Park Avenue West Tower is a high-rise in downtown

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The 30-floor tower consists of commercial office space, ground floor retail, and apartments. It is the fourth tallest building in Portland behind the

Wells Fargo Center Wells Fargo Center may refer to: *Wells Fargo Center (Los Angeles), California *Wells Fargo Center (Sacramento), California * Wells Fargo Center (San Francisco), California * Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, Santa Rosa, California *Wells Fargo Cent ...

, KOIN Center, and the US Bancorp Tower. Developed by

TMT Development TMT Development is a real estate development company based in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1988 by Tom Moyer. The company owns and operates 8.5 million square feet of commercial real estate throughout Oregon and southwest Washington state ...

and designed by TVA Architects. The building is taller than allowed by the zoning code at the time. A deal was made with the city for a

variance In probability theory and statistics, variance is the expectation of the squared deviation of a random variable from its population mean or sample mean. Variance is a measure of dispersion, meaning it is a measure of how far a set of numbe ...

in exchange for employing union workersfulfillment is still under dispute.

History

Park Avenue West Tower was initially scheduled to be completed in 2010 and was being developed by

. The tower was to have a total of 33 floors and offer retail space, office space and 85 housing units. The housing component was later dropped from the plans. It was also to have a six floor underground garage with 325 parking spaces. The building gained the top four floors when developers agreed to add of bike facilities (including public

bicycle commuter Bicycle commuting is the use of a bicycle to travel from home to a place of work or study — in contrast to the use of a bicycle for sport, recreation or touring. Commuting especially lends itself to areas with relatively flat terrain and ar ...

showers, bike parking, and locker space) under the connected Director Park subsurface parking, gaining the tower a 40-to-1 bonus. Construction on the building was suddenly suspended in April 2009 Despite the suspension of construction, the developer was hopeful to get the building back on track by reducing the number of stories in the structure resulting from removal of the top ten floors which would have been condominium space. The building was about 50% leased, with

Stoel Rives Stoel Rives LLP is a U.S. business law firm with 10 office locations in seven U.S. states and Washington, D.C. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, in the Park Avenue West Tower, it is the largest law firm in the state of Oregon, having 391 attor ...

as the primary tenant (11 floors, 157,000 square feet), as well as a NikeTown store. The Park Avenue site was considered an eyesore as there was only a foundation and construction debris visible for years, earning the nickname "Moyer's Ruins". TMT Development announced in December 2011 that work would resume in late 2013. Construction resumed in October 2013 after additional re-designs, with completion expected in early 2016. Plans called for 30 floors, with 15 of those housing 202 apartments. It topped out in February 2015 with a final height of . The tower opened in February 2016 and was 92% occupied. Shortly after opening,

MetLife MetLife, Inc. is the Holding company, holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, Annuity (US financial produc ...

provided $130 million in permanent financing for the building.

Zoning code and union labor deal

The 30 story tower is taller than permitted by statutes of the zoning code. In 2014, city officials and the developer negotiated a deal to let them build 30 stories in exchange for utilizing union cleaners and security guards. These union jobs however did not happen. In March 2019, the labor union

SEIU Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a labor union representing almost 1.9 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States and Canada. SEIU is focused on organizing workers in three sectors: healthcare (over half of members ...

Local 49 hung a banner from the 11th floor windows as part of their protest and they have done so by renting a two-bedroom short term rental for two days. In August 2018, ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 18 ...

'' identified more than 20 out of 202 units at the Park Avenue West were utilized as short term rentals without permit. In June 2019, the SEIU Local 49 filed a lawsuit for union jobs to be created. File:Park Avenue West Tower - construction stopped 20100228 - Portland Oregon.jpg, Construction site (ground level view), February 2010 File:Park Avenue West Tower pit 3 - Portland, Oregon.JPG, Construction site, May 2010 File:Park Avenue West Tower May 2014 top - Portland, Oregon.JPG, Construction, May 2014 File:Park Avenue West Tower, 013015.jpg, Construction, January 2015 File:Park Avenue West Tower June 2015 - Portland, Oregon.jpg, Construction, June 2015 File:Park Avenue West Tower August 2015 - Portland, Oregon.jpg, The near-complete tower, August 2015

References

External links

* {{commons category-inline, Park Avenue West Tower 2016 establishments in Oregon Apartment buildings in Portland, Oregon Office buildings completed in 2016 Office buildings in Oregon Residential skyscrapers in Portland, Oregon Retail buildings in Oregon Skyscraper office buildings in Portland, Oregon

History

Zoning code and union labor deal

See also

References

External links