Daily Journal of Commerce, Portland articles from August 2003

Daily Journal of Commerce, Portland archives from August 2003

Structural engineer's endowment benefits PSU.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Stephanie Basalyga A semi-retired structural engineer has presented a $500,000 professorship endowment to Portland State University's College of Engineering and Computer Science.The donor, Arthur M. James, requested that the...

Fly fishing broker trades in rod for real estate.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl Commercial broker Joe Sugura has made two decisions prompting his colleagues to call him crazy. The first was leaving a promising career in real estate to found a fly fishing lodge in Mexico. The second was coming...

Portland preps Big Pipe site for Ankeny shaft excavation.
August 1, 2003... Byline: Stephanie Basalyga Work crews have cordoned off a section of Waterfront Park across from the Central Fire Station to prepare the site for excavation of the last of four shafts the city of Portland will dig for its West Side Big...

Portland-based Interface Engineering designs computerized electrical lighting system for high school.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Ray Hughey Its work at the new Clackamas High School remains a bright spot for Interface Engineering.The Portland firm designed the automated electrical lighting system for the two-story, 265,355-square-foot high school, which...

Portland, Spokane contractors join forces for Spokane Convention Center expansion project.
August 4, 2003... Byline: Stephanie Basalyga Portland-based Hoffman Construction Co. and Bouten Construction Co., a Spokane, Wash., firm, will share a joint role overseeing construction for a future expansion planned for the Spokane Convention Center. The...

Vancouver construction firm grows into success.
August 5, 2003... Byline: Ray Hughey The place was a lot less crowded when he started, Brian Wells recalls.Team Construction Inc. had five employees when it started in 1991 Wells, his former partner, a receptionist and two people in the field.The business...

Bridgeport Village facing five appeals.
August 6, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl A spate of last-minute appeals could slow Opus' hope to start construction on Bridgeport Village early this fall.Five appeals to the plan for the more than 600,000-square-foot, open-air mall were logged with the city of...

Bandon Dunes tees off on third golf course.
August 6, 2003... Byline: Ray Hughey It's a tad early to call for tee times, but the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Coos County is adding a third 18-hole golf course.The new course, expected to open in Spring 2005, will be designed by Bill Coore and golfer Ben...

ProgressView creates online venue for posting construction progress reports.
August 7, 2003... Byline: Ray Hughey A new Portland business has taken construction reporting online.ProgressView, founded by Dave Reese and Matthew Ives, provides a venue for posting construction progress reports on the Internet.Its secure, online...

Bethany Village community coming of age.
August 7, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl After more than a decade of careful planning and calculated construction, developer Roy Kim is seeing his vision for Bethany Village as an interconnected community slowly come together.The 135-acre, mixed-use...

River provides inspiration for restaurant design.
August 7, 2003... Byline: Stephanie Basalyga As twilight arrives blue-edged and fading to purple in Northwest Portland, a restaurant named Sungari Pearl begins to shine. Inside the L-shaped restaurant space at the corner of Lovejoy Street and Northwest 11th...

River provides inspiration for restaurant design.
August 8, 2003... Byline: Stephanie Basalyga As twilight arrives blue-edged and fading to purple in Northwest Portland, a restaurant named Sungari Pearl begins to shine. Inside the L-shaped restaurant space at the corner of Lovejoy Street and Northwest 11th...

PSU looking to purchase DoubleTree Hotel.
August 8, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl Continuing its bid to acquire more space to serve a swelling student population, Portland State University is working to purchase the DoubleTree Hotel, located on Lincoln Street southeast of the urban campus.The...

Video potent in home lot size debate.
August 8, 2003... Byline: Ray Hughey The Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland and several of its builders carried no high hopes into the June 18 hearing before the Portland City Council.They were going up against a potentially damaging...

Girls explore engineering solutions at camp.
August 11, 2003... Byline: Stephanie Basalyga Forget building a better mousetrap. Twelve-year-old Brittany Hartmann is more interested in coming up with an invention to make it easier to feed her family's two pets.Hartmann is already on her way to making her...

Horton building 29.1-acre community.
August 11, 2003... Byline: Ray Hughey Homebuilder D. R. Horton has begun work on a $56 million, 29.1-acre site community in Troutdale that will be its largest project to date in the Portland metropolitan area.Horton will build its 257-home development on the...

Health insurance co., PR firm to switch office space.
August 11, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl It should always be this easy.One firm needs to downsize; the other needs a larger space. They're both in the same downtown building. Why not just trade spaces?For Cushman & Wakefield Director Mark Watson, the idea was...

