A new mixed-use building under construction in Portland’s Goose Hollow neighborhood will have 214 housing units – and all will be available at affordable rates.

But the project didn’t start that way.

The six-story structure now dubbed Tiller Terrace was previously called Alta Centric – and would’ve had market-rate apartments. The project, on half a block at 1670 S.W. Alder St., was poised to become Wood Partners‘ third in the area – following the Alta Peak Apartments and the Alta ART Tower.

However, feasibility issues blocked the project for Wood Partners. The firm then approached Guardian Real Estate Services with the possibility of it purchasing the property and turning the project into one with affordable housing (for people making 60 percent of area median income or less), Guardian President Tom Brenneke said.

“It was a fully baked project,” he said.

Plans had been approved by the Portland Design Commission. Building permits could be sought. So, in April 2021, Guardian opened a contract to purchase the rights and then proceeded with permitting. Six months later, the deal closed.

“If you know affordable projects, that’s light speed,” Brenneke added.

Financing first

Typically, such projects can require one to five years for financing and permitting to be set, Brenneke said. Tiller Terrace is unique in that it has only one public funding source – a $500,000 Metro transit-oriented development (TOD) grant because the site is located directly across from TriMet‘s Providence Park light-rail station.

The team needed to keep public funding under $700,000, Brenneke said, so the project wouldn’t be subject to prevailing wages and thus have infeasible construction costs.

Other financing came from partners PNC Real Estate and Red Stone. The project team also used Oregon Housing and Community Services tax-exempt bonds and low-income housing tax credits.

The development budget for the project is approximately $66.5 million.

A week before the deal closed, however, the builder’s risk insurance carrier lined up for the project saw a news headline about protesters in downtown Portland breaking windows and scrawling graffiti, and pulled out of the deal, Brenneke said.

Guardian Real Estate Services returned to the market to seek alternative builder’s risk insurance, but none could be obtained.

The next possible closing date for Tiller Terrace was three months away. Such a delay would have been “catastrophic,” Brenneke said, because all subcontractors were holding 30-day fixed-price contracts that would no longer be valid.

So, left with no risk insurance in hand, Brenneke got on the phone with the financing partners at 7 a.m., trying to complete the deal on the closing date.

The partners

It was the first housing deal for Red Stone in the Portland market. The investment company handles only affordable housing developments. The firm, since being founded in 2002, has financed 65,000 affordable units across the U.S., Red Stone CEO John Sokolovic estimated.

Yet Sokolovic said he couldn’t recall any previous project with a similar insurance dilemma.

“Certainly not a week before,” Red Stone Managing Director Brian Renzi added. “That’s pretty rare, obviously.”

Nevertheless, Red Stone believed it was working with the right people – an “experienced team,” Renzi said. The firm set aside money to purchase the builder’s risk insurance once it became available post-closing.

“That’s how we operate,” Sokolovic said. “If we can figure it out quickly, we will do it. The goal is to get the deal done and get those affordable housing units built. That’s part of our mission.”

Fortunately, PNC Real Estate also agreed to the plan. The deal was closed without insurance secured, Brenneke said.

The whole venture was a learning experience, Brenneke said. If an agent can’t secure risk insurance, “that’s a major issue in capital closing,” he said.

“It damn near killed the deal,” he added.

Ultimately, the project team secured a risk insurance policy (at a much higher rate), and construction crews broke ground two months after the closing date.

“Even though it was our first deal, we look to continue to be a lot more active in the Portland area on the affordable side,” Renzi said. “We’re excited to get our first transaction done and hope there is many more.”

A few changes

The six-story building will have a simple exterior of brick cladding to match surrounding historic properties such as the Commodore Lounge and Hotel deLuxe. An outdoor courtyard will face Morrison Street.

The project was originally envisioned as workforce housing, SERA Architects principal Kurt Schultz said, so there wasn’t a complete turnaround when it became affordable housing. Also, the Design Commission approved the project in March 2020, so any exterior changes became challenging.

The main design change was done post-permit. The switch in development type meant that inclusionary housing requirements no longer applied, and all the three-bedroom and four-bedroom units could be converted to studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. That allowed the number of units to increase from 203 to 214.

Apartments will range from roughly 470 to 700 square feet. Some will be two-story townhomes – a configuration not often found in market-rate or affordable housing developments – on the top floor.

In addition to the apartments and courtyard, Tiller Terrace will have 3,500 square feet of retail space, a community room and classroom space, according to Guardian Real Estate Services’ website.

