Madison-Specht Vista Logistics LLC, a partnership between Portland-based Specht Development, Inc. and New York Life Real Estate Investors LLC, will start construction on 732,824 square feet of speculative industrial space in three buildings on a 37.42-acre site in Gresham, Ore., located at SE 223^rd and Stark St. The site will be home to Vista Logistics Park, a regional logistics park that the Portland-based development, property and construction management company is creating to serve the needs of distribution and industrial businesses. New York Life Real Estate Investors is the capital partner in this project.

“Based on our research, Vista Logistics Park is the largest single phase speculative development ever constructed within the Portland metropolitan area,” said Don Ossey, Principal of Capacity Commercial Group. “The project will also offer the largest single vacant industrial space under one roof, with one of the buildings consisting of 494,464 square feet. Currently, buildings larger than 300,000 square feet do not exist in our area.”

The largest building will have a minimum clear height of 36 feet. Two smaller buildings, of 112,940 and 124,420 square feet respectively, will have clear heights of 30 feet. The project’s additional amenities include: generous truck courts, ample trailer and passenger car parking, and easy access to Interstate 84.

The site was purchased for $9,280,000 from the Port of Portland which worked closely with the city of Gresham to allow Specht to break ground less than two months after the purchase and sale agreement was signed.

“This project would not have moved forward this year without the outstanding cooperation of the Port of Portland and the City of Gresham. We are grateful for their partnership in this project,” said Todd Sheaffer, President of Specht Development, Inc.

Ossey and David Ellis will lead the Capacity Commercial Group brokerage team that is charged with leasing the project. The project will be completed in the fall of 2017. Mackenzie is the project architect and engineer, and Perlo Construction is the general contractor.

“Current market conditions support proceeding with this development. Such market indicators include strong demand from a variety of user groups, limited new competitive supply, a recent dramatic increase in base rental rates, and historically low vacancy rates,” said Gregory Specht, Chief Executive Officer at Specht Development.

The historic Ballou & Wright Building, located at 1010 NW Flanders was acquired by Flanders Venture LLC, an affiliate of Specht Development, Inc., in January 2016. Specht is currently renovating the 60,000 sf building into creative office space.

This incredible building, located in the Pearl district, is on the local and national historic registries. As a result, any modifications to this historic landmark must be approved through the City of Portland’s Historic Resource Review. The process includes submitting an application and detailed plans describing the proposed modifications, which are reviewed by the City and also issued to surrounding property owners for comment.

The review application for the project was submitted in March 2016 and the City of Portland issued their approval decision on July 1, 2016 with no revisions to Specht’s proposed plans.

The building is a five-story concrete building with a prominent tower on its northwest corner. Unlike most of the warehouses nearby, the building has high-quality exterior finish work on its east and north elevations including sand gray brick, cast stone ornamental string courses, and parapet escutcheons bearing the Ballou Wright Company’s emblem of a winged tire. The building was constructed in 1921 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. While it was formerly surrounded exclusively by industrial uses, the surrounding area now consists of a mix of light industrial, commercial, office, and residential uses.

The exterior modifications approved through the Historic Resource Review are scheduled to start in September 2016 and include:

Construction of a wood roof deck on the southwest corner of the building

The proposed roof deck includes clear railings at the edges of the building and a landscaped strip at the center of the deck.

Construction of new stair and elevator enclosures

These two features will be set back from the edge of the façade to minimize their scale and to give the building’s character-defining tower primacy when viewed from the ground.

Removal of fire escape ladders

The applicant proposes to remove the ladders between the fire escape landings to satisfy a request from Fire Bureau staff. The landings between the ladders remain in the proposal to preserve this character-defining feature of the warehouse.

New storefront northeast ground level

Improvements include an additional door, designed to match the existing warehouse door on the north elevation. It will be surrounded by an extension of the building’s existing transom and new steel windows designed to closely match the historic windows on the building. This work also includes the removal of a portion of the loading dock on this elevation that was added after the building’s historic significance.

In 2011, Specht Develoment, Inc. entered into an agreement to purchase 108 acres of land located adjacent to the Woodburn Winco Foods Distribution Center (in the SE quadrant of the intersection of Butteville Road and Highway 219, Wooburn, OR). Specht anticipates that this property will accommodate up to 2 million square feet of industrial space. The property is currently outside of the City of Woodburn’s Urban Growth Boundary (UGB). The Oregon State Land Conservation and Development Commission approved the expansion in 2007. In April of 2015, the City announced an agreement with the appellants of the UGB expansion. The City anticipates that the UGB expansion will be finalized by the end of 2015. Thus, development on this property could commence as early as 2016.

In 2015, Specht Development, Inc. entered into an agreement to purchase 43 acres of industrial zoned land located adjacent to the Port of Vancouver, WA (in the NE quadrant of the intersection of SR 501 and NW 31st). This will be a multi-phase project, which at final build out, is projected to consist of approximately 800,000 sf of state-of-the-art industrial space. Specht anticipates that Phase 1 will be 352,000 sf and will be delivered in the fall of 2016.

Specht Development, Inc. was hired by Valley Catholic High School as the project manager for their new science center. Brian C. Jackson, LLC is the architect and Lease Crutcher Lewis will serve as the general contractor. The property is part of the Sisters of St. Mary Oregon campus in Beaverton. The two-story, 13,000 sf science building will contain five state-of-the-art science labs. Site work started in 2015 and the construction of the building is expected to be completed in 2016.

Specht 306 LLC, an affiliate of Specht Development, Inc. purchased an 18,336 sf industrial building located at 306 SE 8th Avenue in Portland, OR. The existing tenant, Nu-way Printing, occupies the first floor. Building improvements are planned to allow creative office use on the 2nd floor.

The building was originally constructed in 1946 on a 19,090 sf lot. It offers abundant natural light from the existing window line and skylights. There is off-street parking and the building is just a few blocks from the eastside street car and numerous bus lines. There is significant new development and redevelopment of other existing buildings taking place in the immediate area, including residential, retail and office space.

PCCP, LLC and Specht Development, Inc. formed a joint venture to speculatively develop the Interstate Crossroads Distribution Center. The project is a Class A, 493,000 square-foot industrial building in the Airport Way cooridor. Situated on 28 acres of land, the distribution center will offer 32′ clear height and sufficient bay depths to divide the building into multiple suites. The project will break ground in June 2014 and is expected to be completed summer of 2015.