View Full Version : Downtown Portland News
edirp
Dec 24, 2004, 3:11 AM
Thanks for posting pics of the model, Mitch-e.
The Eliot Tower and The Edge and The Elizabeth (same developer) are Portland's best new residential high-rises. That is, until the elipitcal John Ross...
I'm reserving judgment on The Pinnacle, until it's done and I see what all the fuss is RE: the exterior "lighting" package.
It BETTER be good.... :o)
The Meriwether looks ho-hum, at least in the model format.
bvpcvm
Dec 24, 2004, 3:42 AM
those models look awesome. as with the meriwether, i thought the eliot looked pretty ho-hum until the models.
all this construction is awesome. but what i really can't wait for is for all the baby boomers now buying urban condos to start transitioning to nursing homes, leaving, i hope, a surplus (read: affordable prices) to those of us now in our 30's!
MitchE
Dec 24, 2004, 3:55 AM
Hey edirp, I'm just curious, are you an architect?
edirp
Dec 24, 2004, 2:52 PM
Mitch-e,
Architect - nope.
Achitecture buff - yep.
:o)
Wider structures OK’d
Developers who want the buildings they’re constructing on the South Waterfront to go a little wider may soon get more leeway.
The Planning Commission agreed Tuesday to give the city’s development guidelines some flexibility. The City Council will have final say Jan. 26.
The change arose after the developers of the 325-foot-tall John Ross condominium asked for some design latitude to reinforce the slender tower against wind and earthquakes. City guidelines limit the area of a building that tall to 10,000 square feet, but Gerding/Edlen Development Co. wants a 12,000-square-foot “footprint” for the planned 31-story building. That would make the building’s base several feet wider.
Neighbors just west of the South Waterfront are outraged, saying that the tall buildings there could become even heftier under more flexible guidelines.
“Why should we, every time a building comes up, go down and fight the issue?” asked Jerry Ward, who represents the Corbett/Terwilliger/Lair Hill Neighborhood Association.
The stakes are high for the John Ross developers.
“Our alternative, if this doesn’t fly, is simply to drop back to a 250-foot building and do a slab building such as you see here in the Pearl,” developer Mark Edlen said of the elliptical-style structure.
designpdx
Dec 27, 2004, 6:16 PM
I say let them widen the base if it means keeping the current design for the building. I sure would like to see this district with more inventive buildings than are currently going up in the Pearl district.
pdxstreetcar
Dec 28, 2004, 8:43 AM
I think the big concern about it is from the Lair Hill area who has been screwed over time and time again.
First the neighborhood got torn apart for Ross Island ramps, South Auditorium Urban Renewal, I-5, Barbur Blvd and Naito/Front Ave. Then they had to put up with high rise towers blocking their views. Then the tram over their heads. And now wider towers.
I want to see a great South Waterfront neighborhood and the tram but at the same time I kind of feel for the Lair Hill neighborhood which has gotten really shafted.
MitchE
Apr 11, 2005, 9:18 PM
There was a good illustration for this article in the paper, maybe someone can scan it.
Shopping for a tenant
Sunday, April 10, 2005
The Oregonian
DYLAN RIVERA
A plan to remodel the upper floors of the downtown Meier & Frank department store into a posh hotel is winning cheers from retailers who desperately wish to see the landmark building remain a bustling anchor of the city's core.
But not all downtown businesses favor the proposal. Some hoteliers contend the project would subsidize a new rival at a time the overbuilt hospitality business is making a long-awaited recovery. Further, they say, the added rooms could undercut the viability of a hotel proposed to serve the Oregon Convention Center.
Several hoteliers suggested condominium development, setting sales-price records elsewhere downtown.
As details of the hotel plan have firmed up, public discussions have brought out more opposition.
The controversy has left the Portland Development Commission to navigate the competing interests as it tries to prevent the department store building from going vacant and dampening downtown's outlook.
PDC staffers say they are hemmed in by the very thing they are striving to preserve: the building's historical idiosyncrasies. Their options are sharply limited by constraints emanating from the building's quirky and outmoded construction as well as its transit-oriented location, they say.
As a result, the PDC finds itself reluctantly committed to a plan that won't please everyone. Its board is expected to approve the redevelopment deal this month.
"We didn't seek a hotel -- we ended up with a hotel," said Lew Bowers, a senior development manager for the PDC. "We tried everything else."
The proposal has been years in the making. The downtown store increasingly has suffered in competition with flashier suburban rivals, and civic leaders have felt obliged to help save it.
When May Department Stores Co., the St. Louis-based owner of the Meier & Frank chain, moved its 600-employee regional office from the building's upper floors to Los Angeles in 2002, the company heightened fears that it might abandon the store's 96-year-old location. Former Mayor Vera Katz renewed her charge to the PDC that it work to save the store.
A 2002 report, "Downtown Portland Retail Strategy," commissioned by the PDC and the Portland Business Alliance, affirmed her intent, saying the top priority for helping downtown retail thrive should be to ensure the store's continued operation.
Since then, the PDC has steeped itself in renovation plans at an extraordinary level of detail.
Complicating factors
A variety of developers considered renovating the Meier & Frank building, and all but one passed on it. The building's configuration makes it too awkward and expensive for condo or apartment development, said Michael O'Connell, a PDC development manager.
In the unoccupied upper floors of the Meier & Frank building, spaces are interrupted by 18-inch columns about every 20 feet. In many places, they rise from the floor close to walls.
That's not the kind of fixture you'd want in your living room, especially if you're paying $500,000 or more for a condo, O'Connell said. Even with apartments, an inappropriately placed column can hold down potential rents, he said.
Column spacing is just one of the many vexing architectural and commercial challenges of redeveloping a building constructed in 1909 and expanded twice.
"On-site parking was a huge issue for the residential developers," O'Connell said, because dwellers of high-end homes would demand parking spots in the building.
But the building is between Fifth and Sixth avenues, on the transit mall, where city rules bar construction of driveways. MAX light rail, where the city discourages driveways, runs alongside the building on Morrison Street. Any parking ramp would cut into first-floor space, the most lucrative for retailers.
"The whole thing was a spiral of expenses that don't make it pencil out," O'Connell said.
Several developers eyed the building's upper floors for condos and decided against it, said Don Mazziotti, PDC executive director. One developer considered those floors for document storage, essentially a lifeless use, he said.
"We have, over a four-year period, looked at a variety of uses with a variety of developers," Mazziotti said.
Enter Sage Hospitality
In 2002, Sage Hospitality Resources, a Denver developer specializing in urban hotel redevelopments, told the PDC it might have a solution: build a hotel.
Hotel development, PDC officials said, appeared to offer more flexibility. Hotel guests, for instance, would be less insistent on on-site parking.
In May, Sage Hospitality announced it had been awarded $72.5 million in federal New Markets Tax Credits for a project to renovate the Meier & Frank building's upper nine floors into a hotel. May announced it would use proceeds from the deal to improve and consolidate the store's retail space in the first five floors.
The credits could produce up to $22 million of the $36.1 million in cash that Sage intends to invest in the $107.3 million project. Another $13.9 million would come from low-interest loans from the PDC. Private construction financing would cover the balance of the project costs.
In February, Federated Department Stores Inc. announced it would buy May, and May officials said they expect the new owner will follow through with the hotel project.
The PDC recently has felt urgency to move forward so that significant demolition work in the upper floors can be completed before this year's holiday shopping season, Mazziotti said.
O'Connell is negotiating agreements with May and Sage. Each contract requires approval of the five-member PDC, which is expected to vote on them April 27.
Hotel market "saturated"
Downtown hoteliers said they feel conflicted.
On one hand, they want to keep Meier & Frank as a downtown drawing card. On the other, they chafe at the idea of the city subsidizing a competitor in what they see as an oversupplied market.
"The hotel market is saturated," said Chris Erickson, general manager of the downtown Paramount Hotel. With the addition of the Hilton Executive Tower in 2002 and a few small projects in the works, he said, "this might be a little bit of overkill."
Hotel operators and market observers say the downtown hotel market is recovering. But some say Sage is overly optimistic in its market forecast.
Sage says the fear of excess room supply is unfounded. The high-end downtown hotel market, it says, is poised for strong gains before its hotel could open in late 2007.
In 2004, visitors booked 825,501 room nights in the downtown's 12 fanciest hotels -- 5.7 percent more nights than in 2003, according to a report by HVS International, a consulting firm hired by Sage Hospitality. The gain of 44,543 bookings pushed occupancy to 71.5 percent, up almost 4 percentage points over the previous year. Hoteliers registered $80.94 in revenue per available room -- 6.5 percent more than in 2003.
In two years, high-end hotel occupancy could rise to 77 percent, according to HVS International. The addition of Sage Hospitality's 330 rooms would lower the occupancy rate of the 12 competing hotels by just 2 percentage points, said Ken Geist, executive vice president of Sage.
But Brad Hutton, area vice president and general manager for Hilton Hotels Corp.'s downtown property, said Sage Hospitality's forecasts are flawed.
"The overall picture of that hotel is being painted way too optimistically," Hutton said.
The recent increase in downtown occupancy mostly resulted from the Hilton's expansion, Hutton said. The expansion enabled the hotel to lure small convention business and some airline crews under long-term contracts, he said.
Sage Hospitality's hotel, which would not offer substantial meeting space, would not benefit from such business, Hutton said.
"They're going to be forced to bottom-feed as a hotel company, compared to where they believe they're going to be," Hutton said.
