Condominium Developer Acquires 320,000-SF M&F Warehouse for $8.8M, Plans Conversion

PORTLAND-Lehman Brothers’ nightmare is Robert Ball’s dream.

That dichotomy can be found at 1415 NW Hoyt St., an historic 320,000-sf warehouse in Portland’s tony Pearl District. Local developer Mark Edlen and partners bought the 79-year-old, seven-story Meier & Frank warehouse from May Department Stores in August of 1999 for $7.5 million and proceeded to sign up storage users for a goodly portion of the building.

Eight months later, using equity from investors and a loan from Lehman Brothers, FowlerFlanagan Tech Partners paid an eye-popping $13.97 million for the building and proceeded to spend several million more to buy out tenants, seismically upgrade the building and convert it for use as a telecommunications switching center. The growing broadband market they hoped to accomodate never materialized, however, and, according to title records, the property was transferred back to Lehman in April 2002 for $17.8 million, which is likely the amount Fowler Flanagan owed on its loan.