Daily Journal of Commerce, Portland articles from November 2005

Daily Journal of Commerce, Portland archives from November 2005

Union County may be Oregon's first Rural Renewable Energy Development Zone.
November 1, 2005... Byline: Alison Ryan When it comes to windiness, the Columbia River Gorge gets a lot of attention. But the year-round wind in Union County leaves gorge gusts in the dust - and that's helped make the northeastern Oregon county the state's...

Stakeholders hope residential tower will brighten blighted area of downtown Portland.
November 2, 2005... Byline: Kennedy Smith On the corner of Southwest Second Avenue and Oak Street in downtown Portland sits the historic Police Headquarters building, home to a few venture capital firms, tax attorneys and other professional services...

Portland Sustainability Briefs: November 2, 2005.
November 2, 2005... Byline: DJC Staff BASE summit likely moving to mid-March The Business Alliance for Sustainable Energy's 2005 summit on developing and financing sustainable energy, which had been scheduled to take place Oct. 27-28 in Central Oregon, is...

Finance-related starting salaries to increase in '06, says staffing research firm.
November 2, 2005... Byline: Kennedy Smith Heightened competition for accounting and finance professionals will lead to increases in base compensation next year, according to the 2006 Salary Guide from staffing research firm Robert Half International Inc. ...

Portland's 2005 Watershed Management Plan widened to include threats to water quality.
November 3, 2005... Byline: Alison Ryan In the past, local watershed management plans tended to target urgent issues: flooding, contamination, destruction. Now, the Bureau of Environmental Services' 2005 Portland Watershed Management Plan has been widened to...

1,000 Friends of Oregon design action team to tackle Connections Project in Garibaldi.
November 3, 2005... Byline: DJC Staff A 1,000 Friends of Oregon design action team on Nov. 7 and 8 will be in Garibaldi to conduct onsite work for the Garibaldi Community Partnership's Connections Project, which will improve pedestrian links among the...

Portland Water Bureau plugging gaps 2,600 miles from home.
November 3, 2005... Byline: Deon Roberts (This article originally ran in New Orleans CityBusiness, another Dolan Media publication.) When New Orleans residents run a bath, wash their clothes or turn on the tap, they can give some credit to Portland. ...

Interview with Shirley Robinson, voice of Portland's garbage and recycling hotline.
November 4, 2005... Byline: Alison Ryan Trash tends to raise tempers - and that's a lesson Shirley Robinson learns daily. Robinson has been the voice of the Office of Sustainable Development's garbage and recycling hotline for the past 10 years, fielding...

Oregon Building Congress award winners honored for outstanding educational programs.
November 4, 2005... Byline: Libby Tucker The Oregon Building Congress presented five annual awards Wednesday night to teachers and members of the building industry for outstanding contributions to its educational programs and awarded certificates to six...

Southern, Southwestern Oregon projects win AIA awards.
November 4, 2005... Byline: Alison Ryan AIA/Southwestern Oregon and AIA/Southern Oregon honored six area projects with seven awards as part of its annual juried design competition. WBGS Architecture and Planning of Eugene took home three of the seven...

The U.S. Department of Justice vs. the National Association of Realtors.
November 7, 2005... Byline: Kennedy Smith Almost eight years ago, Steve DelBianco became an investor in what he thought would be the real estate equivalent of the hugely successful discount travel sites Expedia.com and Travelocity. The Web site, eRealty.com,...

New energy program in Oregon targets efficient, comfortable buildings.
November 7, 2005... Byline: Alison Ryan A new program from Energy Trust of Oregon Inc. aims to keep large commercial buildings operating as efficiently as possible. "Just because you set your system up to work right in the beginning doesn't mean it's...

Portland nonprofit sponsors recycled art project that puts corporate waste into creative hands.
November 8, 2005... Byline: Alison Ryan Unplug the shredder, pull the wood scraps off the recycling pile and start saving the other odds and ends of doing business. The art world and the corporate world don't collide all that often, but the intersection may...