Dylan Rivera: 503-221-8532; dylanrivera@news.oregonian.com
PacificNW
Apr 12, 2005, 5:00 AM
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/PacificNW/Dennis0004.jpg
MitchE
Apr 12, 2005, 3:15 PM
^ Thanks PacificNW!
edirp
Apr 29, 2005, 3:54 PM
Decision time’s nigh for landmark
Meier & Frank rehab, hotel addition may get city nod May 11
It’s getting close to crunch time for the May Department Stores Co. to sign off on a development agreement with the city of Portland so the $137.3 million transformation of Meier & Frank’s landmark downtown store can begin.
The Portland Development Commission is set to approve the agreements on the project at its May 11 meeting.
Sage Hospitality Resources, the Denver company that will transform the top nine floors of the 665,000-square-foot Meier & Frank building into a Marriott Renaissance hotel, signed its development agreement in March after months of meetings with city officials.
“But we continue to work on the May Company development agreement,” said Don Mazziotti, PDC executive director. “It’s not complete, and we’re very anxious to get it before the commission.”
Mazziotti acknowledged that he’s worried that a delay could jeopardize timing on the construction project. “It has to be carefully coordinated so as not to interrupt the Christmas season. If that were to happen, there could be a cascading effect, which pushes the project into the next year, which is not desirable.”
Ken Geist, executive vice president of Sage, sounded less concerned. “We’re on the agenda for PDC approval May 11, and the plan is to have PDC get May’s agreement finished this week, then go to the board on May 11 — and away we go.”
Geist said he’d talked to May officials on Monday, “and they thought they’d wrap (the development agreement) up this week.”
May spokeswoman Sharon Bateman said she could not confirm where discussions on the agreement stand.
Plans call for May to sell the top nine floors to Sage and use the $30 million proceeds to pay for remodeling the first five floors into an updated, more upscale department store.
Demolition of the top nine floors could start in September, with reconstruction beginning February 2006; completion of both the store and the hotel is slated for the fall of 2007.
May said it intends to keep the store open for business while remodeling proceeds.
A pending merger of May with Federated Department Stores, expected to be complete in the third quarter of this year, should not hamper the project, May’s Bateman said following Federated’s Feb. 28 announcement that it was buying May in a $17 billion cash and stock-purchase transaction.
Industry watchers expect Federated, owner of Macy’s and Bloomingdales, to add some pizazz to May stores.
The Meier & Frank project is the culmination of years of negotiations with May to restore the venerable but fading flagship, a national historic landmark that is considered key to downtown Portland’s vitality.
With the construction launch so close, Mazziotti admitted he’s fretting that any delay could cause problems with escalating costs for construction materials.
If something happens to sideline the project, he said, “my opinion would be that it would probably effect a greater loss in downtown retail and the hotel marketplace than it would ever supplant or displace.”
Sage’s portion of the project qualified for $72.5 million in New Market tax credits, from a federal program that allows developers to entice investors with favorable tax treatment. The PDC is loaning $13.9 million to Sage to fund a portion of the hotel project.
All of the construction budgets for Sage, Geist said, included consideration for inflation.
“We’re in good shape; we just have to get our approval and get going here,” he said.
The new hotel, he said, should not divert attention from a planned headquarters hotel adjacent to the Oregon Convention Center. Some area hoteliers have said they’re afraid adding 330 rooms in the Marriott Renaissance hotel will hurt Portland’s already saturated hotel market, as well as damage efforts to get the convention center hotel built.
A recent report on the Portland hotel market indicated that it is well on its way to recovery after several down years.
pdxstreetcar
May 25, 2005, 4:06 PM
Meier & Frank update
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
PDC will vote today on loans for renovation
The story: The Portland Development Commission has orchestrated a deal with May Department Stores Co. and hotel developer Sage Hospitality Resources Inc. to transform the Meier & Frank building on Southwest Fifth Avenue into a hotel and slimmed-down department store.
Denver-based Sage plans to buy the top 11 floors of the building from St. Louis-based May to construct a 334-room hotel. May plans $30 million in renovations to consolidate retail space into the first five floors. Update: The commission meets at 8 a.m. today at the PDC office, 222 N.W. Fifth Ave., and is scheduled to vote whether to provide the project with three low-interest loans totaling $13.9 million. What's next: Don Mazziotti, the commission's executive director, is optimistic about earning his board's approval but said he is less upbeat about the agreement's stipulation that the project's developers pay Oregon's prevailing wage to construction workers. That wage could create higher costs that neither May nor Sage may have anticipated, he said.
"The prevailing wage issue has the potential to delay the project for an indefinite period," he said, "and in turn, raise the possibility of jeopardizing the projects themselves." Learn more: www.pdc.us/flash-presentations/meier-and-frank/meier-and-frank_pres.htm -- Laura Gunderson 503-221-8378, LauraGunderson@news.oregonian.com
August 2005 Purchase & Sale
September 2005 Demolition Begins
February 2006 Reconstruction Begins
Fall 2007 Hotel & Store Open
This is it, if PDC blows this deal I say trash the entire Association. They are beginning to become more of a hinderence to development then a help.
PDX City-State
May 25, 2005, 4:40 PM
The inner city market is strong enough these days to support a scaled-back PDC. They spend too much money with too little return and occasionally do something worthwhile. Their political autonomy leads to a lack of accountability.
miketoronto
May 25, 2005, 5:37 PM
I am going to be blunt here.
They don't need a hotel. If they want that store to survive and be a anchor of downtown, THEN BRING THAT STORE BACK TO WHAT IT WAS BEFORE.
Clean it up, bring in tons of unique merchandise, make it the unique shopping spot it once was, when it attracted people state wide to come and shop.
The problem with Meier & Frank is they have turned that store into nothing but a branch style suburban store. It is downtown, but they don't continue to make it the special downtown shopping experience it once was.
And to be honest, putting a hotel ontop of it is going to do nothing, because all they are doing is reducing the store size and really making it no better then a suburban branch store.
The best way to revive Meier & Frank is to bring that store back to the way it was. Instead of downsizing, open those floors again to shopping, and make it the best, largest, most special place to shop again.
In a city with such a strong downtown like Portland, I find it hard to believe in the first place that the store is doing bad. If it is doing bad, it probably has more to do with managment. Not because shoppers are shunning downtown.
These department store chains have lost touch with what downtown department stores were like and about. Downtown department stores were more then just about shopping. But these companies today just don't get that.
They gotta make that store better then any suburban branch store around. Really make it have the best selection, unique merchandise, etc. They could do all this without any fancy hotel deal.
Lets close with a quote from the Oregon Business paper.
"YOU'D BE HARD PRESSED TO FIND A BUSINESS as deeply threaded into its hometown fabric as the Meier & Frank store in downtown Portland. The grand department store that came to be the place to shop for anyone within a day's drive put Portland on the map in the early 1900s.
People used to kid that there were four cities on the Pacific Coast: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Meier & Frank and Seattle," says Gerry Frank, a fourth-generation Frank who worked in the business until it was sold to St. Louis-based May Department Stores Company in 1966. ..."
http://pdxhistory.com.tripod.com/mnflogo2.jpg
http://pdxhistory.com.tripod.com/marshallfield/meierfrank/mandfs4.jpg
http://pdxhistory.com.tripod.com/marshallfield/meierfrank/mnffridaysurprise.jpg
http://pdxhistory.com.tripod.com/marshallfield/meierfrank/M_f.jpg
pdxstreetcar
May 25, 2005, 6:21 PM
I think the PDC is successful when it sticks to the densest parts of the city like downtown, Pearl, SoWa but in lower density places they have a less than decent record.
Miketoronto: I completely agree with you but unfortunately May/Macys could care less about having a quality store they (and most large US retailers) are more focused on taking on Wal-Mart which they will fail miserably trying to do.
The store will go from 360,000 sq ft (9 floors at 40,000 sq ft per floor) to 200,000 sq ft (5 floord at 40,000 sq ft) and those numbers dont factor in the large space for elevators, escalators, stairs etc.
I am certain the "Georgian Room" restaurant and Santaland will close and not return. Although its possible the Georgian Room could reopen as the hotel restaurant but would have to be moved and rebuilt and only retain the name.
The downtown Meier & Frank store is one of the most poorly run stores I have been into (actually it is the worst). Empty shelves, shipping boxes on the sales floor, worn out appearance of the store, poor merchandise quality, damaged and dirty merchandise for sale etc. Last year they had plywood over a broken ground floor window for several weeks. I was looking for a picture frame once and all the picture frames were out of their boxes scattered on a table. Not surprisingly most of them were scratched. I found an open box with a picture on it of one I liked but I couldnt find the frame that went with the box. The only frames they had were the ones no one wanted. I still shop at the downtown M&F but I have to say it is very unpleasant and thats coming from someone who likes downtown department stores, I'm sure if I wasnt a strong fan of downtown stores I'd have given up shopping there years ago.
PDX City-State
May 25, 2005, 6:51 PM
Sure it's been poorly run, but department stores (with the exception of Nordstrom ) have been hurting for the past couple of decades with the rise of niche retailers. I think the hotel will be nice addition and the store will be able to get out of the less-profitable lines.
miketoronto
May 25, 2005, 7:05 PM
Department stores have been falling because they don't move up with the times.
People want one stop shopping. What offers one stop shopping?
A grand downtown department store does.
There have always been niche retailers.
Department stores are falling because they are not rising up to the times, and they are not managing their downtown stores or any of their stores in a proper way.
I bought a book about the Hudson's Store in downtown Detroit. It is amazing what that store use to provide. And I ams ure Meier And Frank was the same way.
They just gotta get their act together.
I know this is weird. But maybe they need one of the guys from this forum to run that store. I bet we could shape it up in no time and have huge profits.
