Atwater Place

Atwater Place  In Block 34, a 22-story, rectangular tower features 212 condominium units, five of which are townhomes. Unit sizes range from 1,100 square feet to 3,700 square feet. Most of the units have views of the Willamette River and Mt. Hood.

The building features 10,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. Its design of gardens and eco-roofs help the Atwater Place obtain a silver certification under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system.

Sustainable aspects of the building include storm water management to mitigate run-off, high-performance glazing to reduce heating and cooling needs, low-flow shower heads, faucets and dual-flush toilets, nontoxic finishes, and local sourced materials with high percentages of recycled content.

The building was designed by Thomas Hacker, principal of Thomas Hacker Architects. The design also includes work done by GBD Architects. The design for the tower's sculptured faces is crafted in glass for a prismatic effect. Cut into the façade, the balconies are staggered recesses in the shear glass plane of the building's face. It also has a raised courtyard and ground-level plaza.

Hoffman Construction crews begin excavating for the foundation and placing structural supports in late December 2005 and the building was completed in 2007.

 September 2009 Sales Update:  Atwater Place Auction

Accelerated Marketing Partners auction on September 20th resulted in the sale of 40 units.  In late September, the firm retained to dispose of unsold units at Atwater Place, listed nine additional units for sale. Accelerated Marketing Partners announced it has placed a series of mostly two-bedroom units on the market.

In all, 100 of the 23-story project’s 212 units have sold. Prices for the newly listed units start at $339,000 for lower-level units in the podium section of the building and rise to $815,000 for a two-bedroom, two-bath unit on the 10th floor.

For more details visit the Web site Auction at Atwater Place. 

Location  Atwater Place is located on Southwest Gaines Street, directly south of the Meriwether condo towers. It is the third residential project in the central district of South Waterfront.  
Developer  Gerding/Edlen Development Company. They also developed the Brewery Blocks in the Pearl District.
Construction  New building.
Number of Units  A 22-story, rectangular tower features 212 condominium units, five of which are town homes.
Style  Traditional style with multiple rooms.  Size of units go from 1,100 to 3,700 square feet.
Pricing  Under $400 per square foot.
Parking  Underground.
Sales Office  Realty Trust is the real estate broker for the condominiums. Their office is 0680 SW Bancroft, Portland, OR 97239.  Call (503) 222-7788 for hours.
Completion Date  The Atwater was completed in late 2007.

John Ross

The John Ross Tower is the first building to reach a 325-foot height maximum allowed in the South Waterfront area. Architects from Thompson Vaivoda Architects and GBD, a second Portland firm, offered the elliptical design.  The city changed its rules to allow expanding the size of tower floors from 10,000 to as much as 12,500 square feet.

Most floors in the John Ross are 12,261 square feet, tapering to 8,252 square feet on the top few floors. It offers 286 units, 247 in the tower and 39 in a four-story podium.  Plans called for 50 percent of the units to sell for less than $325,000.  The roof of the podium is a green roof with a community garden.

The metallic blue building rises in an elliptical shape that looks wider or narrower from different vantage points from the west, along Interstate 5 and the Marquam Hill area.  For one, it seems narrower than rectangular, so-called "slab," buildings. The shape also reduces the surface area, or in architectural terms, the "skin," by 10 percent. That means more budget was devoted to the materials and detailing of the skin.

In the May 6 edition of The Oregonian, Bob Thompson, a principal of Thompson Vaivoda Architects, reported: "the elliptical form helped preserve views around the building from Southwest Terwilliger Boulevard while allowing addition of a quarter-block public plaza at the corner of Southwest Gains Street and River Parkway."

The tower lobby has an 18-foot wall of glass that Thompson said is intended to be a "highly lit beacon" at night. The plaza  has trees and beds of perennials, in addition to a low-lying water feature and outdoor seating on a hard surface adjacent to the buildings.

It was announced in August 2005 that the developers of Portland's South Waterfront area say they're taking a tougher stand against buyers who want condominiums to rent out or quickly resell and they're planning to require sworn promises that buyers intend to live in their units. The new policies, will apply to presales in the John Ross condo tower. These new policies will:

• Hopefully strengthen the appeal for potential residents.

• Limit market turmoil from speculation and lead to a vibrant neighborhood.

Countering perceptions that investors and not potential condo dwellers are the ones fomenting feverish presales and record prices.

 March 2010 Sales Update:  50 Units to be Auctioned on April 11

The lender that controls the John Ross will try to unload 50 condos in a few, fast-paced hours on April 11. The minimum bids, on average, will be 47 percent below the current list prices and 70 percent below the highest listed prices. There are about 75 units left to be sold as of mid March 2010.

Kennedy Wilson Auction Group, Beverly Hills, California, will be running the auction. See the details by clicking here.

Location  South Waterfront between Southwest Pennoyer and Gaines streets and between River Parkway and Bond Avenue.
Developer  Gerding/Edlen Development Company along with Williams & Dame Development Inc.
Construction  New building.
Number of Units  31-story condominium tower with 303 units.  Ground floor retail and underground parking.
Style  Traditional style with multiple rooms.
Size  The average is 1,200 square feet per unit - the smallest units are about 600 square feet.
Green  Received gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
Pricing  From $199,000 to $2,200,000. 
Parking  Underground.
Sales Office  The sales office opened in mid July 2005 at the Discovery Center located at 0680 SW Bancroft, Portland, Oregon 97239.  Telephone: (503) 222-7788.
Completion Date  Construction began in the summer of 2005 and the John Ross was completed in late 2007.
 

3720 Condos

3720 Condos  A Corus Bank, a subsidiary of Corus Bankshares Inc., announced in April 2007 that they had closed a $113 million loan to Block 30 Investors L.L.C. for the development of 3720, a residential high-rise development planned for Portland, Oregon's South Waterfront district. The developer is an affiliate of Williams & Dame Development and Gerding Edlen Development.

3720 consists of a 30-story tower and a five-story "side-car" structure, which together contain 323 units, for a total of 350,000 square feet of condominium space. In addition, the development also has 17,000 square feet of retail and 380 parking spaces.

The project is the third in the South Waterfront area for developer Block 30. The firm's Meriwether condo development is located adjacent to 3720.

 May 2009 Sales Update:  Converting to Apartments

Developer Mark Edlen announced that 3270 will be converted to an apartment building.  Edlen said three factors drove the switch on the nearly finished building: the slowing housing market, a tighter mortgage market, and the strengthening rental market. South Waterfront has condos for sale in two other towers:  Atwater and John Ross.

Location  South Waterfront. It is just to the south of the Meriwether twin towers and John Ross at Block 38.  The address is 3720 SW Bond Street.
Developer  Block 30 Investors L.L.C. - an affiliate of Williams & Dame Development and Gerding Edlen Development.
Construction  New building.
Number of Units  30-story condominium tower with 323 units.  Ground floor retail and underground parking.
Style  Traditional style with multiple rooms.
Size  30 stories, 325 feet with 323 units.
Pricing  N/A as converted to apartments in 2009.
Parking  Underground.
Sales Office  The Discovery Center located at 0680 SW Bancroft, Portland, Oregon 97239.  Telephone: (503) 222-7788.
Preconstruction Reservations   Call (503) 222-7788.
Completion Date  Construction began in the spring of 2007 and completed in 2009.

Mirabella Retirement Community