Outsider brought inside Portland development
Ex-Midwesterner comes to Portland optimistic as Opus Northwest’s new general manager, vice president
Daily Journal of Commerce
POSTED: 06:00 AM PDT Monday, May 19, 2008
BY TYLER GRAF
Brian Owendoff, the new general manager and vice president of development at Opus Northwest, had never been to Oregon before a visit this past October. But having finally moved here three weeks ago, he feels comfortable calling Portland a “vibrant,” “exciting” and “well-educated” city.
Owendoff comes to Portland from Cleveland, where he served as a vice president at Duke Realty Corporation, an Indianapolis-based real estate and development investment company. In a growing city such as Portland – unlike Cleveland, which has seen its population dwindle to its smallest in nearly 100 years — there are more opportunities to grow development business, he says.
However, Portland also has its own unique development issues, including an urban growth boundary unfamiliar to other cities, which bends the learning curve near its breaking point, he says.
Opus is confident that the outsider Owendoff, who considers the retail sector to be Portland’s biggest development challenge, was the best candidate for the job.
“Sometimes there’s an heir apparent (at a company), and sometimes there isn’t,” said John Bartell, a vice president at Opus Northwest and a board member.
Opus didn’t seek an outsider, Bartell says. The firm simply wanted the “best candidate” for the job – a candidate capable of weathering a development slowdown.
Yet as a bolts-to-ballast Midwesterner, Owendoff has never lived anywhere west of the Rockies. He attended Xavier University in nearby Cincinnati, and he’s only worked for one company after college, Duke Realty Corporation.
He says he’s ready for a new challenge in his life, and a change of scenery.
He sees job and population growth in Oregon being far more aggressive than in the Midwest, aside from Chicago. In Ohio, in particular, taxes are high and the state holds a monopoly on workers compensation. Development there continues to lag because “it’s just not a very business-friendly state,” Owendoff said.
Nonetheless, he points out, Cleveland is home to more Fortune 500 companies than Portland.
Still, Cleveland has suffered from what Owendoff calls “the most expensive game of musical chairs” – in which the city’s wealthy residents have scrambled to leave its core, moving to the surrounding areas instead. This has created growth in Cleveland’s metro area – population 4 million – while effectively choking the life out of the now sparsely populated downtown.
“The negative aspect of that is that the chasm between the haves and the have-nots is huge,” Owendoff said.
In Portland, he sees greater economic diversity among its residents.
The city faces challenges, however. Compared to cities of comparable size, Owendoff says, he believes retail is under-represented within the city proper.
Opus knows how difficult it can be to secure large retailers. Its Burnside Bridgehead development, which was to be anchored by a large retailer, never received community support, and Opus never moved forward on the project.
It disappeared, Owendoff says, because it was too “front-end loaded” with costs. Retail projects tend to be, he adds, and that’s a detriment to the city and a burden on residents.
“If I just want to go to a Target or something, I have to get in my car and drive to the suburbs,” Owendoff said.
But what Portland gets right, he says, is its dedication to land-use planning and its reluctance to overbuild. Though the city has between 1,500 and 2,000 empty condominium units, that’s nothing compared to Miami’s estimated 25,000.
Aside from development, Owendoff has other interests, which coincide with Portland’s long-in-gestation culinary scene.
He and his wife are avowed “foodies.” In his two months in town, he has created a list of his top three Portland restaurants. They are, in no particular order: Pok Pok, the Thai-fusion restaurant located on Southeast Division; Le Pigeon, the French bistro on East Burnside, near the Doug Fir; and Andina, a Peruvian restaurant in the Pearl District.
Despite all the disparities, Owendoff says, Portland and Cleveland have one extremely important thing in common: The cities receive approximately the same paltry number of sunny days annually.
The city won’t lose him to rain-sodden depression, he promises.
“Everyone complains about the rain, but at least you don’t have to shovel the rain,” he said.
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