PDX City-State
May 25, 2005, 9:27 PM
Niche retailers are definitely more prevalant today than yesteryear. I don't agree that people want one-stop shopping, and neither does the market. If you're Meier and Frank, you sell furniture, clothes, bedding, luggage, jewelry and a whole lot more.
This means you have to compete with Crate and Barrel, the Levi's Store, Urban Outfitters, Sunglasses Hut, and other powerhouses. Plus, you have a host of smaller independent retailers that tend to be home grown and very responsive to local trends. Your marketing and buying department are going to be spread pretty thin and your store will probably have trouble keeping up with trends, and keeping the inventory fresh. This explains why a lot of department stores have had trouble cutting it. The simple criticism would be that the store ought to spend money completely renovating and reinventing itself to improve its image. But the realistic answer is that if they could afford to, they would. The state of the American Department store has been pretty dismal in recent years and has generally reflected individuals preferring to shop at niche retailers. Any marketer will tell you that.
PacificNW
May 26, 2005, 3:28 PM
More From The Oregonian
Hotel on Meier & Frank gets boost
The PDC lends $13.9 million to the developer of a Marriott Renaissance planned atop downtown Portland's landmark
Thursday, May 26, 2005
LAURA GUNDERSON
The Portland Development Commission on Wednesday approved $13.9 million in low-interest loans for a project that will renovate the downtown Portland Meier & Frank, transforming its upper floors into a swank hotel.
After a brief presentation, the commission voted unanimously to provide Denver hotel developer Sage Hospitality Resources Inc. with three loans.
The decision caps years of PDC work to find a way to revive the historic building on Southwest Fifth Avenue at the heart of downtown Portland's retail core. Meier & Frank's parent company, May Department Stores Co., and Sage have both said they would like to begin construction early next year, but first have to reach a final sales agreement and gain city approval.
The developers say the project will cost $137.3 million -- including $107.3 million for the hotel and $30 million for department store renovations.
Though St. Louis-based May has agreed to be purchased by competitor Federated Department Stores Inc., company officials have said a change of hands should not affect the renovation plans. Stockholders for May and Federated are expected to meet separately July 13 to vote on the $11 billion buyout.
Even with the remaining hurdles, commission members expressed confidence after the vote Wednesday.
"This is a move forward for downtown Portland and the region," said Matt Hennessee, chairman of the five-member board. "This is very, very important."
The Portland Development Commission is a semi-independent city agency that manages most of the city's economic development.
This fall, Sage plans to buy floors six through 16 from May for the 334-room hotel, which it intends to open as a Marriott Renaissance in early 2008. Sage estimates the project could provide 200 full-time equivalent construction jobs over nearly four years, and ultimately, 175 hotel positions.
Portland Development Commission's loans, which will help pay for seismic and other safety improvements needed for the project, make up a little more than 10 percent of the four-star hotel project's $107.3 million price tag.
The PDC made a $3.3 million, 15-year loan to Sage that will be interest-free for the first three years and then grow to 3 percent in the fourth year, according to the contract. The loan reverts to interest-free in the 10th year with a balloon payment in the final year.
Of the $3.3 million, $500,000 will go to May, a loan the commission said it may forgive in light of the 10 management and 90 full-time equivalent jobs that are expected to remain in Portland if the department store stays open. That money is a reimbursement for May's recent purchase of a piece of land beneath the building.
The commission also made smaller low-interest loans to Sage subsidiaries, including $8.6 million to Urban Heritage Portland Hotel and $2 million to Portland Hotel Investment Fund. Urban Heritage's 25-year loan carries 3 percent interest-only payments for the first three years with 3 percent interest and principal payments beginning in the fourth year. Portland Hotel's loan carries the same terms over eight years with an added $100,000 annual principal payments starting in the fourth year.
As part of the contract, Sage also agreed to reattach the building's original terra cotta facade and has aimed to meet federal environmentally friendly building standards.
May agreed to pay $30 million to morph the building's lower third into a glossy new five-floor department store, and plans to keep Meier & Frank open through the remodel.
May officials have said the new store, which the agreement said could open in the fall of 2007, is likely to stock similar types of merchandise to those currently carried at Meier & Frank.
To brighten the sidewalks hugging the more than century-old building, plans call for short glass awnings. Designs also call for smaller retail spaces, such as a florist or coffee shop, on the main floor at Southwest Fifth and Sixth avenues, where entrances once led inside Meier & Frank.
"This building is an icon for Portland," said Michael O'Connell, the commission's development manager for the project. "This is going to restore the building to its glory days."
Laura Gunderson: 503-221-8378; lauragunderson@news.oregonian.com
pdxstreetcar
May 26, 2005, 5:11 PM
If theres going to be a hotel lobby and small retail stores on the first floor (in addition to the escalators, stairs and elevators) it appears this new store is going to be quite small.
Nordstrom has 3 floors (4?) and needs more space so when Nordstrom ever gets around to expanding it will likely be the same size or bigger than the "flagship" Meier & Frank, a full-service store.
Any guesses as to what departments will be discontinued at Meier & Frank as the store downsizes?
Furniture?
Kitchen?
Gifts?
Childrens?
pdxskyline
May 26, 2005, 7:35 PM
I happened to notice that they're posting public hearing notices in the windows of M&F. The one I saw was in a window on 5th Street, on or near the corner of Washington. An employee at the Lloyd Center store told me they'r planning on auctioning some stuff off from inside soon. Whether this means the 1960's-era ugly junk or old stuff, I don't know.
I really don't know if they'd remove any certain departments should they downsize. More than half of that building sits empty. On floors which have shopping on them still, there's a bunch of space by the windows that isn't being utilized. From what PDX streetcar says, just bringing it up to the standards of a 'burb store would do wonders for the place, perhaps without the loss of any depts. It's been long overdue for an overhaul of the current 1960's neglected flea market look that it currently has.
pdxstreetcar
May 26, 2005, 7:47 PM
I hope the monorail is sold to someone who will keep it open to the public and somewhere nearby, maybe Oaks Park could buy it and run it inside a building.
designpdx
May 27, 2005, 12:15 AM
If theres going to be a hotel lobby and small retail stores on the first floor (in addition to the escalators, stairs and elevators) it appears this new store is going to be quite small.
Nordstrom has 3 floors (4?) and needs more space so when Nordstrom ever gets around to expanding it will likely be the same size or bigger than the "flagship" Meier & Frank, a full-service store.
Any guesses as to what departments will be discontinued at Meier & Frank as the store downsizes?
Furniture?
Kitchen?
Gifts?
Childrens?
I remember hearing that the main lobby will not be on the first floor, it will only be an elevator lobby to the main hotel floor. However, I am not sure if this is still the plan or not.
PacificNW
May 27, 2005, 1:53 AM
When Federated completes their acquistion of the May Company I think we will learn more. I hope that Federated see's the importance of having a store downtown Portland. They spent over $40 million in the late 80's, or early 90's, to update the downtown Seattle Bon Marche.
I think it is foolish for construction to begin prior to the take over because Federated (dba Macy's or Bloomingdale's) might desire different floor plans for the store portion of the development. If M & F become's Macy's I think the mix will be about the same in merchandise but more high end that has been offered.
miketoronto
May 27, 2005, 2:40 PM
This is Miketoronto's idea on what should happen to the Meier & Frank store. What do you guys think.
Meier & Frank Downtown Store. Bigger, better, and more special then ever!
Meier & Frank department store to see massive renovation and restoration of downtown Portland's most important and historical shopping destination.
Under the renovations, Meier & Frank will become the leading and number one flagship downtown department store in the north western US.
Meier & Frank will see a massive restoration of all 12 of it's shopping floors.
What will the new and improved Meier & Frank store have. It will have the following.
-Greater Portland's largest selection of mens clothing, shoes, and accsessories over 1 and a half floors. Enjoy brand name clothing, as well as unique designer styles designed by local portland designers, only to be found at the Meier & Frank downtown store.
-Greater Portland's largest selection of womens clothing, shoes, mackup, perfume, and undergarments, over 3 floors. Enjoy all the brand names, plus unique designer items designed by local Portland designers.
-Greater Portlands largest housewares selection, and china selection, featuring local designs only to be found at the downtown store, plus famous national and international brands. This department will be featured on two floors.
-Restaurant floor.
Featuring the famous Georgian room, and other restaurants offering a complete assortment of food options. Also enjoy the candy hall located on this floor, featuring candy from local Portland candy and choclate makers.
-Greater Portland's largest childrens section, including toys for the first time in many years. This ares will cover a full floor and be a childrens wonderland. Special counters will be made at childrens heights to make them feel moer special while shopping in the downtown store.
-The other three floors of the store will house unique collections of merchandise from around the world and from local designers.
Meier & Frank will be a unique place to shop offering items and selection not found in any suburban stores or other department stores in the nation.
The Meier & Frank downtown store will feature special events every Saturday, from fashion shows to cooking classes. Meier & Frank will be more then just shopping.
Come to the new Meier & Frank today.
Instead of downsizing, we are getting better.
PDX City-State
May 27, 2005, 10:02 PM
And you have a buying, marketing, and merchandising mindfuck. Do you know how many high-paid buyers you'd have to employ to run the store you just described. Good ideas can be good on paper but financially unfeasible.
DubbaG
May 31, 2005, 5:43 AM
I love the M&F sooooo much. It's one of my all time favorite buildings to stare up at from the base.
