[CouvScott]

WPH Architecture Inc., 3101 N.E. 66th Ave., $2,281,007, car dealership.

I think this could be the Copps/Carr Dealership relocation that will make way for the Riverwest Project.

[CouvScott]

Downtown site eyed for arts center
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/couvttocs/artscentervancouver.jpg
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
BY BRETT OPPEGAARD for The Columbian

A nonprofit group's plans to build a performing arts center in Clark County are growing bolder, despite previous setbacks.

The Southwest Washington Center for the Arts recently released the results of a $30,000 feasibility study - conducted by Vancouver's E.D. Hovee Co. - which calls for a $100 million mixed-use arts, retail and housing development on a city-owned vacant block adjacent to downtown Vancouver's Esther Short Park.

The center would have two condominium towers standing 11 stories or so, and ground-floor retail space, plus a 1,500-seat auditorium, a 250-seat black box theater, an art gallery and the potential for an additional 300-seat rehearsal hall.

City officials aware of the proposal remain noncommittal because of the importance of the proposed location.

The block targeted by the Southwest Washington Center for the Arts - which is bounded by Washington and Columbia between Eighth and Ninth streets - is being saved to give downtown development its next big boost, said Eric Holmes, Vancouver's economic development director.

Vancouver is the largest city in the Northwest without a public arts center, and enthusiasts have been lobbying for decades to change that distinction. A partnership with Clark College to create a joint instructional and performance space dissolved in 2006 over a lack of state support.

Under the latest proposal, developers would help pay the tab.

Those involved with the project would donate profits from the commercial property to balance the financial costs of the artistic pursuits, which typically run in the red.

Val Ogden, chairwoman of Southwest Washington Center for the Arts, estimates that $10 million could be made on the condos, which then could be put into an endowment to subsidize annual operating expenses for the theaters and gallery.

A retired state legislator, Ogden said the group's research, indicates the major donors are here and willing to support this project.

"Until I have a site," she said, "I can't raise any money."



Prized city possession

The acre lot targeted, dubbed Block 10, is one of the most highly prized pieces of land owned by the city, Holmes said.

Although the property, which is worth about $1.5 million, is not being actively marketed and there are no serious suitors at this time, Holmes is not receptive to the feasibility study's suggestion to freeze development on the lot for two years while the Southwest Washington Center for the Arts organization raises money.

Holmes, who started his job with Vancouver about a month ago, said he still is learning the local landscape. He wants to refine the recently adopted City Center Vision Plan over the next six months to include more specific suggestions for siting public amenities like this.

"A performing arts center, if it's the right kind of facility that's managed in the right way, could be a real asset to the community," he said. "But that doesn't mean it should go on Block 10. We don't know that yet."

Jan Bader, the city's program and policy development manager, said donation of the land - or even a discount off market rate - is highly unlikely in any case.

She said while the city government is supportive of an arts center in principle, this backing does not come with any significant public money attached.

Ogden said her group has not asked for a land donation or even the development freeze of Block 10. At some point soon, though, a partnership will have to be forged to move forward on the idea.

To help navigate this next phase of negotiation and begin the major capital campaign, the Southwest Washington Center for the Arts has hired consultant Lucy Buchanan.

Buchanan, as development director, and her husband, John, as executive director, helped the Portland Art Museum raise $125 million for expansion. The couple moved to San Francisco last year, where John now serves as director of San Francisco's Fine Arts Museums.

Buchanan already has met with Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard about the new proposal.

"After we have the site, then we need to look at the five to 10 investors who can really make it happen," Buchanan said. " Performing arts centers and museums have become the community living rooms, where people come together, and Vancouver definitely needs that."



Update

- Previously: The nonprofit Southwest Washington Center for the Arts spent two years developing a partnership with Clark College to build a major public arts center, only to have the project not make the cut in last year's state budget cycle. The group then began exploring other options.

- What's new: A second feasibility study, released this month, shows the best option now is to try to build a $100 million mixed-use development, with condominium towers, on a vacant block adjacent to Vancouver's Esther Short Park.

- What's next: The Southwest Washington Center for the Arts plans to restructure its board of directors to put the focus on raising the millions needed to make such a project happen. In the meantime, it also needs to secure the city's commitment to keep that block available.

Did you know?

- Clark County has more than 60 active arts organizations, and the top third of those groups combined generate more than $3 million per year for their operating budgets, according to E.D. Hovee Co.'s November 2007 feasibility study for the Southwest Washington Center for the Arts.

To learn more about this issue, including a selection of past stories, visit



columbian.com/links/centerforthearts

[PuyoPiyo]

Wow so exciting! I do really hope that this project will go successfully and will help the downtown Vancouver very much.

Really hope this project does not take so long like other projects around downtown Vancouver...

[Pavlov's Dog]

Good luck with this. It doesn't sound like the city's very supportive though. Damned shame IMHO.

[PuyoPiyo]

Public invited to write future of new library

Friday, November 23, 2007
BY HOWARD BUCK, Columbian staff writer
Imagine, a chance to help design Vancouver's new main library from the ground up.

Starting with a "hopes and dreams" public forum at 7 p.m. Tuesday, everyone is invited to do just that.

Following an overview by project architects Miller/Hull Partnership of Seattle, guests will break into groups to raise questions and pitch their best ideas what a 21st century facility should look like.

It's a first step toward construction of the central library, approved by voters in September 2006 as part of a $43 million bond measure.
Four levels. Ninety-thousand square feet. Wi-Fi Internet access, and an underground parking garage: The city's never seen a library like this.

"What we're looking for from the public is their vision of what they'd like to see," said Doreen Turpen, special projects director for the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District. "The kickoff meeting is really about their hopes and dreams."

Turpen is guiding work on two Vancouver libraries, including the new branch library adjoining the Firstenburg Community Center on Northeast 136th Avenue.
The east Vancouver branch, 10 times the size of the existing Cascade Park Library, will cost about $10 million when outfitted. It should open in late 2009.

The $37 million downtown facility, almost double the size of the current Vancouver Community Library, will benefit from an anonymous $5 million donation. It should open by 2011.

The first of three planned forums, Tuesday's session will show future library users what's possible, taking its cue from several features in the east Vancouver branch.

Besides expanded collections of books and other resources, new touches include:

More space so people can work together on computers. That's now the norm for young people, Turpen noted.

Wireless Internet zones, for visitors who bring their own laptop computers, with power plug-ins. Visitors want relaxed areas in which they can linger.
A separate teen area, with its own distinct furniture and "character," Turpen said.

More PlayAway recorded books, which use a portable MP3-type device and ear buds to make audio books more convenient.

A children's area more geared to early learning, with space where parents and children can read together.

Other amenities include computers placed around the building, more handy for library staff and visitors, and new displays to draw attention to exhibits or merchandise, Turpen said.

A common request was a floor plan that allows family members to spread out, yet maintain contact with each other, she said.

The eastside library design meets those needs, Turpen said. "We're getting comments from people that, 'Yes, that's what I wanted it to do,' " she said.

Architects 'tuned in'

Turpen and other library leaders have toured similarly sized facilities in Eugene, Ore., San Mateo, Calif., and in Bellevue to glean ideas. They were impressed by architecture and interior design that adds comfort and uses natural light, she said. They also made note how each building could adapt to future technologies, she said.

Under city planning rules, design of the new downtown Vancouver library must "respect and reflect" the brick-lined Academy building across Evergreen Boulevard, Turpen said.

Officials are confident architect firm Miller/Hull and developer Killian Pacific of Vancouver are up to the task.

"They're very much tuned into the Northwest region, very clean (design) and using local materials," Turpen said of the architects.

Free underground parking

The new main library is a prime element of the planned $165 million Riverwest development on nearly 4 acres on the southeast corner of East Evergreen Boulevard and C Street, where the Carr auto dealership now operates. The proposal includes 195 condominiums, 100,000 square feet of office space, a 65-room hotel and restaurant and retail space.

New underground garages will hold 850 to 900 vehicles. Some 300 to 400 parking spaces will be funded by the city, under a limited tax increment financing plan.
About 200 spaces are reserved for free parking by library users.

By next May, Carr Auto Group plans to move its business to the Vancouver Auto Mall area. By late summer, six older houses along Evergreen Boulevard will be razed or moved.

The entire area will be cleared and excavation for the parking garages will begin by late 2008.

Construction on the library and one office tower should begin in early 2009.

Plans are to remodel the current main library building on East Mill Plain Boulevard into an administration and operations center for the library district.

On Tuesday, Clark County commissioners are expected to approve final design of the new east Vancouver branch library.

Acting as the Vancouver Library Capital Facility Area Board governing body, commissioners will meet at 9:30 a.m. in their sixth-floor hearing room at the Public Service ­Center, 1300 Franklin St.

Design of the $10.2 million branch library, which will adjoin the Firstenburg Community Center off Northeast 136th Avenue, includes a few late changes. That includes a covered walkway between the two buildings, said Doreen Turpen, special projects director for the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District.
Construction should start by next spring, with completion due by late 2009, Turpen said.

More information: Frequently asked questions and more details on the main library may be seen at: www.fvrl.org/aboutus/Main_Library_Project.htm (http://www.fvrl.org/aboutus/Main_Library_Project.htm) . Besides the forum, the public also may submit ideas by e-mail, newlibraries@fvrl.org ; by mail, Attention: Julie Marr, FVRL, 1007 E. Mill Plain Blvd., Vancouver, WA, 98663; by telephone, 360-695-1566; or by filling out comment forms available at the main library.

Battle Ground Community Library: construction starts spring 2008; estimated completion spring 2009.

East Vancouver branch library: construction starts mid-2008; estimated completion late 2009.

Vancouver Community (main) library: construction on parking garage starts mid-2008, library construction starts mid-2009; estimated completion mid-2011.


Howard Buck covers the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District. He can be reached at 360-759-8015 or
howard.buck@columbian.com.

[PuyoPiyo]

It will start ground-breaking 2008! Good news!

[CouvScott]

The Luxe is on its way
BY MEGAN PATRICK VBJ Staff Reporter
November 23rd, 2007

The $17 million Luxe office condo building ceremonially broke ground on Nov. 15 in downtown Vancouver at 412 E. 13th St., with an array of local luminaries standing by.
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/couvttocs/luxevbj.jpg
The 56,000-square-foot, six-story Class A commercial, office and residential building by Vancouver-based Prestige Development is set to be completed by spring of 2009. The general contractor has not yet been made public.

The first floor will be retail space, with four floors of office condos and top floor penthouse office or residential units – and Prestige President Elie Kassab has announced he and his wife will live in the top floor penthouse.

All of the space in the building is for sale, starting at $450 per square foot, and condo office sizes will be about 5,000 square feet. The design also includes 47 underground parking spaces.

Eric Fuller & Assoc. is marketing the space, designed to be modern with a European flair by Portland’s Tiland/Schmidt Architects, Kassab said.

“This is truly the beginning of several projects that are going to open this corridor,” Kassab said.

KC Fuller of Eric Fuller & Assoc. said the building already is attracting a fair amount attention from potential

[PuyoPiyo]

^^^Great news! It's about time to change "Approved" to "Under construction".

[PuyoPiyo]

Just went by there yesterday, they chopped some of the trees off and there is a dig hole in the middle of this land.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v500/Ufozacky2k/luxegroundbreak.gif

A Luxe Sign.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v500/Ufozacky2k/luxesign.gif

Closer look to the rendering.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v500/Ufozacky2k/luxerender.gif

[CouvScott]

Thursday, November 29, 2007
BY HOWARD BUCK, Columbian staff writer

Large meeting rooms for community groups; quiet, secure workrooms for researchers.

Bike lockers and free passes for C-Tran users, to match free underground parking for motorists.

Easy-to-navigate displays of books and materials with a bookseller's flair, instead of confusing Dewey decimal columns.

A dedicated Pacific Northwest history section. Student artwork on the walls. Tools that will let families create print or multimedia volumes of their own.

Fort Vancouver Regional Library District leaders want Clark County residents to think big about Vancouver's proposed new downtown library. And about 60 enthusiasts who attended the first visioning session Tuesday night were happy to oblige.

Breakout groups produced lengthy wish lists for the new main library. Among the categories explored were "Look and feel," "'Tweens, teens and technology," and "Families and children."

Team members from project architects Miller/Hull Partnership of Seattle were on hand to sponge up the ideas. Follow-up forums are planned early next year. Meantime, public comments are being solicited by telephone, e-mail and paper forms.

Officials hope by next week to post a summary of initial comments on the district Web site, www.fvrl.org .

"This is the perfect time to have input, because nothing has been shaped yet," said Sue Vanlaanen, spokeswoman for the library district. "It is all very conceptual at this point," she said.

What officials do know is the sweet chore of mapping out 90,000 square feet of new building. Included are about 24,000 square feet on each of three above-ground floors - that's more per floor than Vancouver's 44-year-old main library offers in all for public use - plus more room in a partial basement.

Library officials are excited about the freedom to separate peaceful study or reading alcoves from bustling meeting spots and children's and teen areas.

"We will be able to accommodate this," said Bruce Ziegman, library district executive director. "The biggest complaint we get in this (current) library is 'too noisy,' " he said.

Due to open in 2011, the library is part of the planned $165 million, multi-use Riverwest development on nearly 4 acres on the southeast corner of East Evergreen Boulevard and C Street.

Construction will be funded by $32 million in bonds approved by voters in September 2006 and a $5 million anonymous donation. Frequently asked questions and more details about the main library are posted at www.fvrl.org/aboutus/Main_Library_Project.htm . The public may submit ideas by e-mail, newlibraries@fvrl.org ; by mail, Attention: Julie Marr, FVRL, 1007 E. Mill Plain Blvd., Vancouver, WA 98663; by telephone, 360-695-1566; or by filling out comment forms in Vancouver libraries.

[PuyoPiyo]

County, Vancouver will cooperate on growth

Wednesday, December 05, 2007
BY JEFFREY MIZE, Columbian staff writer

Vancouver and Clark County governments approved an agreement this week that aims to push old hostilities aside in favor of cooperation on annexation and growth management. The deal comes only days before Friday's deadline to appeal the county's updated growth plan.

The city council unanimously approved the agreement Monday night. County commissioners approved it Tuesday morning, despite Commissioner Betty Sue Morris' vocal dissent.

The agreement could go a long way toward smoothing a relationship that has been tumultuous since county commissioners in January 2006 disbanded the boundary review board as a way to prevent Vancouver from seeking to annex up to 70,000 people.

Part of the agreement is an updated version of the city's annexation blueprint, which sets a rough schedule for annexing more than 57 square miles during the next 20 years.

City officials have a variety of reasons for wanting to annex areas outside their city limits:

- Political clout. Vancouver increased its standing in Olympia and Washington, D.C., when the Cascade Park annexation made Vancouver the state's fourth-largest city.

- Representation. Some people who live outside the city limits receive sewer and water service from the city, but they cannot elect the city council members who set utility rates.

- Growth management. Vancouver officials say that cities, not counties, should provide urban services.

The agreement says the city and county will work cooperatively in pursuing annexations inside the Vancouver urban growth area, but county officials insist they aren't agreeing to support every annexation.

"This isn't a game of Risk where jurisdictions get together and move pieces around on a board," Commissioner Steve Stuart said. "This is people's lives."
Morris said she believes the agreement will cause future friction with city council members who might become irked if the county doesn't support a particular annexation.

"The agreement does not bind the county in any way, shape or form to endorse or support the annexation blueprint," she said. "But most people think that it does."

Morris said county policy calls for commissioners to support annexations when the city provides two or more services, such as sewer and water. But the annexation blueprint covers the entire Vancouver urban growth area, including large tracts where the city provides no services.

Commissioner Marc Boldt, who cast the swing vote in favor of the agreement, was a state representative when Vancouver annexed Cascade Park at the beginning of 1997. Boldt said he doesn't want to find himself again hearing constituents complain how the city made promises it could not keep and instead raised taxes.

As for Hazel Dell, "If the city really wants annexation, go for a public vote," Boldt said.

Bud Van Cleve, president of the Northeast Hazel Dell Neighborhood Association, said he doesn't believe his community's destiny is to be part of Vancouver.

"I'm not opposed to annexation when it's needed; I am opposed to annexation without a vote of the people," Van Cleve told commissioners. "Vancouver has nothing to offer us, except for higher taxes."

City council members were decidedly more positive before approving the agreement Monday night.

"It's not the end," Councilwoman Jeanne Harris said. "It's the very beginning of a new relationship with the county."

Update

- Previously: Vancouver and Clark County clashed over a growth plan and how urban area annexation should be handled.

- What's new: The local governments agreed on a blueprint that calls for cooperation and gradual annexation over the next 20 years.

- What's next: The county growth plan is expected to be challenged by other groups prior to Friday's deadline

[PuyoPiyo]

This is what Vancouver is going to be look like.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v500/Ufozacky2k/A20COV20UGA20with20City20Limits20Ma.jpg

http://www.cityofvancouver.us/annexation.asp?menuid=10463&submenuid=16654

Also my thoughts, the currently Vancouver's population was 160,000 and if they add 70,000 then that would be 230,000. That's larger population than Spokane and Tacoma at about 200,000. Also to me this map look like it's almost doubling the size of area which should be about 65 to possible 100 arces, that's large than Spokane at 58 sq miles and Tacoma at 62 sq miles according to Wikipedia.

Good Luck, Couve!