The search for industrial land continues.
August 12, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl Widening its search to identify 2,700 acres of industrial land for development, Metro is eyeing some 68,000 acres in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties.Metro Council President David Bragdon said the agency's...

ODOT projects pick up summer steam.
August 12, 2003... Byline: Stephanie Basalyga Drivers in the Portland metro area may want to travel with maps as the Oregon Department of Transportation continues a flurry of summer road construction, from laying down new striping on Interstate 405 to...

Senate bills create streamlined building process.
August 13, 2003... Byline: Stephanie Basalyga Building industry players and an agency that oversees the state's building codes are applauding four senate bills recently passed by Oregon legislators and signed into law by Gov. Ted Kulongoski.The bills - part...

Search for headquarters hotel developer begins.
August 13, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl With the blessing today of the Portland Development Commission, PDC staff will begin the search for a developer to build a $150 million hotel dedicated to the Oregon Convention Center.After a decade of discussion and...

Portland contractor chosen for $20M L.A. project.
August 13, 2003... Byline: Ray Hughey Portland-based contractor S.D. Deacon has won a $20 million contract to renovate and expand the Citadel Outlets and Office Park in Los Angeles.The contract came from Craig Realty Group of Newport Beach, Calif., which...

Portland, Bend architecture firms team up.
August 14, 2003... Byline: Ray Hughey Ralston Architects of Beaverton and Hara Schick Architecture of Bend decided not to break up a good team.The two firms first combined their talents and resources in 1998 to design the new Bend police station. That job...

Capstone Partners begins construction on first project.
August 14, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl Capstone Partners LLC - founded last fall by a group of former Trammell Crow execs from the company's Portland and Seattle offices - has broken ground on its first project.Cornell Corners is a 18,000-square-foot, retail...

Leasing activity continues at Hillsboro's AmberGlen.
August 14, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl Prudential Northwest Properties is the latest in a spate of real estate firms deciding to call AmberGlen home.The company recently leased 7,849 square feet at One AmberGlen.Dubbed Oregon's largest business park, the...

Bridgeport lands Crate & Barrel.
August 15, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl After six years of searching for a spot to open its first Oregon store, Crate & Barrel has signed on to 36,000 square feet of space at Bridgeport Village.Located on the 29-acre former Durham Quarry site that sits between...

Portland Community College program opens doors for underrepresented companies.
August 15, 2003... Byline: Stephanie Basalyga Mike Kolodziejczak is back at school. Only this time, he's not sitting behind a desk.A graduate of Portland Community College's landscape technology program, Kolodziejczak (pronounced ko-lo-ZHAY-zhack) recently...

Joint operations center in Salem built on a large scale.
August 15, 2003... Byline: Ray Hughey Designing the new state joint emergency operations and military center in Salem came as a large-scale undertaking for Architects Barrentine.Bates.Lee of Lake Oswego.State officials dedicated the building June 21 as the...

Port sells land, eyes future expansion site.
August 18, 2003... Byline: Stephanie Basalyga Port of Portland commissioners voted Wednesday to sell 13.52 acres of land in the Rivergate industrial area to Oregon Transfer Co., a Portland-based transportation and logistics provider that distributes products...

Union Station improvements on track.
August 18, 2003... Byline: Ray Hughey Portland's venerable Union Station at 800 N.W. Sixth Ave. is getting a needed facelift with a $1 million project to improve the city block in front of the historic transportation terminal.The changes will improve access...

Postal service to close vertically improved mailrooms today.
August 18, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl If you're a downtown tenant that's accustomed to going to one of the city's vertically improved mailrooms for high rise buildings to pick up the mail, you will now have to wait for the carrier to come to you.VIM rooms,...

Two highway projects to make Portland commute smoother.
August 19, 2003... Byline: Ray Hughey Life on the road should get a little less stressful for many Vancouver-area residents commuting to work in Portland. Two Southern Washington highway projects should make their drives smoother and safer.A $23.3 million...

Portland State Univ., PDC considering Montgomery Blocks for redevelopment.
August 19, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl As part of a burgeoning partnership, Portland's urban renewal agency and the city's urban university are working on a strategy to redevelop key parcels along the eastern edge of the University District.The Portland...

Tour uncovers architectural jewels in Oregon.
August 20, 2003... Byline: Stephanie Basalyga Ask Nathan Good to name his two favorite green building heroes and he'll likely point to two architects: Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto."They're the granddaddies of green building," said Good, an architect...

