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  #41  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2006, 1:40 PM
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thats not fair!
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  #42  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2006, 2:32 PM
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We need bible man to come to the rescue. Pamplins version of Christian charity.
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  #43  
Old Posted Nov 22, 2006, 5:29 PM
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PDC warns developers about hiring
South Waterfront - Developers say they can't find qualified minority contractors to meet a 20 percent goal
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
RYAN FRANK
The Oregonian

The Portland Development Commission says developers building Portland's new South Waterfront district have failed to meet their goals to share construction work with minorities, women and small businesses.

Developers North Macadam Investors and Oregon Health & Science University agreed in 2003 to try to send at least 20 percent of the work to small firms or those owned by a minority or woman. But a study of the first six South Waterfront towers shows they've done no better than 10 percent. Minority-owned firms are faring the worst, registering less than 2 percent.

The developers and their builder, Hoffman Construction, say they've hit a wall: The Portland market doesn't have enough qualified contractors to give the work to. Given the available pool, "10 percent is pretty darn good," said Bart Eberwein, vice president at Hoffman Construction.

But Bruce Warner, the PDC's executive director, told developers in an October letter he expects better.

Warner's letter came after the City Council began to scale back its attention to major redevelopment work, such as the South Waterfront, and amid growing calls from African American leaders that the city's redevelopment agency must do more.

Among their concerns, they asked PDC to make sure minorities get their fair share of the construction work that's partially driving Portland's economy. The line among African American leaders has become: "Everybody except the brothers."

"I just don't know why they are so resistant to minority firms participating," said Faye Burch, a consultant who works on diversity in contracting and is a member of the National Association of Minority Contractors Oregon chapter.

John Jackley, a PDC executive, said South Waterfront developers -- led by Homer Williams -- agreed to a 20 percent contracting goal in 2003. At the time, it was a footnote in the $2 billion deal that opened South Waterfront for the biggest economic development project in city history.

The deal will provide about $126 million in taxpayer help to turn the former warehouse district into a garden of condo and medical office towers.

In early October, Jackley said, PDC got its first look at how well Hoffman Construction had done at hiring small, minority and women subcontractors for the first five condo towers and one OHSU building. "It wasn't consistent with promises made in the past," Jackley said.

Warner sent letters to Williams and Steve Stadum, OHSU's chief administrative officer, in mid-October to alert them to what he saw as a problem. The letters went out a month after African American leaders crowded a PDC board meeting to make a public call for improvements.

Warner followed up with several meetings with South Waterfront developers. "Bruce was very direct," Jackley said. "He said, 'You know what, you can do better.' "

But there seems to be a disagreement about that.

Williams of North Macadam Investors said: "That letter is not reflective of what the real situation out there is."

Eberwein of Hoffman Construction said: "Hoffman's take on South Waterfront is that it's mostly good news."

Small, minority and female subcontractors have accounted for $35 million worth of work in South Waterfront. No other project matches that, Eberwein said.

Besides, Eberwein says the 20 percent goal was never firm. "Let's be clear, PDC knew it would be an aspirational goal," he said.

Williams said they struggle to find enough minority contractors given the vast number of condo projects under way, and some minority firms, which tend to be smaller, struggle to afford enough insurance for big projects.

Williams and Eberwein said they try to reduce barriers for minority firms, breaking up work into smaller jobs and handling insurance for them. Williams said his partner, Dike Dame, also is recruiting high school juniors into the business. Eberwein said the developers are doing the best they can. "It'd be wrong to trash these guys," he said.

The best option, Eberwein said, is to build a bigger pool of qualified contractors through the apprenticeship programs. He said the developers have done much better at recruiting minorities and women into the workforce training program.

But James Posey, an African American subcontractor, isn't convinced things are getting better. He said Hoffman sees minority contracting as "social penitence to the community rather than good business." Posey called Warner's letter the most powerful response he's seen on the issue in more than two decades. But "the question is whether or not there will be any teeth in that letter," Posey said.

The 2003 South Waterfront deal doesn't give the PDC authority to force changes. But Jackley said they've requested documents that prove Hoffman Construction made a good faith effort to recruit minority contractors.

The PDC board plans a public hearing on the issue Dec. 6.

For more about Portland politics, visit The Oregonian's City Hall blog at portlandcityhall.blogs.oregonlive.com. Ryan Frank: 503-221-8564; ryanfrank@news.oregonian.com.