R&H Construction is serving as the general contractor for the project. Completion is slated for March 2023.

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During the pandemic, construction is continuing across Portland’s city center. This includes property on Southwest Alder Street, between 15th and 16th avenues – a few blocks east of Providence Park. There, general contractor Andersen Construction is steadily adding floors to the Alta Art Tower.

“We just poured level eight last Thursday, so right now we’re four down and eight up,” Andersen Construction Superintendent Glenn Whitefield said, in reference to four levels of below-grade parking. “We’re 21 floors plus the roof … so we’re a third of the way up.”

Designed by Ankrom Moisan Architects for the Portland office of Atlanta-based Wood Partners, the mixed-use Alta Art Tower will occupy a half-block site next to the Artists Repertory Theatre. The building will feature 314 apartment units over ground-floor commercial space and a unique lobby space that will contain a performance stage and art gallery.

Additional amenities will include a rooftop club room with two outdoor terraces, co-working and meeting space and a fitness studio.

Each apartment will feature quartz kitchen countertops, stainless-steel Energy Star appliances, a gas range, vinyl-wood flooring and more.

The project received the Portland Design Commission‘s approval in November 2018, and crews broke ground in July 2019. Completion is expected sometime next year.

All 21 stories of commercial and residential space are being built with post-tensioned concrete decks and columns.

Right now, companies representing a full slate of trades are on site working from the ground up. Andersen Structural Inc., Andersen Construction’s in-house concrete and carpentry unit, is performing all structural concrete work. Also, Bergelectric is carrying out all interior electrical work, Viking Automatic Sprinkler Company is installing fire protection systems, and Ocean Park Mechanical is handling HVAC systems. Further, Eastern Steel Erectors is performing structural steel work and Vancouver, Washington-based Bratton Masonry is installing concrete masonry. Tapani Plumbing also is working on the building.

Western Partitions Inc. recently started installing more than 1,500 prefabricated wall panels that incorporate everything from steel-stud framing to a rain-screen façade system designed specifically for buildings as tall as the Alta Art Tower.

“The exterior is all prefab, so WPI is pre-building all the panels off-site,” Whitefield said. “They’re waterproofed, and then there’s a system called Corium over the top of it. When it comes out, the panel is 100 percent done.”

Despite some delayed shipments from Germany of the thin brick product used on the exterior, the panel installation schedule has largely remained on track.

“They’re installed in place and then we’ll start on the windows,” Whitefield said. “We’ll start on the windows right behind them … and then we’ll just chase up the building.”

Not only does this method save significant time and on-site storage space, it heightens safety for workers, Whitefield said.

“The other nice thing is we don’t have to get on the outside of the building,” he said. “Normally we’d have to put up scaffolding or put up Fracos on the outside of the building. Doing it in this way we don’t have to get on the outside, which is a huge money-saver and time-saver too.”

It’s a similar arrangement to the one being used for the high-rise project Andersen is building at 140 S.W. Columbia St.

Once the Alta Art Tower is completed, Andersen Construction plans to explore the possibility of converting the mockup into a full tiny home for donation to the Kenton Women’s Village in North Portland.

For now, Whitefield and his crew are just happy to still be working and sticking to the schedule, despite ongoing difficulties in securing needed materials.

“One thing that just came up not too long ago was a PVC conduit,” he said. “Normally you can get that off the shelf pretty much at any point. But now we had to order it five to six weeks in advance – never before. Everything is being impacted to a point.”

Still, there are always work-arounds and solutions.

“It just takes more effort on our part to find ways to re-sequence and redo things,” Whitefield said. “Or we have to order things ahead of time and figure out ways to store it on site so that we actually have it on time. It’s been a struggle.”

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In Portland’s Goose Hollow neighborhood, crews are already in deep working on what will be a 21-story mixed-use building.

Andersen Construction is building the Alta Art Tower for developer Wood Partners on a half-block site at 1516 S.W. Alder St., adjacent to the Artists Repertory Theatre. Ankrom Moisan Architects designed the building to hold 314 apartment units over ground-floor commercial space. Four stories of below-grade parking will be included as well.

A unique lobby space will include a performance stage and art gallery. Other amenities will include a rooftop club room with two outdoor terraces, co-working and meeting space, and a fitness studio. The apartments will feature quartz kitchen countertops, stainless-steel Energy Star appliances, gas ranges, vinyl-wood flooring, master bathrooms en suite and more.

