6 FEBRUARY 15, 2002
Smoke Signals
FEBRUARY 15, 2002
Smoke Signals 7
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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