[MarkDaMan]

Manley leading PNCA's Old Town charge
Portland Business Journal by Wendy Culverwell , Business Journal staff writer
Date: Thursday, May 3, 2012, 2:16pm PDT

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/...&ed=2012-05-03

The Pacific Northwest College of Art tossed a number of pebbles in the water back in 2008. Today, the waves those pebbles launched are at the forefront of redevelopment that is reshaping Old Town Chinatown and the North Park Blocks.

Back in 2008, PNCA's scholarly President Thomas Manley and the art school's board, closed two major real estate deals, one in the Pearl District and the other in Old Town.

PNCA paid $10.5 million for the Pearl District building that serves as its anchor at 1241 N.W. Johnson St. in October. About the same time, it secured the historic U.S. Post Office building, 511 N.W. Broadway, in Old Town from the federal General Services Administration under a program that gives surplus buildings away if they’re used for educational purposes.

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Come 2014 or thereabouts, PNCA will make the historic post office (aka 511 Building) its new home once it completes a roughly $30 million renovation. It will likely sell the Pearl District building at that point.

Once it started viewing Old Town as its future, the pieces fell into place.

PNCA already has a presence there through the Museum of Contemporary Craft, which fronts the park blocks at Northwest Davis Street. In the future, it will have student housing too, thanks to a partnership with the Powell family to develop apartments at the former Powells Technical Books, 33 N.W. Park Ave.

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