The Portland Design Commission approved plans in December 2018 and ground was broken in July 2019.

“The existing lot contained an L-shaped building … a portion was demolished to make room for the Art Tower apartment building,” said Eric Sprague, a senior project manager with Andersen Construction. “And now we’re in the process of excavation activities, going down four stories before we’ll get back up to grade, and then we’ll go 21 levels up.”

In many respects the Alta Art Tower will be a fairly conventional high-rise structure. Above grade, the building will have post-tensioned concrete decks and columns. Pile drivers and operating engineers with Pacific Foundation are drilling tiebacks and building lagging walls for the below-grade parking, while excavation work is being done by Westech Construction.

Plans call for use of prefabricated wall panels with brick masonry cladding manufactured by subcontractor Western Partitions Inc. It’s an arrangement similar to the one being used by Andersen Construction for a high-rise at Southwest First Avenue and Columbia Street.

“Andersen is the regional pioneer in fully prefabricated exterior systems,” Sprague said. “Art Tower is another example of leveraging multiple prefabricated systems to create an efficiency, both in the shop and in the field, and to minimize costs for our clients. There is a substantial dollar savings to not having any type of exterior scaffolding, as well as eliminating a separate trade to install the brick cladding.”

The prefabricated panels will be set from the inside of the building by a team of Western Partitions Inc. carpenters.

“The panels will be staged and set from the floor, utilizing a small crane from the floor above to lift and swing them into place,” Sprague said. “This process allows the tower crane to remain focused on the structure, and yet the exterior progress will follow right behind the shoring removal. We have been working closely with the subcontractors and design team to detail connections and transitions for a watertight assembly that omits sealants being placed from the exterior, as we wanted to come up with a way where everything could be set from the inside.”

Another unique aspect of this project is not actually on-site: A full two-story mockup is being used to test the exterior wall panels to ensure quality and fit. Much effort is being invested in quality control and assurance prior to the first panel being shipped to the jobsite.

“The panels have to be fabricated correctly, because we have very limited options if they show up on site and something isn’t correct,” Andersen Construction project superintendent Glenn Whitefield said. “This is why we focus so much attention to the pre-planning and the mock-up process.”

Sprague added: “Specific to Art Tower exterior, we are approaching near a thousand framed panels for this project and can’t afford to have them built incorrectly, or be unsure of how the transition between the framed panels and window wall system will tie together.”

This includes WRB (weather resistive barrier) membranes, metal flashings, attachments to post-tensioned concrete decks and more. The full-scale mock-up provides the team an opportunity to review, test and make adjustments as needed – prior to the start of full production.

“In addition to an exterior mock-up, we’ll be doing a full interior mock-up in the basement for a few purposes,” Sprague said. “It will ensure that the sequencing and fit and finish of the materials will work, to provide owner and the design team an opportunity to make any adjustments to the product selection and to establish the expected level of quality that can be replicated in the field. There’s a heavy emphasis here on making sure that this is a great plan.”

Once the project is completed, Andersen Construction plans to explore the possibility of converting the mock-up into a full tiny home for donation to the Kenton Women’s Village in North Portland.

“Whatever we can salvage to use or don’t have to throw away we’re good with,” Whitefield said.

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The proposal for Civic Northwest – a massive transit-oriented development in Gresham – has received design approval.

Gresham’s Design Commission last week voted 4-1 to approve YBA Architects‘ design for the Wood Partners project, which calls for construction of eight buildings on a 7.4-acre parcel at the southwest corner of Northwest Civic Drive and Council Drive. The property is not far from TriMet‘s Civic Drive MAX station.

“Conceived as a ‘village on a hill,’ the development is a keystone within the larger Civic Neighborhood District and is devised to establish an urban, pedestrian-oriented center for neighborhood residents,” YBA Architects owner and principal Matt Brown stated in an email.

The total new floor area planned in the eight buildings, Brown stated, will be roughly 290,000 square feet. Two five-story mixed-use buildings, a four-story mixed-use building, four three-story apartment buildings and a retail pavilion will make up the development. Collectively, the structures are expected to hold at least 318 residential units and more than 12,000 square feet of retail space.

The half-acre plaza will be activated by multiuse play spaces and flexible commercial spaces on the ground floors of the five-story mixed-use buildings. The single-story, 1,200-square-foot micro-restaurant pavilion, meanwhile, will be the focal point of the entire development. The project team hopes it will become an 18-hour center of activity.

