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August 2019 Development News

• High-rise apartments and commercial proposed for Cedar Hills location
• Kirkland Place hotel and retail approved
• Milltowner construction finally underway!
• Beaverton denies Life Time Fitness development appeal, project will go forward

High-rise apartments and commercial proposed for Cedar Hills location

Conceptual art of the main plaza.

A Neighborhood Meeting was held in July to present information and gather comments on a development that proposes to replace the existing shopping center near the intersection of Highway 217 and Highway 26, bounded by Park Way, Marlow, and Wilshire. The property was annexed into Beaverton earlier this year.

The proposed development would consist of six six-story buildings that will include a variety of apartments. Two of the high-rises will have restaurants, shops, and other businesses on the ground floor. The buildings will surround a series of public plazas with amenities for residents and visitors, including a playground.

Urban Form Development Company is the developer. Fred Gast, whose company Polygon developed the Timberland site, is the principal. He answered some of our questions about the development.

What’s the target market for the residences?

We see this as a place for families, including single parents, and working people who can utilize the nearby Transit Center.

What kind of parking will you provide?

Six high-rise buildings surround parking and public spaces in the proposed design for the new development

There will be “structured parking” in the buildings for residents, and surface parking that will serve the public who are visiting the businesses. We are getting pretty smart about figuring out the parking needed for these developments, using science and engineering to provide enough parking so that the neighbors won’t suffer.

Will any of the units be “affordable housing?”

We’re working with the city to make those decisions. People have to be able to afford the units to make the project succeed. We don’t anticipate that there will be specifically affordable units but the mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom units will be within reach of the people we’re targeting. Eventually some of the units may be for sale as condos, but rental units will be part of the portfolio.

Will there be fitness facilities for the residents?

We’re hoping to attract a fitness tenant that will provide facilities to residents and visitors.

Will some of the existing businesses relocate to the new development?

We’re working with 808 Grinds and a couple of other tenants to move into the new development during the early phase. The DMV and several other tenants are looking to relocate in the area, and we’re doing what we can to help them. We’re aiming to include a mix of businesses that will serve our residents and the neighbors, and create energy at the ground level.

Urban Form Development is still finalizing the details of the proposal that will be submitted to Beaverton, possibly in the next couple of months. Construction will take place in phases, possibly beginning as soon as next year and continuing for several years after that.

Kirkland Place hotel and retail approved

On July 10, the Beaverton Planning Commission approved the Kirkland Place proposed development of the remaining commercial property in the Timberland neighborhood after the developer made changes to the design that will lessen the traffic impact to the neighbors.

Home2 Suites by Hilton will build an 89-room hotel at the northeast corner of the lot, across from The Ackerly. Two additional retail and office buildings will surround 173 shared parking spaces.

The developer will preserve three large trees on the site. Remaining trees are either dead, dying, or damaged. Landscape buffering and screening will be installed to provide privacy for the adjacent residential areas.

Office and retail for the new center, looking northwest toward Market of Choice

We’ll provide more information about construction timelines as it becomes available.

Milltowner construction finally underway!

Grading is finally underway. This upper section will include parking for the Sunset Athetic expansion and the shops and offices on the second floor of the east building.

Bales Findley Property Management has finally received the most important permits that will allow them to continue the redevelopment of the shopping center at Cornell and Saltzman. Plans for the redevelopment of the old shopping center were first revealed in September 2017.

The grading permit and the road work permit were approved on July 29. They submitted all their permits last December, and originally planned to complete the center this fall, but the delays in permitting mean the center will open in spring 2020.

The building at the corner of Cornell and Saltzman for the center’s major anchor tenant (I still can’t share that with you!) will be built first. They are phasing the construction to avoid impacting access to the library. The Sunset Athletic building and the remaining retail shops will be built this winter.

Cornell Road will be widened to provide a long access and right turn lane. The second access to the center will be an extension of Dogwood where the existing driveway is now.

Beaverton denies Life Time Fitness development appeal, project will go forward

The Beaverton City Council heard the appeal of the Life Time Fitness project planned for the southwest corner of Barnes and Cedar Hills Bl. at their July 16 meeting. Attorney Michael Connors, representing the still-unidentified person behind “Beaverton Business Owners LLC”, argued for the appellant. The city planning department countered all their claims of error, and the council voted to deny the appeal and allow the project to proceed.

Several people testified in agreement with the appeal, including Kyler Speich, who argued that the development would have adverse impacts on the environment. Councilor Cate Arnold responded to these concerns when she voted to deny the appeal, saying, “I can’t use my hopes and aspirations to make decisions about code.”

We don't have information about a timeline for the development, but we’ll write about that as soon as we hear.

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