Park Avenue West, his 525,000-sf encore to the 438,000-sf Fox Tower, would be one of the tallest buildings in the city at 410 feet. Similar to 1000 Broadway, of which Moyer is an investor, the building will have condominiums atop office atop retail. The total development cost is estimated at $150 million.
The development site is a half-acre mini-block at Park Avenue and Yamhill Street, diagonally across the intersection from Fox Tower, which sits on a full block. The two buildings will flank on the north and east another mini block now being excavated en route to becoming an underground parking lot with a park on top.
The mini blocks run north-south along Park Avenue and, save for about four blocks in the heart of Downtown, they form a river of parks that often host concerts, art walks and farmers markets. Moyer previously was part of a group that wanted to use the Park Avenue West site to further connect the north and south park blocks, but it never came to fruition. Last week, with the mixed-use tower in mind, he paid Zell Brothers $13.5 million for the property.
The tower's designer is Robert Thompson, founding principal of locally based TVA Architects, which also designed Fox Tower. The structure will have 85 condo units, 280,000 sf of office space, 45,000 sf of retail space on three levels and underground parking for 350 cars.
As he did with the Fox Tower, Moyer has the means to get Park Avenue West out of the ground without financing, which would give him a good chance at being first to market in what has become a tight downtown office market. The developers of most of the other planned office projects Downtown will require early financing, for which lenders typically require hard lease commitments for at least half of the space.
The vacancy rate for class A space in Downtown Portland fell below 6% in the fourth quarter--the lowest it's been since the fourth quarter of 2001--and little to no new Downtown office space will arrive in the next 24 months. The tightening market has pushed the average full-service asking rent for class A space up by about 5% in the past year to $23.80 per sf per year, which is about equal to the triple-net asking rate at Fox Tower, which is Downtown's newest tower. The full-service asking rate for space at Park Avenue West likely will be in mid $30s per sf.
Given the property's location in the city's retail core, the retail leasing isn't expected to be a challenge. As well, the residential component will provide prospective condominium owners something they have seen very little of, condos in the heart of Downtown. Nearly all of the condominium development to date has been north of Downtown in the Pearl District or south of Downtown on the Willamette River.
Moyer's TMT Development broke ground for Fox Tower in fall 1997, at a time when local industry experts were concerned about overbuilding. Originally, it was going to be five floors of underground public parking topped by two floors of retail; seven floors of above ground private parking; and 18 floors of office space. It was slated for a fall 1999 completion.
The first lease wasn't signed in August 1998. In early 1999, Moyer had the building redesigned to accommodate heightened retail interest. What was eventually built had private underground parking; three floors of retail, including a third-floor Act III movie theater; and 25 stories of office space.
The changes pushed the cost of the building from approximately $90 million to well over $100 million, and pushed the completion date back to mid-2000, but it helped kick-start greater interest in the building, allowing Moyer to obtain a construction loan and stop paying for it out of his own pocket. By the time Fox Tower opened, it was more than 80% preleased and local industry experts were calling Moyer prescient.
If Moyer can repeat the feat, it may be his swan song. A highly regarded boxer who fought Sugar Ray Robinson in 1940 before building a chain of move theaters, Moyer is in now his mid 80s.
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