Moisture seminar scheduled in Portland.
August 20, 2003... Byline: Stephanie Basalyga Back in the early 1990s, most architects and contractors agreed that when it came to envelope wall design, the buzzword was "airtight."Then, about half a decade ago, new buzzwords like "mold" and "mildew" began...

Portland's St. Johns Bridge reopens early today.
August 21, 2003... Byline: Ray Hughey The St. Johns Bridge, closed for repairs since July 8, will reopen to two-lane traffic at 10 a.m. today, eight days earlier than anticipated.Contractor Max J. Kuney Co. of Spokane, Wash., used only 41 of the full 49 days...

Analysts hear state economy pattering slowly toward growth.
August 21, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl If the turnout at yesterday's Commercial Association of Realtors breakfast is any indication, industry professionals aren't yet sick of hearing the same old thing about the state of the state's economy.In fact, after...

Specht Development purchases 9 acres on Airport Way in Gresham.
August 22, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl After sitting on the market for more than a year, the property that was once going to be the new headquarters for Ackerley Media has found a new owner.Specht Development Inc. recently purchased the 9.17-acre parcel...

Portland's NW Natural Street of Dreams home showcase features pricier homes than in the past.
August 22, 2003... Byline: Ray Hughey The 2003 NW Natural Street of Dreams, which ended Sunday, made its mark on the event's 28-year history.This year's edition was one of the boldest, with homes a bit pricier than in the past, not the least of which was its...

Law expected to ease construction defect suits.
August 25, 2003... Byline: Stephanie Basalyga When Gov. Ted Kulongoski earlier this month signed Senate Bill 909 into law, Oregon joined the growing list of states taking steps to stem a swell of construction defect lawsuits in the residential building...

City of Portland puts home-building permits on fast track.
August 25, 2003... Byline: Ray Hughey The city of Portland's Bureau of Development has launched a pilot program to issue residential building permits faster.The new system aims for a maximum 10-day turnaround for experienced builders.The bureau, which...

Internship experience pays off.
August 25, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl Nick Kucha is probably one of the few students returning to school who knows he'll have a job when he graduates.How does that make Kucha feel, considering he'd planned on staying in the state with the worst job market in...

Streets of Tanasbourne groundbreaking next week.
August 26, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl After nearly four years of planning, construction is scheduled to begin on the 370,000-square-foot Streets of Tanasbourne early next week.The mall - the outdoor variety with extensive landscaping and amenities like...

Oregon Historical Society expansion work winds down.
August 26, 2003... Byline: Ray Hughey The $3.75 million expansion of the Oregon Historical Society is winding down in preparation for a Sept. 20 grand opening. The project includes a new lobby and main entrance, the addition of a second elevator, and the...

Oregon's industrial lands bill heads to governor.
August 27, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl After a long, windy road through a record-long legislative session, the industrial lands bill has cleared the House and Senate and is on its way to the governor's desk.The measure - which started as Senate Bill 467 -...

Portland readies machines for west side big dig.
August 27, 2003... Byline: Ray Hughey Work crews this week began preparing two huge boring machines - christened "Lewis" and "Clark" - to gnaw a 4-mile tunnel 120 feet beneath Portland's west side.A 308-ton crane on Monday started lowering the machine parts,...

Pioneer Courthouse renovation bids rejected.
August 28, 2003... Byline: Ray Hughey The U.S. General Services Administration has rejected all three contractor bids for the Pioneer Courthouse seismic upgrade and rehabilitation project.The GSA received the bids July 31 and rejected them last week as too...

Washington Square to expand, add parking.
August 28, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl Washington Square announced today plans for a 100,000-square-foot retail expansion that includes a new four-story parking structure.Howard S. Wright Construction Co. of Portland is the general contractor on the project,...

Portland developer to renovate 1920s apartment building.
August 29, 2003... Byline: Aimee Curl Robert Ball just can't stand sitting still. In addition to overseeing demolition work on the former Meier & Frank warehouse - now called "The Avenue" and slated for 166 lofts - and keeping a watchful eye over sales of...

Oregon Society for Mktg. Professional Services chapter wins national honor.
August 29, 2003... Byline: Ray Hughey The Oregon chapter of the Society for Marketing Professional Services is celebrating its 20th anniversary with style.The chapter recently earned high marks and recognition from its national parent, The Society for...