Seven historic preservation projects, including six designed by Portland architects, received a DeMuro Award last month. Restore Oregon hands out the awards to recognize outstanding examples of preservation and adaptive reuse.

The awards are named for late architect and historic preservation leader Art DeMuro, Restore Oregon executive director Peggy Moretti said.

“Art truly set a standard for his ability to envision the potential for a run-down historic place,” she said. “He could envision what it could be, and we honor him with his example and leadership as a board member of Restore Oregon.”

Portland-sited projects that received the DeMuro Award were: the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, the Erickson Fritz Apartments and Washington High School.

Out-of-town projects that received the award were: the Block House Café in Dayton, the Julian Hotel Apartments in Corvallis, the Old Salty beach house in Seaside and the Sparta Building in Medford.

The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design project was developed by Gerding Edlen, designed by Allied Works Architecture and built by Howard S. Wright Construction. The center, , “was brought back to its historic glory and expanded into a world-class educational facility.”

To create the Erickson Fritz Apartments on Northwest Second Avenue, two long-neglected buildings – the Erickson Saloon and the Fritz Hotel – were “restored and converted into much-needed mixed-income housing,” according to Restore Oregon. Innovative Housing Inc. was the developer, LRS Architects and ORANGEWALLstudios provided the design and Silco Commercial Construction served as the general contractor.

The Washington High School restoration was developed by Venerable Properties and Pacific Realty Associates, designed by SERA Architects and built by Bremik Construction. After standing vacant for more than 20 years, the school now holds retail and creative office space. The former auditorium is now Revolution Hall, a performing arts venue.

The Block House Café in Dayton had been a long-empty historic church that Restore Oregon said was “respectfully repurposed” and became an anchor destination in downtown Dayton. The developer was Twin Towers LLC of Tualatin, the designer was Paul M. Falsetto Architect and the general contractor was Fackler Construction of McMinnville.

Before being renovated, the Julian Hotel Apartments building, constructed in 1892, was run-down and used for Section 8 housing. It’s still used for low-income housing, but restoration brought it to “a state of grace and dignity for its residents and neighbors, demonstrating that preservation can serve the under-served,” Restore Oregon stated. The developer was Northwest Housing Alternatives, the designer was by Carleton Hart Architecture and the general contractor was Walsh Construction Co.

In Seaside, Old Salty is a 1910 beach house that was “saved, restored on a budget and furnished with salvage and garage sale treasures,” according to Restore Oregon. Reconstruction was designed by Emerick Architects. Hazen & Johnson Inc. of Seaside was the general contractor.

The Sparta Building in Medford was constructed in 1911 in the American Renaissance style. The restored structure is bringing “new life” to downtown Medford, according to Restore Oregon. Tater Rental LLC of Oregon City developed the project, Kramer & Co. of Ashland designed it and Norway Construction of Oregon City served as the general contractor.

The honored projects demonstrate what is possible through preservation, Moretti said.

“The DeMuro Award is for projects that represent a particularly exceptional standard for preservation and adaptive reuse and for challenging or creative preservation projects,” she said. “They set an example for historic preservation and reuse.”

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Architect Brian Emerick may be stepping down as chairman of Portland’s Historic Landmarks Commission this month, but that doesn’t mean he’ll stop advising city officials.

Emerick has served two four-year terms on the commission that weighs in on development in the city’s dozen or so historic districts. His tenure has run the gamut of economic cycles, from before the Great Recession to the building boom today.

Now he’ll take that experience in a somewhat different direction – one less time-consuming – as a member of a city task force charged with setting policy for Portland’s 1,800 unreinforced masonry buildings. He also will spend more time serving as a principal at Emerick Architects, which he co-founded with his wife, Melody Emerick.

Brian Emerick is looking forward to seeing the continuation of efforts that his leadership at the Historic Landmarks Commission has put in motion, as detailed in the State of the City Preservation Report that was presented to Portland City Council last week.

Among the goals set forth for 2016 for the Historic Landmarks Commission is the hire of a full-time senior preservation planner, which the city has needed for some time, Emerick said.

“We’ve got some incredibly dedicated volunteers that are high performers, but at the same time there’s only so much you can do as a volunteer,” he said. “You have to have staff to write the guidelines you really need, or if we had a dedicated city planner that has the bandwidth for that.”

Emerick said Seattle has “a number of preservation planner positions,” but Portland probably has more historic structures – many built in the early 1900s.

