Previous research has claimed that the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park in 1995 is helping restore quaking aspen in risky areas where wolves prowl

St. Louis-area builder positions itself as a housing “retailer.”

St. Louis-area builder positions itself as a housing “retailer.”

September 01, 2010 07:32:53 GMT

September 01, 2010 01:46:21 GMT

LRS Architects' design for the new East County Courts facility in Rockwood will use sustainable design systems such as solar panels to improve the building's energy efficiency while staying within a $19.6 million budget. (Rendering courtesy of LRS ARchitects)

Plans for a courthouse in Gresham now make up a fraction of the cost of what was once a comparatively grandiose facility.

After cost overruns doomed the first version of the East County Courts facility in 2008, project manager Shiels Obletz Johnsen and Multnomah County worked overtime to make the newest design for the courthouse the picture of fiscal responsibility. Any perception that the project makes ill use of taxpayer money could be bad news when the project faces the county’s board of commissioners for approval this fall.

The courthouse project has been in the works for the past five years. The facility would replace an existing Gresham courthouse that is too small and structurally deficient. The facility will process all misdemeanors, small claims and traffic-related cases that occur east of 122nd Avenue. The new facility planned at Southeast 185th Avenue and Stark Street would have three stories and 42,000 square feet. It would house three courtrooms and offices for the district attorney, judges and support staff.

“We want to set an image for Rockwood,” said Peggidy Coffman Yates, facilities policy liaison for Multnomah County. “This building should reflect the community as well as the dignity of a courthouse.”

An earlier project team including Hoffman Construction Co., Emmons Architecture and DLR Group in 2008 planned for a courthouse that would cost $16 million to $18 million. At 70,000 square feet, this first design attempted to provide space for the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and Gresham Police Department as well as courts facilities. But after the project budget ballooned to $42 million, it was rebid and new contracts were awarded to LRS Architects and Howard S. Wright Constructors. The current number for hard and soft costs for the building is $19.6 million, Yates said.

Chair of Multnomah County’s board of commissioner Jeff Cogen has been watching the project closely to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself. So far, he is cautiously optimistic about the project team’s new design, which will use sustainable systems and cost-effective finishes to make the building durable and energy efficient.

“These are tough times,” Cogen said. “This project continues to move forward on schedule and on budget. Assuming we move forward, it will be great to see some construction work out there.”

One cost-saving measure being built into the courthouse project is the location of the county’s data center in the building’s basement. This will save the county from constructing a new building to house its servers as its current facility becomes increasingly derelict. The data center may also perform double duty if project engineers and designers can find a way to use heat from the servers to keep the building warm in the winter. Using excess heat would help the project meet the  goals of the Architecture 2030 challenge, which requires a building to be 60 percent more energy efficient than current building codes.

Still, the team will have to pick and choose which innovative systems to use on the building in order to keep upfront costs down, said Steve Cruzen, a project manager with Shiels Obletz Johnsen. The team is already dedicating about $294,000 of the project’s budget to solar photovoltaic panels to meet a state mandate that 1.5 percent of public building budgets be spent on solar.

Engineers are exploring using underground water at the project site to heat and cool the building as well as a greywater system that recycles toilet water. While all of these ideas will save the building money on operations in the long run, Cruzen said, the team will have to pick and choose based on the cost of each innovation.

Multnomah County's board of commissioners in October will review final design and construction documents for the East County Courts facility. If approved by the commissioners, the project could begin construction in early 2011. (File photo by Dan Carter/DJC)

“It took self restraint to keep the size and cost of the project down,” Cruzen said. “We’ve had to look at the cost and benefit of each sustainable design option and only spend money for the functional needs of the building.”

Cruzen also paid special attention to what materials would be used in the courthouse. Though television courtroom dramas depict wood paneled courtrooms with plush leather chairs, Rockwood’s courthouse would be more subdued. Only the judges’ bench in each courtroom would be wood paneled. Terrazzo tile would be used for flooring because of its low price, as well as its durability.

“This building will get a lot of use,” Cruzen said. “We’re being restrained in using expensive finishes. We’re not doing anything ornate or flashy.”

The project is being funded by $4.6 million in county land sales. The rest will come from bond financing, including $5.4 million in Economic Recovery Zone Bonds from the federal stimulus act. In October, the project team will present its final design, finance and construction documents to the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners. If the project is approved, general contractor Howard S. Wright Constructors could break ground early next year.

“This is a good project that keeps getting better,” Cogen said. “The team is not just getting the project built, but designing it to keep it running for the long term. I hope that’s the case in October.”

August 31, 2010 21:16:01 GMT

August 31, 2010 20:47:46 GMT

The S&P/Case-Shiller Indices show a 3.6% gain compared to the same month a year ago.

After the overreaching of Modern city planning—barren plazas, rows of soulless apartment slabs—urban design got a bad rap.

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration's top housing official says several new programs are in the works to help try to revive the housing market.

The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. said Monday home values rose in all nine U.S. Census divisions in the second quarter compared with the first.

Aug. 31--For anyone under the age of 57, mortgage rates are at the lowest point ever in their lifetime.

Wharton’s Bluff receives National Green Building Standard recognition for avian habitat preservation.

Historic preservation training program teaches valuable skills in a bad economy.

August 31, 2010 02:30:36 GMT

New environmental overlay zoning along the Columbia Slough has the Columbia Corridor Association concerned that the city of Portland is making industrial land in the city unusable. While Metro is looking at possibly adding more land into the urban growth boundaries, the CCA wants Metro to focus inward toward these underutilized lots already in the UGB. (Photo by Dan Carter/DJC)

Creating industrial jobs in the Portland-metro area starts with making land available where business can locate. On that, local commercial real-estate groups can agree.

But where two of Portland’s most notable commercial real-estate organizations can’t agree is how that land should become available.