PDX City-State
May 31, 2005, 4:31 PM
Me too. I'm very happy they were able to find a feasable solution that will allow the building to continue functioning as a quasi-public space--a department store. I think the hotel will become signature--near the Square--and will provide a much needed revenue stream for the improvements. I'm excited to finally see this building look its best again.
edgepdx
May 31, 2005, 9:00 PM
Being in the wholesale fashion industry and counting both niche chain retailers and department stores as customers I can firmly say that department stores are slowly expiring and no remodel will stop that. The department store buyers are exactly the problem, they are extremely conservative and always buy the same stock year over year ignoring trends that niche retailers always ride the peak of.
If you want to see the future of retail look at the Adidas Originals store in the Brewery Blocks. They put the product front and center, treating a $60 pair of sneakers like a piece of art. Departments store stuff the sales floor full of product in order to make the store look full. This leads to confusing flea market look.
Anyway, I do hope something nice is done with the M.F. building, it's a Portland icon.
edirp
Jun 7, 2005, 2:20 PM
Lessons from the past
Meier & Frank makeover traces path taken by 5th Avenue Suites
In fall 2007,at the conclusion of a massive remodeling job set to begin this September,Meier & Frank Co.’s downtown flagship will emerge with a Marriott Renaissance Hotel on the top nine floors and an updated department store on the first five floors.
But the $137.3 million project, aimed at keeping a viable retailer in the heart of Portland’s shopping core, won’t be a simple transformation. For one thing, the department store on Southwest Morrison Street will remain open during the remodeling. And as part of the work, the 665,000-square-foot building, which occupies an entire city block, will get a seismic upgrade for earthquake safety.
Demolition of the top nine floors is scheduled to start in September; it will take a break during the holiday shopping season, with reconstruction beginning next February.
Built in earlier days when flagship department stores were full-service institutions that sold everything from fabric to toys, millinery to groceries, the mammoth buildings can pose a unique redevelopment challenge.
There’s an example of retail-to-hotel use just north across Southwest Washington Street from Meier & Frank, where the 221-room boutique hotel 5th Avenue Suites now occupies the 10-story building that originally housed the Lipman Wolfe Department Store.
The hotel opened in 1996, a few years after Lipman’s successor, Frederick & Nelson, went bankrupt and closed.
The extensive renovation of the former department store took the building down to bare walls and floors, said David Sussman, vice president of hotel development and design for Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group LLC, which owns 5th Avenue Suites.
“One of the most vivid memories for me about that job was watching workers with torches cutting out the old escalators,” Sussman said. “We didn’t need escalators in the hotel as they did in the department store.”
Getting rid of the old escalators was an expensive part of the demolition, he said.
Because the layout of a department store is considerably different than that of a hotel, converting a large multifloor store to hotel use can carry its own set of complications.
In the case of the Lipman building, Sussman said, “there were windows around three sides, with a huge center core, which isn’t very useful for a hotel; you can’t put people into spaces without windows.”
As a result, the hotel “became a building with a lot of suites — extra-long rooms with a living room area that opened into a bedroom area,” he said.
“Even with that we still ended up with some central core space on each floor, about 2,500 square feet. In some cases we put in meeting rooms, in other cases it’s nothing more than storage — which drives up the cost of development.”
Sage Hospitality Resources, the Denver company that will build the hotel in the Meier & Frank building, intends to address the center-core problem with a light well in the center of the structure. It also plans a grand lobby on the sixth floor, with a smaller entrance lobby at street level.
Both the Meier & Frank building and the former Lipman building are on the National Register of Historic Places, which means work has to be done in accordance with U.S. Department of the Interior rules.
The Lipman building, like Meier & Frank, is faced with white glazed terra-cotta tiles. “It has a beautiful terra-cotta exterior, and we had to restore that; wherever pieces were loose we had to reattach them,” Sussman said of the Lipman conversion. “Where they were broken or missing, we had to refabricate them. It’s a little hard to find people who still do that work.”
Sage, similarly, will be restoring the Meier & Frank building’s exterior.
Both Kimpton and Sage have restored a number of historic buildings and turned them into hotels. “We’ve probably done more historic projects in the hotel business than anybody,” Sussman said.
Converting an older, existing building to hotel use, known as adaptive reuse, “is certainly cheaper than building from the ground up” if the initial real estate purchase price is reasonable, he said, despite the fact that it’s getting harder to find realistically priced buildings for conversion.
“The interior finish is the same as in a new building,” he said. “If you can buy a building cost-effectively, you can bring the project in below replacement cost.”
There also can be tax breaks if the project meets federal Department of the Interior standards, as much as 20 percent of construction cost for National Register properties, he said.
The Portland Development Commission is loaning Sage $13.9 million to fund a portion of the hotel project. Sage in turn will purchase the top nine floors of the building from Meier & Frank’s owner, May Department Stores Co., for $30 million, which is expected to fund the aging store’s restoration to a more upmarket retail setting.
Doing a massive renovation while the store stays open “is a complicated, artful, intuitive process,” said Macy’s spokeswoman Kimberly Reason, describing the 2 1/2 year project that updated the eight-floor Bon Marché flagship in downtown Seattle from 1989 to 1991.
Store executives “need to determine how much space to allot to construction,” she said. “The more space, generally speaking, means construction can proceed a lot faster, which means you end construction sooner, and open the store in a much-upgraded condition, which will drive sales.”
But she said it’s also necessary to consider at the start “how much space you give up now, in terms of sacrificing sales.” And that decision, she said, comes down to a variety of factors, from the seasonal sales plans to the advertising calendar, the entire scope of the project.
Work on the Bon store, which also has a basement and a sub-basement like Meier & Frank, was notably more complicated than redoing a two- or three-level mall store, Reason noted. Parent corporation Federated Department Stores Inc. renamed the Bon stores Macy’s earlier this year.
edirp
Jun 17, 2005, 3:25 PM
M&F hotel on shaky ground
Prevailing-wage requirement could scuttle makeover
By JEANIE SENIOR Issue date: Fri, Jun 17, 2005
The Tribune
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A $137.3 million deal to redevelop Meier & Frank Co.’s downtown flagship into an updated department store with a hotel on the upper floors may be collapsing.
The make-or-break issue rests on whether the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries determines that a $13.9 million loan from the Portland Development Commission to Sage Hospitality Resources transforms the remodeling into a public works project, according to PDC Executive Director Don Mazziotti.
Sage, based in Denver, is the company that will build the Marriott Renaissance hotel portion of the project. The development agreement calls for Sage to buy the top nine floors of the building from May Department Stores Co., which owns Meier & Frank, for $30 million.
That money, in turn, would fund the department store’s update.
However, if remodeling is deemed a public works project, that could raise the cost because it would require Sage and May to pay prevailing wages to every worker on the job.
Prevailing wages in the construction field are essentially the lowest wage a contractor can pay on public projects. The state’s prevailing wage law was adopted in 1959 to ensure that contractors maintain wage standards while competing on their ability to perform work competently.
“May Company and Sage have told us that if BOLI determines their project by virtue of PDC loans (becomes) a public works project, and thus they must pay the prevailing wage, the deal will collapse and they will walk.” he said.
This week, Mayor Tom Potter convened a meeting with Mazziotti, Sage and May representatives and Oregon Labor Commissioner Dan Gardner to discuss the issue.
“I don’t know what that’s all about,” said Sage representative Scott Conrad, who attended the meeting. “You may want to talk to PDC.”
May Co. Vice President Vince Corno, also at the meeting, could not be reached for comment.
A labor and industry spokesman did not return calls from the Portland Tribune by deadline.
Potter could not be reached by deadline.
Mazziotti, whose agency started working on a redevelopment of the aging 665,000-square-foot store four years ago, and started negotiating the present deal with Sage and May about a year ago, said he’s alarmed at the impact the deal’s collapse could have on downtown Portland.
A downtown retail study, completed about two years ago, called Meier & Frank’s continued viability essential to the health of the central business district. The massive block square building is considered to be at ground zero of downtown retail.
The matter is complicated by the fact that May is in the process of being acquired by Federated Department Stores, a deal that’s expected to be consummated in the next couple of months.
If there’s no redevelopment under way when Cincinnati-based Federated takes control of May Co. stores, that could torpedo the future of the downtown store, Mazziotti said.
“That outcome is disastrous for downtown Portland,” he said.
Jon Bell contributed to this report.
MarkDaMan
Jun 23, 2005, 8:43 PM
Pay stalls Meier & Frank project
A state legal issue with wages for construction workers has the PDC scrambling for a solution to revitalize the historic building
Thursday, June 23, 2005
DYLAN RIVERA
An imminent redevelopment of the downtown Meier & Frank department store could die as early as next week if city and state officials cannot resolve a dispute over wages for construction workers on the long-awaited project.
The prospective developer of an upper-floors hotel as well as the corporate owner of the department store are pushing for a Sunday resolution of a dispute over whether the project must comply with state wage standards for public works, Don Mazziotti, executive director of the Portland Development Commission, said Wednesday.
The PDC, which has pushed for the building's revitalization for years, is scrambling to work out a compromise with state labor officials over the wage requirement, Mazziotti said. He would not detail those negotiations.
City and business leaders have ranked retention of the anchor store -- a historic mainstay at the heart of the city's commercial core -- as their top goal in safeguarding downtown's hard-won vitality.
Developer Sage Hospitality Resources, based in Denver, has lined up financing and development deals for a hotel in the top 11 floors of the 16-story building to coincide with a face-lift of the department store on the lower floors.
In recent weeks, some labor advocates have called for the state Bureau of Labor and Industries to require the hotel developer and the department store to pay a state-set prevailing wage.
