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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 2002)
6 FEBRUARY 15, 2002 Smoke Signals FEBRUARY 15, 2002 Smoke Signals 7 Dud (RDud3 Tub on DowintowGU Pot am o c F JS Q. s o rr -S ::"' tr--3,,"".;:.,.s ,, ..... C"V. -S1: y-rrSS" rrv 'VrSrg bI 3.1 ' , C. ' J Rooftops The 12-story Gregory Lofts building features living spaces on the upper floors, including upscale penthouse suites, and retail business space on the lower levels. The once bleak, outlook for the entire Pearl District area has been enhanced and revitalized by new, top-notch developments like the Gregory Lofts. Continued from page 5 plump wallets. True, Carroll and Thomas ac knowledged, but inevitable. San Francisco being only behind New York City in highest cost of living, such occurrences are almost a part of the natural evolution of city de velopment. Rents increase; people who can't afford the hike invariably leave. The emergence of the Pearl Dis trict has been, comparatively, pain less. Like Thomas said, nobody wanted to live in the area before. Now everybody does and where once there was nothing, now exists one of the best neighborhoods in one of the best cities to live in all of the nation. For Carroll, a lifelong resident of the Rose City, these days the place to be in the United States. "It almost seems like someone planned it all out," Carroll told me, as we laughed in unison. Could be. By the year 2000, Portland was now the place to live, sitting atop Money's fabled chart. Realtors frenzied to accommodate, and areas like the Pearl District, just past Burnside, are replete now with scores of new forms of hous ing, including, naturally, lofts. Like mentioned in our previous article on the project, lofts are no strangers to the American cityscape. They've caught on big time in other thriving cities like Chicago, New York and most re cently San Francisco. During the 1950's loft studios became the preferred abode of art ists, particularly painters and sculptors who needed wide, open spaces for their crafts. Thus, fac tories and warehouses that were formerly thought to be useless be came trendy as artists clamored for those spaces that nobody wanted, paying relatively minute rents for what was in actuality their dream set-up. But those were the 50s and these times are not. The lofts are spring ing up overnight, giving a much needed kick in the butt to once 3 down-and-out neighborhoods like the Pearl District, which only 10 years ago was virtually uninhab ited and uninhabitable. Now, ev erywhere you look, restaurants with fancy Italian names, book stores, antique shops specializing in retro furniture, art dealers, galler ies, more realtors, etc. In other words, every sort of business you'd affiliate with an area swamped in prosperity. Portland's premier ad vertising agency Wieden & Kennedy is right down the street, their building reminiscent of a Stanley Kubrick film. Success must come at a cost, al though the Gregory Lofts' has been minimal. Peta posed the question, drawing upon the stories in San Francisco where the influx of dot commers, or 'gentrification' as Carroll called it, has driven up the costs of loft living. Thus, the art ists and poets whom lofts became associated with have been driven out, themselves never carriers of '"A "v 'n ''' " , !" -' ""..":; ; .....-! .., "- Developer Portland Real Estate Developer John Carroll, head of AspenCarroll, LLC. points out the view from one of the suites at the Gregory Lofts in Portland. Loft ventures in other cities like San Francisco, Chicago and New York have caught on in the northwest. The Tribe partnered with Carroll in the Gregory project and the results have been outstanding. The entire space has been sold out. seemed like they'd never come. "I can remember when you could have bought a home for $13,000," he said. Loft prices are hardly in that range, the cheapest one starting at $190,000 and the penthouses at the top going for up to $1.7 million. But their location offers plenty of ameni ties for those willing to fork over the cash. Bill McCrae, the Chief Finan cial Officer for AspenCarroll, emphasized how attractive the activity level in down town Portland is. Most cities the central business dis trict are just that, busi ness, and at five o'clock the area dead ens. Not in Portland, he said, where an active after-hours and weekend social scene vibrates. "Portland's downtown is desig nated for recreation," he told me. "People want to go there." Which is precisely why most any body who had the chance would opt to live in somewhere like the Pearl District. That is why other loft build ings, like the MacKenzie (named af ter Carroll's daughter) or the Eliza beth (named after Carroll's wife), have gone up, and more are pend ing. Immaculate living quarters abound in an area close to just about everything Portland could offer. Who could refuse that? The Gregory Lofts (named after Carroll's son) sold out in no time, residential units, 133 in all, and re tail space. It was, as Carroll put, a 'no-lose proposition' for the Tribe. Businesses like Pho Van, which had not an empty seat in the house while we