[CouvScott]

Breaking barriers
Vancouver office project chosen as BPA prototype
BY MEGAN PATRICK VBJ Staff Reporter
December 7th, 2007


Schlecht Construction, with offices in Longview and Vancouver, is in the development stages of a state-of-the-art two-story, Class A office building near Sifton that is set to be so environmentally friendly, it was chosen as the prototype for the Bonneville Power Administration’s Energy Smart Design Office program.

The 26,000-square-foot project, to be called 157th Plaza, will have space for up to 16 tenants and is expected to save more than $8,000 per year in energy costs.

“Everybody is saying we’re green, we’re LEED, but just because you’re green doesn’t mean you’re energy efficient,” said Bryan Halbert, vice president of Schlecht Construction. “This building is energy smart.”

Halbert, along with Schlecht Construction President Larry Schlecht, Larry Bonife of Vancouver-based Cornerstone Masonry and Jim Lovelace, are managing partners on the project.
Submitted rendering
Schlecht Construction is planning 157th Plaza, which could save $8,000 a year in energy costs, and is geared toward medical tenants.
The $6 million project, designed by architect Mark DiLoreto of Vancouver-based Planning Solutions Inc., will meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards.

The Energy Smart Design Office program emphasizes the need to consider a project’s efficiencies at the start of the building design process because most of the cost savings of using energy conservation measures can’t be captured as cost effectively as retrofit measures, said Katie Pruder, BPA spokeswoman.

Bonneville Power Administration offers a 50-cent per square foot incentive for buildings that qualify for the region-wide program.

To qualify, buildings must be served by a participating utility – in this case, Clark Public Utility will serve 157th Plaza – and be a new building, an addition to an existing building or a major office renovation.

It must be three stories or less, less than 100,000 square feet and have 30 percent or less window-to-wall area ratio. The project also must include an efficient cooling system, effective window U-value, solar heat gain coefficient windows, an integrated design of an HVAC system and efficient lighting.

The incentive helps to cut down on the up-front costs, but to remain competitive in an aggressive leasing market, the lease rate has to be competitive to attract tenants, Halbert said.

Typically, triple net costs are 44 cents to 55 cents per square foot on top of a building’s base rent. Halbert expects 157th Plaza to be able to operate on less than 40 cents per square foot triple net.

The full-service price will be $24 per square foot – less than some LEED-certified projects are charging now, Halbert said.

“We’ll be able to charge less for triple net up front, and as energy costs rise, our costs will go up more slowly,” he said. “There is about 15 percent vacancy in Class A office right now, so I have to be competitive.”

157th Plaza was chosen as the prototype nearly by happenstance, Halbert said.

Schlecht was already discussing the energy-saving features when the BPA’s program came along, and the project’s engineer, Matt Todd of Longview-based Entek Corp. was in touch with the BPA.

The design is nearly 90 percent complete and moving into the permitting stages.

As of now, the location may seem remote, but there are several developments planned near the site, 15710 N.E. 65th Ave.

“It may be the first leasable space in that area,” Halbert said.

Schlecht is looking to lease the building to medical tenants.

“There is a higher consciousness about their environment, and that area is somewhat underserved,” Halbert said. “Kaiser just built a new facility down the street. Now it’s a little out of the way, but it’s going to be a hot, hot area.”

Schlecht Construction is expected to break ground on the project in March and be completed within a year.

SETTING THE PROJECT APART

Coated exterior windows with sun shades will bounce light in, but keep heat out. The windows have a U-value of .29, which reduces the thermal value by 75 percent.

Because less energy is needed to operate the building, designers were able to reduce the building’s mechanical unit for 60-tons to 50-tons.

Rather than using a traditional hot tar roofing method that can double the temperature radiating off of the roof, 157th Plaza will have peel-and-stick TPO roofing.

The TPO is durable white PVC plastic that is welded to the roof using heat. On a 90-degree day, its reflected heat is 92 degrees, reducing the “heat island effect,” said Bryan Halbert, vice president of Schlecht Construction.

It also allows the use of smaller conduits and wires so the mechanical unit doesn’t have to work as hard, reducing energy consumption.

Pervious concrete allows water drainage and cleans microbes from runoff before it’s absorbed into groundwater will be used for parking lots.

Architectural block reradiates heat so there are no temperature swings in the building – usually associated with woodframe buildings. It also acts as a better sound barrier, Halbert said.

Digital Addressable Lighting Interface controls draw on natural light coming in and supplementing with electrical light only when it’s needed.

Each electrical ballast is addressable and programmable, making it possible to communicate directly to the components in the fittings. The controls can monitor ambient light and “tell” the ballast how much light it needs to output, saving energy.

The system can easily be reconfigured as tenants change and fixtures never have to be rewired – it’s all done by computer.

Halbert estimates a $3,000 lighting bill could be reduced to $600 using the controls, known as “light harvesting.”

A fully integrated, web-controlled HVAC system will be monitored remotely for troubleshooting.

“Because IT techs can troubleshoot remotely, they don’t have to drive out and reset the system, which saves money and vehicle emissions,” Halbert said.

He estimates the cost savings could be $3,000 per year on top of the energy cost savings.

FITTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

Architect Mark DiLoreto of Vancouver-based Planning Solutions Inc. is a problem solver for a living.

In the case of 157th Plaza, he had to take a handful of sustainable building practices and design a comfortable, attractive building that is financially viable for the owners.

The most difficult piece is usually the financial one, he said.

“You always have to show developers what their return on investment is going to be,” DiLoreto said. “If it’s not affordable, it’s not going to work.”

Products like concrete, steel and masonry are long-lasting and low-maintenance.

“That makes it really easy for us because we can show the economic value without pushing the tree-hugging side,” he said. “They love to see the benefit to their bottom line.”

From the beginning, design is a balancing act.

Planning Solutions’ philosophy is to use as much natural light as possible. The downside is heat transfer.

But at 157th Plaza, the windows are coated and have a U-value of .29 and will have metal sunshades that bounce light in but keep heat out.

Luckily, the design work was a team effort between the owners, Schlecht Construction and the designers.

The design team wanted plenty of large windows. Bryan Halbert, vice president of Schlecht Construction, discovered the Digital Addressable Lighting Interface system and the owners wanted to use masonry.

Because the DALI system draws on natural light entering the building and only supplements with electrical light when needed, DiLoreto was able to add more windows to the design.

DiLoreto said the clients who generally come to PSI are not looking for projects their going to turn around and sell in two years, so the quality is expected to be high and buildings are made to last for 50 to 100 years.

“Architecture is problem solving,” DiLoreto said. “You take all of these design principles and use your creative skills to make them fit.”

[NJD]

Myhre Group Architects Announces Completion of Oregon Condos
Multi-Housing News, NY
Published: December 11, 2007

By Matthew Marin, Associate Editor

http://www.multi-housingnews.com/multihousing/photos/stylus/14233.jpg

Gresham, Ore.--Myhre Group Architects, a Portland, Ore.-based firm, has announced the completion of the Béranger Condominiums, a four-story, mixed-use building featuring 24 market-rate residences in historic downtown Gresham, Ore. The project promotes the social sustainability of a dense urban lifestyle, encouraging the use of mass transit, bicycles and walking.

A public/private project, Béranger Condominiums was a group effort between the developer, Peak Development LLC; the City of Gresham; and the regional government, Metro. This high-density, transit oriented development is a welcome newcomer to the quickly evolving downtown area, offering a fresh new look and an assortment of retail and living options.

"It was an honor to work on a project that incorporates a variety of quality of life issues including environmental, social and economic sustainability, and the benefits of public/private development partnerships," Brian Laramee, associate of Myhre Group Architects, tells MHN. "Collaborative work between the design team and Lone Oak Construction influenced creative project development and assured the ultimate realization of the design intent."

The Béranger’s position, only three short blocks away from the local light-rail (MAX), allows residents access to easy, efficient and ecologically-friendly public transportation throughout the Portland area. The project is also just steps from the planned site for Gresham’s Cultural Arts Center, a weekly farmers market, and quaint local shops.

Béranger’s four-story structure includes a mix of 7,000-sq.-ft. commercial and retail spaces with tuck-under parking for residents. The housing portion of the building provides a variety of floor plan options with loft-style, one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. Gresham Planning allowed a height increase for the vertical development—simultaneously complementing the scale of downtown Gresham while promoting a healthy alternative to horizontal residential sprawl.

Sustainable stormwater management features include rooftop and grade-level, flow-through planters and porous paving. The eco-roof, viewable from a rooftop community patio, acts as an educational tool for the residents and guests. As well as serving a practical purpose, aesthetically the roof provides gorgeous views and a green oasis in an urban setting.

[joeplayer1989]

now do something like this in Beaverton

[PuyoPiyo]

Carr Construction Revs Up
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
By JULIA ANDERSON/The Columbian

Construction has begun at a site on Fourth Plain Boulevard near Andresen Road that will be home to the Carr Auto Group dealership in Vancouver. The $8 million building will offer showroom space for GMC, Pontiac, Buick and Cadillac lines. Work is expected to be finished by May. Carr's departure from downtown Vancouver will make way for the RiverWest project that includes a new library, offices, condos, hotel and restaurant.

[360Rich]

City approves sale of historic Vancouver site

Wednesday, December 19, 2007
BY JEFFREY MIZE, Columbian Staff Writer

A four-story office-retail building will be built at one of downtown Vancouver's most historic locations.

The city council agreed Monday to sell two parcels totaling 10,300 square feet, roughly a quarter city block where the Monterey Hotel stood from 1888 to 2002. The buyer, a subsidiary of Killian Pacific, will pay $400,000.

Killian Pacific already owns the site of the former Frontier nightclub immediately to the north. The company wants to combine the two sites and build a four-story 63,000-square-foot office-retail building, with 5,633 square feet of ground-floor retail space fronting Main Street and wrapping around onto Sixth Street.

Killian Pacific's offices are next-door in the West Coast Bank Building, a six-story building that was the company's first big project in downtown Vancouver. It was completed earlier this decade.

Steve Burdick, development director for Killian Pacific, said the company intends to apply for site-plan approval and building permits as soon as possible, but the market for office space will dictate when construction begins.

The city council approved a development agreement for the proposed Frontier Office Building by a 6-0 vote Monday night.

Councilwoman Jeanne Stewart praised the development agreement for its fairness, but she voted against the property sale.

"I think more effective sales are done on the open market through the bid process, rather than a negotiated sale," she said.

Councilman Tim Leavitt recused himself from both decisions because his employer, PBS Engineering and Environmental, is working on the project, as is Leavitt himself.

The four-story Frontier Office Building will be a distinct change from a colorful history that stretches to the 19th century.

The last Frontier

Decades ago, the Frontier nightclub was the happening spot for entertainment, the place where touring performers would stop while working the West Coast circuit. The Frontier later became a cardroom and finally a café before it was shut down following a fire in December 1995.

The Monterey Hotel continued to operate for another six years, offering housing to those who did not have references or money for first and last month's rent.

The building's owners resisted overtures to purchase their ugly residential hotel. The city, unable to shut down the Monterey for building or fire code reasons, declared the property "urban blight" and went to court to have it condemned. With the threat of a court-ordered sale hovering over their heads, in early 2002 the owners finally agreed to sell it to Vancouver for $750,000.

That June, the city paid an additional $142,000 to demolish the Monterey.

City officials say an appraisal placed the value of the cleared land at $280,000. Even though the city will sell the property for $120,000 more than the appraised value, it still is less than what it paid for the property.

However, a report indicates that Vancouver can expect to gross almost $1 million in 2007 dollars from additional tax revenues during the next 20 years due to the redevelopment.

The state of Washington should get an even bigger revenue boost, an estimated $6.16 million.

Update

Previously: In 2002, the city of Vancouver paid $750,000 to purchase the Monterey Hotel and $142,000 to demolish the 114-year-old structure along the east side of lower Main Street.

What's new: The city council agreed Monday to sell the vacant one-quarter block for $400,000 to a subsidiary of Killian Pacific and to approve an agreement to redevelop the site, along with the former home of the Frontier nightclub to the north.

What's next: Killian Pacific will seek site-plan approval and building permits, but the market for office space will dictate when construction begins.

http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/2007/12/12192007_City-approves-sale-of-historic-Vancouver-site.cfm

http://www.columbian.com/_images/newsPhotos/newsPic250257_Head.jpg
A four-story building is planned where the Frontier nightclub and Monterey Hotel once stood along lower Main Street in downtown Vancouver. This sketch looks toward the southwest, roughly from Sixth Street and Broadway. (Tiland/Schmidt Architects P.C.)

http://www.columbian.com/_images/newsPhotos/newsPic250257_99500.jpg
June 2002: The last days of the Monterey Hotel and the adjoining Frontier nightclub building, looking west toward Main Street from the West Coast Bank building. (Files/The Columbian)

[PuyoPiyo]

Awesome new, hopefully they can set the construction start date as soon as possible.

Just one thing, I don't like the color of the building..

[360Rich]

I wish it was a little more dynamic and a few floors taller, but that pretty much goes without saying for everything that is being built in downtown Vancouver.

If everything goes according to plan, it's going to be less than a block away from the MAX stop (where the old bus mall was), so some extra height would be a bonus.

The architect's portfolio primarily consists of strip malls and grocers, so I'm not expecting to be wowed by this one.

I hope I'm wrong.

[PuyoPiyo]

^^^Yeah I agree, a few more floors would be bonus for 6th street.

[MarkDaMan]

not sure if there is a thread for this...

Developers plot ambitious plans for the former Evergreen Field
Ready for takeoff
Portland Business Journal - by Wendy Culverwell Business Journal staff Writer

The developers who bought Vancouver's beloved Evergreen Field will waste little time in clearing the way for an ambitious retail development.

Portland developers Thomas Kemper, Bruce Wood and Ronald Skov formed ELD Development LLC, which bought the 50-acre property on Southeast Mill Plain Boulevard from the daughters of the air strip's late founder, Wally Olsen, for $14.5 million. The sale closed last week and included reassignment of development rights to the project first secured in 2000 by Opus Northwest.

Soon, the old airstrip will give way to big-box retailers, luxury shopping, a hotel and office space, and even residences. In January, what's left of its old hangars and other structures will be cleared away to make way for The Village at Evergreen, a $115 million retail complex with 348,000 square feet for both big-box retailers and luxury boutiques.

With financial backing from BlackRock Retail Opportunity Fund LLC, ELD Development plans to launch construction next summer, with completion scheduled for fall 2009.

The new partners say their vision for The Village is consistent with the plan hammered out in 2000, when the Olsen family chose Wood's former firm, Opus Northwest, to develop the property. Opus elected not to pursue the project and turned its development agreement over to the team of Kemper, Wood and Skov.

Vancouver's growing east side and the rising financial clout of its residents is attracting retailer interest, said Thom Brockmiller, who is representing The Village at Evergreen on behalf of GRD Development, whose principals are the same team that leased the successful Bridgeport Village retail center in Tualatin: Candace Gray and her husband Jim Dix, along with Peter Rusnak, former head of real estate for Crate & Barrel.

There are no signed leases, but Brockmiller said he has received letters of intent, interest or inquiry from retailers representing a total of about 500,000 square feet, far more than what is available, nearly half again above what will be available.

To Wood, Kemper and Skov, Evergreen Field is a no-brainer.

Its 50 acres are level and already entitled for development by the city. There are some environmental contamination issues involving aviation fuel and other pollutants, but the Washington Department of Ecology has signed off on the cleanup plan.

The demographics are stellar, said Wood.

With a rising inventory of executive housing and a median income of $70,000, the fast-growing corridor is ripe for higher-end retailers.

The property has eight blocks of frontage on busy Southeast Mill Plain Boulevard and is easily accessible from Interstate 205.
Airport boasts rich history

Wally Olsen began operating Evergreen Field in 1945. It was a popular destination for aviation enthusiasts in the decades that followed. It regularly hosted the annual Northwest Antique Airplane Club Fly-in and grew to include two 2,000-foot runways, one asphalt and the other grass.

In the end, suburbia caught up with and engulfed Evergreen Field. Costly new security restrictions on airports helped doom it to closure.

The fly-in decamped for McMinnville in 2003. The last plane quartered at Evergreen departed more than a year ago. A giant yellow "X" across the asphalt runway warns would-be visitors that the strip is out of business.

While many lament the loss of the airfield, The Village at Evergreen will unquestionably have a far greater impact on Vancouver's economy.

The airport was home to just 150 airplanes. The aviation division of the Washington Department of Transportation once estimated that airport activity supported 130 jobs and resulted in $8.6 million in economic activity, a figure that presumes aviators were spending money on hotels, restaurants and shopping.

The development team said the design of the new center will honor the site's aviation history and will contain a memorial to Wally Olsen.

The Evergreen team has extensive experience working on lifestyle centers and also working in Vancouver.

Kemper developed the Esther Short Commons, a multiuse project in downtown that includes 160 units of affordable housing.

For his part, Wood led Opus Northwest when it co-developed Bridgeport Village and, critically, when it negotiated the development terms for Evergreen Field with the city of Vancouver and the former owners.

The team is intimately familiar with the airstrip's East Vancouver neighborhood, having redeveloped the nearby Mountain View Ice Arena last year.

