Pearl West | 120' | 9 floors | Complete

[Sioux612]

This makes me question if One Waterfront Place will ever break ground.

You'd think this would be prime time for that project to begin.

*tumbleweed*

[maccoinnich]

Originally Posted by Tykendo

Tower? What!! How 'bout, The Pearl West Office Squatty. 9 stories is a tower in Medford, not PDX.

Size isn't everything.

[2oh1]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

Size isn't everything.

Except for when it is!

I'm glad this one isn't going to be a huge tower. It's on the western edge of the Pearl, up against the 405. If it had a better location, I'd love to see it be as tall as possible, but here, infill is fine, especially since it removes a surface parking lot. One benefit of this not being a huge office tower is that it won't have much of an effect on stalled projects. Back when PAW was a hole, every time an office tower was proposed, I worried it would keep PAW stalled.

[xnyr]

Originally Posted by Tykendo

Tower? What!! How 'bout, The Pearl West Office Squatty. 9 stories is a tower in Medford, not PDX.

That's funny!

And I always thought calling a 15 story building a "high-rise" a stretch.

[MarkDaMan]

Jul 16, 2014, 10:53am PDT Updated: Jul 16, 2014, 11:16am PDT
Work starts on Portland's first new central city office building in 5 years
Alli Pyrah
Staff Reporter- Portland Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/...T&t=1405538144

Construction is set to start Friday on the first office building to break ground in Portland since 2009.

The Pearl West will feature nine stories in its 230,000 square foot. The figure includes 10,000 square feet of ground floor retail space. It is expected to be completed in early 2016.

Pearl West will feature unobstructed views of the West Hills and of the city's northern parts toward the Fremont Bridge. The upper floors will also feature views of Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens.

Amenities will include an executive conference room, restaurant, a living room-style lobby and an outside plaza alongside Northwest Irving Street between Northwest 14th and 15th avenues.

Pearl West is being built by BPM Real Estate Group and designed by GBD Architects in collaboration with THA Architecture. It will feature efficient floor layouts, large windows and high ceilings.

It is also expected to be LEED-certified, with one of the best vehicle parking and bike storage ratios in the city. It also features showers and lockers and three underground floors for vehicle parking.

...

[pdxstreetcar]

It is also expected to be LEED-certified, with one of the best vehicle parking and bike storage ratios in the city.

[MarkDaMan]

Jul 17, 2014, 10:12am PDT
Who's funding the Pearl's newest office building?
Alli Pyrah
Staff Reporter-
Portland Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/...T&t=1405648883

A top union pension fund investment firm has emerged as the key financier for a much-talked about Portland office building projects.

Pearl West, the first speculative office building in Portland's city center since 2009, received $41.74 million in permanent construction financing from Washington Capital Advisors.

The proposal for Pearl West was announced in January. Construction is set to start on Friday on the building, which is 230,000 square feet and includes 154,000 square feet of rentable space. The Class A office building, which features 10,000 square feet of ground floor retail space, is slated to complete by early 2016.

...

[maccoinnich]

Pearl West office tower signs Howard S. Wright, its general contractor, as first tenant

By Elliot Njus | enjus@oregonian.com

Howard S. Wright, the general contractor for the under-construction Pearl West office tower in the Pearl District, will also sign on as a tenant.

BPM Real Estate, the developer of the building, said Monday that the Portland-based contractor had signed on to take 17,565 square feet — the building's entire fourth floor. It will be relocating from the Gregory Building, 425 N.W. 10th Ave.

Work on Pearl West, the first new central-city office building since the recession, started earlier this month. The nine-story, 230,000 square foot building building at Northwest 14th and Irving is expected to be finished by 2016.

...continues at the Oregonian.

[maccoinnich]

Photos: Crews tackling Pearl West subgrade work
By: Sam Tenney in News, photo slideshows November 25, 2014 4:07 pm



Construction crews are busy doing subgrade work on the Pearl West office building at Northwest 14th Avenue and Irving Street in Portland. Howard S. Wright is the project’s general contractor; crews with Coffman Excavation are removing dirt from the site, while DeWitt Construction and Northwest Cascade are driving augercast piles and installing soldier pile and lagging.
The 9-story building was designed in collaboration between GBD Architects and THA Architecture for developer BPM Real Estate Group. Work on the project began this past summer, and is slated for completion in early 2016.

