his vision,” Sturgeon said. “I wish I could take credit for it, but I can’t. It’s not mine.”

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Portland native Tom Moyer retired from leading TMT Development in 2010. But he lived a full life for many years before, including an impressive run as an amateur boxer, service with the U.S. Army during World War II and ownership of one of the largest privately-owned theater companies in the nation.

Moyer died Nov. 28, at age 95, at his home in Portland. He was remembered at a public service on Friday, at St. Mary’s Cathedral. He founded TMT Development, and built projects including the 1000 Broadway Building, the Fox Tower, Hayden Meadows throughout Portland and the Pacific Northwest.

Born in Sellwood, Moyer eventually turned to boxing and amassed 145 victories in 156 amateur bouts. In one he knocked down legend Sugar Ray Robinson, who nevertheless won in a split decision.

Moyer earned the Bronze Star for service during World War II. He served in the I Company, 186th Regiment, 41st Infantry Division.

Before entering the development business, Moyer built a theater company that eventually had more than 300 screens. He sold his Luxury Theaters chain to Act III Cinemas (now Regal Cinemas) in 1989.

That opened the door for Moyer to start TMT Development, which now is led by his granddaughter Vanessa Sturgeon. The company is continuing to bring to market Park Avenue West. The downtown office tower is scheduled to open in 2016.

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Last week in Portland, crews began dismantling a crane that has stood idle for two years at the Park Avenue West construction site. President Vanessa Sturgeon informed the media earlier this month that work on the planned office tower will resume in 2013.

However, the project may come under greater scrutiny because of a legal dispute between Sturgeon and more than a dozen relatives. Specifically, Tim Moyer, patriarch developer Tom Moyer‘s son, claims Sturgeon, Tom’s granddaughter, misdirected money from some of the family’s assets to the Park Avenue West project. Family members disagree about the significance of the legal battle and also how it affects Park Avenue West, which is slated to open in 2015.

The dispute in the Moyer family was exposed last week when filed Nov. 14 with the Multnomah County probate office. The family is in the process of assigning a trustee for family trusts because Tom Moyer was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, Tim Moyer said. Because of Tom Moyer’s deteriorating health, Sturgeon has essentially managed TMT Development since 2009, according to the documents.

“When that happened, it divided Tom Moyer Theatres into two entities – the Marilyn Moyer Trust and the Tom Moyer Trust,” said Tim Moyer, who manages family farms in Hawaii.

In the documents, 14 of Tom Moyer’s 18 descendants are represented as opposing the petition of Kimberly Moyer, Tom Moyer’s daughter and Sturgeon’s mother, to appoint First Republic Trust Co. as trustee of the Marilyn Moyer Trust.

The 14 family members, including three of Tom Moyer’s four children and several grandchildren, contend that First Republic has conflicts of interests that would prevent it from being a neutral third party, because it has sided with Sturgeon and Kimberly Moyer “repeatedly over the last 15 months … to the detriment of other beneficiaries” of the family’s trusts, according to the documents.

“Most of the family would rather have someone more independent,” Tim Moyer said.

The group contends that First Republic, as a trustee of the Tom Moyer Trust, ignored evidence that Sturgeon was involved in “improperly” diverting money from two of the family’s holdings, at 1000 Broadway and Fox Tower, to the Park Avenue West project. The family members claim that $14 million has been transferred from 1000 Broadway to Park Avenue West since 2006, including $8 million in 2009.

Those claims were brought to Arbitration Service of Portland in August by family members who are beneficiaries of the 1000 Broadway property, and were settled privately. Tim Moyer said that a result of the settlement was that “some of the money has been returned, and management is being replaced.”

“We’re really disappointed that we couldn’t settle this within the family,” Tim Moyer said. “But when someone blatantly violates operating agreements and treats someone with disdain, someone has to stand up.”

“The claims that are made in the filings are simply not accurate,” Sturgeon said. She would not comment on the allegations, citing ongoing litigation; however, she did say that the “other side of the story” would come out in future documents.