Together, Wood and Kemper collaborated on the $4.8 million renovation, preserving some ice for skaters and converting the rest into a Vancouver campus for City Bible Church.

wculverwell@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3415

http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2007/12/24/story1.html?t=printable

[PuyoPiyo]

While there is news for The Columbian's green building, and I don't know where to put it but create the thread about it.


The Columbian ready to make its way

Wednesday, December 26, 2007
BY JONATHAN NELSON, Columbian staff writer

The bulk of The Columbian's newspaper operations are scheduled to make the two-block move to new offices on Jan. 12.

The change will take more than 200 of the paper's staff from its 1950-era building to a $30 million, six-story green-built office building at 415 W. Sixth St., south of Esther Short Park and west of the Hilton Vancouver Washington hotel.

The move was initially set for October. Publisher Scott Campbell said it was discovered in September that an air conditioning unit for the company's computer servers was too loud and caused too much vibration. The server room is on the third floor, in the center of the building, with many desks nearby, so the company committed to fixing it before moving.

Mixed blessing

Campbell now calls the delay a bit of a blessing because there have been 30 to 40 workers in the building throughout the fall completing a variety of jobs.
Now, "It's pretty much finished," Campbell said.

Moving the news, advertising and business operations will be a bit of a logistical challenge. Campbell said most employees will leave the old building on Friday, Jan. 11. Blue Bird Transfer of Vancouver will handle the move during the weekend, and most employees will return to work Monday, Jan. 14, in the new building. There they should find their boxed belongings on a new desk with a working phone and computer.

Campbell said it should be a "seamless" transition.

The paper will continue to be published, with critical departments moving in the middle of the night. Many of the Circulation Department's employees moved to the new offices in mid-December.

The first four floors of the building will be occupied by The Columbian's operations. Aha!, a Vancouver marketing and communications business, will consolidate its operations and 35 employees into space on the fifth floor. The accounting firm Moss Adams also is an announced tenant for space in the building.

Campbell said the construction delays did not affect the tenants.
Recruitment of more tenants, including retailers for ground floor space, will intensify in the new year, Campbell said.

The paper's press and distribution facility will remain at its current location, 700 W. Sixth St.

The earth-friendly construction method used for the new building has drawn interest from other developers, Campbell said.

The 118,000-square-foot building is on track to earn Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

Rated on a point system, Gold is the program's second-highest rating.
Update

Previously: Construction began in 2006 on The Columbian's new headquarters at 415 W. Sixth St.

What's new:

After some delays, the bulk of the company's staff is scheduled to move to the new building Jan. 12.

What's next: Blue Bird Transfer of Vancouver will be handling the logistics of the move.


Jonathan Nelson can be reached at 360-759-8013 or via e-mail at jonathan.nelson@columbian.com

[Brandon716]

After living in Portland for the past half year, well Beaverton anyway, I've noticed that Portland fits the mold of many American cities where the suburbs avoid building high-rises of any kind. With the MAX system so developed and matured, it amazes me that the transit stops in Hillsboro, Beaverton, Gresham, and East Portland haven't started building condo, apartment, and other various towers similar to Vancouver and Toronto.

Is there a metro-wide push to keep all kinds of highrise development downtown? Vancouver BC is a regional example that cities can have both a strong highrise downtown as well as highrise development in suburban areas.

Who else on here would like to see continual highrise development in Portland's city center, but also along the MAX corridors? I am a huge proponent of making Portland a city that is similar in that growth aspect to Vancouver.

So who else on here agrees?

[bvpcvm]

i'd love to see denser development around the max stations.

in fact, metro has been trying to encourage denser development around what it calls 'town centers' or 'regional centers' or something. see www.metro-region.org (http://www.metro-region.org). unfortunately, not much has come of it so far. i'm not sure if that's simply because real estate prices here are (compared, say, to the bay area) so low or what. i know that metro did some kind of study a couple years back where they looked at gateway and tried to figure out why nothing multi-story had gone in (this was before the oregon clinic and the tri-met parking garage).

as i recall, the consensus was that the structured parking that denser building would require made dense projects fail to pencil out without a subsidy (in fact, the one place in the suburbs - the round - which has been built up more densely, required a subsidy and even then it's been a disaster).

still, some places are picking up - hollywood, for instance hasn't added any high rises, but several 3-4 story apt buildings went up over the past few years as well as that office/parking garage next to the station. and retail there (last time i was there, anyway) has picked up, so, if/when we ever recover from this sub-prime mortgage mess, maybe something will start to happen there. (oh yeah, there's that 5-story whole foods project in hollywood - has that broken ground?)

[PuyoPiyo]

http://www.columbian.com/_images/newsPhotos/newsPic260368_105020.jpg
http://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gif
An upscale retail development will be the centerpiece of The Village at Evergreen, planned by new developers who recently purchased the Evergreen Airport site, shown here looking east. (FILES/The Columbian)

New developer takes over project

Thursday, January 10, 2008
BY CAMI JONER, Columbian staff writer
The names have changed but the plans remain much the same for the site of the former Evergreen Airport in east Vancouver.

Its rusty metal outbuildings will soon be demolished to make way for The Village at Evergreen, a 59-acre "lifestyle" development of stores, offices, a hotel and homes to be built on the north side of Mill Plain Boulevard between 136th Avenue and Hearthwood Boulevard. The mixed-use project is now in the hands of ELD Development LLC, a Portland group that includes Thomas Kemper, Ronald Skov and Bruce Wood, a former manager for Opus Northwest.

The $215 million development was originally called The Landing at Evergreen. It was proposed by Seattle-based Opus, which announced in July it was backing out of those plans after losing anchor retailer Whole Foods. Slumping home sales also stalled the project when residential developer Matrix Development pulled out of its agreement to purchase the tract's western parcel for 221 townhouses.

ELD bought the site in December for $14.5 million from the heirs of Wally Olsen.
"We hope to break ground by late summer," said Kemper, a developer who has Clark County experience. Kemper partnered with the Vancouver Housing Authority in 2003 to develop Esther Short Commons, a four-story complex with street-level retail space and 160 apartments in downtown Vancouver.

Kemper said his group will focus on the project's $130 million retail development with financial backing from BlackRock Retail Opportunity Fund LLC, a New York-based investment service company, which he said has a strong financial portfolio. That should attract retailers to the project, Kemper said. "Because it has the backing of a major financial company."

He would not reveal tenants lined up for the project, which had originally included a major bookseller, a major health club and Whole Foods.

"We're planning on three anchors," Kemper said, calling the development a "power lifestyle center" similar to Bridgeport Village in Tigard, Ore. The upscale complex is filled with popular boutiques such as Mario's, Chico's and Crate & Barrel.

Kemper said his group will sell off the eastern portion of the tract set aside for a hotel and offices, as well as the housing component, which likely won't develop until the housing market recovers.

Attracting interest

The hotel and office portion of the site has already attracted the attention of major hoteliers, said Roger Qualman, executive vice president of NAI Norris Beggs & Simpson in Vancouver.

"Several hospitality groups are interested," Qualman said. He predicted the three- and four-story office buildings planned for the site would also be attractive, with views of Mount Hood.

ELD will be allowed to pick up on the same project master plan that Opus Northwest and the city spent more than two years revising, said Gerald Baugh, Vancouver's business development director.

"If they do something else, it could mean they'll have to go back through and revisit the planning commission," Baugh said.

In the meantime, the city is gearing up to start work this summer on a $4 million project to widen 136th Avenue at Mill Plain to accommodate the area's additional traffic.

Update
Previously: In July, Seattle-based Opus Northwest canceled plans for a $215 million mixed-use project at the former Evergreen Airport site.

What's new: Portland-based ELD Development LLC has purchased the 59-acre site and plans to develop The Village at Evergreen, a similar retail, housing, office and hotel project.

What's next: Demolition work on the airport's buildings will begin early this year, with work expected to start on the retail portion of the project this summer.

Cami Joner covers real estate for The Columbian. She can be reached at 360-759-8018 or via e-mail at cami.joner@columbian.com.

[PuyoPiyo]

I wonder if this is Couve's other "10,000K Resident Waterfront Envision" at downtown?

[360Rich]

Old thread is here http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=135309

Dougall, can they be merged together, please?

[Dougall5505]

yep!

[360Rich]

You're a gentleman and a scholar. Thanks!

[PuyoPiyo]

Carr Vancouver to temporarily use Block 10 for car sales
Friday, January 11, 2008
Contact: Eric Holmes, Economic Development Director, 360-735-8872
To support the Riverwest development proposed for C Street in downtown Vancouver, Carr Vancouver, the site’s current tenant, will temporarily use the vacant lot at 8th & Columbia, known as Block 10, for car sales. The move will take place in mid-January until the end of May 2008 when their new location at Fourth Plain Boulevard and 63rd Avenue is completed.
The State of Washington selected the Riverwest project to demonstrate their new tax increment financing program. One element related to tax increment financing makes it advantageous to move sales taxes off the redevelopment site in 2008, so the City of Vancouver, the developer, Killian-Pacific, and Carr are cooperating to maximize the funding available from this program.
“While it may surprise people at first, we anticipate little to no inconvenience for nearby residents or businesses,” said Eric Holmes, City of Vancouver Economic Development Director.
The proposed Riverwest development includes a 90,000 square foot new main library branch, a 100,000 square foot office building, 200 condominiums/townhouses, a 65-room boutique hotel, 17,500 square feet of retail, a public plaza and a 350-400 space underground public parking garage. The project is set to be completed by 2010 at an estimated cost of $160 million.

http://www.cityofvancouver.us

[PuyoPiyo]

Columbian begins new era

Monday, January 14, 2008
Columbian Staff Reports
The Columbian newspaper and columbian.com began operations from a new building over the weekend, with Monday as the first day of business in the building for the full staff. Watch the 6:30 p.m. Channel 8 news tonight when a piece on The Columbian's new building is expected to air.

http://www.columbian.com/_images/newsPhotos/newsPic262529_106253.jpg
http://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gif
The Columbian's new building opened on Monday. (JANET L. MATHEWS/The Columbian)

http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/2008/01/01142008_Columbian-begins-new-era.cfm

[CouvScott]

Thanks for all of the Vancouver buildings in the diagram section. They look great!

[PuyoPiyo]

Thanks for all of the Vancouver buildings in the diagram section. They look great!

No problemo! :) I am just trying to do my best ;)

[PuyoPiyo]

Since there's many news about the Cowlitz Indian Tribe Casino/Resorts, so I thought I should check it out and found out that they could have building that are probably over 10 floors. Also the news about that proposed project was kinda interesting due to its much of arguements. So I thought why not give it a thread, this do deserve a thread.


http://www.cowlitzcasino.com/images/a.gif s a preliminary step in the process, the Cowlitz Tribe has asked the BIA to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement that will address project impacts. The study will explore what we feel could be the maximum possible build-out of the property, although we may build something smaller. The project may be phased over several years and could include:
http://www.cowlitzcasino.com/images/portecochere-front_400.jpg

A casino of up to 134,150 square feet
Restaurant and retail stores totaling up to 260,225 square feet
Convention and entertainment facilities of up to 147,500 square feet
A 250-room hotel
Tribal government offices, a tribal cultural center, and approximately 16 Tribal elder housing units.
Parking structures for about 7,250 vehicles and an RV park for 200 recreational vehicles.
When fully developed, the entire facility will create thousands of jobs.
Once built, the resort will draw thousands of people over the course of a 24-hour day.http://www.cowlitzcasino.com/project_details.htm


Their lastest news..


Indian gambling law stacks deck against communities, Baird says
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
BY JEFFREY MIZE, Columbian staff writer

Congressman Brian Baird sees need for significant reform of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the 1988 federal law that has spawned an explosion in Indian casinos.

"I think there's room for a lot of improvement, frankly," the ­Vancouver Democrat told The Columbian's editorial board Monday. "The deck is so stacked right now, in terms of process, against the ­local community."

Baird, however, continues to remain neutral on the big casino proposal inside his own congressional district: the Cowlitz Tribe's plan to build a $510 million ­gambling, shopping and entertainment complex on 152 acres west of La Center.

Instead of taking a yes-no position, Baird has pushed for an open federal process, even though he sees deficiencies in that process.

"It's too complicated; it's not transparent," he said. "I think it's biased in terms of the agencies making the decisions in a quasi-advocacy role.
"I don't have an easy solution," he added, "but those are the general issues I would look at."

Tribal casinos brought in $25.1 billion in 2006, and their revenue growth is outpacing Las Vegas. In just five years, revenues from Indian gambling have almost doubled from $12.8 billion in 2001.

That has occurred during a time when, according to Baird, the Bush administration has been reluctant to approve new tribal gambling.

"I have no idea how that would change under a new administration because we have no idea if that would be a D or an R (Democrat or Republican)," he said.

Although Baird refuses to take a position opposing the Cowlitz casino, he made several comments that should be welcomed by opponents:

The footprint of the project, approximately 877,000 square feet, is huge, bigger than Westfield Vancouver mall.

Gambling is addictive and not a desirable way to raise money or to boost the economy.

The local economy would be better served to have the casino site used for industrial purposes.

The casino could have a profound negative effect on north Clark County.

Baird, in an interview, said he doesn't serve on any committees with jurisdiction over Indian gambling and hasn't seen a groundswell for reform.

"For most members, it's not a pressing local issue," he said.

ON THE WEB: Cowlitz casino information columbian.com/news/casino

[PuyoPiyo]

Downtown and City Center Redevelopment Authority meetings rescheduled
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Contact: Jill Bingham, City of Vancouver Economic Development Services, (360) 696-8048

The Downtown Redevelopment Authority and City Center Redevelopment Authority meetings previously scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 17 have been rescheduled for Thursday, Jan. 24. The DRA meetings are typically held the third Thursday of the month at 11:30 a.m. in City Hall Council Chambers, 210 E. 13th St. The CCRA meetings are typically held at noon, immediately after the DRA meetings.

For more information, contact the City of Vancouver Economic Development Services at (360) 696-8048.


What does Downtown and City Center Redevelopment Authority do?

[pdxf]

The problem I see with Beaverton, is that I can't figure out why anyone would want to live there. There isn't much to do because for there to be something to do, there needs to be density (I guess a catch-22). If I want to live in a dense environment, I want to live in downtown Portland where the advantages of living densely are already in place. There needs to be a draw that downtown Portland doesn't have. I could see incredible, dense communities at Lake Oswego, Vancouver, Milwaukie, and Jantzen beach (mainly because of their waterside locations). I could even see a high density neighborhood out near Troutdale, close to the mountains, gorge and river. Beaverton doesn't really seem to have anything that would make me choose it over downtown Portland. With the Round in Beaverton, it seems as though I am pyaing a downtown bill, without the downtown.

[MarkDaMan]

They have the best farmers market in the valley...in fact, I absolutely love their market so much more than Portland, and there is no excuse why Portland's isn't bigger like the Beavertowns...

but other than that...yeah, I agree!

[CouvScott]

Thursday, January 17, 2008
BY MICHAEL ANDERSEN, Columbian staff writer

As architects begin to sketch designs for a new $37 million main library in downtown Vancouver, the library district's leaders are raising their sights.

They're now looking to make the building taller and skinnier than previously thought - four floors plus a mezzanine - and to raise an extra $3 million for a "cutting-edge" early learning center that the county's top librarian says would resemble a small children's museum.

"Libraries are no longer book warehouses," Fort Vancouver Regional Library Executive Director Bruce Ziegman said Wednesday. "The public expects far more from us than that."

Ziegman said the 90,000-square-foot library will cost about the same whether it's three or four stories high.

It's expected to open in 2011 on the southeast corner of East Evergreen Boulevard and C Street, part of the four-block Riverwest project by Killian Pacific of Vancouver.

With $3 million from private donations, the new early learning center for children younger than 5 could be "something very special, perhaps unique in this country," Ziegman told county commissioners Wednesday.

It would broaden the library's appeal, he added.

"We want people to want to come back, not because they want to check out a book but because it's a fun, engaging experience for them and their kids," he said.

The 15,000 square-foot center would have books. But it would offer more - hands-on exhibits and teachers, maybe.

"We're considering one of the areas to be called a 'discovery area,'" Ziegman said. "One month the theme might be the farm. And there would be different (toy) animals for them to play with. ? There would be books and storytimes and other things relating to that theme."

Clark College, Washington State University Vancouver and local public schools might offer programs at the center, Ziegman said.

Next week, he said, a committee starts brainstorming how to raise the $3 million.

If you want to help, contact the library foundation at 360-906-2323 or visit its Web site at www.fvrlf.org .

"It's always more economical to build out the space all at once than to add on later," Ziegman said. "That's not to say it couldn't be done, but it's always better to have your financing up front."

Killian Pacific LLC

Update

Previously:

In 2006, $32 million from a bond issue and a $5 million anonymous donation provided money for a new main library in downtown Vancouver.

What's new:

The library district hopes to include four stories, a mezzanine and a "world-class" early learning center for kids younger than 5.

What's next:

Construction is expected to begin next year, with the library opening in 2011.

[PuyoPiyo]

http://www.columbian.com/_images/newsPhotos/newsPic265458_108057.jpg
http://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gif
Clark College at Columbia Tech Center
http://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gif
http://www.columbian.com/_images/newsPhotos/newsPic265458_108058.jpg
http://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gif
Vancouver Clinic 87th St.

Year's Top Projects

Sunday, January 20, 2008


1. The Village at Evergreen

Location: Former Evergreen Airport site on Mill Plain Boulevard east of 136th Ave.