“Portland has the same if not more historic resources than Seattle,” he said. “After the Lewis and Clark Exposition in 1905 we had a huge growth spurt here and we kind of eclipsed Seattle at that point.”

Another recommendation in the city preservation report is to establish design guidelines for the Skidmore / Old Town Historic District – something the Historic Landmarks Commission has tried to do for years.

“About seven years ago we engaged in a pretty public process to rewrite the Skidmore / Old Town guidelines (for) a pretty big important area – our most historic area downtown,” Emerick said. “But it got really waylaid for political reasons and has been sitting in a manner of stasis for a number of years.”

With a different City Council now in place, a final draft of the Skidmore / Old Town guidelines will go before the council for adoption in February, Emerick said. Plans also are under way for development of a final draft of Old Town Chinatown Historic District guidelines by the end of next year.

The way city code is written right now, Emerick said, each historic district needs to have its own guidelines because each one is unique.

“But it also kind of puts a burden on the city because then (officials) have to write specific guidelines for each district,” he said. “But I think that definitely having two done for the most important (historic districts) will really help to set a standard to make the others easier to create. That would be the idea.”

The Historic Landmarks Commission is concerned with historic preservation, but is pro-development in that it wants to see historic districts and places active and thriving, Emerick said. That includes infill efforts.

“But at the same time we’re trying to plan for the landmarks of tomorrow,” he said. “The city says these are really important places and we want to make sure they will last another 100 years and really strengthen rather than take away from it.”

Another priority listed in the city preservation report is to update the city’s Historic Resource Inventory. That hasn’t happened since the late 1980s, Emerick said, and hasn’t included eastern parts of the city.

The city preservation report also states the need to secure funding and public support for retrofits of the many unreinforced masonry buildings, particularly in the downtown area, and also recommends seeking a balance between preservation and density.

City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversees the work of the Historic Landmarks Commission, said Emerick’s work has been essential.

“Brian has done an outstanding job and it’s a job that takes up a lot of spare time,” Saltzman said. “I appreciate the work that he and other members have done – like the issues around Mount Tabor and the Washington Park reservoirs, advice that was well-heeded by us. He’s done a great job.”

Emerick also received high praise from Jessica Engeman, a preservationist with Venerable Properties who also serves on the Landmarks Commission.

“He’s been a fabulous commissioner, a very gifted architect, a great moderator and facilitator,” Engeman said. “He really understands how buildings come together and the kinds of details that take a building from ordinary to outstanding.”

Many people think the Historic Landmarks Commission is primarily concerned with historic buildings, Engeman said, but most of its work concerns new construction in historic districts.

“Brian has taken it to the next level in terms of his expertise,” she said. “He provides feedback on new construction that responds to the DNA of the historic district.”

Serving on the Historic Landmarks Commission has been an honor, Emerick said. He became involved at the urging of late Venerable Properties founder Art DeMuro, a good friend who also was Emerick Architects’ first client 16 years ago.

“Art passed away a few years ago, but he was a great mentor and helped me when I became chair,” Emerick said. “He set a good precedent and helped strengthen the commission, and I’ve tried to do my best to carry that ball forward and make it even stronger than I found it.”

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If the former Washington High School building in Southeast Portland were converted into housing, its central auditorium would likely have become a light well.

Instead, a $20 million renovation that transformed the residentially zoned building into a mix of office and retail space preserved the auditorium so that performances can return.

“We always thought it had to be housing,” said Jessica Engeman, a project manager and historic preservation specialist with Portland-based developer Venerable Properties. “It just didn’t feel like the right project for so many reasons.”

But scrapping the housing plans and keeping the auditorium intact presented a series of challenges for Venerable, investment partner PacTrust, project designer SERA Architects and general contractor Bremik Construction. Among the most significant were insulating sound produced in the auditorium from the surrounding 50,000 square feet of creative office space. The development team was also tasked with ensuring they could recoup the investment of transforming the former school auditorium into Revolution Hall, a modern, multipurpose event space.

Project team members covered these topics and others related to the effort to preserve and revitalize the 91-year-old Washington High building last week during a panel discussion in the freshly renovated auditorium.

“The room we’re sitting in right now was probably the thing I was most excited about – I love music – but also the thing I was most scared about,” said Eric Sporre, vice president of asset management at Portland-based PacTrust. “By and large, (for) our tenant base here it’s been a draw for the building.”