Associated General Contractors Oregon-Columbia chapter vows legislative action over liability.
November 8, 2005... Byline: Libby Tucker On stage, before hundreds of tuxedoed members of the Associated General Contractors Saturday night at the Vancouver Hilton, contractor Robert Walsh had strong words for his peers in the construction industry. "I...

University of Oregon's index of economic indicators falls slightly in September.
November 8, 2005... Byline: DJC Staff The latest University of Oregon index of economic indicators showed a half-percent decline from August to September. However, of the eight indicators that comprise the index, three improved: Oregon initial unemployment...

Construction jobs reach record high in October.
November 8, 2005... Byline: DJC Staff New construction employment, spurred largely by rebuilding efforts in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, rose in October, and overall construction employment reached a record high in October, an industry trade...

Jumping Burnside in Portland necessary for West End's redevelopment success.
November 9, 2005... Byline: Kennedy Smith You could say that Portland's newest planned development is the ultimate in mixed-use. With five floors of below-grade parking, first-floor retail, three floors of office space, a 112-room boutique hotel and 17 floors...

Uphill battle to drain Tanner Creek downhill.
November 9, 2005... Byline: Libby Tucker When the third phase of a Tanner Creek stream diversion project is completed in September, stormwater runoff from the Oregon Zoo will gush downhill through 4,000 feet of newly constructed sewer pipe laid beneath the...

Portland Development Commission considers Saturday Market relocation.
November 10, 2005... Byline: Kennedy Smith Although a planned move of Saturday Market isn't likely to happen for another two to three years, the Portland Development Commission and involved stakeholders have pared down to seven a list of potential sites that...

Swinerton Builders Northwest faces age discrimination charges.
November 10, 2005... Byline: Libby Tucker A former senior construction superintendent for Swinerton Builders Northwest recently filed a lawsuit in Washington state court charging the Seattle-based company with age discrimination. Joe Estes, 64, claims that he...

Oregon Health Science and University building expected to be Portland's first LEED platinum.
November 10, 2005... Byline: Alison Ryan Oregon Health Science and University's Center for Health and Healing is expected to be the first LEED platinum building in Portland - and the project engineers are letting the rest of the green building world know...

Interview with David Siegel, Portland planner and president of American Planning Association.
November 14, 2005... Byline: Alison Ryan It was an event described as "architects on steroids" by the chairman of the Mississippi Governor's Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding, and Renewal, and David Siegel, a Portland planner and the president of the American...

Columbia River Channel dredging work moves to upper portion.
November 14, 2005... Byline: DJC Staff Work on the Columbia River Channel Improvement Project was to shift Saturday from the lower river to the upper Columbia River, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said. A hopper dredge, the Sugar Island, was to begin...

Equity Office Properties Trust wants 15-story office tower on downtown site in Portland.
November 14, 2005... Byline: DJC Staff Equity Office Properties Trust, which in March obtained a nearly one-acre surface parking lot at First Avenue and Main Street in downtown Portland, last week unveiled plans for a 15-story, 350,000-square-foot Class A...

Metro's Nature in Neighborhoods makes available watershed project grants in OR.
November 14, 2005... Byline: DJC Staff A region-wide program aimed at protecting nature in neighborhoods is offering $1 million in grant monies to community groups for projects that focus on watershed restoration, conservation and other efforts. The grant...

Improvements to Portland's Columbia Corridor is essential for the economy in the region.
November 15, 2005... Byline: Libby Tucker Built in 1910, the railroad underpass connecting Northeast Columbia Boulevard and 92nd Drive is a quaint reminder of the area's long history as an industrial sanctuary. It's also now a bottleneck for hundreds of trucks...

Lodge at Government Camp development captures Cascadian feel.
November 15, 2005... Byline: Alison Ryan Mixed-use development rarely tends to inspire curling up with cups of cocoa or heading to the slopes for one last run. But a project that's part of an attempt at revitalizing Government Camp sparks cabin fever by...