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/o...130.xml&coll=7
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  #44  
Old Posted Dec 21, 2006, 4:38 PM
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Building the dreams that others will buy
Thursday, December 21, 2006
By Spencer Heinz
The Oregonian

Towers of glass and steel rise from the earth like magic, but nothing is magic. These are the South Waterfront's emerging condo villages, and millions of dollars raise them up on the shoulders of workers in the trades.

Hundreds of men and women, from glaziers to ironworkers, form a temporary community that ebbs between here and their homes that range from Beaverton to Hood River to the inner city itself.

For those who care to imagine how much work by how many it takes, one way to begin is to wend through the buzz and screech of construction, beneath the great tram tower that looms like a being from "The War of the Worlds," and into the condo-sales Discovery Center showroom marked by a giant orange asterisk.

"You are here," say words on the wall.

Inside stands a room-size scale model of Portland's westside riverbank with formations of buildings either built or still imagined.

"The River Blocks is as much an address as a state of mind," orange words say, but someone has to build it. This is a $2 billion job on 130 acres, one of the nation's bigger urban developments. This crusade of hammers and hope involves everyone from workers on the ground to salesmen such as Sean Z. Becker, a broker with Realty Trust who considers how each person has a hand in making it real.

"Wow," Becker recalls a concrete worker exclaiming during a trip to the showroom. "So that's what it'll look like."

A big-picture view comes from two brothers on the job, Blair Bubenik, vice president of estimating for the South Waterfront prime contractor of Hoffman Construction Co., and Cary Bubenik, a Hoffman senior project manager. They serve as communicators between construction workers and the project's many owners -- the hundreds of condominium buyers headed into their vertical homes.

Customer service counts. The project has brought in consultants from service-savvy businesses such Les Schwab Tire Centers and Ritz-Carlton Hotels. The ethic extends, the brothers say, from fixing a condo light switch to limiting construction noise, when possible, near occupied units.

"It's a neighborhood now," Blair says.

They head into the cold, where workers running 80,000-pound machines build the dreams that brokers sell. They heave the earth into other shapes. Backing-up warning beeps fill the air. A tower crane glows a purplish pink as residents settle in.

About 7 a.m. in rain or wind or whatever, workers by the hundreds maneuver for parking spots and start their day. The topography keeps changing, so their places move from here to there.

These days by 7:30 a.m., they are working on primarily three condo towers -- the John Ross, Atwater Place and the 3720 Building. The jobs are desirable, pulling down $20 to $40 an hour. Providing many more of them for businesses owned by minorities and women continues to be the topic of talks among the city, the prime contractor, the developers and the workers.

They show up as waves of carpenters, drywallers, tile setters, stonemasons, electricians, plumbers, glaziers, laborers, cement finishers, ironworkers, pipe fitters, pile bucks, equipment operators, electricians, sheet metal workers and more.

Over at the 3720 Building, which is in the foundation and excavation phase, they include men such as Arthur Flores, 41, of Tigard, drilling as an operating engineer apprentice for Scheffler Northwest; Chris Wrench, 46, pile bucks crew foreman with Scheffler who commutes weekly between here and Bend; Rod Runkle, 58, of Orchards, Wash., a John L. Jersey & Son laborer building a slab for the first level of a parking garage; and Troy Pennock, 39, of Milwaukie, a Hoffman Structures carpenter encasing the conduits that will feed electrical wire for a fire-sprinkler system.

"The only thing that makes it all work is mutual respect for each others' jobs," says Adam Bonner, Hoffman Construction's 3720 project superintendent. "They're coming from all over, but they've all got to get along."

That extends to the nearby showroom floor.

"Whether you're pouring the concrete or selling the condos, I think everyone's excited about it," says Becker the broker.

"We wouldn't be doing this," he adds, "if they weren't doing that."

Spencer Heinz: 503-221-8072; spencerheinz@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/o...380.xml&coll=7
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  #45  
Old Posted Dec 22, 2006, 4:05 AM
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Good to hear some 3720 news. This time next year it should be substantially out of the ground, maybe even close to topped out?