The discussion was part of an event showcasing the nearly complete renovation of the Washington High building hosted by the Urban Land Institute Northwest‘s Oregon and Southwest Washington Young Leaders Group and the Oregon chapter of the American Planning Association. Along with Engeman and Sporre, panelists included Bremik Construction President Brent Parry, SERA associate Steven Ehlbeck and Kevin Cradock, co-owner of Revolution Hall and Mississippi Studios, a North Portland concert venue. Jerry Chevassus, head of store development with New Seasons Market, also discussed the grocery chain’s decision to relocate its headquarters to the building.

The school closed in 1981 because of declining enrollment. When Venerable and PacTrust purchased the property from Portland Public Schools in late 2013 with plans to renovate the building, it had sat vacant for decades.

Venerable’s late founder, Art DeMuro, was an ardent historic preservationist who became captivated by the former school building and wanted to see it restored, Engeman said.

“Before he became sick with cancer, this was really a development that caught his eye,” she said.

DeMuro’s goal to preserve the building drove the way it was renovated, Engeman said. She recently submitted a nomination for the building to be added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Much of the original school finishes were preserved, including lockers, blackboards, classroom clocks, cabinets and intercoms.

“There was no doubt that the classroom spaces were going to maintain their classroom character,” Ehlbeck said. “That was a very clear mandate.”

The auditorium was also carefully preserved; many of the wooden seats were restored. Cradock said he was immediately attracted to the space and saw the potential for it to host concerts and other events.

“We had dozens and dozens of conversations with Venerable about how we could curate the venue,” he said. “This town doesn’t really have a world class, state-of-the-art concert venue and now it does … It would be a shame if this was a light well. When you hear a concert in this room you’ll really understand.”

The tricky part was making sure the venue penciled out financially, Cradock said. Adding a roof deck to the building with panoramic views of downtown Portland and renting it out for weddings and other private events has helped, he said.

“The roof deck kind of padded the economics for us,” Cradock said. “It’s the best view in Portland, bar none.”

Creating the roof deck took a leap of faith that appears to be paying off, Sporre said.

“You’re also spending big money on something you don’t know has any revenue stream on it,” he said.

The roof deck was a larger investment, but the development team found other ways to save, Sporre said. A minimally invasive renovation that preserves much of the existing building kept costs down because no seismic upgrade was needed, he said.

As with any older building, there were surprises as construction crews pulled away portions of the former Washington High School, Parry said.

“Historical renovations are always challenging because you’re working on an existing building and there’s always constraints on what you can and cannot do,” he said.

The project team spent a significant amount of time figuring out how to keep the noise in the auditorium out of the office spaces, Ehlbeck said. To resolve this, a spring isolated ceiling was installed in the auditorium and doors were insulated heavily.

Chevassus said New Seasons officials weren’t bothered by the idea of sharing a building with a concert venue.

“We actually went through a sound test almost before most of the improvements and we thought, ‘We can live with this,’ ” Chevassus said.

Cradock said Revolution Hall will do its best to be a courteous neighbor to the office tenants.

“It’s still a science experiment, but something that I think will be very successful,” he said.

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Restore Oregon last week honored five preservation projects and named seven historic properties at risk of being lost. The 2014 DeMuro Award winners and properties on the 2015 list of Oregon’s Most Endangered Places were revealed during the nonprofit’s Restoration Celebration event in Portland.

The DeMuro Awards, named in honor of late Portland developer and preservationist Art DeMuro, recognize commercial, residential and public projects in Oregon that serve as extraordinary examples of historic preservation, adaptive reuse and community revitalization. This year’s winners include four projects in Portland: Fire Station No. 7, the Galleria Building, the Irvington Tennis Club and the Meier & Frank Delivery Depot. The Whiteside Theatre in Corvallis also received a DeMuro Award.

Developer Venerable Properties rehabilitated the decommissioned Fire Station No. 7, constructed in 1927, for office use while retaining its original character, including the fire pole. The project was designed by Emerick Architects and constructed by Bremik Construction.

The 104-year-old Galleria Building was restored by Bill Naito Co. and renovated to house a Target store. The project was designed by FFA Architecture and Interiors and constructed by Lease Crutcher Lewis.

An addition to the Irvington Tennis Club designed by Scott | Edwards Architecture to respect the original 102-year-old building and surrounding historic neighborhood also earned recognition. P & C Construction was the contractor.

