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  #41  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2007, 4:45 PM
PacificNW PacificNW is offline
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I would think that there would be an argument in favor of allowing taller towers in downtown Portland...that argument being companies needing more floor space for more employees needed instead of locating in the suburbs. More company associates working in the downtown CBD benefits everyone. Also taller residential towers keep residents and shoppers downtown and the shop owners benefit.
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  #42  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2007, 4:50 PM
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The problem with that is that the three or four buildings that have been trying to pre-lease cannot sign enough tenants to get the 20-30 story buildings out of the ground. If those guys were "turning them away" because they couldn't build enough space then your argument would be easier to sell.

Too bad the BLT and traffic congestion has driven so many firms to Kruse Way and the Tigard Triangle.
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  #43  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2007, 5:19 PM
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^actually you are wrong urbanpdx. My company is an example of why new towers can't get off the ground. We are a large tenant in a large office tower downtown and have traditionally paid $17 - $20 per square foot for class A space. In our recent tenant negotiations we ended up getting socked with about $5 per square foot higher prices. For our company, and many others, it will take time to reach the $30 - $35 per square foot developers are asking in pre-lease agreements. There is a severe shortage of available space downtown, and an average company Portland would be looking at attracting needs between 25,000 - 50,000 sq feet of continuous space, with more room to grow in the future. Currently (well in the last quarter), there wasn't a single office tower with 30,000 sq feet of continuous space available. There is a shortage but also disconnect on what tenants are willing to pay, and what developers (and their banks) are demanding. It has little to do with the business tax that actually will probably be adjusted in favor of small businesses this year.
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  #44  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2007, 5:29 PM
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Can we stop with some of portland is bad for business myths being pushed by suburban think tanks.

Some facts.
Businesses are coming to Portland in greater numbers than those leaving. In 2004, 661 business accounts closed with the City of Portland - 1.9% of all accounts, with a loss of fee revenue of $368k. There was net growth of 2000 new businesses moving in.

In 2006, Forbes ranked Portland 20th in its list of 200 Best Places to do Business, and 8th in the cost of doing business.

Portland is one of the few large cities in the country with a AAA bond rating, showing financial analysts consider our financial stability management sound. In contrast, the state of Oregon's bond rating is AA-minus, one of the worst in the country.

Other then a PR problem, Portland is doing fine.
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  #45  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2007, 5:46 PM
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Mark, do you know how much profit your company earns per sq ft? If the BLT is $5 per sq ft per year you have the money for space in a new building, it is just going to taxes.

The cost of doing business on Kruse Way is lower than the CBD and it is an easier commute for the decision makers so it is winning.
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  #46  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2007, 5:49 PM
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I'll agree on the commuting aspect...downtown portland is hell to drive in-especially right now.
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  #47  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2007, 5:51 PM
Urbanpdx Urbanpdx is offline
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Cab, I don't want to drag this into an ideological debate but any income tax punishes economic success. It raises the cost of working, saving, investing and risk-taking, thereby restraining economic growth. Less economic growth means less demand for space and less ability to pay for expensive new space.

Business does not need to be downtown like they used to. Technology allows people and their money to move to locations where they can earn the best return on their investment of time and money.

I know many of you are for taxing business, but business only collects taxes, it doesn’t pay them. Only people do. No business has a pot of money that doesn’t ultimately belong to specific individuals (customers in the form of higher prices, owners in the form of lower profits and employees in the form of lower wages and benefits).
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  #48  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2007, 5:56 PM
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Urbanpdx, you have no idea what you are talking about. I gave you our scenario, taxes aside, the mentality of paying $35/sq ft still seems overly expensive to a majority of downtown tenants, which is why there isn't a rush of companies signing onto pre-developed space for prices almost $10 more per square foot than they can get if they wait for additional space in the market to open up in the 2 to 3 years it would take to wait for new construction. If the tax was keeping businesses away from the CBD, you wouldn't have the millions of square feet of existing space, statistically, almost fully leased.
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  #49  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2007, 5:59 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pdxman
I'll agree on the commuting aspect...downtown portland is hell to drive in-especially right now.
which is why the majority of people working downtown use transit. The new bus mall relocation has actually saved me 5 minutes on my commute because of the reduced stops...
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  #50  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2007, 6:13 PM
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I still don't understand. People are unwilling (either because of taxes or the "mentality") to pay the cost of new construction so we should eliminate the height limits so developers can build taller buildings that would cost even more and require $50 per sq ft rents to justify?
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  #51  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2007, 6:25 PM
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^you have a hard time sticking to a specific topic. I haven't advocated for a new tallest, it would be nice to see, but I don't think it will happen in the next 3 years. By that time, rents in Portland will probably average $35/sq ft so a top notch lawyer firm, or some other company, might pay an additional $10/sq ft to have the premier address in Portland.

The widespread mentality is not there to pay for more expensive space when the going rate today is so much lower. However, the mentality didn't exist to buy a condo at $500/sq ft just 4 years ago, and now they are going for as high as $1000/sq ft. Markets change, Portland's downtown tenants are probably at the beginning of this higher price per square foot realization. Once rents go up, as they have been, new construction will gain pre-development tenants when they think they are getting a fair deal.

I only posted this to debunk your 'fact' that the tax in Portland is driving people to Lake O when in fact it isn't, as our central business vancancy rate is extremely low. Dave Lister, who moved to save himself $3000 a year in taxes, though he admits he still pays that money now in additional transporation costs, does not speak for all of Portland's business community, although you libertarians treat him like a God because he moved his small firm of ten employees to Tigard and declared that Portland is dying.
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  #52  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2007, 6:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PacificNW View Post
I would think that there would be an argument in favor of allowing taller towers in downtown Portland...that argument being companies needing more floor space for more employees needed instead of locating in the suburbs. More company associates working in the downtown CBD benefits everyone. Also taller residential towers keep residents and shoppers downtown and the shop owners benefit.
I think I am following correctly. My response was to #41 above, your response was #43...

