South Waterfront History and Development Plans

The South Waterfront, the largest and most expensive redevelopment effort in Portland history, will transform an abandoned 130-acre industrial brownfield along the Willamette River south of downtown into a $1.9 billion high-rise neighborhood as dense as parts of Manhattan.  Eventually, 20 high-rise buildings will be built on the site.  This includes medical offices and labs for Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU).

The Portland Development Commission (PDC) signed an agreement with OHSU and a group of waterfront property owners that cleared the way for construction of a 38-acre central district, which includes 3,000 residential units, one million square feet of office space, 150,000 sq. ft. of retail and a hotel/conference center.

You can view a map of the area (Adobe PDF format).
 

Atwater Place

Atwater Place  In Block 34, a 22-story, rectangular tower will feature 212 condominium units, five of which would be townhomes. Unit sizes would range from 1,100 square feet to 3,700 square feet. Most of the units would have views of the Willamette River and Mt. Hood.

The building would feature 10,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. Its design calls for gardens and eco-roofs and targets silver certification under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system.

Sustainable aspects of the building include storm water management to mitigate run-off, high-performance glazing to reduce heating and cooling needs, low-flow shower heads, faucets and dual-flush toilets, nontoxic finishes, and local sourced materials with high percentages of recycled content.

The building was designed by Thomas Hacker, principal of Thomas Hacker Architects. The design also includes work done by GBD Architects.

The design calls for the tower's sculptured faces to be crafted in glass for a prismatic effect, Hacker said. Cut into the façade, the balconies would be staggered recesses in the shear glass plane of the building's face. It would also have a raised courtyard and ground-level plaza.

Hoffman Construction crews will spend the next six months preparing the site for building and will begin excavating for the foundation and placing structural supports in late December 2005. Cranes are expected to go up on the site in spring 2006.

 Sales Update - March, 2007

The Atwater has pre-sold 29 percent of its units out of a total of 212 units.  About 150 units remain unsold. 

Location  Atwater Place will be located on Southwest Gaines Street, directly south of the Meriwether condo towers, now under construction in the South Waterfront. It is the third residential project in the central district of South Waterfront.  
Developer  Gerding/Edlen Development Company. They also developed the Brewery Blocks in the Pearl District.
Construction  New building.
Number of Units  A 22-story, rectangular tower will feature 212 condominium units, five of which would be town homes.
Style  Unknown but most likely it will be traditional style with multiple rooms.  Size of units go from 1,100 to 3,700 square feet.
Pricing  Likely in the $400 plus per square foot.
Parking  Underground.
Sales Office  Realty Trust is the real estate broker for the condominiums. Their office is 0680 SW Bancroft, Portland, OR 97239.  Call (503) 222-7788 for hours.  Appointments are now being taken for May 2006.
Completion Date  The planned completion date is late 2007.

John Ross

The John Ross Tower will be the first to reach a 325-foot height maximum allowed in the South Waterfront area. Architects from Thompson Vaivoda Architects and GBD, a second Portland firm, offered the elliptical design last year.  The city changed its rules to allow expanding the size of tower floors from 10,000 to as much as 12,500 square feet.

Most floors in the John Ross will be 12,261 square feet, tapering to 8,252 square feet on the top few floors. It will offer 286 units, 247 in the tower and 39 in a four-story podium.  Costs are expected to go from $199,000 to $2.2 million. Plans called for 50 percent of the units to sell for less than $325,000.  The roof of the podium will be a so-called green roof with a community garden.

The metallic blue building would rise in an elliptical shape that would look wider or narrower from different vantage points from the west, along Interstate 5 and the Marquam Hill area.  For one, it seems narrower than rectangular, so-called "slab," buildings. The shape also reduces the surface area, or in architectural terms, the "skin," by 10 percent. That means more budget can be devoted to the materials and detailing of the skin.

In the May 6 edition of The Oregonian, Bob Thompson, a principal of Thompson Vaivoda Architects, reported: "the elliptical form helped preserve views around the building from Southwest Terwilliger Boulevard while allowing addition of a quarter-block public plaza at the corner of Southwest Gains Street and River Parkway."

The tower lobby will have an 18-foot wall of glass that Thompson said is intended to be a "highly lit beacon" at night. The plaza will have trees and beds of perennials, in addition to a low-lying water feature and outdoor seating on a hard surface adjacent to the buildings.

It was announced in August 2005 that the developers of Portland's South Waterfront area say they're taking a tougher stand against buyers who want condominiums to rent out or quickly resell and they're planning to require sworn promises that buyers intend to live in their units. The new policies, will apply to presales in the John Ross condo tower. These new policies will:

• Hopefully strengthen the appeal for potential residents.

• Limit market turmoil from speculation and lead to a vibrant neighborhood.

 Sales Update - March, 2007

The John Ross has pre-sold 74 percent of its units out of a total of 303 units.  About 75 units remain unsold. 

Location  South Waterfront. It will be between Southwest Pennoyer and Gaines streets and between River Parkway and Bond Avenue.
Developer  Gerding/Edlen Development Company along with Williams & Dame Development Inc..
Construction  New building.
Number of Units  31-story condominium tower with 303 units.  Ground floor retail and underground parking.
Style  Traditional style with multiple rooms.
Size  The average is 1,200 square feet per unit - plans call for the smallest units to be about 600 square feet.
Green  Expected to received a silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
Pricing  From $199,000 to $2,200,000.  Plans call for 50 percent of the units to be less than $325,000.
Parking  Underground.
Sales Office  The sales office opened in mid July 2005 at the Discovery Center located at 0680 SW Bancroft, Portland, Oregon 97239.  Telephone: (503) 222-7788.
Completion Date  Construction began in the summer of 2005.  Completion is expected in late 2007.
 

3720 Condos

3720 Condos  A Corus Bank, a subsidiary of Corus Bankshares Inc., announced in April 2007 that they had closed a $113 million loan to Block 30 Investors L.L.C. for the development of 3720, a residential high-rise development planned for Portland, Oregon's South Waterfront district. The developer is an affiliate of Williams & Dame Development and Gerding Edlen Development.

3720 will consist of a 30-story tower and a five-story "side-car" structure, which will together contain 323 units, for a total of 350,000 square feet of condominium space. In addition, the development also calls for 17,000 square feet of retail and 380 parking spaces.

The project is the third in the South Waterfront area for developer Block 30. The firm's Meriwether condo development is located adjacent to 3720.

 Sales Update:  Late May, 2008

Developer Mark Edlen announced that 3270 will be converted to an apartment building.  Edlen said three factors drove the switch on the nearly finished building: the slowing housing market, a tighter mortgage market, and the strengthening rental market. South Waterfront has 266 condos for sale in two other towers:  Atwater and John Ross.

Location  South Waterfront. It is just to the south of the Meriwether twin towers and John Ross at Block 38.  The address is 3720 SW Bond Street.
Developer  Block 30 Investors L.L.C. - an affiliate of Williams & Dame Development and Gerding Edlen Development.
Construction  New building.
Number of Units  30-story condominium tower with 323 units.  Ground floor retail and underground parking.
Style  Traditional style with multiple rooms.
Size  30 stories, 325 feet with 323 units.
Green  Unknown as of May 2007.
Pricing  Unknown as of April, 2008.
Parking  Underground.
Sales Office  The Discovery Center located at 0680 SW Bancroft, Portland, Oregon 97239.  Telephone: (503) 222-7788.
Preconstruction Reservations   Call (503) 222-7788.
Completion Date  Construction began in the spring of 2007.  Completion is expected in 2009.

Meriwether

Mirabella Retirement Community