Developer: ELD Development LLC, Portland.

Scope: Mixed-use development of retail, dining, hotel, office space and housing on 59 acres.

Cost: $215 million.

Timeline: Late-summer groundbreaking on $130 million retail complex.

2. Battle Ground Center

Location: 108-acres southeast of Battle Ground city center.

Developer: The Gold Medal Group, Vancouver.

Residential developers: New Tradition Homes, Vancouver; The Gold Medal Group, Vancouver.

Scope: Mixed-use project to include a $7 million public library; 18 retail buildings; a 40-unit live-work townhouse complex; a 375,000-square-foot medical-office corporate center; and Sixth Street Station, a 169-unit project with single-family and duplex housing.

Cost: $200 million.

Timeline: Two retail buildings and some housing completed, with six retail buildings to open next month, followed by a groundbreaking on the library and townhouses.

3. Riverwest

Location: Four downtown Vancouver city blocks on the west side of Interstate 5 at Evergreen Boulevard.

Developer: Killian Pacific, Vancouver.

Scope: Mixed-use project with a public library, office, retail and parking, a 65-room hotel and 200 condo units.

Cost: $160 million.

Timeline: Midyear groundbreaking with completion in late 2010.

4. Eastgate Plaza

Location: 47-acres on the south side of Fourth Plain Boulevard between Northeast 140th and 147th avenues in Orchards.

Developer: Alexandria Investment Co., Bellevue.

Scope: 452,000 square feet of retail, service and restaurant space, including a 209,000-square-foot Wal-Mart.

Cost: $80 million.

Timeline: Breaking ground early this year.

5. 400 Mill Plain Center

Location: West of Interstate 5 on two blocks between Mill Plain Boulevard and West 15th Street

Commercial developer: The Al Angelo Co., Vancouver.

Scope: A campus of two multistory office buildings with ground-floor retail and parking garage.

Cost: $57 million, including $17 million for five-story building and $40 million for six-story project.

Timeline: First building construction to start this year with second building planned for 2010.

6. Hazel Dell Square/Hazel Dell Crossing

Location: A four-block site west of Interstate 5 at Northeast 78th Street and Hazel Dell Avenue; and a 9-acre site on the northwest corner of the intersection’s northwest corner.

Developer: Gramor Development, Tualatin, Ore.; C.E. John Co., Vancouver.
Scope: A redevelopment project to replace the 78th Street Marketplace with an LA Fitness, a free-standing restaurant and several multitenant retail buildings.

Cost: $42 million

Timeline: Work on Hazel Dell Square is nearly completed, with work to begin this spring on Hazel Dell Crossing on the north side of Northeast 78th Street.

7. Grand Central

Location: A 14.5-acre site at Grand and Columbia House boulevards, off state Highway 14.

Developer: Killian Pacific, Vancouver.

Scope: A community shopping center, anchored by a 139,000-square-foot Fred Meyer.

Cost: $40 million.

Timeline: Opening this year.

8. Clark College at Columbia Tech Center

Location: A 9.5-acre site at 18700 S.E. Mill Plain Blvd.

Developer: Clark College, Vancouver.

Scope: A four-story building to serve as an east Vancouver satellite campus for general education, professional and technical training, work force development and basic and adult education courses.

Cost: $30 million.

Timeline: Opening for 2009 fall quarter.

9. The Vancouver Clinic main campus

Location: 700 N.E. 87th Ave.

Developer: The Vancouver Clinic.

Scope: The 138,000-square-foot building to replace the existing facility near Southwest Washington Medical Center.

Cost: $28 million.

Timeline: Opening late this year.

10. Washington State University Vancouver Undergraduate
Classroom Building

Location: 14204 N.E. Salmon Creek Ave., Vancouver.

Developer: Washington State University.

Scope: The 60,000-square-foot building is expected to open in 2009 and will house classes for freshman and sophomores.

Cost: $28 million.

Timeline: Opening for 2009 fall semester.

Other noteworthy 2008 projects:

The Home Depot: A $20 million home improvement store planned for the south side of Northeast 219th
Street at 102nd Avenue in Battle Ground.
The Luxe: A $17 million mixed-use office, retail and residential tower planned at 412 E. 13th St. in downtown Vancouver.
Lowe’s at Lacamas: A
$14 million project with standalone Lowe’s and J.C. Penney stores set to break ground this summer at Southeast Mill Plain Boulevard and Southeast 192nd Avenue.
Washington State School for the Blind physical education building: This $9 million project
will replace an outdated school facility with a new gymnasium and swimming pool.

[PuyoPiyo]

Camas-Washougal port seeks direction

Tuesday, January 29, 2008
BY CAMI JONER, Columbian staff writer

Efforts to develop more eastern industrial property at the Port of Camas-Washougal were off to a fresh start Monday.

In response to criticism that they were too secretive about plans for the recently shelved RiverWalk project, port officials had an open house to launch a two-month-long public discussion on whether to change the zoning of the port's undeveloped East Industrial Park from heavy- to light-industrial use.

Monday's meeting drew about 25 people to the first of several public discussions on the best use for the 127-acre site on the Columbia River, said David Ripp, the port's executive director. The port has received at least two proposals to develop the site for office and light-industrial use, although it has long been earmarked as an extension of the port's existing industrial park.
"If we're going in a new direction, we have to get the public involved, especially after the outcry over RiverWalk," Ripp said.

The eastern industrial tract borders the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area and lies east of the existing industrial site, which is on the south side of state Highway 14 and runs east from South 28th Street to just beyond South 37th.

The existing park is home to businesses such as plastic pipe manufacturer ADS Manufacturing and Saint-Gobain Crystals & Detectors, a silicon industry manufacturer. The park employs more than 1,100 people and generates an annual payroll of more than $30 million, said Scot Walstra, the port's planning and development director.

The port's three-member commission expects to reach a decision about the undeveloped site's zoning in April.

RiverWalk update

Private developers of the $350 million mixed-use RiverWalk project sent an arbitration request to the port earlier this month, stating they want to move forward with the proposed project.

The development group wants to lease and develop at least 40 acres of port-owned property. Port officials want to downsize the project to about 14 acres.

Update

? Previously: The Port of Camas-Washougal has owned its undeveloped East Industrial Park since the mid-1980s.

? What's new: At least two development proposals call for changing the zoning on the 127-acre site from heavy- to light-industrial use.

What's next: A workshop discussion at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 6 at port
headquarters, 24 South A St., Washougal.

Cami Joner covers the Port of Camas-Washougal for The Columbian. She can be reached at 360-735-4532 or via e-mail at cami.joner@columbian.com.

[PuyoPiyo]

County wants to renegotiate casino deal

Wednesday, January 30, 2008
BY MICHAEL ANDERSEN, Columbian staff writer


Clark County's commissioners said Tuesday that they want to negotiate a new deal with the Cowlitz Tribe to replace one the county has been defending in the courts.
The board aims to hold hearings before August to gauge public opinion on what the county should ask of the tribe, which seeks to open a casino near La Center, Commissioner Betty Sue Morris said.
"The idea, at least from my standpoint, is to start anew," Commissioner Steve Stuart said.
A spokesman for the Cowlitz said Tuesday that the tribe sees no need to start anew and wants to keep a county-tribe deal struck in 2004.
But Stuart said in an interview Tuesday that he expects the Cowlitz will agree to renegotiate a deal, because if they don't, he and Commissioner Marc Boldt will just let the 2004 deal - and potentially the tribe's plans for a reservation and casino - die in the courts.
"For whatever reason, they want us to appeal," Stuart said. "There comes leverage. ...We have an opportunity to use that leverage to the maximum benefit of the county."
Stuart didn't highlight any particular c oncessions he hopes to win from the tribe.
Under the 2004 deal, the tribe would pay the county an estimated hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, in place of the taxes from which reservations are exempt.
Among other provisions, the tribe would also follow county building codes.
Federal law doesn't require tribes to make agreements with local governments. But in December a federal official called them "highly recommended."
The 2004 deal was nixed in June by a state board that said the county didn't put it through enough public debate.
The county is defending that deal, called a "memorandum of understanding," in the state Court of Appeals.
Phil Harju said Tuesday there's no need for a new deal, and he wasn't sure the tribe would support one.
"Until there is a final court decision, there is an MOU between the county and the tribe," the tribal council member said.
Even if the courts were to kill the 2004 deal, Harju said, the tribal council has passed an "irrevocable" ordinance promising to abide by the terms of the deal.
Still, Harju didn't close the door on the possibility of an entirely new MOU.
"On a government-to-government basis, we're always willing to talk to the county about any agreements that we need," he said. "I'm sure we'll be in discussions with the county."
Commissioner Morris said Tuesday that she wants a new deal because she fears the tribal ordinance alone wouldn't be legally binding if the reservation and casino were approved in the next few months.
"We are essentially unprotected right now," she said. "If all of a sudden this thing should begin to move, lickety-split ...our existing MOU is unenforceable."
Morris said she hadn't heard about Stuart's plan to use the 2004 deal as "leverage."
"That's news to me," she said.
Instead, she said the Cowlitz tribe will probably agree to new negotiations in order to be good neighbors with the county.
Boldt, the third commissioner and the only one who has said he opposes a casino in Clark County, said that if the tribe and the county enter new negotiations, the Cowlitz might offer enough to make him feel comfortable with a gambling site.
"But there's probably more of a chance that they wouldn't," he said.
Update
Previously: Two weeks ago, Clark County's commissioners agreed to keep defending a 2004 deal with the Cowlitz Tribe despite two rulings that it had been made without enough public input.
What's new: On Tuesday, the commissioners said they want to negotiate a new deal as well.
What's next: If the tribe doesn't agree to work out a new deal, Commissioner Steve Stuart said he and Commissioner Marc Boldt would pull the county's support for the 2004 deal. Michael Andersen covers Clark County government. Reach him at 360-735-4508 or michael.andersen@columbian.com.

[PuyoPiyo]

RiverWalk headed to arbitration


Thursday, January 31, 2008
BY CAMI JONER, Columbian staff writer

The Port of Camas-Washougal and developers of the proposed RiverWalk project will take their disputed contract to legal arbitration, the port's attorney said Wednesday.

Earlier, the two sides had decided on mediation. Arbitration calls for a neutral third party to reach a decision after hearing from both sides of a dispute.

In this case, RiverWalk developers and the port no longer agree on the proposed $350 million project on 65 acres, some of which is port-owned, on the Columbia River waterfront. The port now wants to drop the project.
"We feel that RiverWalk did not meet the contingencies (for the port)," said Shawn MacPherson, port attorney.

He said developers from
RiverWalk on the Columbia LLC failed to create a master plan for the site, which the port reduced to 14.7 acres in November because property acquisitions had not happened as planned.

Private developers rejected the much reduced project size, stating they planned to go forward with developing at least 37 acres owned by the port.
"The contract doesn't entitle any party to make unilateral decisions. That's what the arbitration is about," said John McKibbin of Vancouver, a member of RiverWalk on the Columbia LLC, which includes Mark Benson of Camas.
McKibbin expects the case will be heard by JAMS, a national dispute resolution group based in Walnut Creek, Calif. He said it took the port 30 days to respond to his group's arbitration request.

"Hopefully, things will start to move much quicker now," McKibbin said.



Update

Previously: In 2005, the Port of Camas-Washougal agreed to explore development of 65 acres, some port-owned, on the Columbia River waterfront with a group of private investors. In the past six months, the port has backed away from the proposed RiverWalk and said it would only allow development on 14.7 acres. RiverWalk investors say they have the right to proceed with the original plan.

What's new: The port and developers will take the dispute to arbitration.
What's next: A date will be set for an arbitration hearing.
Cami Joner covers the Port of Camas-Washougal. She can be reached at 360-735-4532 or via e-mail at cami.joner@columbian.com.

[PuyoPiyo]

I wonder why not they just accept the 14 acres and build the highrises? *straching my head* Or they are just being greedy? *sigh*...

[PuyoPiyo]

Tribe agrees to casino payments in lieu of taxes


Wednesday, February 06, 2008
By JEFFREY MIZE, Columbian staff writer
The Cowlitz Tribe has agreed to make payments in lieu of property taxes to local governments reflecting the full value of its proposed casino complex, not the existing value of the largely vacant land.
That unwritten agreement removes one contentious issue as the county prepares to negotiate a new memorandum of understanding with the tribe for the proposed casino complex west of La Center.
It also means that Clark County and other local governments stand to reap more than $3 million a year for lost property taxes upon completion of a $510 million casino resort.
Rich Lowry, the county's chief civil attorney, told county commissioners Tuesday that he expects to receive a commitment from the tribe for those payments.
Phil Harju, the tribe's casino spokesman, did not attend Tuesday's discussion. Harju, when contacted later, said there is no written agreement, but he confirmed the tribe is willing to make payments for the casino's full value.
"The tribe is always open to discuss issues with the county on a government-to-government basis," he said.
If the tribe wins federal approval to create its initial reservation on the 152-acre site along the west side of Interstate 5, no state or local governments will be able to tax the tribe. However, the tribe can volunteer to make payments in lieu of taxes.
The 2004 memorandum of understanding, or MOU, requires the tribe to compensate the county and other local districts twice a year for property taxes that would be lost if the land is taken off tax rolls. It makes no mention of compensation for the future value of a fully developed site, but Lowry said following Tuesday's discussion that the county always has considered that to be one of the MOU's cornerstones.
A $510 million casino complex, based on current tax rates, would generate more than $3 million a year in payments.
Clark County would get about 42 percent of the money, while Clark County Fire District 12 and the Ridgefield School District would receive 25 percent and 24 percent, respectively. Comparatively small amounts would go to the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District and the Port of Ridgefield.
County officials remain worried that they don't have an MOU or other contract with the tribe.
A state hearings board declared the 2004 county-tribe pact invalid because the county hadn't had enough public debate and participation before adopting it. The county appealed that decision, only to have Thurston County Superior Court Judge Gary Tabor affirm the hearings board's decision in mid-December.
The county is appealing Tabor's ruling at the same time it tries to negotiate a new MOU. Lowry said it likely will take nine to 12 months to get a decision from the Washington Court of Appeals. Commissioners would like to adopt a new agreement before August. Jeffrey Mize can be reached at 360-735-4542 or at jeff.mize@columbian.com.

[MarkDaMan]

Please feel free to move this to the correct thread...

Vancouver's Pearl project
Huge development edges closer
Portland Business Journal - by Wendy Culverwell Business Journal staff writer

Gramor Development's efforts to build up the Vancouver waterfront cleared a significant hurdle this month when the developer completed a $19 million purchase of Boise Cascade's former Columbia River property.

The deal secured 29 acres from Boise Cascade and a long-term lease for 3 additional acres from the Port of Vancouver, giving Gramor 32 acres of waterfront real estate on which to build.

Tualatin-based Gramor, which specializes in mixed-used development, envisions a project that extends downtown Vancouver to the edge of the Columbia River. In scale, it will resemble Portland's Pearl District, with buildings of varying heights, an urban pedestrian environment and stores that front sidewalks.

Buildings will likely range from six to as many as 20 stories, with the highest levels reserved for the area farthest from the river. There are no plans for big-box retailers.

Gramor President Barry Cain emphasized it will be built on a human scale.

"This is not South Waterfront," he said.

By mid-2008 Gramor will seek city approval for its master plan. Initial construction could begin as early as 2010 and the total project could take a decade to complete. The effort will likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars. By comparison, Portland's South Waterfront represents a $2 billion-plus investment.

As conceived by Ankrom Moisan Architecture, the Columbia Waterfront neighborhood will have a 200-room hotel on the east end, about 2,500 residential units on the west end and 800,000 square feet of office space, plus restaurants and stores sandwiched in the middle. Plans also call for public spaces, health care facilities and places of worship.

The residential plans call for a mix of units for sale and rent, as well as affordable housing and senior housing. Gramor will build a portion of the project but will likely enlist partners on the housing elements.

Gramor officials say they're not concerned the housing downturn will weaken the overall effort. It's the nature of real estate markets to expand and contract, Cain said.

"And the market for housing has always done that."

The land was used for more than a century for industrial purposes, most recently by Boise Cascade as a paper plant. In 2006, Boise Cascade solicited offers from developers and Gramor submitted the winning bid.

Before the sale closed, Boise Cascade demolished its buildings and cleaned up areas where it found contamination. Today, the property is separated from a neighboring hotel by chain-link fence and consists largely of asphalt and cement.

The deal was no cakewalk, according to Cain and David Copenhaver, Gramor's vice president of development. Both agreed it was one of the most challenging real estate closings they've encountered.

A rail spur serving LaFarge and Albina bisects the property and must be relocated before development can start.

Before Gramor could buy the Boise Cascade property, the port, Boise Cascade and the BSNSF Railway Co. worked out a three-way land exchange that will allow the rail spur to be rebuilt to the north, add more street crossings and set the stage for another rail project to help freight and passenger trains move through the area faster, according to Nelson Holmberg, spokesman for the port.

The stars aligned, Cain said, when local, state and federal officials realized they all had a stake in relocating some railways and upgrading others.

Thanks to state and federal grants, the port is preparing to move the rail spur and new street crossings at Esther and Grant streets.

Gramor formed more than 20 years ago and has completed about 60 retail and mixed-use projects in the Portland area valued at more than $700 million. Columbia Waterfront will be its first project on the water.

