Manhattan Tower | 325' | 32 floors | Dead

[roner]

Please let them...Please! I tried of our little squat skyline.

[westsider]

^ 325' won't make the skyline more impressive or taller, in many markets 325' is barely considered a high rise. The only real effect this building would have is to make it a little denser looking, what we really need to look less squatty is a couple 600'+ towers going up in the big empty space south of big pink.

[PacificNW]

I agree with westsider on this.... 320' in comparison to the 3 tallest Portland towers (+500') won't make that much of a difference...600'+ would do it.

[urbanlife]

I will take more dense over a 600footer any day.

[MarkDaMan]

I agree with urbanlife...fu(k a 600 footer in the Lloyd that might never get built. That district is in extreme need of density, not super-talls. I wouldn't complain if a highly designed super-tall was proposed for somewhere in the Lloyd, or even taller downtown, but I'd rather have additions in the Lloyd that enhance what makes Portland great, our street level connections, than a few tall towers sitting in a field of lowrises and parking lots.

Height on this board, to me, is like watching boys compare their peckers. Who's gonna get the tallest building, my cities better than yours because we have 15 over 500' towers...blah...blah...blah...I have a livable city, little inner-city parks, a 5000 acre urban forest I can meander in, fountains to dash around in on hot summer days, a farmers market almost everday in some portion of town, concerts and movies in the square, great retail and restaurant selections, distinctive little districts to people watch in, an Aerial Tram , and a 11,000 foot mountain the appears to be in reaching distance, out my window...shall I go on? None of that, by the way, would be strengthened (nor weakened) by a 600' tower.

[MarkDaMan]

here's that full story...

Developer conjures up Manhattan for name of next high-rise
Thursday, December 28, 2006
The Oregonian

Despite talk of a cooling condo market, Portland real estate magnate Joe Weston is working on plans for a 32-story tower at 1405 S.W. Morrison St. that would add 207 to 220 units to the local supply.

Weston, finishing construction of the 26-story Benson Tower downtown, wants his proposed Manhattan Tower to rise 325 feet. That's as high as the nearly completed John Ross going up in South Waterfront and the tallest that would be allowed under city zoning rules.

Weston owns the block by Interstate 405 on which the Manhattan would sit. His planners are expected to hold one more meeting with the Goose Hollow Foothills League planning committee before taking their proposal to the Portland Design Commission in mid-January.

Though major national investors are pulling back from condo plans, Weston may hold enough financial clout to build the Manhattan the old-fashioned way -- by himself.
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/o...380.xml&coll=7

[urbanlife]

it is good to see Weston willing to take some risks to make money. I hate pansy developers that like to ride the coat tails of development but never willing to take any risks to push new development. This is the reason for so many surface lots in this country.

[roner]

I agree urbanlife. Also, it seems the rental marktet is on fire and anything built downtown would rent quickly. Why don't more developers build rather sparten buildings with simple sleek shapes for middle class renters? I know the quick answer is the higher ones sell for a greater profit, but it would seem a nice modern tower designed for renting would prove profitable in the long term and always be of service.

[Urbanpdx]

Let's see if I can help here Roner.

A developer might be able to put up a very spartan building for about $350 per rentable sq ft downtown. What would the units rent for? I would guess $1.75 per sq ft per month tops. Expenses to operate an apartment building like this run about 35% so net income would be about $13.65 per sq ft per year. The return on investment would be under 4% assuming 100% of the units are occupied at completion, this is never the case. No lender would go for such a project and even if you had the cash to do it yourself, why not just by a Walgreens or a Post Office and make 6% with no management and a long term AAA rated tenant?

[sirsimon]

I'd love to see a bunch of tall, slender buildings bordering the west side of 405. It would certainly add to the "urban" look and feel of PDX.

[pdxstreetcar]

http://www.portlandonline.com/shared....cfm?id=144307

Some elevations and a basic rendering

325-ft, 32 stories (2 story podium + 30 story tower), 7500 sq ft tower footprint

207-220 units

[tworivers]

I wonder when Weston is projecting to start construction.

[Dougall5505]

so no underground parking?

[South-by-West]

I found this in the proposal:

A total of 73 parking stalls will be provided for the adjacent office building in the above ground podium levels. Approximately 213-226 private parking stalls for the residential units will be provided in four underground parking levels.

[pdxman]

SWEET! This is good news Lets hope LRS churns out something special....*sigh* oh delano

[westsider]

Wow, I like the renderings, I would love to see it in color.

[der Reisender]

it did look shockingly solid in the 'light' rendering of the application...very tall and sleek. hope it looks even better in the full renderings

[WonderlandPark]

Very nice, hope this gets built. 341' with mechanical plus a little flag pole will really give this some presence, yet it is slender.

[MarkDaMan]

that last rendering is da bomb...the shape, at least, is initially impressive.

7500ft floorplan. What is the Benson? The John Ross is like 12,500...7500 with that shape is gonna be impressive...if only the ZGF tower was back to its initial height

[urbanlife]

nothing over done, simple per se.....I like it.