Start Nears for 100,000-SF Medical Office Building

PORTLAND, OR-Thanks to $8 million in public funds, site work will commence today for a 100,000-sf medical office building at the Gateway Transit Center, which is located near the confluence of Interstate 84 and Interstate 205. If all goes as planned, the building will open for business in August 2006 with a Silver rating from the US Green Building Council. The Oregon Clinic is developing the building on a one-acre parcel it has acquired from the Portland Development Commission for $570,000. The general contractor is Gerding/Edlen Development Co.A group of physicians and staff, TOC was founded in 1994 with the merger of several clinical groups in Portland. It now offers specialty care from Vancouver to Salem, from Gresham to Astoria. TOC approached the PDC in spring 2004 interested in the site, but also was looking in Vancouver, WA and Gresham, OR. Though TOC preferred the PDC’s site because it was the most convenient to its client base, it said the cost of the structured parking required by the city’s Gateway master plan was pushing the site out of contention.In order to come out on top, the PDC agreed to put up $8 million for construction of the structured parking garage that will be owned by the regional transit agency TriMet. The total cost of the garage is $10 million. PDC project manager Sara King tells GlobeSt.com that TOC is putting up the other $2 million.The garage won’t be ready when the building is. In the interim, TOC will lease spaces in the Gateway Transit Park-and-Ride lot. The TOC medical office building is the first evidence of what is expected to be a major transformation of the Gateway District, the only area in the tri-county area designated as a regional center by the regional government known as Metro. Because of its proximity to the two Interstates as well as existing and future light rail lines and bus lines, Metro officials predict the Gateway District will be the most accessible area in the region by 2017. As previously reported on GlobeSt.com, local developer Ted Gilbert is hoping to capitalize on the that fact with an eight-acre redevelopment known as the Elements of Gateway, a multi-phase project that could eventually include 800 residential units, 675,000 sf of office space and 118,000 sf of retail space in buildings that can rise as high as 150 feet. The land for the Elements at Gateway is located across from the Gateway Transit Center and the Fred Meyer Shopping Center. Gilbert’s GMB Unlimited LLC is redeveloping the eight-block area with its development partner Grayco LLC. Preleasing is under way for the first phase, a four-story 100,000-sf office building. Designed by Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects, it also has been designed to meet the “silver” standard for US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. Walsh Construction is the contractor. Jack Gallagher and Corine Nussmeier of Norris Beggs & Simpson has the retail leasing assignment. Jennifer and John Medak of NBS have the office leasing assignment.