The wage issue recently landed the PDC and the Labor Bureau in court. The PDC sued the bureau May 12 to challenge its decision that a PDC-financed office building rehab in North Portland falls under the wage standard. The bureau expects to respond to the PDC's suit in coming weeks, according to the Oregon Department of Justice, which represents the bureau.
Local government and housing advocates have said recent broadening in the wage law's application could threaten a number of public-private projects, including the Meier & Frank renovation. On Wednesday, for the first time, Mazziotti publicly estimated how much the requirement would raise the project's $137.3 million cost: between 8 percent and 14 percent, or between $11.0 million and $19.2 million.
Sage Hospitality said the extra expense would make the hotel portion of the project financially unfeasible. Sage previously put the hotel cost at $107.3 million but did not disclose an additional labor cost estimate.
"Should we not be able to work it out, we will have to seriously consider walking away from the project," said Ken Geist, executive vice president for Sage Hospitality. "Everybody's worked extremely hard on this project for over three years now, and to have this come up at the very last minute is extremely unfortunate." Geist said he was optimistic that a resolution could be reached by early next week.
Annette Talbott, deputy labor commissioner, said she doubted requiring compliance with the prevailing wage would add significantly to the Meier & Frank project's cost.
"We have no facts to suggest whether that's true or false," Talbott said. "I don't believe they've done that analysis."
The bureau is studying the Meier & Frank project in hopes of resolving the controversy within a few days, Talbott said.
Officials with Meier & Frank's parent company, May Department Stores Co., based in St. Louis, would not comment on the issue Wednesday.
The significant threat to the project comes as PDC and city leaders thought they soon would see their dreams of a revitalized building and department store become a reality. Former Mayor Vera Katz worked for years to preserve the department store and trumpeted the hotel plan in her last days in office. Mazziotti advanced the project for years, although he plans to step down June 30, raising questions about the city's ability to follow through on the project.
Mayor Tom Potter, who took office in January, convened a meeting last week to bring the PDC, the Labor Bureau, the hotel developer and the retailer together to discuss the wage issue. This week, Potter said, he met with Mazziotti and Labor Commissioner Dan Gardner to press the two sides to draft a policy for Meier & Frank and similar projects.
"We need to resolve this," Potter said Wednesday. "Each month that it's delayed costs the developers money, so I want to see it get resolved."
PDC officials have said time is short for several reasons. The hotel developer was hoping to finish major upstairs demolition before the winter holiday shopping season, a peak time for the department store. In addition, with a merger between May Co. and Federated Department Stores Inc. pending this fall, any lingering uncertainty would raise concern about whether Federated would follow through on the redevelopment plan.
Dylan Rivera: 503-221-8532; dylanrivera@news.oregonian.com
I thought this was a done deal, we have vitually seen the same story in the big O three weeks in a row and there doesn't appear to be any progress in resolving what seems to be a drop in the bucket compared to the overall cost. It would really suck if this thing didn't get completed!
IfSage walks away from this deal, Annette Talbott, deputy labor commissioner should be fired and then sued for destroying one of the most important project for DT Portland in years.
PacificNW
Jun 25, 2005, 3:31 PM
Developer not bound by wage law
The Oregon labor commissioner says state-set prevailing wages don't apply to downtown Meier & Frank project
Saturday, June 25, 2005
GAIL KINSEY HILL
A recent cloud hanging over the long-awaited redevelopment of the downtown Meier & Frank department store lifted Friday when the state labor commissioner concluded that Oregon's prevailing-wage law did not apply to the $137.3 million project.
Earlier this week, a key developer had threatened to pull out of the project if the wage law were deemed applicable, claiming that higher compensation requirements would push construction costs too high.
"We're very pleased to have this matter resolved," said Don Mazziotti, executive director of the Portland Development Commission, the city agency that has helped coordinate the project.
In a news release on the issue, Labor Commissioner Dan Gardner sharply criticized the PDC, both for not seeking clarification on the matter earlier and for sounding public alarms about the issue's threat to the project.
The redevelopment of Meier & Frank has taken years of sensitive negotiations, and the project's completion is considered crucial to the vital downtown core. It involves the renovation of the department store's lower floors and the development of a hotel in the top 11 floors of the 16-floor building.
May Department Stores Co., which is based in St. Louis and owns Meier & Frank, is responsible for sprucing up the retail portion of the building. Sage Hospitality Resources of Denver is the hotel developer.
The wage dispute arose just a few weeks ago when some labor advocates called for the state Bureau of Labor and Industries to require the hotel developer and the department store to pay a state-set prevailing wage. Project developers, in the final stages of signing development agreements and loan documents, also requested clarification on whether the wage law would apply.
"There was a big question mark," Mazziotti said.
The state's prevailing-wage law requires that construction workers on public projects be paid state-set standard wages and benefits. Gardner, who oversees the labor bureau, had to decide whether a loan from the Portland Development Commission to Sage Hospitality constituted a substantial enough link between the agency and the hotel's construction to classify the redevelopment as a public project.
Gardner concluded that the relationship was insufficient to trigger the prevailing-wage law.
Nevertheless, Gardner said he supported the law as a "reflection of the standard wages set by the local market."
"It is important to remember," Gardner stated in a news release, "the prevailing wage rate law represents good public policy regarding the construction of high-quality public projects with taxpayers' dollars."
Gardner's news release leveled unusually pointed criticism at the PDC, saying the agency waited until the eleventh hour to bring the wage issue to the commission's attention, then fanned worries of the project's possible demise.
"It is unfortunate that PDC chose to bring us a development agreement at the very last minute and then unnecessarily created concern that the entire project could be jeopardized," Gardner wrote. "The project was never in jeopardy. There was never a crisis.
"PDC's failure to work with the bureau months ago created unnecessary confusion and consternation that did not serve the public interest."
Mazziotti said the wage issue arose only during final negotiations of the development agreement and loan documents. Both May Department Stores and Sage Development, he said, "basically said they wouldn't proceed without clarity" on whether the law applied.
Then, Mazziotti said, "We immediately went to BOLI for a determination."
PDC chief objects to claims
Mazziotti also objected to Gardner's claims that the PDC unduly stirred up worries about the project's status.
"The project was in jeopardy," he said. "We weren't going through this for our health."
Earlier this week, Mazziotti estimated that a prevailing-wage rate could have increased project costs from 8 percent to 14 percent, or from $11 million to $19 million. At that time, Sage Hospitality said the extra expense would make the hotel portion of the project financially unfeasible.
Neither Sage Hospitality nor May Department Stores could be reached for comment Friday.
Reliable estimates on the effects of the wage law are hard to come by. The labor bureau said studies show the difference may be less than 5 percent.
"At the same time, studies also show higher quality work, so the actual cost may be less," said Marc Zolton, a labor bureau spokesman.
A recent informal survey showed that a worker involved in building demolition was paid a prevailing wage, including benefits, of $28.48 an hour, while a similarly employed nonunion worker was paid $28.13, a difference of 35 cents, or 1.2 percent, Zolton said.
"There are competing studies and estimates," Mazziotti said.
Mazziotti said he hopes to meet with developers on Sunday and within the next couple of weeks to review and approve the final documents. The tiff with the labor bureau, all told, he said, may have added another month to the project's timeline.
He said it's essential that construction begin by August -- for one thing, so that the department store can be ready for the peak winter holiday shopping season.
Gail Kinsey Hill: 503-221-8590; gailhill@news.oregonian.com
MarkDaMan
Jul 13, 2005, 6:13 PM
Historical panel OKs Meier & Frank remodel
The Portland commission presses to keep the Georgian Room, although interiors are outside its scope
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Fred Leeson
A $137.3 million makeover of the downtown Meier & Frank building earned a green light from the Portland Historical Landmarks Commission on Monday, but only after a tiff over an interior room outside the commission's legal purview.
As the design stands, the Georgian Room -- the 10th-floor elegant dining room -- will be eliminated to make way for hotel rooms on the upper 11 floors of the 16-story historic downtown building at 620 S.W. Sixth Ave.
City regulations say the commission can rule only on exterior changes to designated historic landmarks. But that didn't stop commission members from voicing support for keeping the dining room.
Commission members repeatedly asked John Tess, an architectural consultant working on the redevelopment proposal, about plans for the Georgian Room.
Tess declined to comment, saying it was outside the commission's scope of review.
Later, Tess said, "We know something has to be done there. We haven't really looked at that element."
Commission member Robert Dortignacq pressed Tess again. Dortignacq said there was no other public forum to discuss the fate of the room. Would it be retained?
"I'd be happy to go through some of that stuff later," Tess answered.
Moments later, Tess said, "There is no way of retaining it in its existing location."
Commission member Melissa Darby urged him to reconsider. "It's a beautiful space, a traditional space," she said. "We're here to give you advice. Our best advice is to try to save it."
As part of a 4-0 vote approving exterior details of the remodeling plan, the commission instructed the developers to return at an unspecified date for an "informational hearing" on the Georgian Room.
Key elements of the exterior work include returning the first-floor facade closer to its original condition and trying to simplify what architect John Echlin called "an abomination" on the top floors.
The project is intended to restore economic vitality to a full square block that was once considered the heart of Portland's retail core. As commission Chairman John Czarnecki said, "Support for this project is pretty much universal. We look forward to it regaining its prominent place in the city."
Sage Hospitality Resources of Denver will remodel the upper floors into a hotel. The first five floors will be revamped by store owners for Meier & Frank. A merger is pending this fall between May Co., Meier & Frank's corporate owner, and Federated Department Stores Inc.
Key changes at the ground floor will include uncovering transom windows now covered by awnings above the display windows. Smaller awnings will replace the existing ones. Midblock entrances that were closed off on Southwest Fifth and Sixth avenues will be reopened as kiosk retail spaces.