U.S. Chief executive officers worry more about health care.
November 15, 2005... Byline: Kennedy Smith Chief executive officers in the United States are expressing concerns about the rising cost of health care, according to a survey released by the Conference Board, but for CEOs in other countries, that concern is...

Architectural firms work to grow in size without losing culture that attracted employees, clients.
November 16, 2005... Byline: Alison Ryan Growth happens. And for an architectural firm, making the jump from small to midsize or midsize to large is about more than longer lines at the office watercooler. It's also about keeping the firm culture that attracted...

Stamford, Conn.-based Ashforth Co. buys ODS Tower in downtown Portland.
November 16, 2005... Byline: DJC Staff Ashforth Co., a Stamford, Conn.-based commercial real estate owner, investor and developer, has purchased the ODS Tower at 601 S.W. Second Ave. in downtown Portland for approximately $123 million. The ODS Tower is a...

NW Environmental Conference organizers want event fo focus on current issues.
November 16, 2005... Byline: DJC Staff The 17th annual Northwest Environmental Conference will kick off "a little differently" this year, according to an organizer, with a keynote address on the future of transportation in the Pacific Northwest. Planned...

Five take home Oregon BetterBricks awards.
November 16, 2005... Byline: DJC Staff The people behind some of the Northwest's most sustainable, high-performance buildings were honored with 2005 BetterBricks Awards during an Oct. 16 event at the Oregon Zoo. The awards recognize five commercial...

Portland mayor outlines transportation philosophy.
November 17, 2005... Byline: Libby Tucker Until Tuesday, the most the city knew about Portland Mayor Tom Potter's transportation philosophy was that his official car is now a fuel-efficient Prius instead of the traditional black Buick. Now in his 10th...

Beaverton school being built to meet OR Dept. of Energy High Performance School standards.
November 17, 2005... Byline: DJC Staff Teachers will still be responsible for making the light bulb click on in students' heads, but much of the light streaming through the windows upon completion of an under-construction Beaverton school will be there because...

Contractor paints picture of industry full of excuses.
November 17, 2005... Byline: DJC Staff Kevin Nolan believes the only difference between unsuccessful residential painting firms and his own Nolan Painting Inc., which according to Nolan grosses $5 million a year operating in the Philadelphia area, is that his...

Real estate trends report to be released.
November 17, 2005... Byline: DJC Staff The Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers will release their jointly produced 2006 study "Emerging Trends in Real Estate" during their annual trends conference Nov. 30 at the Hilton Hotel in Vancouver. The...

A conversation with Rich Weber: Building the future of construction.
November 18, 2005... Byline: Libby Tucker Most mornings, when typical high school students are reading books or doing equations in classrooms across the city, students in Rich Weber's class are busy building a three-bedroom house. As a building...

Miller Nash partner Frank Nash dies at 89.
November 18, 2005... Byline: Kennedy Smith Frank E. Nash, a Portland lawyer for more than 60 years and a leading partner of Miller Nash LLP, died Sunday. He was 89. An Oregon native, Nash was born and raised in Pendelton. He attended the University of...

Study by Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2006 outlines the real estate horizon.
November 21, 2005... Byline: Kennedy Smith In the last year, the Portland real estate market - in all sectors - showed continued strength, riding on a positive economic outlook, anticipated higher consumer spending, relatively low interest rates, company...

Green winery in Dayton already producing reds and whites.
November 21, 2005... Byline: Dan Carter As her winery entered its busiest season in late August and September, Melissa Burr, winemaker for Stoller Family Vineyard and Winery in Dayton, "couldn't visualize how we were ever going to get our grapes crushed and...

Portland Planning Commission holds hearing tonight on 122nd Avenue Station Area Study.
November 22, 2005... Byline: Alison Ryan A city study aimed at examining pedestrian-friendly possibilities for an area that's known for its existing auto-friendly businesses will be under examination during a Portland Planning Commission hearing tonight - but...

