Creative Services Center Building renovation begins

Portland’s Creative Services industry will soon see a new center for creative activity in downtown Portland. This week, The Portland Development Commission and Venerable Properties/Kalberer Company will begin renovating the Kalberer Building at 234 NW Fifth to serve as Portland’s Creative Services Center. Occupancy is expected in July 2001.

The Creative Services Center is a seven-story brick and timbered 1908 historic building which is slated to create a dynamic physical hub for creative services activities in Downtown and highlight the depth of local creative talent.

“The Center represents the city’s commitment to supporting and nurturing the growth of the Creative Services industry,” said Mayor Vera Katz. “This building will serve as the heart of industry association activity and a networking Mecca for all players as they grow their businesses here.”

The Center will provide state-of-the-art loft space for creative services companies and key industry associations, including:

• Headquarters for the Oregon Creative Services Alliance staff;
• Individual offices and common meeting rooms for industry associations;
• A Business/Conference Center with fully wired conference rooms;
• Up to 32,000 square feet for private creative companies.

The Business/Conference Center concept is still in development, and may include fee-based flexible conference room space and a range of business services for all Center tenants. The Oregon Creative Services Alliance and its partner associations will be located on the third floor of the 80,000 sq.ft. building.

Amenities available to tenants include:

• Unique office environment with refurbished brick, wood plank ceiling, open-beam and column wood features, seismic upgrades, ADA-compliant, security
• Smart building, redundancy, access to fiber, broadband
• High level of design
• Occupancy sensor lighting
• On-site bike storage
• Showers, locker rooms, rec room, and lounge area
• State-of-the-art conference facilities
• Enhanced networking opportunities among creative services industry associations Proximity to restaurants, services and customers
• Access to mass transit, direct location on the bus transit mall, close to MAX line and rail station (and soon MAX connection to the airport)

The Kalberer team working on the renovation includes Venerable Properties, Inc., SERA Architects, Howard S. Wright Construction, Sparling Technical Consulting, MacDonald Miller and KPFF Consulting Engineers.

PDC will master lease the Creative Services Center for ten years and is providing a loan for seismic upgrades to the building. Kalberer and Venerable are also hoping to construct a similar 70,000 square foot project in the ¼ block parcel immediately south. This Phase 2 building would connect to the Center, creating over140,000 square feet for creative-oriented companies.

Portland’s burgeoning creative services industry, which includes software developers, electronic commerce businesses, advertising and public relations agencies and film and video companies, has helped drive the metropolitan area’s growth and is viewed as an important component to achieving the region’s vision for an economically vibrant Central City.

More than 800 creative services firms employ an estimated 15,500 workers, and another 1,400 to 2,000 businesses offer freelance services. The industry has a payroll of more than $600 million annually. Between 1992 and 1998, the industry added 6,500 jobs and grew by 11 percent, twice as fast as the average business in the metropolitan area. And wages for payroll workers in this field average $44,000 a year, compared with the region’s average wage of $31,240. Freelancers average more than $55,000 a year in taxable pay.

The Oregon Creative Services Alliance is a coalition of multi-media, software, advertising, film and video, public relations and graphic arts organizations, guided by a board of directors and staff, who are working together to market Portland as a creative hub, nurture local talent and create a centralized location for industry workspace, presentations and meetings.

The Portland Development Commission is the housing, economic development and redevelopment agency for the City of Portland. More information on the Creative Services Alliance can be accessed on the Commission’s website at www.pdc.us/creativeservices