“What is written in those pleadings is just totally inaccurate,” Sturgeon said. “That’s all I can say.”

As to why the claims were being made, Sturgeon said she didn’t know.

“The issue is really narrow; it’s just about who’s going to be the successor trustee of Marilyn Moyer Trust,” said Sturgeon, who added that it is a “small part” of the family portfolio. “It includes a small suburban shopping center and some bare land. It has very little impact on the company as a whole, and it has no impact on 1000 Broadway or Fox Tower or Park Avenue West.”

Despite claims by Tim Moyer and other family members that Sturgeon has mishandled family assets, she said she expects the Park Avenue West project to move ahead as planned.

“Definitely,” Sturgeon said. “It has no impact.”

Tim Moyer said that “the market will take care of Park Avenue West.”

“It’s our hope that our father’s business will be able to move forward with all of the initiatives (TMT Development) decide to undertake,” he said.

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When Robert Thompson‘s three-year-old architecture firm was invited in 1987 to bid on design work for the Nike World Headquarters project in Beaverton he knew it was a monumental opportunity.

But what Thompson didn’t know was that the project, which his firm eventually got, would lead to 34 additional projects – including private residences, Nike retail stores, an airport hanger for the worldwide athletic apparel company and even a $200 million basketball arena for the University of Oregon.

The firm, now known as TVA Architects, has designed structures ranging from a 40-story high-rise in China to an interpretive museum commemorating Muhammad Ali in Louisville, Ky. But Thompson says the company’s success starts with the relationships built here in Oregon. And while times have been tough over the last three years for both local and national architecture firms, TVA has bucked the trend by leveraging these relationships to actually grow its business.

“We look at it as if this business all starts with building good relationships with successful clients, not just designing good buildings,” Thompson said. “The question then becomes: How do you build and maintain those relationships?

“You build those relationships by performance. By designing high-quality buildings through listening to your client, putting their ideas into concept and solving their building problems.”

In 1987, one of those relationships helped TVA land the opportunity with Nike. TMT Development‘s Tom Moyer, who was beginning to work more with Thompson, talked up TVA while speaking with Nike CEO Phil Knight.

“(Tom) Moyer was actually one of my very first clients,” he said. “At the time he was developing a lot of retail centers, movie theaters and small office projects, which are some of the types of projects we were capable of doing.”

The relationship with Moyer has led to nearly as much work as with Nike, and probably even more diversity. TVA designed the 27-story Fox Tower in downtown Portland, and the 26-story Park Avenue West tower, where construction is presently stalled. The firm also has designed homes for the Moyer family and even a nondenominational meditation center dedicated to Moyer’s wife, Marilyn.

“We haven’t just built relationships with people and companies; we’ve built lasting relationships with great people and high-quality companies,” he said. “As they’ve grown and built a reputation, it’s allowed us to do the same.”

Nike, for example, was a $750 million company when TVA was hired to design its first group of buildings at the company’s Beaverton headquarters. That year, 1987, also was when Nike introduced its Air shoe sole concept and signed basketball player Michael Jordan. The company has grown at a rate of about $1 billion annually since 1987, even posting a 22 percent earnings increase in the second fiscal quarter of 2010-11.

“I think Phil (Knight) saw TVA as a similar company to Nike when he first hired us,” Thompson said. “He had passion, big dreams and a good work ethic – just like us.”

TVA presently has 32 employees; four are architects with eight to 10 years experience who were hired in the last week of 2010. This year is expected to keep the firm busy. It is under contract to finalize the design for a new alumni center that will be built next to the Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene. The firm also is working on six Nike retail stores across the country, including a new one in Portland.

“We are incredibly optimistic about this coming year and I’m not just saying that,” he said. “Plus, it couldn’t get much worse than it has been these last couple of years.”

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Since construction on the Park Avenue West tower ground to a halt last year when the financial markets tightened up, the project has become perhaps Portland’s most visible symbol of recession: a fenced-up, 40-foot-deep hole in the ground with rusting rebar sticking out. But the project’s half-started status could end up helping it, according to some local real estate professionals.