Oregon transportation goes through the wringer.
November 22, 2005... Byline: Libby Tucker The Oregon Department of Transportation last week released a new 25-year transportation plan for public review that guides policy for all modes of transportation in the state and is focused on wringing the last drops...

Something different for Gresham - luxury town homes.
November 22, 2005... Byline: DJC Staff A nascent real estate firm and a development company are trying something they say is brand new for Gresham: luxury town homes. Skyland Realty, a full-service real estate firm started this year to market the projects...

Wentworth Building kicks off Burnside renewal in Portland.
November 22, 2005... Byline: DJC Staff The $4.3 million Wentworth Building at the bridgehead of the East Burnside Street corridor has opened. The building, bound by Southeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Southeast Grand Avenue, Southeast Ankeny Street...

San Francisco-based Swinerton closes its Portland office.
November 23, 2005... Byline: Libby Tucker After more than a decade of business in Oregon, general contracting company Swinerton Builders is closing its Portland office. The subsidiary of San Francisco-based Swinerton Inc. notified its regional business...

Portland's Office of Sustainable Development overhauls its investment fund.
November 23, 2005... Byline: Alison Ryan The Office of Sustainable Development is again requesting grant proposals for innovative, high-performance green building projects, but there have been a few changes to the RFP for the current round of funding. The...

Interview with John Carroll, Prominent Portland developer.
November 25, 2005... Byline: Kennedy Smith Developer John Carroll is soft-spoken, but that doesn't mean he doesn't love to talk. Give him an outlet and he's primed to spin yarns about all sorts of topics: growing up in Portland, his travels to other...

Oregon's green homes go affordable.
November 28, 2005... Byline: Alison Ryan Tucked under a canopy of mature trees, the gabled, cottage-style apartment buildings at Oleson Woods in Tigard are grouped around a preserved wetland. The project's 32 units are green from the non-toxic paint inside to...

Fate of Multnomah County's Sellwood Bridge remains in limbo.
November 28, 2005... Byline: Libby Tucker Multnomah County will carry out minimal short-term repairs on the Sellwood Bridge until funding is secured to drastically overhaul or replace the 82-year-old structure. The decision comes after David Evans and...

Office buildings volatile but primed for investment.
November 28, 2005... Byline: Kennedy Smith Office buildings nudged out other commercial real estate property types as investment vehicles in a national market that has been battered by natural disasters, rising long-term interest rates and declining...

Portland-area existing hotels oppose proposed Oregon Convention Center Headquarters Hotel.
November 29, 2005... Byline: Kennedy Smith Thomas Hazinski says he isn't out to refute Heywood Sanders, the University of Texas at San Antonio professor who came to town recently to discuss what he believes is Portland's impending economic downfall: the...

Chesapeake, Va.-based marine salvager eyeing Port of Newport for new facility.
November 29, 2005... Byline: DJC Staff Bay Bridge Enterprises Inc., a marine salvage recycler headquartered in Chesapeake, Va., has plans to build a West Coast facility in Newport, according to the Port of Newport. The Port of Newport and local and state...

Portland lawyer becomes American College fellow.
November 29, 2005... Byline: DJC Staff Peter Glade of the Portland litigation firm Markowitz, Herbold, Glade & Mehlhaf has become a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a legal association of the United States and Canada. Glade is a shareholder...

Willamette Industrial URA slow-going since inception.
November 30, 2005... Byline: Kennedy Smith Looking back, Bob Alexander, head of economic development for the Portland Development Commission, said the agency made a good investment when it created the Willamette Industrial Urban Renewal Area almost a year ago...

Army Corps wants to mitigate Hayden Island site.
November 30, 2005... Byline: Libby Tucker The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is seeking public comment on a proposal to seed and fertilize 20 acres of a dredge disposal site on West Hayden Island on which the Port of Portland carried out unauthorized discharges...

Washington won't change workers' comp rates.
November 30, 2005... Byline: DJC Staff The Washington Department of Labor and Industries announced earlier this month there will be no general increase in the state's workers' compensation premiums in 2006. The agency had proposed a 3.8 percent general...