Some of its more recent projects are Lake Oswego's Lake View Village, West Linn Central Village and Happy Valley Town Center.

wculverwell@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3415
http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/02/11/story3.html?t=printable

[PuyoPiyo]

20 stories building? Nice! But I hope it won't be the same as Portland's south waterfront, it's just that I would prefer something different and more match with existing buildings in downtown Vancouver.

[MarkDaMan]

I'm fairly certain this wont be close to anything like SoWa.

Buildings will likely range from six to as many as 20 stories, with the highest levels reserved for the area farthest from the river. There are no plans for big-box retailers.

Gramor President Barry Cain emphasized it will be built on a human scale.

"This is not South Waterfront," he said.

Although a big box would be to Vancouver scale :)

[PuyoPiyo]

I'm fairly certain this wont be close to anything like SoWa.


Although a big box would be to Vancouver scale :)

Good then :) Can't wait to see their design...

[PuyoPiyo]

A Hole in the Heart


An empty lot in Vancouver’s downtown beckons development, draws controversy

By Adam Stewart
Block 10 is like a missing tooth in the middle of Vancouver’s vital downtown core.
 
In stark contrast to the condos, restaurants and banks that surround it, it’s an empty 40,000 square foot blot of land scattered with swirling debris, patches of moss, empty beer cans and bottles, cigarette packs and butts and discarded auto parts. It’s surrounded by a cyclone fence, with barbed wire on top and the north side pushed down. While the growing vibrancy of downtown Vancouver blossoms around it, Block 10 does only one thing: it waits.
 
Kitty corner to Esther Short Park and surrounded by shops, restaurants, banks and condominiums, it’s prime real estate. Something needs to come along and fill that space and help further the ongoing revitalization of downtown Vancouver. Something, for instance, like a 1500-seat performing arts center—just like the one the Southwest Washington Center for the Arts has been trying to find a home for.
 
Since its formation in 2003, the Southwest Washington Center for the Arts (SWCA) has been lobbying to build a performing arts center in Vancouver. They have considered several sites, including privately owned riverfront property and the campus of Washington State University Vancouver (WSUV).
 
Now Block 10 has caught SWCA’s attention.
 
“I think it’s a shame that we’re the only city in the Pacific Northwest [...] that doesn’t have its own cultural icon,” said Val Ogden, chair of the SWCA.
 
“Performing arts centers often are real catalysts for growth in the area,” said Arlene Johnson, Executive Director for the SWCA.
 
The proposed center would be a multi-purpose facility featuring a 1500-seat auditorium that would be open to everything from concerts to weddings, graduations to church functions, lectures to ballet recitals—in short, events for organizations that have been clamoring to reserve space in high school auditoriums and churches all over Vancouver until now.
 
In addition to the main theater, it would include a black box theater and an art gallery. There would also be two condominium towers for residents and businesses. The profits from rent would go straight into the maintenance of the performing arts center. Realvest Corp., a condominium manufacturer, would be responsible for the building of the facility, and it would donate its profit from the sales of the condominium to the performing arts center. Paul Christensen, owner of Realvest, is a member of SWCA.
 
Clearly SWCA has got the drive, the contractors, and an excellent shot at raising the money. It would appear as though all they require is the green light.
 
That might be the tricky part.
 
As of now, SWCA is working with city planners, trying to put the block on hold for two years. If they succeed, they will spend the time raising the $50 million to build the facility from private investors.
 
“I don’t think the city’s particularly supportive (of holding Block 10,)” said Jan Bader, program and policy development manager for Vancouver. “We don’t want to lock ourselves into holding that property if some other appropriate use for that space comes up.”
 
Bader also expressed some concerns about the feasibility of such a project. She said performance venues tend to run in the red and the revenue earned from condo sales cannot be relied upon, especially considering the currently shaky housing market.
 
In the past, Vancouver has made attempts to fill Block 10 with corporate headquarters for large businesses.
 
According to a recent preliminary draft of a feasibility report on the performing arts center, the estimated annual operating expenses are expected to be between $1.8 million and $1.9 million. The report stated that about 35 to 50 percent of the funding would be paid by an operation endowment, including the dedicated profit of condo sales. Rental of the facilities and outside donations would also help cover the costs.
 
“I would love to see (SWCA) be successful and carry this off,” said Bader. “I think there’s just a lot of doubt about the ability to pull this off.”
 
According to Ogden, such a facility downtown would be worth the effort. “If we want something that’s going to be active and add to the vitality of downtown, an office building doesn’t do it.”
 
One thing is for sure: there wouldn’t be a shortage of performing arts groups lined up to perform at such a facility. According to Connie Platt, community services coordinator for the Vancouver School District, Vancouver’s small venues are overflowing with arts groups.
 
“I know that we have many groups that we’re not able to take care of because we’re so overbooked in our three auditoriums,” said Platt.
 
Platt said Vancouver schools host about 4,000 annual contracts for after-hours use of the buildings. She said the use of school auditoriums is restricted by school hours, and that outside instructional use can be problematic for classrooms. Also, any outside performances would take secondary priority behind school events.
 
Some groups that would seem on the surface to be a good fit for such a facility include the Washington State Ballet, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, New Blue Parrot Theater, Tears of Joy Puppet Theater and the Christian Youth Center, which at one time performed a production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” for over 1,000 spectators.
 
Janet Bradley, managing director and co-founder of the Tears of Joy, said that she would love for her organization to become resident performers if a performing arts center is built in Vancouver, and also that her preference would be for the facility to be located downtown.
 
“If there’s a space that groups can rent and do performances in,” she said, “they can expand their audiences and there will be an explosion of art in Vancouver.”
 
Functioning mostly in Portland, Tears of Joy once had about a third of their resident performances in Vancouver, mostly at the Columbia Arts Center, which has been closed for nearly ten years. Now only about five percent of their performances are here in town.
 
But while Bradley would love to bring performances back to Vancouver, she’s unsure of the proposed performing arts center’s capability to fill the 1500-seat theater on a regular basis. Tears of Joy has its eye on the black box theater, but whether it would suit their specific needs will only be clear once the plans for the building have been finalized.

“I would love to be in Vancouver,” said Bradley, “but if my option is a 100-seat black box [...] it just depends.”
Should Block 10 become unavailable, the next most likely candidate for a new performing arts center will be the Washington State University campus in Salmon Creek. The center would be in partnership with the college, which would pay for its upkeep.
 
“We’re in a wait-and-see mode,” said Bruce Romanish, vice chancellor of academic affairs at WSUV. “[We’ll] explore our level of interest and responsiveness.”
 
The effort is now in fresh hands. In the next couple of months, much of the original SWCA board will have been replaced. Certain members, including Val Ogden, have nonetheless stayed on to help guide the possible future of the performing arts center.
 
For now, the fate of Block 10 is still unclear. Some area theatre groups have expressed frustration at the possibility of millions being spent on a new facility at a time when many are struggling to remain profitable. Nonetheless, some sort of major investment in area arts is obviously long overdue. In the meantime, Block 10 remains unutilized, and its barren asphalt and gravel expanse calls out to be put to use.

[urbanlife]

it sounds like it would be a good move for vancouver

[CouvScott]

News Article follows listing of projects.....


Vancouver's downtown projects
Downtown Vancouver waterfront

Scope: Redevelopment of 29 acres with multiple buildings to include more than 3,000 residential condo units, a 200-room hotel, mid-rise office buildings and retail space.
Location: West of Interstate 5.
Square footage: More than 3.25 million.
Project cost: $900 million to $1.2 billion.
Developer: Gramor Development Inc. of Tualatin, Ore., and private investors.
Architect: Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects.
Construction: 2010.
The Columbian building

Scope: Six-story office building with street-level retail, four floors for newspaper staff, and two floors for lease.
Location: 415 W. Sixth St.
Size: 118,000 square feet
Cost: $30 million.
Developer: Downtown ­Vitality Partners Inc., Vancouver.
Architect: GBD Architects, Portland.
Timeline: Completed.
Grand Central

Scope: Community shopping center, anchored by Fred Meyer and Columbia Credit Union.
Location: Grand and Columbia House boulevards.
Size: 196,000 square feet.
Cost: $40 million.
Developer: Killian Pacific, Vancouver.
Architect: Tiland/Schmidt Architects PC, Portland.
Timeline: Opening in April.
The Luxe

Scope: Six-story project with retail,, four floors of offices and residential units.
Location: 412 E. 13th St.
Size: 52,000 square feet.
Cost: $17 million.
Developer: Prestige Development, Vancouver.
Architect: Tiland/Schmidt Architects PC, Portland.
Timeline: Construction starts in June.
iQ Credit Union headquarters

Scope: Remodeled building as new headquarters and branch for iQ Credit Union.
Location: 1313 Main St.
Size: 28,000 square feet.
Project cost: $9 million.
Developer: iQ Credit Union, Vancouver.
Architect: EHS Design, Seattle.
Timeline: Demolition has begun with new construction starting in June.
Vancouvercenter South Tower
Scope: A nine-story office building.
Location: Southeast corner of Sixth Street and Broadway.
Size: 110,000 square feet.
Project cost: $30 million.
Developer: Vandevco.
Architect: Otak Inc., Lake Oswego, Ore.
Timeline: Construction this year.

Riverwest

Scope: Mixed-use project with a public library, 100,000 square feet of office space, 17,000 square feet of retail space, 200 condo units, a 65-room hotel and underground parking.
Location: South of Evergreen Boulevard on C Street.
Size: More than 300,000 square feet.
Cost: $160 million.
Developer: Killian Pacific, Vancouver.
Architect: Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects, Portland.
Timeline: Construction starts mid-year with completion in late 2010.
400 Mill Plain Center

Scope: A two-building office complex with ground-floor retail and parking.
Location: West of Interstate 5 on two blocks between Mill Plain Boulevard and West 15th Street.
Size: 152,200 square feet.
Cost: $57 million, including $17 million for five-story building and $40 million for six-story project.
Developer: The Al Angelo Co., Vancouver.
Architect: Wilson Associates AIA, Vancouver.
Timeline: First building to start this year; Second building planned in 2010.
Prestige Plaza

Scope: A six-story building with ground-floor retail and upper floors of more than 100 market-rate apartment units.
Location: 300 E. 13th St., to replace the former Vancouver police station.
Size: 90,000 square feet.
Cost: $30 million.
Developer: Prestige Development, Vancouver.
Architect: Not yet selected.
Timeline: Demolition this year. Construction in 2010.
Murdock Condo development

Scope: Ten floors with up to 126 residential condo units atop the parking facility of the Murdock Building.
Location: 770 C Street.
Cost: Undetermined.
Developer: DevSmart Inc., Woodland Hills, Calif.
Architect: Myhre Group Architects, Portland.
Timeline: None.
Ninth & Daniels building

Scope: Three-story office building for Greenen & Greenen PLC, with ground-floor lobby, retail and parking.
Location: Northeast corner of Ninth and Daniels streets.
Size: 12,000 square feet.
Project cost: $1.75 million.
Developer: Sedona Development, Vancouver.
Architect: Wilson Associates AIA, Vancouver.
Timeline: 2009.
Frontier Building

Scope: Four-story retail-office building.
Location: Block fronting Main and Sixth streets.
Size: 63,000 square feet.
Cost: Undetermined.
Developer: Killian Pacific, Vancouver.
Architect: Not selected.
Timeline: To be announced later this year.
Black Angus redevelopment

Scope: Convert Black Angus restaurant site into three-story office building with parking.
Location: 413 E. 13th St.
Size: 36,000 square feet.
Cost: Undetermined.
Developer: Pioneer Building Co. LLC., Vancouver.
Architect: Glenn Wells Architect, Olympia.
Timeline: 2010.





Sunday, February 24, 2008
By CAMI JONER and JULIA ANDERSON, Columbian staff writer

Want a glimpse of the future? Imagine the silhouette of downtown Vancouver redefined by a surge of new shoreline development where urban dwellers live and visitors linger.

Construction is expected to start in 2010 on the 32-acre former Boise Cascade industrial property, just downriver from the Interstate 5 Bridge. The project, being led by Gramor Development of Tualatin, Ore., is expected to bring a mix of mid-rise condominiums, offices, boutiques and restaurants to the site worth between $900 million and $1.2 billion.

The Boise project, however, is only one component of a powerful second wave of downtown redevelopment. Twelve additional projects worth another $375 million are earmarked for sites in a 150-block downtown radius over the next three years.

Hilton ends first wave

If the completion of the Hilton Vancouver Washington hotel and conference center in 2005 meant the end of a first wave of redevelopment, the second wave is bigger and more significant, say planners and investors.

The new projects — from office buildings to condominium construction — reflect a continuing “shift away from Vancouver’s former resource-based economy to more of a technology and knowledge-based, creative-class economy,” said Eric Holmes, Vancouver’s economic development director.

But it will require more permanent residents, say Holmes and others, to make downtown the 24-hour-a-day activity hub needed to support retailers and restaurants and other urban-service businesses.

“Once the hotel was done people felt like they’d reached a real milestone,” said Steve Burdick, the city’s former economic development manager. “People said, ‘whew, we’re done.’ That’s not accurate, there’s still a lot to be done, particularly with residential.”

Burdick now works for Killian Pacific, the Vancouver development company poised to begin construction this year on Riverwest, a $160 million combination retail, office and residential project that includes a new main library at Evergreen Boulevard and C Street.

Designed with 200 condominiums, Riverwest would jump-start residential growth, said Burdick, who sees other sites where living units also make sense.

“You need a variety of choices,” Burdick said. “The priority has got to be residential.”

Ideally, projects would come on line “one right after another,” he said.

Transportation challenge

In addition to attracting residents, managing downtown traffic and access to the Boise property presents another challenge. Even as planning for the new projects moves ahead, the city is looking for money to help pay the cost of downtown roadwork.

Where will the money come from?

Burdick thinks everyone, the city, the developers, the state and the feds need to step up and pay for street work to serve anywhere from 5,000 to 20,000 additional car trips a day through the downtown sector. That’s how much traffic redevelopment is expected to generate, said Thayer Rorabaugh, Vancouver’s transportation manager. “We’re going to experience some significant congestion,” Rorabaugh said. He linked downtown road work to the ongoing planning for a new Interstate 5 bridge across the Columbia River, a project complicated by needs for new waterfront access routes, a new rail line to the Port of Vancouver and a new mass transit system to serve urban growth.

“It’s all interrelated in a sense,” Rorabaugh said.

$38 million in roadwork

The city is ultimately looking for $38 million to address the traffic and road work needs in the downtown core. An important part of that work is creating access under the BNSF railway berm to the Boise site. The problem is that federal and state resources have dwindled, Rorabaugh said. “Funding is getting more difficult to come by.”

Having said that, Rorabaugh is hopeful that the money will be there.

The city already has scraped together $24 million from developers, city matching funds and the BNSF and needs another $14 million, which it expects to receive in state and federal funding this year.

Design work has begun for two underpasses and realignment of Sixth and Eighth streets.

Meanwhile, Clark County’s public transportation agency, C-Tran, has closed its Seventh Street bus mall leaving a three-block area open for revitalization. The Al Angelo Co. a Vancouver-based real estate and development firm owns the majority of two blocks within the sector. “I would love to see some new retail and maybe a couple of good restaurants there,” said Craig Angelo.

However, before vacant buildings sprout nightclubs, cafes and shops, most stakeholders agree downtown needs more residents. The first wave of redevelopment brought more than 525 housing units on line at Heritage Place, Vancouvercenter and Esther Short Commons.

“But we’re still trying to get to that critical mass” of residents, said Gerald Baugh, the city’s business development director. “We’re basically at the doorstep of that opportunity.”

The door could swing wide open with waterfront construction, said Barry Cain, president of Gramor Development.

Similar to the Portland Pearl District, the Vancouver development “will be an active place,” Cain said. “Its position along the Columbia River will make it unique.”

3,000 living units

Planned to include about 3,000 living units, the Boise project will include a variety of housing, from penthouses to studios and brownstones to high-rises, said David Copenhaver, Gramor vice president. “This is not proposed as an enclave for the wealthy. It will have other uses”

Cain and Copenhaver plan to meet with downtown business owners, residents and educators from Vancouver Public Schools to get a feel for design. “We’re taking the time to develop it the way other people want to see it,” Cain said. He acknowledged that the slower housing market could delay residential construction. “The timing of this development is going to see ups and downs,” Cain said.

The trick for new projects throughout the downtown core is to “time them correctly,” said Roger Qualman, executive vice president of NAI Norris Beggs & Simpson commercial real estate firm.

Others say financially sound development will continue to move forward.

“The fact is, if you’re well qualified and you’re putting an appropriate down payment on the project, you’re not going to have any trouble,” said Tami Nesburg, a senior vice president at Vancouver-based Regents bank.

Though demand for downtown office space has slowed over the last year, Qualman expects development will continue for projects with end users in mind. These include iQ Credit Union’s redevelopment of the city’s former Citizens Service Center into company headquarters and The Al Angelo Co.’s plans to relocate its offices in a new five-story office building on the former Denny’s restaurant site as part of the proposed 400 Mill Plain Center.

And just as potential home buyers have found the mortgage lending climate less friendly, developers of commercial office and retail space will also find stricter requirements.

“The underwriting or quality standards would be more stringent than they were a year ago,” Qualman said.

A blank canvas

Nevertheless, waterfront development alone is poised to generate upwards of $30 million a year in property tax, sales tax, utility, business and occupation taxes, said Holmes, the city’s economic development director.

