Posted Jul 16, 2024, 9:18 PM
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Moderator
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Portland
Posts: 7,535
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Quote:
After seven years, a multifamily building opens
![](https://djcoregon.com/files/2024/07/0717_Merx_WEB.jpg)
Officially, the real estate investors, architects and construction executives who gathered in Northwest Portland last week came together to celebrate the opening of Merx, a 126-unit mixed-use building.
But in a sense, they were celebrating the last breath of the pre-pandemic real estate cycle.
Merx was conceived in 2017, before COVID-19 delayed projects around the nation and sent construction prices spiraling by making everything from loans to concrete more expensive.
“We started this process seven years ago, so the landscape was somewhat different,” said project co-owner Richard Smith, founder of Deacon Development. He undertook the project with Steve Deacon, founder and board chairman of Deacon Construction. The two are longtime colleagues — Smith was Deacon Construction’s first full-time hire in 1982 as project engineer.
Merx, at 1910 N.W. Pettygrove St., was part of a wave of projects submitted just before Portland’s inclusionary zoning rules took effect, requiring affordable units in apartment buildings of 20 units or more. The property was purchased for $2.55 million in October 2017.
Deacon Construction began construction of the 57,412-square-foot building in August 2022, enduring pandemic-related disruptions and workforce challenges, a historic ice storm and delivery delays of construction materials.
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...continues at the DJC.
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