The Mirabella | 325 feet | 30 floors | Complete

[CouvScott]

Land swap - The university is in talks with an assisted living firm for the South Waterfront location
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
DYLAN RIVERA
Oregon Health & Science University has bought a one-block parcel in the South Waterfront area and is negotiating to bring an assisted living center to the site.

Mark Williams, OHSU's South Waterfront project manager, said the university is in discussions with an assisted living company. He would not name the prospective developer, except to say that it's an out-of-state company that specializes in such projects.

The property is owned by an investment group headed by Homer Williams. In buying the tract, known as Block 31, OHSU sold the investment group its half-ownership of a riverfront parcel known as Block 23 that has been seen as a possible hotel site.

The university wants to retain ownership of its land holdings in the waterfront area, OHSU's Williams said, but is willing to lease some parcels to developers bringing uses that would complement OHSU's hospital, research and education missions.

"One of the reasons we're attracted to the concept of independent or senior assisted living is there's a very strong research tie-in," as well as academic and research work with OHSU, Williams said.

The possible lease indicates the university's plans for the area could include further land leases that would complement university operations.

OHSU in 2005 considered building an office tower in South Waterfront that would have been anchored by CH2M Hill, an engineering and construction firm, but it turned out to be too costly, said Gordon King, a broker with the Colliers International who represented the firm.

The land swap stems from the 2002 land deal that helped launch OHSU's South Waterfront expansion. River Campus Investors, a joint venture of OHSU and Homer Williams' North Macadam Investors, had bought about half the acreage of the first 31 intended for development.

The university needed four blocks near a future tram landing, and North Macadam Investors took several on the riverfront.

With Block 23 remaining, Homer Williams said, "We ended up splitting the block."

[Dougall5505]

are they saying they want to build a retirement home in the south waterfront? i don't know if that would fit in imo a hotel would be much better

[MarkDaMan]

are they saying they want to build a retirement home in the south waterfront? i don't know if that would fit in imo a hotel would be much better

that is exactly what OHSU is saying. Since hotels in Portland right now are, according to them, a money pit, they decided to give up the hotel ambitions for the time and put a nice tall nursing home. Frankly I have no more use for a nursing home than I do for a condo tower where the cheapest studio units go for over $300,000 but as long as the design is first rate, I don't care what it is. There is plenty of open land in SoWa for everything.

[Dougall5505]

right but i just don't think of a nursing home as a tall building the ones i have been to were one storyies and spread out. there is the issue of transporting the elderly between their 10th story room to a waiting ambulance outside. believe me i have experienced this process in a single story building and it is very difficult

[65MAX]

Because they're usually out in the burbs. This one will be marketed, I'm sure, to wealthy empty nesters who want to be close to OHSU and all the future amenities of SoWa. You won't be able to tell the difference between a hotel, condo, apartment or assisted living tower. They all have similar floor to floor heights.

[65MAX]

...and the elevators will be sized to accommodate stretchers, just like in hospitals, so transporting elderly from any floor wouldn't be an issue.

[MarkDaMan]

Dougall, I have to say I had the same fear when I flipped open the Oregonian and saw that this morning, but I agree with 65Max, there are several 'assisted living' homes in major cities that are tall, urban, and high quality. I think Seattle has one in the 20 story + range. Even in the Lloyd they have a tall building for assisted living. 70's all the way, but tall.

[Dougall5505]

your right but i still can't picture it. i totally forgot about the proximity to OHSU that has to be a major plus

[pdxstreetcar]

it is a little hard to picture Dotty with tennis balls on the bottom of her walker on the 20th floor of a south waterfront tower. i guess they are thinking long term especially with regard to the now-retiring baby boomers who are largely fueling this urban condo boom

[Dougall5505]

maybe this will make no sense at all but maybe it will.
Maybe if the hotel isn't built in the south waterfront that will make the convention center hotel a bigger priority. just another one of my crazy thoughts

[MarkDaMan]

it is a little hard to picture Dotty with tennis balls on the bottom of her walker on the 20th floor of a south waterfront tower. i guess they are thinking long term especially with regard to the now-retiring baby boomers who are largely fueling this urban condo boom

a built in money maker? OHSU doesn't do senior living, but they do senior care, which in my understanding is a lucrative business. If a senior can afford the most expensive nursing home in Portland, they surely have insurance, and if something goes wrong, they are just a tram ride away from the hospital.

[Dougall5505]

i know where im going to go when im too old to take care of myself. i might even fake a few ailments to get a free tram ride

[Dougall5505]

another one...
OHSU sells waterfront parcel
Portland Business Journal - 10:27 AM PST Monday


Oregon Health & Science University is selling a one-block parcel in the South Waterfront District to Pacific Retirement Services Inc.

Medford-based Pacific Retirement Services plans to build a a 30-story residential tower at the site.


The 507,300-square-foot continuing care retirement community, to be named Mirabella, at Block 31, will be located two blocks south of OHSU's new Center for Health & Healing. Plans call for the building to have 224 independent living residences, 16 assisted living apartments, 20 skilled-nursing private rooms, 21 special care memory-support private rooms and 244 parking spaces.


Construction is set to begin in spring 2008, with completion planned for summer or early fall 2010.

[MarkDaMan]

Mirabella

[Dougall5505]

new mirabella renderings

[pdxman]

Wow! Those are great renderings...I can't wait til they get started on that one BTW, when do they start on the mirabella?

[Dougall5505]

08

[zilfondel]

Originally Posted by 65MAX

^^^^
Well, if the Strand was 10 stories taller, maybe. It's a good start though.

Well, there are some lower-rise Vancouver condos lining the waterfront... right across from Granville Island, for instance.


pic taken by me, 5/8/05

[tworivers]

I like these shiny renderings too, but I think the uniform height limits are a big mistake. The risk of sterility looms large, and I'm afraid the area is going to suffer from a built-in lack of the poetry of jumbled urbanity.

I was in Seattle a few weeks ago for the first time in 3 years (travelling by train and bike, staying at the Ace), and I was struck by the density and vibrancy of their downtown. It makes Portland look like a sleepy college town. Throw in the boldness and brilliance of the new library, and PDX looks positively second string, and with a bad case of smugness to boot. I don't want to sound overly negative, but it made me suspicious of the ability of the local economy to absorb so much mixed-use dvlpt on the edges of downtown AND fill in the cbd, which is not nearly dense enough and full of parking lots and parking garages. And our riverfront is desperately in need of activation (Potter, you're fired!) beyond jogging and biking.

Sorry to go off topic, but seeing these renderings just made me think of all the density and verticality these buildings could have added **in my ideal world** to downtown, and how overstretched and awkward the westside of the river looks to me.

[zilfondel]

^ Yes, our dense developments are definitely quite spread out. If they were all focused within one district, or even in downtown itself, it would have made a much larger impact in the central city by concentrating all that new housing, retail, and activity.

As it stands, however, is that downtown is still relatively affordable... I suppose that makes it viable for smaller locally based businesses. Our downtown isn't as shiny... and I'm not so sure that this is a bad thing. In any case, there is definitely steady interest by landowners and developers to continue building in our downtown, albeit at a slower pace than Seattle. Yet Seattle is also larger, denser, and wealthier... who knows what P-town's real estate/development market will be like in 10 years?