“That’s based on a whole host of assumptions,” he said. The revenue would be spread among all taxing jurisdictions, including the city, county and state. “It’s a significant piece in our redevelopment planning,” Holmes said. The guidelines started with an $18 million public investment in 30 blocks around Esther Short Park that brought $300 million in private developments such as Heritage Place, Vancouvercenter and the West Coast Bank Building. Holmes sees the 20-block waterfront development as the key piece of the city’s enlarged 150-block redevelopment footprint.

“It’s kind of like a blank canvas, but set up with guidelines,” he said.

[PuyoPiyo]

Yeah I've read that article just this morning, and glad that most of the projects are going on this year :)

[360Rich]

I'm surprised this is gaining traction. I don't see the fund raising succeeding in Vancouver (especially if the economy continues to decline), but it would be great if it did!

Vancouver to mull site for arts center
Thursday, March 13, 2008
By BRETT OPPEGAARD, for The Columbian

After decades of talk, advocates for a Clark County performing arts center are close to securing a downtown Vancouver site that will enable them to make a serious run at raising the $58 million necessary to build the first phase of the project.

On Monday, the Vancouver City Council will consider freezing development on a block of downtown property, adjacent to Esther Short Park, to give the nonprofit Southwest Washington Center for the Arts two years to amass a majority of the cost.

Plans for the arts facility include a 1,500-seat auditorium, a 250-seat black box theater, an art gallery and the potential for an additional 300-seat rehearsal hall.

The performing arts center will be part of a grander mixed-use development that will feature two towers of condominiums, 11 stories tall or so, and ground-floor retail space that will add another $50 million to the overall bill.

“Now that we have a site, now that it’s something real, we will be in a position to ask people to become part of the team, to make a huge difference in our whole quality of life here,” said Southwest Washington Center for the Arts Chairwoman Val Ogden. “Now we really have to put up, and see if we can do this or not.”

Paul Christensen, who is the arts group’s treasurer and the founder of the development firm Realvest Corp., is offering to manage the project, build the commercial portions of it and donate proceeds from the sale of the condominiums to create an endowment that subsidizes operational costs for the arts organization.

If the city agrees to halt development on the site for two years, the arts group will need to raise 75 percent, or $43.5 million, of the initial development cost to maintain an exclusive option to buy the property.

At this point, the arts group in addition is expecting to pay market rate, or about $1.5 million, for the land. No public money from Vancouver is expected to be used, but Ogden said she plans to apply for assistance from a state program that typically funds such capital improvements.

In anticipation of having an opportunity to secure the downtown block, which is bounded by Washington and Columbia as well as Eighth and Ninth streets, the Southwest Washington Center for the Arts changed its leadership structure a few months ago. It added to its board an attorney,

Steve Horenstein of Vancouver’s Miller Nash law firm, who specializes in land-use planning and permitting as well as property development and financing, and Leslie Durst, one of this area’s most generous arts supporters. Durst donated $1 million in the early 1990s to the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics, which named its theater after her father, Royal Durst. She also gave $100,000 to a nonprofit Vancouver company to help establish the Leslie B. Durst Columbia Dance Center and has been involved in many other artistic endeavors locally and regionally, including The Confluence Project, which features work by Maya Lin commemorating the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Vancouver is the largest city in the Northwest without a public arts center, and enthusiasts have been lobbying for years to change that distinction.

The Southwest Washington Center for the Arts originally tried to create a facility in partnership with Clark College, but when that didn’t pan out, the mixed-use development idea for downtown Vancouver arose.

The group’s executive director, Arlene Johnson, said this concept is innovative enough to not have any easily comparable projects on the West Coast.

“It’s unique,” she said, “to mix all three (office, retail and arts spaces).”

Though such a project hasn’t been tried before, city manager Pat McDonnell saw enough potential in the proposal to recommend that the Vancouver City Council consider holding the highly prized property next to Esther Short Park for two years.

Eric Holmes, Vancouver’s economic development director, said he thinks the idea is robust and developed enough at this point to warrant the decision to lock up the acre lot, dubbed Block 10. Holmes said the lingering questions he and others have relate back to money.

“That’s not only about how it will be built initially, but also how it will be maintained in a financially sustainable manner,” he said. “It would add to the richness of the downtown, and it can be a venue that the overall community can be proud of, but the facility has to be financially viable for that to happen.”

Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Ogden said she and her group are excited about the challenge, an opportunity to set a new benchmark for Clark County philanthropy. She’s also delighted with the idea that the group’s full pitch, if approved Monday, will include the vision, the detailed plan and the specific site. As a result, potential donors can imagine where their money will land and how it will sprout.

“I have butterflies,” she said. “We’ve talked to a lot of people who say that the money is here. The question is, will the individuals who control that be interested (in our project)? Will it be their passion? … But there’s only one way to find out. We need to go out and ask.”

http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/2008/03/03132008_Vancouver-to-mull-site-for-arts-center.cfm

[PuyoPiyo]

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Vancouver council to get first look at Boise Cascade site plan
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Update
Previously: In late January, Gramor Development and its investors wrapped up their purchase of Columbia River property previously owned by Boise Cascade.
What’s new: After occasional briefings, the Vancouver City Council will meet Monday with developers, investors, architects and others who could make the city’s waterfront vision a reality.
What’s next: The workshop is from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday at city hall, 210 E. 13th St. CVTV (cable Channel 23) will provide live coverage.http://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gifhttp://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gifSunday, March 16, 2008
By Jeffrey Mize, Columbian Staff Writer Time for the big reveal.

For more than a decade, there has been talk of how redeveloping the Boise Cascade industrial site could transform the waterfront and connect downtown to the Columbia River.

This Monday, the Vancouver City Council will meet with those who could make that dream possible.

Council members will spend two hours, from 4 to 6 p.m., with the project’s developers, architects and maybe even some of its local investors.

“It’s a show and tell, and I think we need that,” Mayor Royce Pollard said. “We have had all kinds of talk, and this moves us one step farther.”

Pollard routinely touts the project as a way to create the premier waterfront community on the West’s grandest river.

“We have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to do a great project,” he said. “This is an opportunity most cities would die for.”

Gramor Development, the Tualatin, Ore., company that pieced together the Columbia Waterfront LLC partnership, hasn’t shared much information about its plans for 32.8 acres west of the Interstate 5 Bridge.

During a Feb. 4 council briefing, city officials circulated a rendering depicting a dense riverfront community with 17 buildings.

“This is not like a typical development project,” said Eric Holmes, Vancouver economic development director. “This is an extension of the city’s downtown. And in my mind, we have the benefit of a single developer we can work with to achieve that. It will develop as a series of blocks over a period of years.”

That period is expected to be 15 to 20 years. Holmes believes the first buildings would be ready for occupancy in late 2010 or early 2011, at the earliest.

The project’s design likely will evolve over time, he said. The first building in the revival of Portland’s Pearl District, built more than a decade ago, was a modest six stories, he said.

Today, the Pearl District’s tallest building, The Metropolitan, tops out at 19 stories.

“No one anticipated that type of evolution,” Holmes said.

Monday’s briefing likely won’t get down to the number of floors in individual buildings. Council members will listen and watch as David Hansen of Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects in Seattle walks them through a series of sketches and other materials depicting a project that could represent as much as $1.3 billion in private investment.

The project’s biggest investors — Steve Oliva, Allan Kirkwood, Steven Hansen and George Diamond — also could be on hand for Monday’s discussion, along with engineers, landscape architects and other members of Gramor’s development team.

Said Pollard: “It’s an opportunity for these people to sell us on what they want to do.”

Not that the mayor needs much persuasion. Estimates indicate as many as 2,500 people could work there, not to mention those who would live in up to 3,000 condominiums.

Those numbers have caused Pollard to embrace the project as an “economic engine” that could generate tax revenues to pay for police, fire and transportation.

“The revenue streams created by this project will allow us to do the things we want to do for the rest of our community,” he said. “Not for the downtown, but for the rest of the community.”

There is one big catch: an estimated $27 million for rail improvements, plus another $11.5 million in road projects.

Developers have pledged $8 million toward the $38.5 million package, and BNSF Railway has agreed to contribute $1.7 million. The city hopes to wrangle $7 million from the federal government — Pollard last month went to Washington, D.C., to cajole the area’s congressional delegation — and $5 million from the state.

The Legislature last week approved $910,000 for the project a start in what city officials suspect could be a multiyear endeavor.

The city also has submitted a preliminary application to receive up to $500,000 annually from the state for 25 years through a form of tax increment financing, where tax revenues generated by the project are used to slowly pay off road and rail debt.

City officials believe they have a strong case for state assistance. Their projections indicate the waterfront project would generate $235 million in state and local taxes over 25 years, with 63 percent flowing into state coffers.

Those at city hall have good reason to push for state and federal dollars. Without road and rail improvements, the project won’t be able to achieve the urban densities needed to create a bustling waterfront area.

Earlier this decade, Vancouver fell short of achieving that vibrancy at Tidewater Cove, along the Columbia River between Marine and Wintler parks. The land previously was used by Tidewater Barge Lines, which moved a few miles down river in the early 1990s.

Ray Hickey, who worked his way from deckhand to barge line owner over a 45-year career on the Columbia River, envisioned the area becoming a thriving place for community activity, where people could eat lunch, browse at boutiques, enjoy pleasant afternoons and stroll during summer sunsets.

But neighborhood concerns, poor street access and the necessity of designing a project that could be marketed to buyers and backed by bankers all played a role in Tidewater’s demise from urban center to the low-density but posh residential community that exists today.

Pollard, while being careful not to trash what was built, acknowledged that it fell short of what the city hopes to accomplish at the Boise site.

“Tidewater is a great project, but it didn’t achieve Ray Hickey’s vision,” he said.

Jeffrey Mize covers Vancouver city government and can be reached at 360-735-4542 or jeff.mize@columbian.com.

[PuyoPiyo]

City ‘holding’ block for an arts center
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Update
Previously: Southwest Washington Center for the Arts released the results of a $30,000 study last year. It called for building a performing arts center as part of a mixed-use project on a city-owned vacant block cater-corner from Esther Short Park.
What’s new: The city council gave tentative approval Monday to a two-year development hold, during which the city will neither sell nor sign a long-term lease for the property, to give the arts group time to meet a series of benchmarks.
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By JEFFREY MIZE, Columbian staff writer Supporters of a performing arts center in Vancouver will get a chance to achieve their dream.
Vancouver will give them two years to make good on a string of commitments, including raising an estimated $43.5 million to build an ambitious mixed-used project on a city-owned block cater-corner from Esther Short Park.
The city council agreed Monday night to place a two-year “development hold” on the block, immediately north of Vancouvercenter, during which time the city will neither sell the property nor sign a long-term lease with other parties.
The council’s 6-1 vote gave only preliminary approval to the development hold. City officials will draft a formal agreement with Southwest Washington Center for the Arts and return for final council approval in the next month or so.
The group’s plans include a 1,500-seat auditorium, a 250-seat black box theater, an art gallery and the potential for a 300-seat rehearsal hall.
No city money would be used to build or operate the project.
Councilwoman Jeanne Harris said Vancouver is continuing to mature and needs a performing arts center.
“It has absolutely nothing to do with Portland and it has everything to do with Vancouver,” she said.
Councilman Pat Campbell, who cast the only “no” vote, said he thought the city had been reserving the vacant block in hopes of attracting a Fortune 500 company.
“I feel a little whiplashed on this,” Campbell said.
The final agreement with Southwest Washington Center for the Arts is expected to include some tough conditions.
The city will require the project to be at last 10 stories tall, cover the entire block and include condominiums or apartments, offices and ground-floor retail space on at least three sides, fronting Eighth, Columbia and Washington streets.
The project will need to have a parking garage because the city-owned underground garage in Vancouvercenter does not have the capacity to handle a performing arts center’s parking needs.
Vancouver will also require the group to meet a series of benchmarks during the next two years, including:

 Secure 75 percent of the estimated $58 million cost to build the performing arts center, or $43.5 million. The entire project, including the housing, parking and other features, is expected to cost $100 million.
Obtain 75 percent of the funds for an operating endowment whose revenue would cover at least 40 percent of the center’s annual operating costs, which are estimated at $1.8 million.
  Create a business plan for year-round use and demonstrate the ability to manage the performing arts center.
Substantially complete architectural plans for the project and work with the city to ensure those plans meet parking and other considerations to support downtown redevelopment.
Councilman Larry Smith said he expects the arts group to comply with each condition before the city sells the downtown block at market rates.
“I look at these numbers and I look at them as absolutes,” Smith said. “I trust the community, and I’m willing to trust the two-year process.”
Arlene Johnson, the group’s executive director, said she believe the requirements can be met.
“We’ve very carefully researched the project, the site,” she said before Monday’s council meeting. “We believe there is enough interest for the community to get behind this project.”
Johnson said her group will be looking to tap federal and state funding, foundations and individual donors during the next two years.
“We have not even begun to try to do that because we did not have the site secured,” she said.
Paul Christensen, the arts group’s treasurer and the founder of the development firm Realvest Corp., is offering to manage the project, build the commercial portions of it and donate proceeds from the sale of condos to the operations endowment fund.
Such a fund is considered essential because the performing arts center isn’t expected to generate enough revenue to cover its expenses.

[sopdx]

I think this is very cool and the renderings look terrific. I however think some taller towers would be fantastic. The views would be tremendous - hood, the columbia, dt portland and back to st. helens - and if done nicely they could integrate well.

[alexjon]

Yay sprawl :D

[360Rich]

^^^OK dude, we get it; you don't like Vancouver.

These are multi-story developments, primarily in the downtown area. How is this sprawl?

[alexjon]

Because there is no centralized method to development in Vancouver, not even on the waterfront. 3 stories here, 6 stories there, and just on and on and on until you've got concrete and faux brick as far as the eye can see.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Vancouver, but I do hate the apologists who insist that Vancouver is going down the right path by greenlighting any building anywhere and turning the city into Cartown, USA.

[Civ E JB]

Oh that's right, I keep forgetting Seattle is a portrait of perfection. Right down to Ranier Beach, Aurora, and most of 99. They aren't sketchy or run-down at all. The only reason we can't talk about sprawl in Seattle is that every available bit of unprotected land within city limits has already been developed, including plenty of strip malls.

Vancouver has issues as does Seattle. The latter is simply further along in its development. I've lived in both cities and I'm kinda excited about the future for both and their respective opportunities.

[alexjon]

Oh that's right, I keep forgetting Seattle is a portrait of perfection. Right down to Ranier Beach, Aurora, and most of 99. They aren't sketchy or run-down at all. The only reason we can't talk about sprawl in Seattle is that every available bit of unprotected land within city limits has already been developed, including plenty of strip malls.

Vancouver has issues as does Seattle. The latter is simply further along in its development. I've lived in both cities and I'm kinda excited about the future for both and their respective opportunities.

Yes, but Seattle has the three densest urbanized areas in the state within its city limits, so I'm pretty sure those strip malls, artifacts of what people called prosperity back in the day, are allowable.

I'm not saying that Vancouver is without a future, no. What I'm saying is that there is undue hostility to the tenets of smart growth, right down to block-wide low-rises that would get laughed out of Portland. And the transit situation? Dire. Absolutely dire.

And people fiercely defend this tendency toward Midwestdom, like being the closest you can get to Lubbock without a layover in Denver is a good thing.

[PuyoPiyo]

Actually to me, Vancouver's growth is not that bad or should I say impressive?

Right now Vancouver only have the population of 160,000 and they are going to annex a more than doubled size of current city of Vancouver size, which will add Vancouver another more than 150,000 which making it totally going up to 260,000 to 350,000. That would be the second largest city in the state of Washington surpassing Spokane and Tacoma. Also what's the funny is that if Vancouver is in the state of Oregon, then it will be the second largest city in the state of Oregon.

Vancouver also are the only the city on Columbia River, with their downtown on the Columbia River.

Vancouver is the only city that have its own city buses (their city bus service is not that so bad) other than Portland in the metro area.

There's lot of cool projects planned on for the downtown Vancouver, such like waterfront project. Do you think you can find any other city with 160,000 population with that such of project? Not many. Also Riverwest project are one of the coolest project. Haven't you take a look at Esther Short area in downtown Vancouver? Every block on the corner of Esther Short Park are brandly new, plus they have the Art Center planned on one of Esther Short Park's corner.

Yeah you are right, Vancouver is not really big or impressive as Portland, but Vancouver are still not like a big sprawl with no downtown like Henderson, Nevada, with surprisely higher population compare to Reno.

One more thing I have to say, I don't understand why I don't see anybody ever act ignorant on Portland from Vancouver, except Portlanders act ignorant against Vancouver. Or maybe they are just jealous of our growth?

[alexjon]

I'm going to withhold my opinion on the matter since the facts speak for me and I obviously am not gaining any friends by being a typical cynic. The near-sighted comment about vancouverites not speaking ill about portland and then turning around and doing the same is classic and is perfect punctuation to this whole affair.

I will say that annexation is a classically anti-urban maneuver, though. It's like my hometown-- 1.3 million people and 400 square miles to roam. Yeehaw!

See y'all later (from the top of the future Park Avenue West, probably!)