Developer Gerding Edlen led a transformation of the 1927 Meier & Frank Delivery Depot in Portland’s Pearl District into Vestas‘ North American headquarters. The project was designed by GBD Architects and Ankrom Moisan Architects (interiors), and constructed by Skanska.

The Whiteside Theatre Foundation organized a restoration and structural rehab of the 1950s marquee on the downtown Corvallis building. The project architect was Andrew Pearson and Bob Grant Construction was the contractor.

Properties deemed Oregon’s Most Endangered Places are: the First Congregational Church in Portland, the Eastern Oregon University Grand Staircase in La Grande, the Gray Building in Portland, the Mildred Kanipe House in Oakland, the Shipley-Cook Barn in Lake Oswego, the Smith Barn in Cave Junction and the Wong Laundry Building in Portland.

Each property was nominated for inclusion on the list. A committee reviewed the nominations and compiled the list based on urgency of preservation, historic significance, community support and long-term viability. Listed properties will receive assistance from Restore Oregon.

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As renovation of Washington High School continues, the Southeast Portland historic landmark is sharing plenty of surprises.

“Always in historic renovations there are surprises,” said Craig Kelly, president of Venerable Properties. “Fortunately, most of these surprises have been positive. The fun part is finding little nuggets of treasure as we proceed.”

Washington High School, which replaced a school that burned in 1922, was built entirely of concrete and red brick. When it was completed in 1924, it featured a large auditorium at its center, wide corridors and light-filled stairwells.

The building, vacant since the 1980s, drew the attention of Venerable Properties, which specializes in historic renovations and adaptive reuse. Founder Art DeMuro and Kelly began planning for its revitalization in 2009. First, though, they had to buy the property from Portland Public Schools and obtain approvals to transform the historic school into a mix of office, retail and community space.

“The bureaucratic process of the transaction was very lengthy and sometimes difficult in the time it took to proceed,” Kelly said. “We had a lot of hoops to jump through for the city and the Historic Landmarks Commission. We were successful, but it took a lot of time, money and resources.”

When DeMuro died in 2012, Kelly was determined to carry the project forward. He gained the support and financial backing of PacTrust and, last October, finalized the purchase agreement with Portland Public Schools.

“I’ve always known the project was going to be successful; I just needed someone like Art who had the confidence in me and could see the forest through the trees,” Kelly said. “I was very fortunate to find a great partner in PacTrust to step in where I needed the help and kind of fill that void that Art left. For that, I’m very grateful.”

This November, the building will offer 20,000 square feet of retail space and 55,000 square feet of office space. The renovation also includes new heating and cooling, plumbing and electrical systems, as well as a new freight elevator. The building will be fully ADA accessible.

The historic auditorium is designated for community use, most likely for performances and corporate events. In addition, the 2,600-square-foot roof deck – with views of downtown Portland – will be available for tenant use and event rentals.

“It’s a fun project and we’re thrilled that we’re bringing this 90-plus-year-old community asset back to life,” Kelly said.

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Over thirty years after students last walked its halls, the 117,000-square-foot Washington High School building is going to see a new life as a retail, office, and event space. Venerable Properties expects to start work later this month on the $18 million project, which will preserve the building’s historic character and give a nod to its history as a school.

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Redevelopment plans for long-vacant Washington High School are expected to be set soon, after its future use is determined, according to Venerable Properties President Craig Kelly.

“Our first priority is to save the building and preserve it, but to do that we have to do something that also makes sense financially,” Kelly said. “We’re trying to be sensitive to all the stakeholders, and there are a lot that care about this property.”

The present owner, Portland Public Schools, required the prospective buyer, Venerable, to secure a historic designation for the building, place it on the National Register of Historic Places or draft a deed restriction that would prevent demolition. Venerable recently obtained a designation from the city’s Historic Landmarks Commission.

Redevelopment plans for Washington High School have progressed significantly as a result, Kelly said, but unique site challenges – including limitations related to zoning and preservation – have prevented the firm from settling on a future use.

“It’s very hard to pencil,” Kelly said. “We’re going to have to pick a direction.”

In April 2012, when Venerable was close to purchasing the property, the plan was to convert the building into multifamily housing. Ten pricing proposals were presented, Kelly said; however, none has led to an agreement.

One of the main problems is that approximately half of the 116,000-square-foot building is common area. Some of that space, such as the 400-seat auditorium and the 14- to 18-foot hallways, are expected to be preserved under the building’s historic designation.