The entrance to the hotel will be at a new midblock entrance on Southwest Morrison Street. Terra cotta on the exterior will be repaired where necessary, and original windows will be restored to operating condition. Metal fire escapes will be removed and replaced with internal emergency exits.
A restaurant and some hotel rooms will be added at the top of the building. Echlin said his goal is to clean up the roofline as much as possible, but mechanical systems and elevator housings mean that uniformity cannot be achieved from all views.
The building was erected in three stages, in 1909, 1915 and 1932. New rooftop structures will be finished with sanded cement plaster instead of terra cotta-colored metal panels as recommended by the city design staff.
The existing rooftop floors include both metal panels and cement plaster. Echlin said he thought trying to mimic terra cotta with metal would be a mistake. "We're not going to cover up the cement plaster," he said. "It's up there to stay."
Ross Planbeck, a Portland Development Commission project manager, said elements of the complex deal are coming together in time for a Sept. 1 deadline. "It's highly important to the downtown," he said. "Everyone is on the side of keeping this great terra cotta building."
Fred Leeson: 503-294-5946; fredleeson@news.oregonian.com
-So how many more approvals must this thing get before they start the demolition of the interior?
MarkDaMan
Aug 4, 2005, 7:24 PM
This is to be built on a small parcel next to where the Eliot tower is being built on.
http://chatterbox.typepad.com/portlandarchitecture/images/madison_3.jpg
http://chatterbox.typepad.com/portlandarchitecture/images/madison_1.jpg
crowdedhouse
Aug 5, 2005, 12:12 AM
Seems like error on the part of the developer?
MarkDaMan
Aug 5, 2005, 3:20 PM
error?
edirp
Aug 5, 2005, 3:31 PM
crowdedhouse,
Those renderings are for "The Madison" offices being built next to Eliot Tower. They are not part of the Eliot Tower project.
The two buildings will share a plaza between 11th and 10th Avenue.
edirp
Aug 5, 2005, 3:34 PM
Madison Office Condominiums, Portland, OR.
This boutique commercial building will offer four floors of office space for sale above ground floor retail. The project sits on a 6,500 square foot site with access from SW 11th Avenue to the west and a vibrant, new pedestrian plaza to the south. The design takes a bold and refreshing approach using a palette of primary colors. Blue metal panels will wrap most of the building and the steel structural beams, exposed at the base and cap of the building, will be painted a bright yellow. Glass roll-up doors on the south facade will open the retail space (expected to be a restaurant) onto the new pedestrian plaza. The building will feature extensive glazing, operable windows, high ceilings and many sustainable design elements, including bio-planters to capture and filter rainwater from the roof, high efficiency mechanical systems, dual-flush toilets, low VOC products, use of recycled and recyclable materials, and more. The Madison Office Condominiums is the final piece of the three-block redevelopment project referred to as Museum Place, which includes the St. Francis Apartments, Museum Place Lofts & Townhouses, YWCA Downtown Center, and the Eliot Tower condominiums.
MarkDaMan
Aug 5, 2005, 3:52 PM
Oh, I didn't realize it was to be built across the street. I thought it was in between the YWCA and the tower. Actually, I haven't even been over there to see what it looks like in quite some time...
edirp
Aug 5, 2005, 4:06 PM
Hi Mark,
It'll be across the plaza from the Eliot Tower's rowhouses (not across the street).
It touches the YMCA on one side, and the St. Francis Apartments on the other.
check this out:
http://www.sojpdx.com/madison.pdf
MarkDaMan
Aug 5, 2005, 4:19 PM
Thanks edirp!
I would have never figured that out had you not posted the link.:nuts:
MarkDaMan
Aug 23, 2005, 6:24 PM
He said it's essential that construction begin by August
So what's the deal with this, they have all their final approvals, no? I thought the construction had to start no later than this month, but it doesn't even look like they have begun any sort of prep work. Anybody hear any news?
pdxstreetcar
Aug 23, 2005, 9:21 PM
The Georgian Room closes in mid-February 2006.
MarkDaMan
Aug 23, 2005, 10:17 PM
hmmmm....that doesn't sound very promising. I thought by Christmas the upper floors would be demolished except the outter walls?
PacificNW
Aug 23, 2005, 11:30 PM
As it stands right now I wouldn't be too concerned. The Federated/May merger is not going to be ok'd by the Federal Government until later this year (2005).
Federated may be wanting to change some of the plans for the retail portion....this only makes sense. No use in tearing up new construction when Federated can change the floor plans to fit "their" needs vs. May's needs.
The hotel portion may have to be delayed until the Macy's plans are finalized.
pdxstreetcar
Oct 7, 2005, 3:30 PM
This is great that theyre pressing the developer to relocate the Georgian Room, why not make it the dining room for the hotel restaurant?...
Meier & Frank planning slows
Preservation
Friday, October 07, 2005
DYLAN RIVERA
A $137 million project to transform Portland's Meier & Frank building into a hotel and remodeled store won't begin until late January, at the earliest, as state and federal officials scrutinize plans for preserving the landmark's Georgian Room restaurant.
The building's owner, Federated Department Stores Inc., and the hotel developer, Sage Hospitality Resources LLC, previously had said they would start "substantial work" on the renovation this fall. They plan a new and improved store on the first five floors, with a luxury hotel filling the upper 10 floors.
But the two companies are at odds with the State Historic Preservation Office and the National Park Service's Technical Preservation Services Branch over which elements of the building will be maintained. The Georgian Room's fate has become the most substantial element of disagreement.
Ken Geist, executive vice president for Sage Hospitality, said the delays mean the hotel won't open until the first half of 2008, rather than in late 2007 as originally forecast. The updated store is scheduled to open by fall 2007, although it no longer will be known as Meier & Frank. Federated bought Meier & Frank's owner, May Department Stores Co., this year and said it would rename the store Macy's.
The store has begun preparing unoccupied floors for the renovations, said Milinda Martin, a Los Angeles-based spokeswoman for Meier & Frank. But, she emphasized, the work would not be visible to holiday shoppers.
Major renovations, including seismic upgrades, likely would require installing a tower crane beside the building and having construction workers bustling around the property.
Renovation and preservation of the downtown landmark and retail anchor have been a top city priority for years, as May let it fall into disrepair and allowed speculation to persist that the store would pull out entirely. But getting a hotel partner to invest in the building -- which ultimately required loans backed by the Portland Development Commission, a 15-year state historic property tax freeze and other incentives -- persuaded the store to stay and renovate.
The renovation plans call for hotel rooms in the area occupied by the 10th-floor Georgian Room, a space of sea-foam green walls where ladies have lunched since at least the 1930s.
The restaurant reflects an era when department stores provided full-service restaurants to coax patrons into spending their day in the building, said James Hamerick, deputy state historic preservation officer.
"You get a lot of really good stories about the Georgian Room from patrons," Hamerick said. "It's probably the only high-style piece of the Meier & Frank building left on the interior, and it is clearly a significant space."
Hamerick has asked the National Parks Service to make preservation of the room a condition of federal historic preservation tax credits. The developers are counting on the $15.5 million or so in credits to produce about $14 million in equity to help finance the redevelopment.
John Tess, president of Portland's Heritage Consulting Group, which is handling preservation issues for the store and the hotel developer, had suggested elements of the room perhaps could be preserved by moving moldings or other pieces of the room's architecture to public places on the sixth or eighth floors.
Neither state nor federal officials seem likely to agree with that proposal, though.
"Please be advised that parceling out pieces of this significant space to different areas of the building destroys its integrity and does not meet the Standards," Gary Sachau of the National Park Service wrote in an Aug. 22 memo to the developers and state officials.
Tess said Thursday the developers plan to comply with calls for preservation, but they haven't decided how.
The companies have until Oct. 22 to reply with their plans for the Georgian Room and a handful of other historic preservation issues. The National Park Service then will make a ruling, which can be appealed.
State preservation officials can only advise on the federal program.
Sage Hospitality's Geist said the company plans to have a full-service restaurant in the hotel, although he declined to discuss details of the Georgian Room preservation.
He did say Sage is reconsidering whether its hotel will be a franchise of the Renaissance Hotels & Resorts brand, which had been in the plans for more than a year. Renaissance is known for unique properties, and Sage operates several historic Renaissance hotels in other markets. A decision on a hotel brand and a lender should be made in the next week or so, Geist said.
Sage plans to close on the purchase of its part of the building in December, Geist said.
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1128683122303210.xml&coll=7&thispage=1
pdxstreetcar
Oct 7, 2005, 4:07 PM
The Georgian Room:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/pdxstreetcar/georoom1.jpg
MarkDaMan
Oct 7, 2005, 8:59 PM
Oh, I see why they are all fussy over it now. It is a lot more beautiful than I had imagined. I should get up there and have lunch before it's gone!
pdxstreetcar
Oct 7, 2005, 9:30 PM
^
Yeah its really like a step back in time to the golden age of department stores, I would imagine that it has bearly changed in the last 50 years. The people working there have been their for as many as 30 years. The food is basic American comfort lunch foods things like tuna melts, chicken strips, BLTs etc, is cheap (like $7 for a meal with a soup/salad, side and bread) and is served with silverware on white table cloths. Its only open weekdays at lunch time.
I would imagine its the last of its kind in the US as the few old time department stores that are still open have mostly modernized their restaurants into cafeterias or food courts.
MitchE
Oct 28, 2005, 9:04 PM
Timeline set for remodel
Portland Tribune
Construction is expected to begin on the $137 million redevelopment of the downtown Meier & Frank store in January or February, according to Bruce Warner, executive director of the Portland Development Commission.