[PuyoPiyo]

County officially to oppose casino



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Public hearingsClark County public hearings on negotiating a new memorandum of understanding with the Cowlitz Tribe:

6 p.m. Monday, La Center High School, 725 Highland Road.
6 p.m. Thursday, Maple Grove Middle School, 12500 N.E. 199th St., Battle Ground.
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By JEFFREY MIZE and MICHAEL ANDERSEN, Columbian Staff Writers
Clark County’s commissioners will vote Tuesday on a resolution that states their opposition to “a major­ commercial gaming facility in unincorporated Clark County” without mentioning the Cowlitz Indian Tribe.

Commissioners have scheduled the vote for the morning after the first of three public hearings on negotiating a new casino deal with the Cowlitz.

Commissioners previously have voiced opposition to gambling and said they would prefer to see the tribe build a business park, not a casino, on a 152-acre site a couple miles west of La Center.

But they haven’t passed a resolution, as the anti-casino group Citizens Against Reservation Shopping requested last month.

“I’m delighted,” said Tom Hunt, a spokesman for the Vancouver-based group. “Might as well get it into one place.”

Commissioner Marc Boldt said commissioners decided to put the resolution on their agenda for one reason.

“To make CARS happy,” Boldt said. “Quite sweet and simple, I guess.”
Phil Harju, a member of the Cowlitz Tribal Council and its designated casino spokesman, said he didn’t think the resolution would apply to the tribe’s casino.

“When the land is taken into trust, it will not be a commercial casino,” he said. “It will be a tribal casino.”

But if the resolution means that commissioners oppose the tribe’s plan, Harju said, he hopes it will be voted down.

Hearings begin Monday

The county is pursuing an unusual strategy of passing a resolution against the Cowlitz casino as it prepares for a new round of negotiations with the tribe for that very project.

With the first in a series of three hearings set for Monday night in La Center, casino foes are marshaling their forces and cranking up the political pressure.

“It’s time to kill the bad deal — once and for all,” proclaims the Web site of Citizens for a Healthy Clark County, the consortium consisting of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde and three other organizations that has paid for television ads attacking the memorandum of understanding the county signed with the Cowlitz Tribe in 2004.

The American Land Rights Association, a group headed by Battle Ground activist Chuck Cushman, is calling on casino opponents to flood the hearings.
“Call your friends, call your neighbors — there must be a big turnout for the casino hearings,” the group said in an “urgent action alert” distributed Friday. “You must tell the commissioners — no MOU, no agreement, no casino, period.”

A state hearings board declared the MOU invalid last year because the county violated a state law requiring early and continuous public participation in what amounted to a growth-management decision. A Thurston County Superior Court judge subsequently upheld the hearings board’s order.

Commissioners have taken a dual approach: appealing the judge’s decision and announcing they want a new agreement with the tribe. There’s only one problem. Tribal representatives say they are ready to discuss “refinements,” but they say they are unwilling to negotiate an entirely new deal.

“The tribe believes the MOU is a solid agreement which adequately addresses the impacts of potential tribal development and sees no need to renegotiate the MOU beyond any such refinements,” Ed Fleisher, an Olympia attorney representing the tribe, wrote in a March 13 letter to the county.

But Commissioner Steve Stuart said he believes the tribe will come to the negotiating table.

“If I didn’t believe they were willing to negotiate, I wouldn’t participate in any hearings,” he said.

Stuart is perhaps the pivotal swing vote on the three-member board of commissioners. Betty Sue Morris, the only holdover from when the 2004 deal was approved, believes a tribal casino is all but inevitable and the county is currently “unprotected” from the Cowlitz casino’s effects.

In contrast, Boldt comes across as the most hostile to the casino and has repeatedly said he wouldn’t have signed the MOU in the first place.

No list

Stuart has been unwilling to offer a laundry list of what he would like to see in a new agreement, which has frustrated tribal officials
“If the county has some specific things they want to address with the tribe, we are willing to listen,” Harju said. “But they haven’t given us anything.”

Stuart said the tribe’s project has grown, up to a $510 million complex with a 134,150-square-foot casino, since the MOU was signed four years ago. And that likely means Stuart expects the tribe to come up with more money to offset the project’s effects.

The 2004 agreement required the tribe to comply with county building and health codes, to build roads and intersections to keep traffic flowing, to pay for law enforcement and prosecution of misdemeanor crimes, and to compensate the county and other local governments for lost property taxes.

It also required the tribe to deposit 2 percent of net gambling revenues into an “arts and education fund” to support various charitable activities.

Those provisions, Stuart said, are no longer sufficient to cover the project’s effects.

“When the development project changes, so must the mitigation,” he said. “I’m open to suggestions. … Are they looking at a bigger price tag? Yes. But they are looking at a bigger bank book.”

“I have no reason to get my teeth kicked in for no good reason,” Stuart added. “Anyone who thinks it’s just a walk in the park for us to have these hearings hasn’t been paying attention.”

Grand Ronde pressure

The Grand Ronde, owners and operators of the Spirit Mountain Casino near the Oregon coast, are bankrolling a new series of television commercials to protect their status as having the casino closest to the Portland-Vancouver market. The latest commercial features several local residents talking, including one man who says: “Our Clark County leaders have a mandate to protect us from a huge casino, not to enable one.”

During the past two years, the Grand Ronde Tribal Council has transferred $815,000 from its gambling revenues to oppose the Cowlitz casino. But Siobhan Taylor, the tribe’s public affairs director, said she believes less than $100,000 has been spent to date.

“We are here to help the citizens of Clark County,” Taylor said.

Stuart, for one, said he is not persuaded by the Grand Ronde’s commercials.
“I have zero respect for an organization that is preaching community but is practicing pocketbook,” Stuart said. “They can keep running their ads and spending their money, and frankly, it is what it is. But nobody should have any misconceptions­ about their motives.”

The Grand Ronde, he said, have the same motivation for opposing the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs’ plans to build a casino in the Columbia River Gorge.

“It’s not because they love the gorge,” Stuart said. “They love their money.”
“Mr. Stuart obviously has his biases,” Taylor replied, “and he is entitled to his opinions.”

“All of our elected officials need to be very open and aware they are elected to serve and their electorate is watching them,” she added. “His words are hurtful, but certainly they are not true. And in no way are they going to stop us supporting citizens in the area who don’t want to see a misguided agreement go through.”

Federal review process

Meanwhile, the federal government is taking a leisurely approach to reviewing the tribe’s request to designate land along the west side of Interstate 5 as its initial reservation.

A preliminary version of the project’s financial environmental impact statement was released to local and state governments in March 2007, but hardly a peep has been heard from the feds in the past 13 months.

“The EIS is still under review with the solicitor’s office in Washington, D.C.,” George Skibine, director of the Interior Department’s Office of Indian Gaming Management, said in a brief e-mail to The Columbian Friday. “I am not sure, but I suspect that the major issue is simply backlog in that office.”

[PuyoPiyo]

Hictoric Kiggins House being moved to make way for project


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Zachary Kaufman/The Columbian Workers prepare the Kiggins House, built in 1907, for Sunday’s planned move to the Arnada neighborhood. The building is among six on East Evergreen Boulevard that will be moved or razed to make way for the multiple-use Riverwest development, to include the new Vancouver Community Library.
http://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gifhttp://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gifTuesday, May 13, 2008
By HOWARD BUCK, Columbian staff writer It will be a slow, cautious journey for the Kiggins House this Sunday.
Starting about 6 a.m., movers will haul the residence built by former Mayor John P. Kiggins from its 101-year perch on East Evergreen Boulevard to a waiting lot in the Arnada neighborhood at 24th and H streets.
Eager to receive the building, listed on the National Historic Register in 1995, are Bruce and Judith Wood, who plan to make it their home.
The move will cost $85,000 but excavation and remodeling will cost nearly triple that, Bruce Wood said. The couple previously refurbished a house in Shumway and their current home, which is next door to the new site.
A crew began Monday to unearth the old home’s foundation. By Friday the house should be settled on several large dollies, ready to roll.
“There’s a lot of work to be done,” said Keith Settle, head of Scappoose, Ore.-based Northwest Structural Moving, which was hired for the job.
“I’ll know for sure, later in the week. But it looks promising,” Settle said.
Easing the two-and-a-half story home about 18 city blocks — west, then jogging north and east — should take four to six hours, he said.
There could be brief, localized power outages as utility crews lift or lower overhead lines from harm’s way, Settle said.
Motorists on the busy 15th Street-Mill Plain Boulevard couplet could run into several minutes’ delay while the home slides by.
The house’s removal signals tangible start of work on the $160 million Riverwest project, destined to cover four city blocks at the southeast corner of Evergreen and C Street.
A new, 90,000-square foot Vancouver Community Library will rise over a public underground parking garage, close to Evergreen Boulevard. The centerpiece library could be finished by 2011.
Riverwest also will include 200 condominiums, 100,000 square feet of office space, a 65-room hotel, a restaurant and an outdoor area with a fireplace.
It will be late autumn or early 2009 before significant excavation work begins.
By fall, developer Killian Pacific expects four vacated homes that front Evergreen to be razed, said Steve Burdick, the firm’s director of development. Buildings used by the Carr Auto Group, which moved to northeast Vancouver in April, also will be demolished.
An exception is the white-brick, one-story studio designed and used by noted Vancouver architect Day W. Hilborn. Negotiations continue to move it to a site at Markle Avenue and West Mill Plain Boulevard.
The studio would hold offices of the Southwest Washington Community Land Trust, a nonprofit organization that helps provide housing to low- to moderate-income families.
Settle, 37, who launched his moving business 17 years ago, said relocating the brick home would present no unusual challenge.
“It just takes a little more steel, a little more care,” Settle said. “We’ve actually moved unreinforced brick, three-or four-story office buildings. What we tell our customers is: ‘If it can be built, it can be moved,’ ” he said.
Precaution is necessary to navigate Vancouver’s downtown, however. “It’s trickier; the streets are narrow. There are more mature trees to deal with,” Settle said.
Built in 1907, the Kiggins House is a front-gabled structure with a detached two-car garage, which will be razed. A prominent real estate developer, Kiggins apparently lived in the home until his death in 1941, at age 72. The property remained under family ownership until it was sold in 1994. Most recently it was used as offices.
Settle said he’s unfazed by handling the historic home, which will stretch to 35 feet high while on the dollies. Last summer, his company moved the registered Ladd Carriage House in downtown Portland for safekeeping during a tower construction project.
“Actually, some of these older ones are easier to work with than newer buildings. They have better lumber, to start with,” he said. “The joists are all straight-grained. No knots. And full-dimension lumber.”
Full-dimension lumber?
A century ago, a 2x4 beam actually measured 2 inches by 4 inches, and so is stronger, still, than today’s slimmed-down version, he said.
Howard Buck can be reached at 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.

[PuyoPiyo]

Cowlitz: New federal rules can't block casino


http://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gifhttp://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gifhttp://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gifhttp://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gif
Documents:» Read new federal casino regulations. (http://www.columbian.com/documents/section%2020%20may%2020%2008.pdf)http://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gif
http://www.columbian.com/_images/newsPhotos/newsPic319804_141617.jpg
http://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gif
An aerial view shows the proposed Cowlitz casino site near La Center. (Janet L. Mathews/The Columbian) http://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gifhttp://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gifTuesday, May 20, 2008
By JEFFREY MIZE, Columbian Staff Writer Newly released rules for interpreting Indian gambling law will not block the Cowlitz Indian Tribe's casino project near La Center, a tribal spokesman said.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs published final regulations Tuesday, the culmination of a multiyear process to provide clarity in what can be a convoluted legal process.

"Nothing in the regs would stop the Cowlitz project from going forward," said Phil Harju, a member of the Cowlitz Tribal Council and its designated casino spokesman.

The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act generally prohibits gambling on lands taken into trust by the federal government after 1988, but it also contains an exemption for a tribe's initial reservation. The regulations published Tuesday provide guidance for how to apply that exemption.

The Cowlitz want to create an initial reservation on a 152-acre site along the west side of Interstate 5. A development partnership proposes to build a $510 million casino complex on the site, which is less than a 20-minute drive from the Portland-Vancouver area.

To qualify for the initial reservation exemption, the tribe must have both historical and modern connections to the site.

To meet the historical connection test, the federal regulations require the Cowlitz to "demonstrate by historical documentation the existence of the tribe's villages, burial grounds, occupancy or subsistence use in the vicinity of the land."

The Cowlitz Tribe can point to a number of documents, including a November 2005 opinion from the National Indian Gaming Commission. That document, reviled by casino foes, concluded the Cowlitz probably were not the dominant tribe in the region, but historical records indicate the tribe used the area for "hunting, fishing, frequent trading expeditions, occasional warfare and, if not permanent settlement, then at least seasonal villages and temporary camps."

But Citizens Against Reservation Shopping, a Vancouver group formed three years ago, asserts the Cowlitz have no significant historical connection to Clark County. The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, operators of the Spirit Mountain Casino near the Oregon coast, have taken a similar position.

Tom Hunt, a Citizens Against Reservation Shopping spokesman, said both the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indians Claims Commission agreed that the tribe's historic territory encompasses 2,500 square miles of land. The La Center casino site falls outside this area, he said.

"This isn't something we make up out of whole cloth or thin air," Hunt said. "These are decisions that have been reached after exhaustive study, and to not pay attention to them is ludicrous."

As for the modern connection requirement, the rules require the land slated for gambling be within 25 miles of tribal headquarters or other government facilities for at least two years prior to an application to have the site taken into trust.

The Cowlitz Tribe's headquarters are in Longview. Tribal attorneys say Global Positioning System measurements indicate the tribe would comply with the 25-mile requirement with several miles to spare.

[360Rich]

http://www.columbian.com/_images/newsPhotos/newsPic336943_153033.jpg

Public checks out new library plans

Saturday, July 05, 2008
By HOWARD BUCK, Columbian staff writer

From the outside, a sleek, glassy building would keep pace with a busy downtown.

Inside, soft wood paneling, a large atrium and quiet reading rooms would be comfortable and restful.

Fort Vancouver Regional Library District officials said that about 40 members of the public reacted favorably to architectural plans for a new Vancouver Community Library at an unveiling Wednesday.

Drafts of floor plans will be presented to the Vancouver City Council on Monday, and to the Clark County commissioners on Tuesday.

Drawn by the Miller|Hull Partnership of Seattle, a design is taking shape for the 90,000-square foot, six-story building to rise at the corner of East Evergreen Boulevard and C Street.

The architects got an early thumbs-up from Karin Ford, head librarian for the current facility that opened in 1963.

“It’s exciting. I think they’re striking a nice balance between a modern building, a 21st-century building, but one that will be welcoming, too,” Ford said. “I think it will be a great building.”

Plans call for upper floors to extend over the atrium at staggered lengths, to suggest open drawers (or a stack of books), Ford said.

They incorporate suggestions from library users, with a few new wrinkles.

Above a three-level, underground parking garage (to include 200 two-hour spots designated for library visitors to use free), the design shapes up like this:

* Basement: Staff office space, an attractive entry and retail space for Friends of the Library used-book sales.
* Main floor (“Plaza Level”): Circulation desk, newspaper and magazine selection, and a large community meeting room with room for at least 200 people.
* Mezzanine: A mellow area that capitalizes on the atrium space.
* Second floor: Children’s and teen areas, and an international center with foreign-language materials.
* Third floor: Nonfiction items, reference desk and materials.
* Fourth floor: Adult fiction, a reading room and an exterior roof terrace.



It’s no accident that the adult reading room is two floors removed from the noisier children’s areas.

“I think we heard a lot of validation for the design, so far … (It) confirmed what we need to pay attention to,” Ford said.

Other priorities include bike parking and garage security, she said. A new idea posed on Wednesday, locker space for youths who might arrive on skate boards, might be considered, she said.

Library construction should start by mid-2009 and be completed in the first half of 2011. The building is funded by the $43 million bond measure approved by voters in September 2006.

Work on the garage is slated to begin this year.

Howard Buck covers the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District: 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.

http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/2008/07/07052008_Public-checks-out-new-library-plans.cfm

[PuyoPiyo]

Oops double post, delete this please.

[PuyoPiyo]

Found some more pictures of the new design of the new library.

http://www.fvrl.org/aboutus/drawings/Main070208-FacadeLayers_Page_1.jpg

http://www.fvrl.org/aboutus/drawings/Main070208-FacadeLayers_Page_1.jpg

http://www.fvrl.org/aboutus/drawings/Main070208-FacadeLayers_Page_2.jpg

http://www.fvrl.org/aboutus/drawings/Main070208-FacadeLayers_Page_2.jpg

http://www.fvrl.org/aboutus/drawings/Main070208-FacadeLayers_Page_3.jpg

http://www.fvrl.org/aboutus/drawings/Main070208-FacadeLayers_Page_3.jpg
You can see the inside of the library building by clicking this link.

http://www.fvrl.org/aboutus/drawings/Main070208-InteriorandLayers.pdf

Also you can read the informations about the new library by clicking this link.

http://www.fvrl.org/aboutus/files/MainLibraryProjectInformation.pdf

But for some reason, I feel like this design was alittle too simple..

[PuyoPiyo]

You can find some new renderings while reading some of SWCA's documents from its official website.

http://www.center4thearts.com/documents/

[bvpcvm]

wow, that southeast view kind of reminds me of the centre pompidou

[urbanlife]

wow, I really like this new library. It is good to see Vancouver finally get some good architecture.