One site challenge for designers is that it features a nearly 25-degree grade change from the highest point to the lowest. To take advantage of this, Brown stated, a pair of woonerfs – spaces shared by vehicle drivers and pedestrians – will extend into the middle of the site to connect the upper and lower terraces. In addition, several open areas will be integrated.

In wider terms, the development fits within the Civic Neighborhood Vision and Design District Update approved by the city in 2017. That plan updated rules to remove obstacles for large developments of this type and also established design standards for new construction.

Civic Northwest project team members will next enter the permitting process, Brown stated. The goal at this point is to break ground this summer.

In addition to Wood Partners and YBA Architects, the team includes landscape architect Shapiro Didway Landscape Architecture and civil engineer Harper Houf Peterson Righellis Inc. The general contractor will be a firm affiliated with Wood Partners.

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A proposal for a seven-story, 218-unit mixed-use building in the Goose Hollow neighborhood will receive a with the Portland Bureau of Development Services on Thursday.

SERA Architects is designing the building, which would be constructed on a 0.23-acre half-block parcel at 1634 S.W. Alder St. – fewer than two blocks east of Providence Park. The building would feature 218 market-rate apartments, a mix of studios and one-bedroom units, as well as ground-floor retail space. Plans also call for 13 structured parking spots with access from Southwest Alder Street.

The property fronts Southwest 17th Avenue and is bounded by Alder Street on the north and Morrison Street on the south. A quarter of the block has surface parking while the other quarter of the block has a two-story commercial building.

The project application was received by the BDS on Dec. 6.

The developer for the project is Wood Partners, an Atlanta-based firm that develops, builds and manages different types of multifamily properties around the United States. It currently owns one Portland property, the Block 17 apartments at 1161 N.W. Overton St. in the Pearl District. That 281-unit development was designed by Bora Architects and built by Andersen Construction; work finished in late 2015. Block 17 has two structures – a 16-story high-rise and a five-story low-rise.

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Ankrom Moisan Architects‘ design for a 21-story mixed-use tower in Goose Hollow won unanimous approval from the Portland Design Commission on Thursday, clearing the way for construction adjacent to the Artists Repertory Theatre.

The ART Tower project sailed through design review after two previous design advice hearings. Commissioners rejected a condition of approval suggested by Bureau of Development Services staff that would have required balconies on the building’s north side. The south side will still have balconies.

Commissioners were complimentary of the project, which features a clean, simple design from Ankrom Moisan Architects.

“This building from the beginning has had such a beautiful concept,” Commissioner Zari Santner said. “I think it’s going to be a very distinguished building.”

Wood Partners of Atlanta is the developer. The project at 1515 S.W. Morrison St. will have 314 apartments (an increase from previous iterations), ranging from one to three bedrooms; 5,500 square feet off ground-floor retail space and 215 parking spaces in four underground levels.

Two retail suites on the ground floor are envisioned to be a restaurant and a small bar, although that could change.

“It could be anything, really,” said Michael Nagy, vice president of development for Wood Partners in Portland. “It depends on who wants to lease the space.”

A courtyard will separate the tower from the theater next door. The project will be built on the northern half of the block, replacing surface parking and a portion of the theater building that will be demolished. The remaining theater on the southern half-block will be remodeled.

The ART Tower will rise to a height of 224 feet, making it one of the tallest buildings in the fast-changing Goose Hollow neighborhood. The maximum allowed height on the property is 250 feet, with a 9-to-1 floor-area ratio.

The design is marked by repeating features on the ground floor and top floor. Both have a sawtooth design, with the façade alternately jutting out and cutting in. Mirrored soffits also appear on the building’s floor and rooftop, replacing an earlier mural concept.

In addition to the restaurant and bar, a large lobby able to host performances will add life to the ground floor, said Paul Jeffreys, an Ankrom Moisan Architects senior associate.

“We’re promoting a very active base and an active top to the building,” he said.

The project evolved primarily with changes to the ground floor and top floor. No fundamental changes were needed from the initial proposal.

“I think you’ve come through with a good, strong concept from day one, which is pretty unusual,” Commissioner Don Vallaster said.

A bar was added to the alleyway to provide activity there. At the first design advice hearing in June, some commissioners had said a closed alleyway would be unsafe and unwelcome to visitors. The top floor was made taller from earlier designs.

Also, the team had to negotiate an 18-foot slope on the site. MAX light-rail trains run westbound on Morrison Street next to the property.