I'd like to hear some news on the status of the other blocks in the vicinity, especially the riverfront blocks on either side of Meriwether/Atwater, the Alexan, and the one north of the John Ross rumored to be "senior living".
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  #46  
Old Posted Dec 22, 2006, 4:35 AM
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It seems like Atwater got out of the ground much quicker than 3720 is on pace for. Have they even started site prep for the Alexan?
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  #47  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2007, 5:30 PM
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2006 proves a watershed year for South Waterfront activity
Portland Business Journal - January 26, 2007
by Wendy Culverwell
Business Journal staff writer

Construction workers, real estate agents, architects and publicists got welcome company at the South Waterfront in 2006: After years of planning and construction, Portland's newest urban neighborhood welcomed permanent residents and workers as construction cranes gave way to moving vans at the first two buildings.

The Meriwether Condominiums, two towers with a total of 245 residential units, opened first. The spring opening brought the first permanent residents to what had been a noisy, muddy construction zone. The project cost $121 million to build and like the other buildings in the 38-acre South Waterfront neighborhood, was developed by a team led by Portland's prolific Gerding/Edlen Development Co. LLC.

Oregon Health & Science University's 400,000-square-foot Center for Health & Healing opened in late 2006. The 16-story building sits at the district's northern edge.

The center has eight levels of hospital space for medical practices, clinics and surgery. Three floors contain health and wellness center, including a four-lane lap pool, and four are dedicated to education and research, with laboratory space for OHSU's biomedical engineering program.

Three floors of parking and a level of retail space round out the building -- designed by GBD Architects Inc. to be among the greenest new buildings in the land. It is expected to receive one of the top environmental designations from the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.

Hoffman Construction Co. was the contractor, Gerding/Edlen managed the project.

A green new building is one thing; a shiny new way to get around is another.

To most Portlanders who don't have a reason to visit South Waterfront on a regular basis, 2006 stands out for introducing a new mode of transportation to Portland's already impressive repertoire. We speak, of course, of the spanking new tram.

OHSU employees and soon, the public as well, can pop between the university's hilltop campus on Marquam Hill and the Portland waterfront via two shiny, pill-shaped carriages that travel along cables strung on poles.

The university, private developers and the city of Portland shared unequally in the $57 million construction cost. The fare to users remains undecided -- the city proposed a $4 round-trip fare to cover the cost to operate the system, but is now weighing the need to cover costs against public policy issues such as, does it want people to actually ride the tram.

Last but not least, the tram isn't the only locomotion in town. The Portland Streetcar added South Waterfront -- its sixth neighborhood -- to its circuit in October. The streetcar line extends to the tram station on the northern side of OHSU's new building. Eventually, it will loop south to the residential portions of the neighborhood.

Alas, South Waterfront is not part of TriMet's fareless zone in downtown, so a Streetcar ride will set riders back $1.70.

The year 2006 saw two other residential towers get started -- 3720 and Atwater Place both saw construction start. The 3720 will be a 20-story tower with 331 units. The $160 million project is set to open a year from August. Atwater Place too got started. It will have 212 units on 23 stories and has a construction cost of $140 million.

The John Ross, the 31-story elliptical tower with 342 units, got started in late 2005, but the $130 million condominium project saw a substantial amount of work completed in 2006. It should be ready to welcome residents this spring.

wculverwell@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3415

http://portland.bizjournals.com/port...ml?t=printable
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  #48  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2007, 6:03 PM
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3720=20 story?? I thought it was going to be in the 30-31 range..
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  #49  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2007, 7:21 PM
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-The 3720 will be a 20-story tower with 331 units

-Atwater Place will have 212 units on 23 stories

-The John Ross, the 31-story elliptical tower with 342 units

Journalism at it's best, unless it is extremely squat, it is a 30 story tower....
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  #50  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2007, 7:32 PM
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3720 would look awful if it were only 20 stories...the renderings make it look like 30 stories so lets hope this is just a journalism feaux-pax
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  #51  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2007, 7:35 PM
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^it is
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  #52  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2007, 11:15 PM
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yeah isnt 3720 in that second row back from the river so it would be in the 325 ft height limit? the riverfront blocks i believe are in the 20 story range.
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  #53  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2007, 11:54 PM
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The 3720 will be exactly the same height as the John Ross, 325'.
Reporters are frequently wrong, nothing new there.
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  #54  
Old Posted Feb 2, 2007, 4:41 AM
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This one looks like "War of the Worlds". Very cool....
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  #55  
Old Posted Feb 7, 2007, 3:19 PM
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The Oregon Sports Authority Foundation’s Sportlandia dinner and sports auction, presented by Gerding Edlen Development, is scheduled for the evening of February 9, 2007 at South Waterfront’s OHSU Center for Health and Healing. The sold out event is the Northwest’s largest sports auction, featuring once-in-a-lifetime trips, sports memorabilia and much more. Proceeds provide underserved youth throughout Oregon with the chance to participate in a variety of sports activities.