[zilfondel]

Miller Hull has done some pretty darned good work. Very NW-regionalist architecture.

[CouvScott]

Riverwest

Scope: Mixed-use project featuring a public library, condominiums and commercial office and retail space.
Location: Northwest corner of Sixth and Broadway, Vancouver.
Size: More than 300,000 square feet.
Cost: $160 million.
Developer: Killian Pacific, Vancouver.
Timeline: Breaking ground this month.

[CouvScott]

400 Mill Plain Center

Scope: Two multi-story office buildings with ground-floor retail and parking.
Location: West of Interstate 5 on two blocks between Mill Plain Boulevard and W. 15th Street.
Size: 152,000 square feet.
Cost: $57 million.
Developer: The Al Angelo Co.
Timeline: Site work started this month.

[PuyoPiyo]

Pressure mounts on Vancouvercenter developer

http://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gifhttp://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gif
Update
Previously: Vandevco completed three of four buildings for the $100 million Vancouvercenter, the biggest piece of downtown Vancouver’s revitalization.
What’s new: Time is running out for Vandevco to break ground on its fourth building if it wants to avoid paying the city an $800,000 penalty.
What’s next: Vandevco must have the south office tower completed by June 30, 2010, or pay the penalty to avoid defaulting on its pact with the city.http://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gifhttp://www.columbian.com/_images/spacer.gif
Wednesday, July 30, 2008

By JEFFREY MIZE, Columbian staff writer

Developers of the biggest building project in downtown Vancouver in the past 10 years need to break ground on their fourth building by the middle of 2009 to avoid an $800,000 penalty.

Three of four buildings at the Vancouvercenter complex east of Esther Short Park were finished several years ago, but a squishy market repeatedly has delayed construction of an eight- or nine-story office tower on the northwest corner of Sixth and Washington streets.

Vandevco, under terms of its development agreement with the city, must have the final building completed no later than June 30, 2010. If that doesn’t happen, Vandevco would have to pay $800,000 to Vancouver to avoid defaulting on its agreement.

Nawzad Othman, Vandevco’s managing director on the Vancouvercenter project, said his company will begin construction as soon as it secures tenants for the south tower, which would have ground floor retail and offices on the other floors.

“Right now, without strong tenants, preleasing, you can’t get financing anywhere,” Othman said. “We have a couple of very strong prospects on that building. If they materialize, we may even begin construction this year.”
Othman is also president of Otak Inc., a Lake Oswego, Ore., architectural and engineering firm. The company also maintains an office at Vancouvercenter.

The city council approved the development agreement in 1999 that included selling land once used by the Lucky Lager brewery at a bargain price. The city also agreed to purchase an underground parking garage from the developer and operate it for at least 15 years.

The council subsequently approved four amendments to the 1999 deal. The latest, enacted in July 2006, specified a June 30, 2010, completion date for the project’s final structure.

Eric Holmes, Vancouver economic development director, said the $800,000 penalty is intended to offset the loss of tax revenues from the fourth tower.
“The city would much rather see it built,” he added.

Othman said his company could have the project built in as little as 12 months, which means it would need to have construction under way by next summer to avoid the penalty.

“That will never happen,” he said about the $800,000. “We will get this thing going.”

Vancouvercenter currently consists of two six-story condominium buildings and one 11-story office tower with condos on the top floors.

The north tower is more than 80 percent leased, Othman said.

“By now it should be 100 percent,” he said. “And I think that reflects what’s going on in the economy.”

[Civ E JB]

6th and Broadway? No, isn't it more like southeast corner of Evergreen and C St.?

I wish there were more details about the rest of the project.

[BrG]

The project is bound by Evergreen and C Street, as well as Reserve Street.

The timetable posted immediately above (clipped from an article?), to my knowledge, is not accurate. An earlier post is more accurate (assuming nothing changes within the project) with the "2009 start of the construction" timetable.

The library design is very much in progress, and I expect it to appear differently to some degree than the renderings you see there. (Those are Schematic Design phase renders, and a myriad of influences will likely alter the final product, not the least of which is $$$$$.)

[PuyoPiyo]

Maybe it was mistaken by that site where Killan Pacific plan to build the Frontier which are on the Evergreen and 6th st, but it says that it was northwest corner while that site is southern of that, hmm..

Someone need to correct this..

[CouvScott]

[QUOTE=BrG;3703853]The project is bound by Evergreen and C Street, as well as Reserve Street.

The timetable posted immediately above (clipped from an article?), to my knowledge, is not accurate. An earlier post is more accurate (assuming nothing changes within the project) with the "2009 start of the construction" timetable.

[QUOTE]

It was from an all encompasing construction article in the Columbian. I wonder if they posted a correction later.

[PuyoPiyo]

I was there and they are really under constructing right now, I will try to get there again with my camera.

[davehogan]

The downside is that the CRC is facing such pessimism from so many, when getting MAX to downtown Vancouver will probably help growth quite a bit.

I've heard some discussions of the Boise Cascade site include streetcar access across 6th and 8th to the potential MAX line near the new bridge. That could be a great start.

There's a lot of dense development happening in the Couv now. There's the The Sahalie at Tidewater Cove for example. Not the best use of the land, but the railroad tracks and SR-14 really cut off that part of the waterfront. A bunch of nice condos, office space with 80% occupancy in the Offices at Tidewater Cove, and the already completed Tidewater Cove Condos.

It's a reuse project. There are new warehouses going up along SE Columbia Ave also. The hotels and condo development down by the McMenamin's and Beaches is pretty good too, considering the limitations of the SR-14 interchange, the railroad berm, and Columbia Way.

Almost every project mentioned in this thread is actually a dense townhouse, condo, office, etc development. Not sprawling McMansions, but smart growth style "lifestyle centers."

Pearson Field will limit downtown Vancouver's heights in large part, as well as PDX. They still can go up 10-20 floors in about 150 blocks. That's a lot of density, and they're trying to make it happen.

Vancouver has it's faults, but it's not Hell in Washington.

[davehogan]

I haven't seen much activity, but I'm usually more focused on driving than construction when I'm nearby. I'll try to stop with my camera.

[360Rich]

Backers seek new site for arts center

Tuesday, September 16 | 7:52 p.m.
By MARY ANN ALBRIGHT, COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER

Supporters of a proposed Clark County performing arts center have dropped plans to build on a downtown Vancouver site near Esther Short Park, citing mounting costs and a shaky economy that could hinder fundraising.

Instead the Southwest Washington Center for the Arts, the nonprofit group backing the project, is looking at sites on the Vancouver National Historic Reserve and on the former Boise Cascade industrial property that fronts the Columbia River.

“It just didn’t work out. It’s better to find out early, before we’re actually going out and raising money,” said Val Ogden of Vancouver, chairwoman of the board for Southwest Washington Center for the Arts.

The site the group had been working to secure is bordered by Washington, Columbia, Eighth and Ninth streets and overlooks Esther Short Park. Plans for a $60 million arts facility on that site included an auditorium, a black box theater, an art gallery and possibly an additional rehearsal hall. It was to be part of a larger mixed-use development that would have included condominiums and shops.

Southwest Washington Center for the Arts decided, however, that it could not afford the parking structure the city required. The city also mandated that at least three sides of the building have retail space, and center officials felt its budget would only allow for two.

Other parts of the deal also became questionable.

Realvest Corp., the development firm interested in building the commercial portions of the project, had offered to donate the profits from condominium sales to an endowment to help run the performing arts center. Those funds would be necessary to cover the arts center’s operating costs, but there was a risk the condominiums wouldn’t sell in today’s housing market, Ogden said.

The two alternative sites now under consideration won’t likely carry as high of a price tag.

The group is in preliminary discussions with the city about taking over the Vancouver Police Department headquarters site on the western edge of the Vancouver National Historic Reserve.

The site could eventually be available as operations at Vancouver Police Department headquarters are shifted to the west precinct on Fourth Plain Boulevard and Stapleton Road.

It was one of the sites the city manager encouraged Southwest Washington Center for the Arts to consider, said Jan Bader, Vancouver program and policy development director.

It’s a possibility the Vancouver National Historic Reserve Trust is interested in exploring as well. The reserve is in the process of developing an arts and entertainment complex in a vacant building near police headquarters, so “it would be a nice complement to have the two buildings next to each other,” said Elson Strahan, who is chief executive officer and president of the trust.

Southwest Washington Center for the Arts also is exploring potential options with Gramor Development, the Tualatin, Ore., commercial real estate developer behind a proposed riverfront revitalization effort.

Southwest Washington Center for the Arts invested a year and a half on plans for the downtown Vancouver site, spending $35,000 on a feasibility study and devoting many hours of volunteer work to the project.

“Much of it is information we can use on the new site. It’s not lost,” Ogden said.

http://www.columbian.com/article/20080917/NEWS02/809169905

[360Rich]

:(

Commercial portion of library project put on hold
Friday, September 26 | 7:55 p.m.

By CAMI JONER, COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER

Construction of a key downtown redevelopment project will be delayed for at least a year due to the uncertain economy, its developers said Friday.

But work will move forward on the public library component of the $160 million Riverwest mixed-use project, according to Vancouver-based Killian Pacific.

The company had planned to break ground in early 2009 on its portion of the development, which included condominiums, offices, retail space and 200-room hotel on the southeast corner of East Evergreen Boulevard and C Street.

“Since the project was conceived in 2005, the national and local market conditions have deteriorated dramatically,” said Lance Killian, the company’s chief operating officer.

Officials close to the project say its new start date will depend on economic recovery with renewed consumer spending that will prompt national retailers to resume their expansion plans.

Construction costs have also risen, Killian said. His company has already invested more than $3.4 million on the Riverwest project, planned for a four-block site that was primarily occupied by the Carr Auto Group.

The dealership moved in April, relocating to a new facility on Fourth Plain Boulevard near Andresen Road.

The Riverwest site was cleared further in May, when workers moved the historic Kiggins House from its 101-year perch on Evergreen Boulevard overlooking Interstate 5. The home was moved north to 24th and H streets.

Site-clearing activities are expected to continue. Riverwest developers will have to move forward by 2014 if they are to leverage $13 million in state tax credit financing awarded to the project in 2006. The funding is to be used on the project’s underground parking structure, to include public parking.

Library moving forward

In the meantime, design plans are moving forward to break ground in 2009 on the $37 million public library portion of Riverwest, said Bruce Ziegman, executive director of the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District.

“The final library design is quickly taking shape,” he said.

Voters passed a library facilities bond measure in 2006 to pay for the 83,000-square-foot library.

http://columbian.com/article/20080926/NEWS02/809269841

[davehogan]

Construction of a key downtown redevelopment project will be delayed for at least a year due to the uncertain economy, its developers said Friday.

But work will move forward on the public library component of the $160 million Riverwest mixed-use project, according to Vancouver-based Killian Pacific.

The company had planned to break ground in early 2009 on its portion of the development, which included condominiums, offices, retail space and 200-room hotel on the southeast corner of East Evergreen Boulevard and C Street.

Why not try to see if Vancouver will help with the hotel and parking, in addition to the library? Vancouver needs something other than a Hilton, and should be trying to get something like a Hyatt Place, aloft, element, Courtyard or similar brand.

The Red Lion, Shilo Inn, and Econo Lodge don't really serve the same types of travelers, and the Homewood Suites is likely to attract the same people as the Hilton who are staying for a longer visit. Adding a 200+ room competitive higher-end chain should generate enough tourist taxes to be worth the incentives the city could offer.

Use the revenues from the hotel to spur the office, then the condo space, and you'll get the end results a little faster, I'd hope.

I know the credit market sucks, but Vancouver is growing rather fast. It has to make sure to stay competitive in the lodging market as well or it's job centers will start to stagnate.

Much like SoWa, only that's saved by proximity and easy transit to downtown PDX.

[360Rich]

Columbian plans return to former offices
Wednesday, October 8 | 5:07 p.m.

By JULIA ANDERSON

Swept by the double tsunami of a sour economy and rising new building costs, The Columbian Publishing Co. today announced plans to relocate its business and newsroom operations to former offices at 701 W. Eighth St. in downtown Vancouver.

The move, according to Columbian Publisher Scott Campbell, is out of the need to generate more revenue from a new six-story building constructed by Campbell and his wife, Jody, which opened south of Esther Short Park in January. The options, Campbell said, are to either lease all of the 118,000-square-foot $30 million structure or to sell it. At present, Columbian newsroom, advertising and circulation operations occupy four of the six floors in the building at 415 W. Sixth St.

In order to make the difficult financial transition, Campbell said the company is trying to negotiate a new loan with its lender or will seek temporary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors. Chapter 11 gives a business time to reorganize and return to financial health.

“Like many newspapers across the country, The Columbian is facing a difficult business situation given the economic environment, but we are fortunate to have the resources that allow us to respond with economical solutions,” Campbell said. “The Columbian is confident it has the ability to come out of this situation and continue to be the trusted news source for Clark county as it has been for more than 100 years.”

Campbell is the third generation of his family to operate the newspaper purchased by his grandfather, Herbert Campbell in 1921.

“We strongly believe that we will be successful through this transition,” Campbell said. “With the newspaper and our Web site, we continue to be market leaders for both advertisers and readers. We reach many more customers than either TV or radio in this market.”

The Columbian’s move is predicated on the two-pronged difficulty of very tight credit markets and a downturn in advertising revenue in the newspaper business, Campbell said.

The relocation to 701 Eighth St. will take time and is not expected until the first quarter of 2009. The Columbian, which has experienced two rounds of layoffs in the past 10 months, employs a total of 282 people including 12 employees of the Camas Post-Record, which it also owns.

http://www.columbian.com/article/20081008/BIZ01/810089971/-1/biz

A couple pics of the new building they are moving out of

http://a2.vox.com/6a00b8ea0714f21bc000e398b2c3a20005-500pi

http://www.northshoresheetmetal.com/main/projects/pphotos/ColumbianOfficeBuilding.jpg

[zilfondel]

^ thats really unfortunate. Build a nice shiny new building and not get to use it? :(

[Okstate]

^ I know, i'd be so pissed off driving past that (assuming the employees will be driving past it)

[Civ E JB]

Well this seems to be moving along quickly. Slab on grade has been poured and the crane on site has already put up steel for first and second floors. Even just the current skeleton structure gives a very different feel to driving into downtown on Mill Plain. Well, especially since Denny's didn't give off much of a "feel"....

[CouvScott]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3179/2988839913_e5cd44d46a_o.jpg

[davehogan]

I'm glad someone got a picture for here, I've driven by about 10 times since the steel went up and forgotten my camera every single one of them. It really is going to change the feel of that part of the neighborhood, in my opinion, for the better. Other than City Hall there isn't much along Mill Plain but parking lots and old 1 story retail. It's got great access, it seems like it would be worth prodding along more mixed use projects.

I'll try to stop by this week with my camera, I go to the Muchas Gracias down the street for lunch quite a bit so it won't be much of a problem. :) (Yep, parking lots and 1 floor retail have tasty burritos sometimes.)

I'll see what I can do about getting pictures of the site behind the Burgerville also. I wonder if they are just getting it ready for the next building season? It seems late in the year to start a project.

Dave

[davehogan]

I just came across this site from the City of Vancouver's site:

http://www.cityofvancouver.us/econdev.asp?menuid=10464&submenuID=10525&projectID=18840

Check out the video, it could be pretty awesome.

[davehogan]

http://www.davidphogan.com/images/mp1.jpg

http://www.davidphogan.com/images/mp2.jpg

http://www.davidphogan.com/images/mp3.jpg

I hope this is the right project.

[CouvScott]

That's it. The title should be changed to reflect (1) 5 story office building and (1) 6 story residential building. The latter of which will reside one block to the West.

[davehogan]

That's it. The title should be changed to reflect (1) 5 story office building and (1) 6 story residential building. The latter of which will reside one block to the West.

I thought the building next door was supposed to be mixed use, replacing the existing retail with new first floor retail? Maybe I'm thinking of the wrong project there, but I thought the Columbian mentioned it a while back.

[CouvScott]

I thought the building next door was supposed to be mixed use, replacing the existing retail with new first floor retail? Maybe I'm thinking of the wrong project there, but I thought the Columbian mentioned it a while back.

I think you are right. I think both the office and the resi buildings will have ground floor retail.

[davehogan]

I think you are right. I think both the office and the resi buildings will have ground floor retail.

I'm pretty sure the current building will not, due to concerns about patronage of any ground floor retail. Next door will get it, and I think the site southwest of it (behind the Burgerville) will, but not the current project.

[davehogan]

This week C St went back to 2-way traffic, and it has become quite convenient. I'll try to stop and get pictures on lunch next week, the building is coming along as well. There's also a few other projects that have seemed to start up, like the Credit Union face-lift, so I'll see what I can do.

Oddly, this was one of the things that had to happen to make the Vancouver Streetcar possible, and it happened fairly quickly. Maybe they'll try to get some economic stimulus funds to make it happen.

[360Rich]

Pic from today's Columbian:

http://columbian.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=TC&Date=20090227&Category=BIZ01&ArtNo=702279972&Ref=AR&maxw=1000&q=100&border=0
This $18 million, five-level building is being developed by The Al Angelo Co. of Vancouver. The company expects to move into offices in the building’s top floor in June. The project will house other office tenants and a ground-floor retail business. It will eventually face a companion building, planned to occupy the block directly west of it. (Photos by Cami Joner/The Columbian)