Commission Chairwoman Julie Livingston did not attend the meeting, but did submit written comments. The building has a “charm consistent with the Goose Hollow neighborhood,” she stated. She also called it “one of the most thoughtful and thorough designs during my three years on the commission.”

Commissioner Andrew Clarke was also absent Thursday.

The project is subject to Portland’s inclusionary housing rules that require a portion of the units to be affordable to low-income renters. Nagy said he wanted to keep the project’s options open for how to meet inclusionary housing requirements until a building permit application is submitted.

Wood Partners first came to the Portland market with the Block 17 Apartments in the Pearl District. That building was constructed in 2014.

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A proposed mixed-use development with 310 residential units could help transform Gresham‘s Civic neighborhood into a much busier place.

At the heart of the proposal is a five-acre parcel located near the intersection of Northwest Civic Drive and MAX blue light-rail tracks in downtown Gresham. It is one of four Metro-owned properties in the area and the first of those being targeted for development.

The plan for “Civic Northwest” envisions as many as seven mixed-use or residential buildings being constructed on the site bordered by Northwest Fanning Way, Council Drive, Civic Drive and MAX tracks. Those buildings would surround a central parking lot and a public plaza with a playground and other amenities.

Metro and the city of Gresham nearly a year ago jointly released a for the project. They subsequently chose a development and design team of Atlanta-based Wood Partners and YBA Architects.

Design advice from the city planning department was requested in May, and site concepts were presented to the Gresham Design Commission shortly thereafter. The project is still in the design stage.

Early site concepts show four three-story residential buildings on the northwest portion of the trapezoidal property. Each of these buildings would have slightly more than 22,000 square feet and 24 residential units.

Then, on the southeast side, three other mixed-use buildings – two five stories and another four stories, would front Northwest Civic Drive. One five-story building would be 73,225 square feet and hold 87 residential units, and the other would be 71,190 square feet and hold 72 residential units. Each would offer ground-floor commercial space. The four-story mixed-use building would be 50,900 square feet and hold 55 residential units. It also would have ground-floor commercial space.

The plaza would feature prominently on the property’s southeast edge, near the MAX tracks.

Master planning efforts envision this part of the city featuring an array of housing, businesses and entertainment along with public gathering areas and green spaces. The Civic neighborhood is singled out as one of the city’s three core commercial areas for high-density, mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented development.

Both Metro and the city of Gresham are offering financial incentives to develop this parcel and the three others in the neighborhood owned by Metro.

For instance, the city has up to $634,000 in system development charges and local improvement district funds available for construction of the plaza and open space, with the requirement that those amenities be dedicated to the city. In addition, the city offers vertical housing tax credits for projects on these four sites.

Meanwhile, Metro’s Transit Oriented Development program was created with projects like this in mind. TOD supports high-density development near high-capacity transit lines. It has two mechanisms to accomplish this: the land value write-down, and the purchase of a TOD easement.

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A proposed 20-story tower that would rise adjacent to Artists Repertory Theatre in Goose Hollow won praise Thursday from the Portland Design Commission as an elegant and handsome building – but one that faces significant questions as to how the ground floor will work.

The proposal, from developer Wood Partners of Atlanta and Ankrom Moisan Architects, is for a 304-unit residential tower with 4,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and three levels of underground parking with 215 spaces.

Wood Partners proposes to demolish a portion of the theater on the north half of the block at Southwest 15^th and 16^th avenues and Alder and Morrison streets. The remaining portion of the theater building would be remodeled by the theater group. The 305,000-square-foot tower project is valued at $80 million by the Bureau of Development Services.

The residential building – known as ART Tower – and the theater will be subject to separate design review hearings. At a design advice meeting for the tower Thursday, design commissioners struggled to envision how the two buildings would work together.

Ankrom Moisan’s design, presented by senior associate Paul Jeffreys, included an alleyway between the two buildings that would be used by residents coming and going and for service access.

Some commissioners said a one-sided alley ending in a wall wouldn’t work. “Pedaling home, I’m not going to go into that space alone,” Chair Julie Livingston said. “It’s a scary space.”

The commissioners said if they alley is one-sided, it should be gated. Jeffreys said there could be alternatives, including splitting the alley into two courtyards.

“The alleyway is the only weak part of this design,” Commissioner Don Vallaster said. “The rest of it is working great.”