The Metro Council for regional government Metro will make a decision by the end on the year whether to expand the urban growth boundaries in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties. And while Metro staff has noted a glaring deficit of large-lot industrial land - lots more than 50 acres - in the current UGB, not everyone is convinced that adding more land to the UGB is the key to creating jobs.

On one side is the Oregon chapter of NAIOP, a local commercial real-estate development association. The group is fighting for more large-lot industrial land to be included within the UGB, a move members say will make the area more attractive to out-of-town, industrial businesses.

On the other side is the Columbia Corridor Association, a group of industrial business owners and real-estate professionals representing industrial land between the Willamette River and the Sandy River. While the group understands the importance of having available land, organization leaders say they are concerned that underutilized industrial land currently in the UGB is being left out of the expansion discussions.

“Suitable industrial land is hard to come by in the Metro region,” said Michael Jordan, the chief operating officer at Metro who is leading the potential UGB expansion discussions. “A site has to be large, flat and close to multiple transportation options.”

In a preliminary recommendation, Metro staff targeted 310 acres west of Hillsboro to be included in any potential expansion. But NAIOP says the acreage is not enough to help cure the region’s 10.4 percent unemployment rate.

“Right now we do not believe the region has a competitive enough inventory to attract potential employers to the area,” said Mark Clemons, director of NAIOP Oregon and the director of project development at Group Mackenzie. “We’re supportive of the 310 acres being suggested, but it’s not nearly enough to help us create the jobs this region needs.”

Clemons’ organization thinks the amount needs to be closer to 1,200 acres to make any significant difference.

During the urban reserves process last year, Metro’s policy advisory committee found a need for between 200 and 1,500 acres of additional large-lot industrial land to meet the needs of the region during the next several decades.

“Because of our geology and geography there’s not a lot of opportunity out there. We understand that,” he said. “But when out-of-town companies come here, they want options, and right now, we don’t have many.”

The Columbia Corridor Association agrees with NAIOP that more usable land is important. But the group also believes there are alternatives to adding more land.

“We can keep adding acreage to accommodate industrial businesses moving to the outskirts of the region, but we all need to realize that there is land within the current urban growth boundary that is not being allowed to be utilized,” said Corky Collier, executive director of the CCA. “And until everyone acknowledges that, the problem isn’t going to be solved.”

The CCA is concerned about the city of Portland’s recent attempts to add environmental zoning to industrial lands along the Columbia Slough and up the Willamette River. New zoning in both areas would completely curb any future development within 50 feet of the banks of a body of water. This is the prime portion of most industrial zoned lots, and the reason a business would be next to the water in the first place.

“The city is slowly, bit-by-bit putting constraints on the industrial land,” Collier said. “And when we take away the usage of a parcel we lose industrial acreage, industrial businesses and industrial jobs.”

Also, the group believes that the city’s many brownfield sites - contaminated lots that would be usable if cleaned up - could be used for industrial land if a more consistent remediation method could be created.

“We have hundreds of brownfield lots in the Columbia corridor and several large brownfield lots in the Portland Harbor,” he said. “These sites are ideally suited for industrial usage, yet are being rendered useless by the city.”

Metro has met with both groups and says it is trying to come up with a solution.

“The discussions so far have gone smoothly, but both groups have made it clear that something needs to be done,” Jordan said.

Metro staff is looking at potential industrial sites north of Hillsboro that could be included, as well as some smaller parcels near Sherwood and Tualatin. But staff is also working on a way to make sure any additional land doesn’t fall into the trap that Collier and the CCA are concerned about.

“We want to instill some functional plan changes,” Jordan said. “If we do include some large-lot industrial land, we want to make sure it’s preserved to be used for industrial businesses for years to come.”

Metro staff is recommending putting stipulations on any industrial land that would be included. One stipulation would be that the land couldn’t be divided up, so it could be used by large industrial companies in the future.

The other stipulation would be that the land could only be used by private industrial businesses, not public entities. This would avoid what’s happened in Happy Valley, where the North Clackamas School District and North Clackamas Parks and Recreation District moved onto the town’s one large-lot industrial site, said Jordan.

Jordan also recommends that Metro should have a process where industrial land could be added to the urban growth boundary without having to go through the entire expansion process. Thus, if a business was looking for land and an accommodating site couldn’t be found, Metro could find urban reserve land to be included.

“Industrial business is a big part of the region’s economy and we understand that,” he said. “But we need to come up with an agreement that helps everybody’s interests.”

The Metro Council will make a decision on the urban growth boundary expansion by the end of the year. In the meantime, Jordan is visiting industry, environmental and community groups to determine their needs. He will make a final recommendation in October before the council officially starts discussing the matter.

The Portland office of Keller Williams Realty, a residential real-estate company, today announced the firm will add a new wing to the firm, KW Commercial.

Keller Williams first launched KW Commercial in its base city, Austin, Texas, in 2008. It offers commercial brokerage services using the same techniques and business practices as the residential counterpart.

Nick Krautter, a principal broker at the Portland office of Keller Williams, will become the managing director of the new commercial division.

“I’m excited about this opportunity because we’re going to take the approach of Keller Williams and apply it to commercial real estate, which I believe has a lot of opportunity right now,” Krautter said.

The new wing is still hiring commercial brokers. KW Commercial has a 70/30 percentage split, which is different from most commercial real estate offices. This means the agent keeps 70 percent of commissions and gives the company 30 percent. The company’s cut is capped at $30,000 a year, meaning once the company recoups $30,000 the broker gets 100 percent of the commissions.

August 30, 2010 23:25:40 GMT

The amount of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-financed projects under contract in highways and other infrastructure sectors is slowly rising closer to the 100% mark, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's latest update on the economic-stimulus measure shows.