“In protecting the building under the designation, there are more restrictions in terms of what you can do internally to alter the framework of the building,” said Susan Lindsay, chairwoman of the Buckman Community Association. “I hope there is some flexibility because … it will need some work to bring it back to the fine building it is going to become.”

As a result, only about 56,000 square feet of the building can be redeveloped. Finding uses for the hallways and the auditorium will be difficult, especially if an all-housing plan were chosen, Kelly said.

The firm is exploring other options, such as converting the bottom floor into housing and the upper floor into commercial space. Another possibility would be a conversion of the entire building into commercial space, perhaps with retail included.

Venerable is hoping to transform the auditorium into a community asset, Kelly said.

Buckman residents would like to see the building become mostly housing, but they are open to other uses if they would fit the neighborhood, Lindsay said.

“We thought the whole place was going to be residential, so we’ve wanted a residential component all along,” she said. “(We want something) to provide some stabilization to that area.”

One worry among residents is that a heavy commercial or retail development would bring more motor vehicles to the area, which already is poised to gain traffic from a planned $47 million community center next to the school.

However, with only half of the building to work with, a conversion to mostly housing may be difficult, Kelly said.

“It’s a challenge to figure out a plan that is cost-effective to renovate an entire building where you can only get half the building’s rent,” he said. “I’m trying to keep the costs earthbound as opposed to up in the stratosphere.”

Another challenge presented by the property is that it’s zoned R1. It can have one housing unit per 1,000 feet, but financing can be difficult and there are restrictions in terms of commercial uses, Kelly said.

Venerable is weighing whether to apply for a zoning change for the property, but that process would likely be long and difficult.

“It just adds another wrinkle to the mix,” Kelly said. “This is already a very difficult financing environment for any commercial development.”

The plan is to decide within the next two months on a use or uses for the building, and then address potential zoning issues.

Project stakeholders ranging from developers to neighboring residents have remained positive, partly in tribute to Venerable’s late founder, Art DeMuro, who pushed for the redevelopment.

“We had a very close relationship with Art DeMuro, and I personally was devastated when we lost him,” Lindsay said. “And the show must go on.”

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and Portland developer Art DeMuro have reached a tentative agreement for the sale of long-vacant Washington High School in inner-Southeast Portland.

If the school board were to agree at its next meeting, on April 23, to sell the historic building to for $2 million, DeMuro, the company’s president, would move ahead with plans to convert the high school into multifamily housing.

DeMuro and people who live near the school building are generally thrilled that it may finally be reused. But the latest agreement comes after several failed redevelopment attempts, tempering the excitement until the deal becomes final.

“It’s been a long process, but I understand that the school district has had more urgent issues to deal with,” DeMuro said. “As a citizen and as a PPS parent, I accept that. As a developer, I’ve been antsy. But I know my place in the queue.”

DeMuro became interested in the property in 2008 as the building, constructed in 1924, revealed increasing deterioration. At that time, however, he wasn’t looking to purchase the property; he described those early investigations as the work of a “concerned preservationist.”

But Venerable Properties eventually began working on a plan to create market-rate housing on the four-story building’s upper floors and a community center on the ground floor. That deal fell through when Portland Parks and Recreation announced in 2010 that it would not pursue a bond measure, which would have been a primary source of funding for the project.

Prior to the collapse of that deal, proposed a housing plan for Washington High, but was unable to make the project pencil out.

PPS interviewed four developers in January 2011, and decided to begin negotiations with Venerable Properties the next month.

“We are very excited to bring that building back to life; it’s time to get some people in there,” said Susan Lindsay, president of the . “But first things first – we’re looking to the (school board) to approve this sale. They’re very much in need of cash and facing the possibility of closing more schools and cutting teachers, so I think it’s an excellent time to move forward now.”

After shuttering Washington High in 1981, PPS used it for administrative purposes until about a decade ago. The property at Southeast Stark Street and 11th Avenue has since received little attention except from skateboarders, dog walkers and the , which has used the space for temporary art installations.

“The neighborhood is really excited that something is going to finally happen with the building after 30 years,” said Tim Askin, a Buckman resident and a consultant to the .

The association has worked for years to nominate a portion of the neighborhood for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Such a listing would help DeMuro secure tax credits for redevelopment, but he will nevertheless pursue an individual listing for Washington High School in order to protect against potential demolition, as well as access special assessments and historic tax credits tied to the designation.