Plans call for an upgrade of the aging Portland landmark and transformation of the 10 top floors into a luxury hotel. Warner said the store plans to stay open during the construction .
“This is a critical project for downtown that has been many years in the making,” Warner said.
The city has offered many incentives for the building to be saved, including loans backed by the PDC and a 15-year state historic property tax. Work was delayed on the project earlier this year while Federated Department Stores Inc. bought the May Co., which owned Meier & Frank.
Additional delays occurred when preservationists called for the Georgian Room — the store’s well-known dining area on the 10th floor — to be saved. Although discussion about the room continues, Warner expects it to be concluded soon and construction to begin after the holiday shopping season.
I'm not so sure that the fly in for the weekend, throw a party, out in the morning is a bad deal for downtown. Doesn't seem like a good way to make the sidewalk any nicer, but two nights a week in downtown probably means two nights of eating fancy dinners, shopping, and watching a show at the schnitz. Probably helps the commercial side of downtown quite a bit.
NorskyGirl
Jan 2, 2006, 4:39 AM
Now those are some nice views. Thanks for the photos, bvpcvm!
MarkDaMan
Feb 8, 2006, 7:23 PM
we're almost halfway into Feb and I still see no activity other than shoppers at M&F, anyone have a word on construction timelines?
PacificNW
Feb 8, 2006, 7:30 PM
It was in the Oregonian the other day that they were going to start sometime in the Spring.
pdxstreetcar
Feb 9, 2006, 6:42 PM
I believe that the Georgian Room is supposed to close in about a week or two
pdxstreetcar
Feb 15, 2006, 1:34 AM
the macy's name is making its way into M&F mostly in advertising. the ground floor merchandise is noticably different and less cluttered
the 10th floor is empty but open to public, the georgian room is closed
i would guess the store will shrink in the next few months to the first 5 floors
saeternes
Feb 20, 2006, 3:51 AM
One more thing: is the May 2007 completion date realistic?
MarkDaMan
Apr 6, 2006, 3:25 PM
I was thinking KGW should move their news studio into the corner unit by Safeway. It would be like our own 'Today Show' or 'TRL' and the people of Portland could stand around and wave banners at the anchors back, or protest as that seems the popular thing to do around here, and be on TV.
PacificNW
Apr 6, 2006, 6:32 PM
Sound like a great idea, Mark. If not there maybe get naming rights to a new office tower downtown if they relocated. Their present site should be redeveloped for high rise residential.
MitchE
Apr 7, 2006, 4:55 PM
Meier & Frank project is a go
By JIM REDDEN I
ssue date: Fri, Apr 7, 2006
The Portland Tribune
The long-awaited downtown Meier & Frank building renovation project has cleared its final legal hurdles. According to Portland Development Commission spokeswoman Elissa Gertler, the final agreements sealing the deal were signed Monday, meaning that work on the project now can begin.
“It was a very complex deal involving 32 entities and 92 different documents, but it’s all come together now,” Gertler said.
The aging department store occupies a full block on the transit mall between Southwest Fifth and Sixth avenues and Morrison and Alder streets. Federated Department Stores Inc. acquired the building when it bought the May Co. — Meier & Frank’s parent company — in early 2005.
The PDC-brokered renovation deal calls for Federated to sell the 6th through 15th floors of the building to Sage Hospitality Resources to be developed as condominiums and a 334-room Marriott Renaissance hotel. Federated will use the proceeds and additional funds to remodel the first five floors into a new Macy’s department store.
The deal calls for the PDC to loan the project $13.25 million, triggering $133 million in private investments and preserving the historic landmark.
Gertler says the new Macy’s is expected to open in fall 2007, while the upper-floor condos and hotel will be completed in summer 2008.
City leaders long have considered the plan critical to revitalizing the downtown retail core. It has been included in the PDC plans for downtown for many years, along with the $192 million renovation of the TriMet transit mall that now is scheduled to begin early next year. The agency’s 2002 Downtown Portland Retail Strategy identified the retention and renovation of the store as its No. 1 priority.
MarkDaMan
Apr 7, 2006, 5:20 PM
The tram's a go, M&F is a go...what else have we been waiting for?
brandonpdx
Apr 7, 2006, 5:37 PM
I5 to be buried on the Eastbank, a subway, a baseball stadium and the post office in the Pearl to move to the airport.
urbanlife
Apr 7, 2006, 6:56 PM
I5 to be buried on the Eastbank, a subway, a baseball stadium and the post office in the Pearl to move to the airport.
minor details.
PacificNW
Apr 7, 2006, 7:05 PM
Brandon...when I first glanced @ your post I was concerned about "what 15 you wanted buried... ;)
zilfondel
Apr 7, 2006, 10:37 PM
Actually, I'd rather not have the Post Office move... keeps rents & prices in check. =)
CouvScott
Apr 8, 2006, 2:13 AM
Not that it adds any more validity to this post, but I have had people in my office copying prints all week for this, so this is a project that will be under construction really soon. Looks like we will be working this site for the next year or so.
steeplechase3k
Apr 9, 2006, 3:37 AM
There are signs up saying that the bus stops on the M&F block will close shortly due to the renovation (I didn't notice the date)...
MarkDaMan
Apr 12, 2006, 3:21 PM
M&F renovation has started!
The awnings on 5th Ave have been taken down and the bus stops are closed!
saeternes
Apr 14, 2006, 5:55 AM
The Benson is supposed to be completed May 7, 2007. It looks like it might be earlier.
citybuilder
Apr 14, 2006, 3:16 PM
I think the writer was confused on that point. I believe the Benson Tower was on the 10th floor when the article was written, not 10 floors to go.
I know that 3 floors is a high enough fall to kill a worker.
MarkDaMan
Apr 18, 2006, 6:45 PM
It appears Starwood will now name the new hotel at M&F
Georgian Room on our mind
Plans to change
Saturday, April 15, 2006
DYLAN RIVERA
The Oregonian
Plans for the redevelopment of Portland's Meier & Frank building are going upscale.
Developer Sage Hospitality Resources said this week that it intends to build a swank $117 million hotel on the upper 10 floors of the downtown landmark. Luxury Collection, a brand owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., intends to bring four- or five-star opulence to a building that had not aged particularly well in recent decades.
The hotel's eighth-floor lobby, a main public access point, will feature a floor-to-ceiling piece of historic architecture treasured by generations of genteel Portland ladies: the Georgian Room, a dining room dating to the 1920s, which closed earlier this year. The restaurant won't reopen, but the historic room, relocated and re-created using original materials, will be accessible as part of the hotel's lobby and meeting rooms for guests.
The news about the Georgian Room's new location and the hotel's brand name were the latest twists in what promises to be one of the highest-profile redevelopment projects in the state.
Meier & Frank's longtime owner, May Department Stores Co., for years let the downtown store slide with outdated decor and vacant floor space, fomenting fears that it would eventually close or relocate. In 2004, Sage Hospitality stepped in, pledging to buy the top floors in a deal that would give the retailer enough cash to update and consolidate on the lower five.
The hotel developer has since hired Hoffman Construction Co. to punch a hole through the top eight floors, creating an atrium that will bring natural light to inward-facing rooms.
But many details, especially about the Georgian Room preservation, remain unanswered. The developers and their Portland-based architects and consultants still won't say how much of the Georgian Room's sea-foam green trim, heavy-curtained windows and hardwood floors dimpled by high-heeled shoes will be preserved in the new hotel lobby. They declined to make architectural renderings available this week.
Prioritizing preservation
James Hamrick, deputy state historic preservation officer, said Friday that state officials pushed for preservation and public access to the room. Even if it won't function as a restaurant anymore, and it will be relocated from the 10th floor to the eighth, visitors will be able to tell what the room once was, Hamrick said.
"The idea is it will look very similar, even though smaller scale, to what the Georgian Room looked like," Hamrick said. "It will look familiar to you if you were a Georgian Room aficionado."
Hamrick asked the National Park Service to make preservation of the room a condition of some tax credits. The developers are counting on about $15.5 million in historic preservation credits to help finance the project.
Hang-ups over the Georgian Room delayed construction from September 2005 to next month. Federal officials first suggested keeping the room on the 10th floor, Hamrick said, but that would have led to carving up the space into individual hotel rooms, accessible only to hotel guests.
Hamrick said the Park Service relented after state officials argued for a location that would provide more public access.
"To declare that it's important and then to close it off so that the public can't see it unless you're paying some high-roller rent for the suite, it just seemed not in the public interest," Hamrick said.
Federated Department Stores Inc., which bought May Department Stores Co. last year, will change the downtown store's name to Macy's by September. Macy's officials would not comment this week on the latest details of their plans for the store.
Overhaul of upper floors
Ken Geist, executive vice president of Sage Hospitality, said the company will work hard to keep the department store open, even while the upper floors undergo a major overhaul.
"This is a magnificent historic building, and we are looking forward to making it a focal point of downtown Portland once again," Geist said.
On April 3, Sage Hospitality closed on its purchase of floors six through 16.
The prospect of a Starwood brand hotel will be welcome news for travelers in that company's frequent customer program, said Ed Dundon, a hotel broker with The Dundon Co. in Portland.
"Hopefully it will be a product that will benefit all travelers in Portland in that it offers something unique and different to the traveling public," Dundon said. Competing Marriott and Hilton programs have more than 1,000 rooms each in downtown Portland, while Starwood customers have only a highly competitive Westin hotel and a couple of aging Starwood hotels with fewer amenities.
Sage had previously said it was considering a Renaissance hotel, a Marriott brand.