Kruse Way rents are over $30 per sq ft and there have been, I think, 5 or 6 100,000+ sq ft buildings built since the last major office tower downtown was built.
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  #53  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2007, 10:11 PM
zilfondel zilfondel is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Urbanpdx View Post
I think I am following correctly. My response was to #41 above, your response was #43...

Kruse Way rents are over $30 per sq ft and there have been, I think, 5 or 6 100,000+ sq ft buildings built since the last major office tower downtown was built.
True. Part of this is because the Kruse Corridor and the 26 Corridor are the major office markets on the west side; easily accessible from Eugene on up the I-5 corridor, yet there was no planning to centralize the development in any sort of downtowns, which, if done correctly, would have offered better amenities to office workers (within walking distance of their workplaces), such as:

-centralized restaurants & food carts
-parks, plazas and other open space available for office workers to relax in (currently, you can hang out in the parking lot next to noisy I-5 and breathe pollution! the fun...)
-mass transit capable of serving a large concentration of jobs (doesn't work well when the buildings are all 1/4 mile apart on a 5-mile strip)
-centralized parking structures to serve more than one building - and can charge $ for revenue instead of money-losing free parking lots provided by each business

and there are others as well. However, Beavertronia, LO, Tigard and Tualatin just don't have their act together, and it's far too late to alter the built landscape. Rents are up, but the only result is, unfortuantely, sprawl.

further note: I worked for 3 years at the confluence of I-5 & 217
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  #54  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2007, 10:55 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by urbanpdx
Kruse Way rents are over $30 per sq ft and there have been, I think, 5 or 6 100,000+ sq ft buildings built since the last major office tower downtown was built.

Kruse Way has considerably less commercial square footage than downtown. The law of supply and demand takes effect quicker when you have a limited number of sites in a very attractive corridor. It is easier to fill up the lesser office space on Kruse, raise rents, and justify new construction. This is happening in the CBD too, just at a slower rate as the market is much larger, and space (for new buildings) isn't nearly as constricted.

Also, the Brewery Blocks added substantial office space downtown in recent years. When people comment about the lack of new office towers downtown (or new downtown office towers vs. Kruse Way), they often forget about the Brewery Blocks and their thousands of square footage, since almost everything in the Pearl has been condos. Isn't the new SoWa OHSU building office space also?
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  #55  
Old Posted Feb 6, 2007, 1:22 AM
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  #56  
Old Posted Feb 6, 2007, 3:54 PM
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^The Mirabella has an intriguing design, but it does look like it will have a large wall effect, contrary to the stated goals of 325' towers in SoWa (taller but smaller). I'd probably be pissed if I got a place in the John Ross and my entire downtown view replaced by a long tower.


^I've seen this guy somewhere Was this a recent pic in the big O?
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  #57  
Old Posted Feb 6, 2007, 4:25 PM
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Intel forges deeper OHSU ties
Posted by Mike Rogoway January 24, 2007 10:21
Categories: Intel

Intel and OHSU announced early this week they would partner on a new senior living center/research facility on the South Waterfront. Today, Intel ponied up $1m for a OHSU research grant into Alzheimer's. From the release:

Through a $1 million grant, renewable up to three years, researchers will focus on improving the quality of life of the country's aging population by developing behavioral marker technologies that help to sense changes in behavior and, in doing so, provide earlier detection and more effective and personalized treatment.

Intel has created the Behavioral Assessment and Intervention Commons (BAIC), a unique academic-industrial collaboration that constructs a research commons " a shared pool of tools, technology and thinking " around behavioral markers and health outcomes. This collaboration promises to bring resources and attention to the development of health care technologies that will create sensors and other behavioral assessment tools to provide early detection and intervention.

This is all part of Intel's push into Digital Health, one of five "platforms" that CEO Paul Otellini has organized the company around. Intel hopes to tap into a growing market for health care technology.

In unrelated news, the NFL is also giving OHSU a big sum -- $1.2 million -- to launch a youth steroids education program. From that release:

The grant will be used to launch OHSU's nationally recognized ATLAS and ATHENA steroids and substance abuse prevention programs to 20,000 high school athletes and 800 coaches in 40 high schools during the 2007-2008 school year.

Four AFC teams and four NFC teams will sponsor five local high schools each to create the 40 "NFL Schools" that will teach the ATLAS and ATHENA programs to athletes, coaches, and administrators. All athletic teams of each school will participate in the program. The participating NFL teams and high schools will be announced at a later date.

"It is important that the NFL and its players continue to be leaders on the issue of illegal and dangerous performance enhancing drugs in sports," Commissioner Roger Goodell said. "These latest improvements will help ensure that we continue to have a strong and effective program. As we have done in the past, we will review and modify the policy on an ongoing basis."
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  #58  
Old Posted Feb 6, 2007, 4:49 PM
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it was on the front page of the metro section. believe it or not that guy was judging a cat show at the convention center. i wouldn't let him close to my cats!
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  #59  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2007, 6:33 PM
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I love the first pic...sooo pretty...seems like there is an extra tower or two to the left of the Meriwether







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  #60  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2007, 6:48 PM
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The Portland Mirabella appears to have a more dramatic design than their Seattle counterpart.
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