...continues at the DJC (no paywall)

[maccoinnich]

New office building in the Pearl. Official website.



















Some more info about the project / floor plans at Next Portland.

[downtownpdx]

Wacom joins tech stampede to Portland, moving office from Vancouver and adding dozens of jobs

Print Email Mike Rogoway | The Oregonian/OregonLive By Mike Rogoway | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on March 12, 2015 at 4:03 PM, updated March 12, 2015 at 5:07 PM

The Japanese digital graphics company Wacom plans to move its U.S. headquarters from Vancouver to Northwest Portland next year, bringing a major new technology employer to the city's urban core and hiring dozens of employees within the next few years.

Wacom will lease 56,000 square feet at the Pearl West building under construction at Northwest 14th and Irving and hopes to turn it into a major outpost and technology showcase.

The company will lease the top three floors of the nine-story building, nearly double its local work force and open Wacom's first retail store on the ground floor when it moves in a year from now.

"We need to retain and attract key talent in the creative sector," said Aaron Atkinson, Wacom's chief operating officer. "The Pearl District is going to allow us to do that much better than we are today."

...

Wacom will have its name atop the building overlooking Interstate 405, the latest in a rapidly growing number of tech companies putting their name in lights above Portland. Others include Smarsh, Elemental Technologies and, soon, eBay and Puppet Labs.

...

http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-fo...ness_index.ssf

[maccoinnich]

I'm really excited to read that. Firstly, I love this design and am glad to see that it's leasing well. I hope it sets the bar for future speculative office developments in Portland.

Secondly, it's great to see a local example of the national trend of companies that are moving from the suburbs to the city (United and Archer Daniels Midland in Chicago, Weyerhaeuser in Seattle, Pinterest in San Francisco, etc.)

[maccoinnich]

Inside the deal that landed Wacom's HQ in the Pearl



When Japanese technology firm Wacom Technology Corp. started looking for a new home for its Americas headquarters last summer, Portland wasn't a gimme.

The company, which has 160 employees in a building it owns in Vancouver, Washington, had Colliers International scope out not only Portland, but also Seattle and San Francisco to see what city would make the best fit. The larger markets could have been more appealing to Wacom, which works closely with heavy hitters like Samsung.

In the end, however, the Rose City won out.

...continues at the Portland Business Journal.

[PDXDENSITY]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

...continues at the Portland Business Journal.

If you build it, they will come... Take heed parking lot owners! Develop that land.

[2oh1]

For years, I thought this site was jinxed - and I don't even believe in that sort of thing! It seemed like proposal after proposal would come and then go. I think there were a few housing concepts for the site that would have been great, but this building will be a fine addition to the Pearl. It has a simplicity about it that I enjoy.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by 2oh1

For years, I thought this site was jinxed - and I don't even believe in that sort of thing! It seemed like proposal after proposal would come and then go. I think there were a few housing concepts for the site that would have been great, but this building will be a fine addition to the Pearl. It has a simplicity about it that I enjoy.

I know what you mean, I am happy something is finally going up on that site. Let's hope it doesn't burn down or something.

[i2m]

Pearl West is finally out of the hole. Ground level slabs have been poured.

The second floor is being formed on the eastern half of the block at 14th.

The retail space on 14th has a very tall ceiling height. The retail space on 14th should be good for the street if they land the right tenant.

Wacom is taking some retail space although I'm not sure if they are taking the prime retail on 14th or the western retail space on 15th and off the tower lobby. I'm hoping they are taking the western retail as the retail on 14th will be stronger if it's a more active retail tenant with more foot traffic.

I assumed the office building would be steel frame as this is more typical for office construction - faster, cheaper, and more flexible for floor penetrations although it appears that the office floors will be PT concrete slabs.

[maccoinnich]

It's official: Ink dries on Pearl district office building deal



Wacom Technology Group made its Portland move official this week, signing a lease for the top three floors for the Pearl District's newest office building.

The Japan-based company, which currently has its American headquarters in Vancouver, Wash., expects to move into Pearl West at Northwest 14th Avenue and Irving Street in March 2016. It will occupy about 55,000 square feet of the 230,000-square-foot building: the top three floors and a ground-floor retail space.

Wacom also has naming rights for the building, which sits in a highly-visible location right along I-405.

...continues at the Portland Business Journal.

[maccoinnich]

[maccoinnich]