Portland's hotel market has been recovering for several years and should be strong enough to handle another high-end hotel downtown, Dundon said.
Sage Hospitality could have a hard time drawing people to the eighth-floor hotel lobby, even if it has a ground-floor entrance, Dundon said.
"It remains to be seen what type of hurdles they have being so high up in the air in a market the size of Portland," Dundon said. "That will be interesting to see."
Dylan Rivera: 503-221-8532; dylanrivera@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/business/1145069722200780.xml&coll=7
CouvScott
Apr 19, 2006, 1:55 PM
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/couvttocs/photo_137_0134benson.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/couvttocs/photo_143_1303benson.jpg
I love that floor plate. So tiny.
pdxstreetcar
Apr 19, 2006, 5:10 PM
i see on the design review agenda the benson tower is trying to
"change the metal panels on all four elevations to spandrel glass panels."
i wonder how this will change the appearance of the building from the renderings.
MarkDaMan
Apr 20, 2006, 5:08 PM
Meier & Frank project showcases PDC's value
The agency, once again, proves how instrumental it is in the success of Portland's downtown
Thursday, April 20, 2006
In the past few decades, a sad game of dominoes has played out in many American downtowns. An anchor store, often in a historic building, goes dark, and many smaller retailers panic and flee to the suburbs, as well.
Ask yourself what has averted such failure here. There's a long list of reasons for our downtown's success, but the Portland Development Commission surely heads the list. The renovation of the historic Meier & Frank building into a swanky hotel atop a department store -- a complex redevelopment project finalized earlier this month -- illustrates how nimble, and how instrumental, the Portland Development Commission can be.
PDC played matchmaker. It first matched a hotel developer to a historic building, owned by a retail company, then held this match together for several years even as the building's ownership changed hands. This project could have fallen apart in so many different ways, and it almost did a couple of times, but PDC pulled it through.
Denver-based Sage Hospitality Resources, which specializes in turning around distressed and/or historic buildings, is planning to build a $117 million hotel on the top floors of the Meier & Frank. The bottom floors, which are now separately owned, will be renovated into a Macy's.
As this project goes forward, many Portlanders will come and go, enjoying our downtown and taking it for granted. It will seem, at times, as if this renovation near Pioneer Courthouse Square is just taking place on its own, without any push from the public sector. Let the record show that this huge project would never have happened without the strategic intervention of the Portland Development Commission.
The agency's trademark is to take a small public-sector investment, often in the form of loans or tax credits, and engineer a very large private investment. After first making the match of hotel developer and retailer, the PDC cemented the Meier & Frank deal with a financing plan, involving $15.5 million worth of historic preservation tax credits and a $13.9 million loan to help with a seismic upgrade.
The PDC is the agency that everybody loves to bash, especially during a Portland City Council campaign. And the agency in the past few years has merited much of the criticism that has come its way, including a disturbing report, issued last year by the City Club of Portland.
Since then, Mayor Tom Potter has appointed a new executive director, Bruce A. Warner, as well as several new commissioners. Perhaps inevitably, the barrage of criticism and staff departures over the past year have taken a toll on the agency's morale, raising a question: Can the PDC become as transparent, accountable and neighborhood-friendly as it ought to be, without crippling its effectiveness?
There are risks involved in any renovation, of course, including the renovation of the city's leading renovation agency. But the agency's success in sealing the Meier & Frank deal is reassuring, strongly suggesting that this wheeler-dealer organization -- despite its ongoing transformation -- hasn't lost its moxie or its mojo.
A big new department store downtown, combined with an upscale hotel, is likely to spark more of the same: more excitement, more investment and more redevelopment. In the adjacent area, in other words, it's likely to have a reverse domino effect.
Thanks to the PDC, Portland will get what every city craves: a newer, brighter, re-energized downtown.
http://www.oregonlive.com/editorials/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1145483716321420.xml&coll=7
pdxstreetcar
Apr 28, 2006, 3:12 AM
Meier & Frank name to stay!!!!!!
well sort of... the new store will be called "Macy's at Meier & Frank Square"
Source (http://www.oregonlive.com/newslogs/oregonian/index.ssf?/mtlogs/olive_oregonian_news/archives/2006_04.html#135645)
Official announcement and more tomorrow
while i think its great the name is somewhat sticking around (i'm sure no one will call it by the full name), i am not a fan of the "square" title... its not a park, something like "block" would be better
zilfondel
Apr 28, 2006, 4:16 AM
"Macy's at Meier & Frank overlooking Pioneer Courthouse Square"
would that have been any better? Although I do appreciate the corporation for respecting Portlanders. They don't do that often...
pdxstreetcar
Apr 28, 2006, 2:54 PM
the historic meier and frank clock will remain
the monorail and santaland is moving to the basement.
the ceiling is too low for the monorail to operate and will just be for photos-ops
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1146191131186180.xml&coll=7
MarkDaMan
Apr 28, 2006, 3:08 PM
the historic meier and frank clock will remain
what clock?
I give props to Macy's. It could have been Macy's Portland City Center. I wonder if the Santa Parade will be "Macy's at Meier and Frank Square Holiday Parade with Santa"
MarkDaMan
Apr 28, 2006, 6:54 PM
and the fun begins!
http://static.flickr.com/54/136497156_a90c6e39db.jpg?v=1146249385
http://static.flickr.com/54/136497153_7ae2fb1ca9_m.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/53/136497151_4d396a93d6.jpg?v=1146249963
brandonpdx
May 8, 2006, 8:32 PM
people are starting to move into the 4th floor!
Epicurean
May 20, 2006, 7:49 PM
Why not just use some of the exterior walls of the Rosefriend instead of building new walls to look old?
That's actually a very good idea! The Rosefriends is a wonderful old building....
South-by-West
May 20, 2006, 8:56 PM
^ Where is the Moyer block and what (if anything) is currently proposed Mark?
If I recall, the Moyer block is directly to the south of the Ladd tower?
bvpcvm
May 20, 2006, 9:54 PM
^ where the chevron used to be
sirsimon
May 21, 2006, 12:52 AM
^ Cool, thanks! :)
MarkDaMan
May 22, 2006, 3:40 PM
and what (if anything) is currently proposed Mark?
nothing is proposed yet, but Moyer did an interview saying that he was hoping to put up a signature tower (well, I'm not exactly sure if signature was the word used) but made it sound like he was trying to do something as spectacular as the Fox Tower was.
I also noticed they decided not to move the carriage house across the street and to his block during the 18+ months of construction but instead choose a space a few blocks up. That leads me to think something might be in the works...and I think it is only a 1/4 block so the tower, done right, could be a huge lift to that part of Broadway.
saeternes
May 24, 2006, 2:13 AM
For those of you who live in condos: please help me with this difficult choice (sorry to post this, but I am desperate). Parking space on level 1, but storage on level 1 is only 14 square feet. Could get 18 sq ft storage but it would be on level 2 away from parking. Which is better? Thank you thank you...
pdxstreetcar
May 24, 2006, 9:21 PM
Is storage for bikes or random stuff that needs to be dry?
saeternes
May 24, 2006, 9:37 PM
I didn't even think of bikes, but I guess there will be one there. Otherwise it will be random stuff.
pdxstreetcar
May 24, 2006, 10:05 PM
I dont find the distance between storage and parking to be a problem. Most likely the storage space becomes that place for stuff you rarely use or stuff that doesnt fit in the residential unit (golf clubs, skis, ice coolers, folding chairs, etc.) plus I would imagine the storage space is very much like a dog kennel with tiny pens and cyclone fencing, while secure with a padlock, stuff is very visable to everyone using the storage room. I guess it all depends on what you would be storing and how often you need to move it between your car. Since living in an apartment/condo usually means one is somewhat pressed for space (or just dont want to be crowded with lots of stuff hanging around their apt/condo) getting a larger storage unit would be probably be a good idea but the question is: is it worth it for 4 more sq ft?
I would guess that your building will also have bike storage space (probably in the empty spaces in the garage like in the corners) consisting of bike racks. Be sure to lock up your bike well as they are a popular target with theves who sneak into the garage. Although sometimes even a good lock is not enough (but I would imagine your bldg has video cameras which deter most if not all of garage theft).
MarkDaMan
May 25, 2006, 3:39 PM
twice this week I have walked past Meier and Frank's loading dock and seen pieces of Santaland in a dumpster, including some garland and the faux fireplace...I almost jacked it when I saw it...but it was quite heartbreaking.
They have built a construction elevator on 5th ave only to about floor 6 or 7...I wonder if they are doing the department store renovation from 5th and the hotel from 6th?
zilfondel
May 25, 2006, 7:18 PM
Just don't get too expensive of a bike!
A good Kryptonite New York Lock should do the trick, as long as you lock up the frame AND the front tire:
http://www.kryptonitelock.com/inetisscripts/abtinetis.exe/templateform@public?tn=home_home
MarkDaMan
May 26, 2006, 8:18 PM
the trees in front of M&F on 6th Ave have all been torn out.
PacificNW
Jun 16, 2006, 8:58 PM
I like...hey you guys might want to check out the Nashville site for their tallest hotel/condo proposal. It was in today's USA Today.
CouvScott
Jul 6, 2006, 8:30 PM
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/couvttocs/MVC-900F.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/couvttocs/MVC-906F.jpg
CouvScott
Jul 6, 2006, 8:49 PM
Navy skin going up...
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/couvttocs/MVC-898F.jpg
livablepdx
Jul 12, 2006, 8:09 PM
Does anyone know if the Ladd, or any other downtown (non-Pearl) condo buildings, are seeking LEED certification or are making any steps to include green building attributes?
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