Development is booming in Goose Hollow, led by the Press Blocks, a massive project from Security Properties and Urban Renaissance Group that includes a 24-story mixed-use apartment tower and an eight-story office building. (City building permits for the Press Blocks are under review). Other projects in the neighborhood include the expansion of Providence Park, an eight-story replacement for Lincoln High School and a seven-story mixed-use multifamily building at 1440 S.W. Taylor St.

Design elements on ART Tower included similar designs for the ground floor and rooftop canopy, creating a mirror effect. A sawtooth window configuration repeats at both levels.

Design commissioners criticized the unusual number of curb cuts – three each on Southwest 15^th and 16^th avenues, for a total of six. That’s a problem for meeting several guidelines, and would disrupt the pedestrian experience, commissioners said.

“My expectation is (the Portland Bureau of Transportation) will not allow this to happen,” Livingston said.

Design commissioners differed on whether the residential units should have balconies. Tad Savinar favored balconies, saying residents would need fresh air without having to walk outside. If balconies are included, Savinar said they should be recessed and not hung off the side of the building.

Livingston said the design looked like an office building. “I think this reads like a very professional building,” she said.

Commissioners Zari Santner and Sam Rodriguez both suggested balconies would not necessarily improve the design. “Maybe it doesn’t look super residential, but I don’t have a problem with that,” Rodriguez said.

The project is tentatively set to return to the Design Commission on Aug. 2.

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Investigators are still combing through the remains of the Alta Waverly project in Oakland, California. But officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are offering a reward to find the people responsible for three other massive fires to construction job sites in the San Francisco Bay Area.

For now, it’s too early to say if Andersen Construction‘s first project in the Bay Area is the latest casualty in a spree of anti-gentrification arsons, according to authorities.

“We don’t go in with any preconceived notions,” ATF spokeswoman Alexandria Corneiro said. “We let the evidence tell us what the cause was.”

Alta Waverly, a $60 million market-rate project, was to be 75 feet tall and include 196 residential units and 212 parking spaces. The structure was about 50 percent complete when it burned early July 7. Between 700 and 900 people who lived nearby were displaced as a result of the fire. Many waited until Sunday to be cleared to re-enter their homes; some waited until Monday.

It’s not known how extensive the damage was because portions of the building, like the concrete podium, could potentially be reused in a rebuild, said Angela Robinson Pinon, spokeswoman for the Oakland Fire Department.

The developer, Wood Partners, has not said if it will attempt to rebuild.

A project in nearby Emeryville burned down in 2016, and again in May. Another Oakland project burned last Halloween. The ATF is offering a $110,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of someone responsible for setting the massive fires. The agency has released showing a person scaling scaffolding at the Emeryville job site and then leaving on a bicycle. Bay Area media have focused on the possibility that activists are behind the fires.

Andersen Construction issued a statement that reads: “Company representatives are working in cooperation with local authorities to ensure the surrounding neighborhood is safe and secure. Crews are cooperating with ATF investigators who are currently in control of the site.”

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Andersen Construction‘s foray into the San Francisco Bay Area suffered a catastrophic setback early Friday as a four-alarm fire claimed a five-story project being built by the Portland contractor.

, in downtown Oakland, California, later that day to determine if it was the by activists opposing gentrification.

The blaze was reported at 4:50 a.m. Friday, and more than 80 firefighters responded to the construction site.

The development, named , was unoccupied, though about 700 nearby residents were evacuated during the response. The fire was declared under control by 8 a.m. No injuries were reported.

The 302,000-square-foot market-rate project has drawn criticism from housing-affordability advocates.

Andersen’s business development manager, Todd Duwe, said the firm is waiting to learn more from authorities.

“We’ve got teams down there now, executives on site,” he said. “We’ll provide more information as it becomes available, but we just don’t know very much at this time.”

Videos taken by witnesses show Andersen’s tower crane spinning uncontrolled above a fully flame-engaged building. The danger of it collapsing into nearby buildings caused authorities to evacuate nearby buildings.

The $60 million Alta Waverly had five floors of wood framing over a post-tensioned concrete platform. It was to have 196 residential units, 212 parking spaces and 31,500 square feet of commercial retail space on the ground floor.

Andersen was invited by Atlanta-based developer Wood Partners to serve as construction manager-general contractor after the firms worked together to build Block 17 in the Pearl District and the Dimension tower in Seattle.

To help contend with the labor shortage in the Bay Area, Andersen brought along trusted subcontractors for the project.

The project was designed by Oakland firm Pyatok.

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