Students create proposal for Portland’s largest undeveloped site

Twenty-one acres of undeveloped urban land located in Portland’s industrial center—between the Pearl District and the Northwest 23rd neighborhood—may soon become a bustling commercial hub if a project proposal created by a group of Portland State graduate students from the Center for Real Estate is approved.

The six-member team, led by Adjunct Professor Will Macht from the School of Urban Studies and Planning, worked on the plan as part of the Building Owners and Managers Association summer workshop. The group recently presented its proposal to 200 members of the business community, including the vice president and chief tax officer of Con-way, the company that owns the 3.76-million-square-foot site.

The site is divided into 16 city blocks, bordered by Northwest Thurman and Pettygrove Streets and Northwest 20th and 22nd Avenues. The plan is to turn the site into a thriving mixed-use neighborhood that accounts for the diverse urbanites who live and work in the area. Con-way employs about 700 people; however, the company currently only uses about 400,000 square feet of office space—the rest is parking space.

“The scale of the site was pretty daunting and it took us a while to come up with a general plan,” said Jason Clough, a team member. “Also, trying to balance the needs of all the different parties—the landowner, the city, the local neighborhood and the business community—was a challenge.”

One of the first challenges was to come up with a way to satisfy the demand for parking space. Since an underground parking tunnel would prove to be too costly, at about $50,000 per plot, the group turned to on-street parking with a park-like setting, according to Macht.

“We utilized on-street parking and turned that into an asset rather than a liability,” said Susan Posse, a project team member. The proposal calls for 1,125 spaces in street parking, which encourages usage flexibility by eliminating curbs—a plan similar to what is being implemented at Director’s Park. Trees will be used to establish zones for pedestrians and parking; the area will have the same density of trees as in the Park Blocks.

The group plans to have 2,250 units of rental housing and 200 condominium units. They also call for 400,000 square feet of new office space.

In one of the plots, 80,000 square feet of retail space will serve as an anchor space to be occupied by a Target store. In addition, to bring in night traffic, a 60,000-square-foot 12-screen Cineplex is proposed to stand next to the Target.

Team members noted Target as the ideal candidate for its urban, chic appeal to the younger demographic. 

A New Seasons Market is also included in the proposal to serve as the primary grocery store. In addition, the group feels that New Seasons would complement the vibe of the nearby neighborhood.

“Ultimately, we wanted to increase awareness of the site and reveal its long-term potential to both the business community and greater public,” Clough said. “Even though it is the biggest piece of undeveloped close-in property that is owned by a single entity, few people…know about it.”

The team suggests using the property’s location to its advantage with wider streets, more parking and slower speeds. The result would be a 275 percent increase in on-street parking.

“It’s kind of in a forgotten corner of downtown,” Clough said. “If you look at an aerial map, it’s a surprisingly large void.”

Posse said the group also has to convince business owners of the economic feasibility of the project. 

“The other problem is the market condition,” Posse said. “There is high vacancy rate so we have to come up with a process that would work with that.” The proposal suggests a lower rent for retailers than the nearby average rate. For instance, Target will have to pay $22 per square foot, whereas the average shop in the Northwest 23rd neighborhood pays $31.97.

In addition, the 2,250 housing units will rent for $700 to $1,500 per month, which is lower than the typical rates of nearby competitors.

“We came up with reasonable return for all the parties,” Macht said. “The purpose is to come up with the whole plan for Con-way that actually works with everyone, which we believe [this] does.”

Clough said that initially there was some skepticism about the viability of one of their leasing concepts. However, those who attended the presentation were intrigued by the shared streets and parking ideas.

“The owner’s development representative seemed pretty excited about the results of our work,” Clough said.

According to Macht, Con-way would like to have something in the works for the site by next year. So far, the responses and comments he received from the presentation have been positive.