GSA Selects Hotel Plan for US Custom House

PORTLAND, OR-The Pochter Group of Northbrook, IL will enter into exclusive negotiations with the US General Services Administration next month for an 80-year lease of this city’s historic US Custom House. Pochter plans to spend as much as $20 million transforming the 101,000-sf, four-story structure on the North Park Blocks into an 82-room boutique hotel operated by Wyndham International.Pochter’s plan is one of two proposals the GSA considered last year as part of its plan to preserve the building. Locally based Venerable Properties submitted the other. The GSA said last week that it had selected one of the proposals, but declined to say which one until the lease is negotiated. On Thursday, GlobeSt.com spoke with both Pochter and Venerable to determine who was chosen.The Custom House is located in Northwest Portland on a full block site bounded by Everett and Davis streets, 8th Avenue and Broadway. Completed in 1901, it is significant as a well-preserved example of Second Renaissance Revival architecture and one of the first buildings in the city to be built with a steel frame. Keith Pochter tells GlobeSt.com the plan is to move the entrance to the building from 8th Avenue to Broadway, where a port cochere would be constructed. The building’s open-air courtyard on 8th Avenue would then be enclosed in glass to create a upscale restaurant and entertainment area.While Pochter will not need approval from the city or the state for the project, the GSA says the adaptive reuse development of the building will be “consistent with required historic preservation regulations and be compatible with overall Portland Downtown development plans.” Pochter adds that the process will include memorandums of understanding with the state Historic Preservation Office and the US Department of Interior.The building exterior includes a first story of granite with round arch openings; upper stories of beige roman brick and terra cotta detail including a pair of ornate chimneys; ballustrades; bracketed cornices; and two-story engaged Corinthian columns. The interior of the building includes grand central staircases, high vaulted ceilings and unique woodwork.According to the GSA, the original 1897 plans called for two-story high courtrooms in the large spaces at each end of the central wing at the third floor. After construction had begun but prior to the summer of 1900 it was decided to delete the courtrooms and use the spaces for other purposes. Federal District Court Judge Charles B. Bellinger reportedly was not pleased with the building’s location in the “seamy part of town” and was able to persuade the government to instead add courtrooms to the Pioneer Courthouse in the heart of Downtown.