“A lot of people paint this hole in the ground as a great tragedy. But the costs accrued on the project so far aren’t lost; they are sunk into the project,” said Gerard Mildner, associate professor of real estate finance at Portland State University.

Tom Moyer, owner of TMT Development, decided to start construction on Park Avenue West on a speculative basis, with no tenants or financing lined up. It wasn’t the first time he had taken such an approach to constructing a building in Portland. In 1997, he used his own money to start building the Fox Tower, relying on word of mouth to attract both financing and tenants. By the time the 27-story building opened in 2000, 93 percent of it was leased.

The Park Avenue West project, however, was plagued by bad timing and tightening financial markets. Law firm Stoel Rives pre-leased 11 floors, but that wasn’t enough to convince lenders to extend a loan for the project. As a result, Moyer stopped construction on Park Avenue West.

But Mildner thinks the project can still be successful, based on the makeup of the office market in Portland’s Central Business District.

“You would think First & Main being delivered would be a nail in the coffin for the Park Avenue West project,” he said of the First & Main building that recently finished construction. Several federal agencies moved from the Edith Green–Wendell Wyatt Federal Building – which is being renovated – to First & Main.

“(First & Main) doesn’t free up any space because most of it was absorbed quickly with long-term leases from various federal agencies,” Mildner said.

Mildner suspects the costs of keeping the Park Avenue West project stalled are actually low, relative to the overall cost. Other than fees associated with rental fencing and crane management, no other substantial costs are likely involved, he said.

Considering that foundation work has already started and that the permitting process has already been navigated, both the developer and the city have incentive to get this project moving again, Mildner added.

Based on state building codes, a municipality can pull the permits on a stalled project after six months if the developer doesn’t pay to have a full inspection performed on the project in that time period, said Ross Caron, spokesperson for the Bureau of Development Services. But the municipality also has the discretion to extend that time period.

“In the case of Park Avenue West, where the problem was a financing issue, BDS is willing to extend that time period as long as the developer is keeping the site safe and secure,” he said. “Both the developer and the city have an incentive to see this project through.”

The Portland Development Commission has an incentive, from an economic development standpoint, to see the project restart. But the city also has an interest in it from a financial standpoint, with the $1.3 million in property taxes that the tower is projected to bring in on an annual basis.

“The problem with Park Avenue West from our standpoint is that there is no money available to help them out,” said Shawn Uhlman, spokesperson for the PDC. The last year the project could borrow money against the South Park Blocks Urban Renewal Area was 2008.

Cities across the country are trying to come up with practical solutions for using property where construction projects are stalled. The Seattle Department of Planning and Development earlier this month announced legislation that would give developers a break on property taxes for allowing their unbuilt properties to be used as parking lots, or to house food carts or retail kiosks. Vancouver, B.C., is giving tax breaks to idle project lots turned into community gardens, dog parks or green spaces while waiting out current market conditions. But Portland hasn’t had enough halted construction projects to warrant looking into such solutions, Uhlman said.

Mildner doesn’t think the Park Avenue West site would be suitable for an alternate temporary use. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, he said.

“The fact that we have a motivated property owner with these sunken costs isn’t the worst thing in the world,” Mildner said. “And I suspect the added costs of having the crane there and keeping the site secure is pretty trivial compared to shutting the entire thing down and losing the sunken costs.”

The stalled status of Park Avenue West could actually end up benefiting the project, according to Brian Owendoff, managing director of CB Richard Ellis‘ Portland office.

If the project were to move forward soon, it would have a significant lead on any other similar projects, and have an edge in attracting tenants. Speed of delivery is a huge advantage, Owendoff said.

And considering that the foundation has been constructed for the specific project, there is no financially feasible way to build anything else, Mildner added.

In the meantime, Vanessa Sturgeon, president of TMT Development, is providing few specifics about the future of the project.

“There are some costs adding up, so we will have to make a decision with what we want to do,” Sturgeon said. “But it’s going to take us a little more time to make that decision.”

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