Dive Brief:
- Portland, OR, real estate company Downtown Development Group and its owners, the Goodman family, have announced their plans for the "Ankeny Blocks," an 11-building, $1.5 billion mixed-use development to be built on current surface parking lots, according to the Oregonian.
- The announcement comes before anticipated zoning changes that would allow taller buildings downtown. The Goodmans' tentative plan could include five buildings as tall as 460 feet, others between 130 feet-325 feet, and three at a maximum of 75 feet due to historic district height restrictions.
- The challenge, according to the Goodmans, will be to retain the character of one of Portland's oldest downtown neighborhoods, which has already seen new businesses like Airbnb, Deloitte and Puppet Labs moving in. The Goodmans hope they can draw in a much-needed major grocery store and a big-name tech company to anchor the office portion of the development.
Dive Insight:
"There's very few cities in the country where one property owner has this much development opportunity," Downtown Development Group Co-President Greg Goodman told the Oregonian.
Portland State University professor of urban studies Ethan Seltzer, who is also the former president of the city's planning commission, told the Oregonian that the Goodmans' Ankeny Blocks proposal has "been a long time coming" and that it was "really good news for the city."
The development could take advantage of public urban renewal funds to help with the cost of parking or to bring a grocery store in the neighborhood, but the Goodmans are also considering making 20% of the residential units in the development affordable to receive 10 years of property tax breaks.
Portland is growing in a variety of development fronts. A recent JLL Data Center Outlook report found the Seattle-Portland area had more data center square footage, 352,000, under construction in 2015 than any other market. Skanska was recently awarded a $55.9 million, 16-story, 229-room hotel project downtown. And last month, Portland made Zillow’s list of the 10 hottest housing markets of 2016.