dined, have flourished. The restaurant was just the be ginning, as Peta and I soon found out. The ground floor is devoted specifically to retail space, with a Tibetan carpet store in the making and a Western clothing store al ready existing. But Carroll, McCrae and Bill Shephard showed us more. Just a few floors up is Howard S. Wright Construction, the company charged with design ing and building the Gregory Lofts. Shephard is the Project Manager. The second through fourth floors are, incidentally, office space. The Wright office represents the Gregory's office floors pretty well; complete with bare concrete walls, exposed pipes and ventilation shafts, and absent a great many doors. Gives it more of a residen tial feel, Shephard told me. It does, I agree. In fact all those qualities, Carroll told me, are catching on. The loose, modern, industrial feel seems quite at home in these pseudo-warehouses, so much so that imagining them any other way would not be easy. Not all the residential units and offices are filled yet, Carroll said. That is, they're sold, but not quite ready to be moved into yet. All spaces come bare, the decorating left entirely to the new owners and leasers. In one office men were lay ing down bamboo flooring. Gregory is not a tall building, a mere twelve stories. But the top . g v M- U tirrr FSE3 i :,' P: Ui trrnrJ U Qp Q J i ii J a. X I " A Room With a View This view of the City of Roses is from the office of Portland Real Estate Developer John Carroll of AspenCarroll. Office suites like these featuring spectacular views of the city has made the Gregory Lofts a much sought after space in downtown's Pearl District. A Warm and Cozy Lots of windows and warm wooden floors give the living spaces at the Gregory Lofts and homey, comfortable feel. The residential section of the building is completely spoken for and helped make the Tribe's investment pay off. floors boast penthouses that must be a college Fraternity's dream. Nearly 3,400 square feet, an open kitchen, fireplace, an outside deck and a view overlooking Portland Harbor that on a cool summer night must be nothing less than perfect. The lofts on lower levels are re ally quite cozy and all seem to have picturesque views. The view is but one aspect, truly. The Gregory has a secret, a very well kept one at that, and I'm not talking about the celebrity who now lives there and will go un named as our promise. No, the se cret is architectural. Cutting through the building on two sides is a large sheerwall; a wall that acts as structural support and for the most part cannot be tampered with. In between the two walls there lies a parking lot, odd since from the outside the Gregory seems com pletely lacking the space to accom modate one. But there it is nonetheless; quiet and shadowy like underground parking lots seem to be. Surveying the lot, Peta and I later both agreed that somewhere in the Pearl Dis trict must live a German auto me chanic who makes his living just from the Gregory residents alone. Getting the Gregory built, Carroll told me, was no easy task, though even I could figure that out. But what he meant was that they had to go through a painstaking process of presenting their design, includ ing blueprints and projections, to a neighborhood association. These people don't want anything freaky popping up, he promised, and if the Gregory didn't quite measure up to their standards, they could have tied up the whole project in court 'til the end of time. Carroll took us on a neighborhood tour, showing firsthand the wealth of possibilities the Pearl District held. One warehouse was devoted to chandeliers, with some mind blowing specimens on display. An other housed the Pacific Northwest School of Arts, one other a 24-hour fitness center. Brian Grant, the acting Chief Executive Officer for SMDC, was no less impressed than we were once he saw the finished product. "This has been such a positive ex perience," he said over the phone. Though the Tribe entered into the project as one of ten partners, he told me this was one investment that would continue to pay into the future, ten years from now even. The lofts presented a one-time sale, the business spaces are what will bring in money, as those offices are rented and full, and from what we saw, doing brisk business at the very least. Vacancies aren't likely in the near future. "What I liked about the Gregory Project is that it showed you the success the Tribe can have when they get involved with someone with a winning track record," he said. "John Carroll and Deb Tho mas have had lots of success doing what they do, and we're lucky this opportunity came along." D T 1 1 . i "V ' ' "i - " r i Iti i in law "S . i Lunch Chat Pho Van, a popular Vietnamese restaurant on the ground floor of the Gregory building, is one of the retail businesses that are thriving in the Pearl District. Other businesses currently located in the Gregory are Howard S. Wright Construction, Fretz Jewelry Store, Desparado western clothing store, Khaden Fine Tibetan Carpets, 22 Research investment company, Panic, Inc. software company and Josselson, Potter and Roberts Law Firm. I c B 1 a. x
