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[MarkDaMan]

Bank mulls 11-story wood building in the Pearl District
Jan 22, 2015, 11:05am PST
Matthew Kish and Jon Bell
Portland Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/...t.html?s=print

Beneficial State Bank is considering an 11-story wood building in the Pearl District that would include two bank branches, B-corporations and affordable housing.

The building would be at 430 N.W. 10th Ave., the site of an Albina Bank branch. Beneficial State Bank, which was previously known as One PacificCoast Bank, acquired a majority stake in Albina in 2013.

Oakland, Calif.-based Beneficial State Bank owns the site.

"We are looking at redeveloping the site," said Beneficial State CEO Kat Taylor, who visited Portland Wednesday. "We have an application in with the USDA to see if we can explore the possibility of a tall wood building."

Taylor said the proposal calls for a mixed-used building between 10 and 11 stories. It would include a Beneficial State branch and an Albina branch on the ground floor. It would also provide space for B-corps, or socially responsible companies, a primary customer for both Beneficial and Albina.

The project also would include housing.

"Our mission would be to have a high proportion for the housing be affordable, if not all of it," Taylor said.

She said the bank is working with an architect and a project developer and plans to have "a bunch" of community input before proceeding with the project.

"It will be a while in the making," she said. "We're still gathering stakeholders. We'll have a big input process. But we own the site and I think we have in terms of impact a really high-quality product to offer."

The site is part of a city block that is also planned to be home to a new Hilton hotel. Menashe Properties is one of the lead partners on that project, which is scheduled to bring a Canopy by Hilton hotel to a quarter-block at Northwest Glisan Street and Ninth Avenue. The hotel, which is expected to have 153 rooms, is expected to break ground in September of this year.

Taylor was the subject for a Portland Business Journal cover story in 2013.

Check back for more from Taylor's interview with the Business Journal.