“On this project, we need every financial incentive we can get to make it feasible,” DeMuro said.

He has neither started work on any architectural plans nor pinned down details for the housing.

“Everything has been in the freezer,” he said. “We’ve limited the investment of time until we’re under contract; once that is approved, I’ll get to work on it.”

Just to get the building up and running, the project team must address decades of deferred maintenance, complete overdue seismic upgrades and adhere to historic guidelines. Then the team will need to decide how to transform the building – which is laid out with classrooms around a large, central auditorium – into attractive living spaces.

But the community members who have been most involved in past plans for the building are confident that now is the right time and that Venerable Properties is the right developer to take on the challenge.

Lindsay, who led the Washington High Community Center advisory committee through the last redevelopment attempt, hopes that DeMuro’s personal commitment to the project will help overcome the biggest challenges.

“It’s going to take a lot of passion to bring Washington High back online,” she said. “(DeMuro) has the most experience and the heart needed to understand and to get passionate about this project. It’s going to be a big job, but I have faith that he’s got what it takes.”

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After ending years of negotiations with Lab Holdings in late June, the Portland Development Commission has identified three other firms interested in potentially redeveloping the Centennial Mills site in Northwest Portland.

Renewable energy company and developers and all turned in proposals that focused on job creation, rather than food – as Lab Holdings had pitched.

The PDC had selected Lab Holdings after an extensive request for proposals process, but they reached an impasse over the type of development that should occur at Centennial Mills. Shaheen Sadeghi, Lab Holdings’ president, wasn’t willing to alter his firm’s proposal to accommodate PDC’s request that at least half of the development foster job creation.

A 16-page document submitted by Art DeMuro‘s team from Portland-based Venerable Properties offered more detail than two-page proposals submitted by Humboldt Bay Energy and Intrinsic Ventures. Venerable Properties’ plan would preserve the central core of the Centennial Mills site and construct two new buildings around it. The buildings would hold a mix of employment, living, retail and restaurant space, according to the letter.

The letter of intent is extensive, DeMuro said, because he borrowed heavily from his Centennial Mills redevelopment proposal that he submitted in 2007, when the PDC handed development rights to Lab Holdings. According to DeMuro, this time the proposal includes less retail and no maritime museum component.

Venerable Properties plans to team with , a local firm with a portfolio of more than 130 million square feet of commercial space.

“Venerable is Portland’s only commercial development firm specializing in historic redevelopment, and we are drawn to the task of salvaging and rehabilitating Portland’s most valuable and threatened historic resources,” Venerable Properties said in its proposal. “Centennial Mills is the finest vestige of Portland’s yesteryear of commercial milling and maritime commerce.”

Intrinsic Ventures, owned by Michael Tevis, is based in Northern California, but the firm has experience working in Portland.  It owns and operates the 125,000-square-foot Ford Building at Southeast 11th Avenue and Division Street.

In its Centennial Mills proposal, Intrinsic Ventures said it would pair up with Portland-based to create affordable work spaces designed to attract startup companies, artists and creative businesses – a mix similar to that in the Ford Building.

In its proposal, Eureka, Calif.-based Humboldt Bay Energy – which focuses on solar energy, solar thermal energy systems, wind energy systems and energy storage systems – proposed using the Centennial Mills site as a showroom of sorts.

“We are interested in moving our global corporate headquarters to the World Trade Center in downtown Portland with the intent of potentially using the Centennial Mills site as a mass-production assembly and distribution center, business center and showroom center,” said Garison Russo, founder of Humboldt Bay Energy.

Russo added that he would be working with his group of multibillion-dollar private equity investors to help a viable project pencil out.

The letters of intent express initial interest. PDC spokesman Shawn Uhlman said PDC staffers will bring the letters to the leadership team and determine the next steps. While there is no definitive timeline, Uhlman added that staffers expect to move the project forward quickly.

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A crew from Howard Jacobs Masonry is doing the brick work on a mixed-use office and retail development in Southeast Portland. A major renovation is taking place at the two-story Portland Fire Bureau Station 7 built nearly 90 years ago at the corner of Southeast Stark Street and 11th Avenue. General contractor Bremik Construction Co. is in charge of the work, and will soon move its offices into one of the spaces. Emerick Architects designed the project for owner Venerable Properties.

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