OregonLive.com Sportlandia Contest
Enter the OregonLive.com Sportlandia contest to predict the winning bid of the Ted Williams autographed baseball and Fenway Park panorama — the contest winner receives Bill Walton’s autographed autobiography and a basketball autographed by Clyde Drexler!

Sportlandia Details
The Sportlandia reception begins on the main floor of the OHSU Center for Health and Healing at 6:00 p.m. The dinner and auction follow at 7:30 p.m. on the second floor. Recommended dress is business attire.

Directions to Sportlandia at the OHSU Center for Health and Healing

Partial List of Oral Auction Items
1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team Autographed Jersey
2007 NBA All-Star Game Trip
2008 Beijing Olympics Trip
Australian Open Tennis Trip
Rose Bowl Trip
French Open Tennis Trip
Hawaiian Vacation
LeBron James Autographed Jersey
Luxury Suite for Oregon-CAL Football
Mazatlan Vacation
Mickey Mantle Autographed Baseball
New York Yankees Trip
Notre Dame-USC College Football Trip
Reggie Bush Autographed Jersey
Ted Williams Autographed Baseball
Tiger Woods Authographed Photo
U.S. Open Tennis Trip
Wimbledon Trip
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  #56  
Old Posted Feb 8, 2007, 9:59 PM
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^I also heard the drainage systems in the South Waterfront's parking garages were complex to build. Even though Homer literally raised the earth, most of SoWa was covered in water in the '96 floods so they are required to build complex pumping systems in case of flooding.
i remember those floods. i am still surprised that they haven't invested in a seawall there or at least raised the gradient. no one talks about the floods. when it happens again there will be some very upset millionaires and a lot of damage.
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  #57  
Old Posted Feb 8, 2007, 10:07 PM
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^they wouldn't have gotten banks to finance the construction, the PDC to build roads, OHSU's tram, etc. etc. if they weren't sure they had taken care of the flooding problem for the most part. It would take an 100-year flood to now rise over the banks and into the district...since the last one was in '96, I guess the millionaires are good until at least 2096...just kidding...with global warming, who knows if we will even have a river in 2096.

The seawall idea was thrown out because look at what the seawall did to downtown's connection with the river. It's terrible for the creatures that live in the river, terrible for humans that should connect with the river, and makes the view from the east side a little less attractive with a WWII looking concrete barrier rising from the banks of the Willamette. In fact, there is a waterfront park renovation plan that will try and reconnect downtown to the river, but mostly through catwalks over the river and such.

From my understanding, at least from the people trying to sell me a place at the discovery center, SoWa doesn't have anything to worry about when it comes to flooding.
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  #58  
Old Posted Feb 9, 2007, 12:33 AM
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i remember those floods. i am still surprised that they haven't invested in a seawall there or at least raised the gradient. no one talks about the floods. when it happens again there will be some very upset millionaires and a lot of damage.
They did, they dumped tons of dirt down there to raise the ground level so it won't flood. Also, seawalls hurt salmon and the environment. They're going to leave it natural.
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  #59  
Old Posted Feb 9, 2007, 12:19 PM
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They did, they dumped tons of dirt down there to raise the ground level so it won't flood. Also, seawalls hurt salmon and the environment. They're going to leave it natural.

i definately knew that they wanted that portion to have a restored riverbank ecosystem but was curious if there was to be a height barrier between the development and riverbank in case of one of those freak floods. but you answered my questions. thanks.
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  #60  
Old Posted Feb 9, 2007, 12:37 PM
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^

The seawall .... "makes the view from the east side a little less attractive with a WWII looking concrete barrier rising from the banks of the Willamette".
I disagree, i like waterfront park and it's seawall as is. there are many places to aproach the river such as riverplace and the esplanade. i'm not advocating seawalls throughout the whole of downtown but the section on tom mccall waterfront park is nice and attractive for what it is. it's reminiscent of seawalls in other european cities such as london (not totally) and it has a historic and impressive quality as well as practical - the fleet has somewhere to park every spring and it protected downtown from flooding in 96.

there are many places on either side of the willamette as well as ross island that could benefit from riverbank restoration and some beautification but i think the seawall is cool.
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