Hotel construction is red-hot in Portland these days, and one of the projects under way is the sizable Hyatt Centric Portland in the West End of downtown, at the corner of Southwest 11th Avenue and Alder Street.
The 15-story, 215-room hotel is being built on a quarter-block parcel that formerly held a three-story office building occupied by the United Way of the Columbia-Willamette. Mortenson, the design-build contractor and lead developer, purchased the property in 2017 after it was declared surplus by United Way.
Construction has moved quickly since demolition of the office building in March 2018.
“It doesn’t feel like it was that long ago, no,” Mortenson Construction project manager Angie Helfert said. “We’re topped off, we’ve got enclosure basically run up through 13 and we should be enclosed on three through 15 in the next week and a half or two.”
Now, the construction site is swarming with up to 80 craft workers daily, Helfert said. Substantial completion is expected in approximately six months.
“We’ve got our elevators starting in the next month, we’ve got curtain wall starting in the next month, and the GFRC (glass-fiber-reinforced cement panels) on most of the elevations of the building, those are starting next month as well,” she said. “Rough-in is in pretty much every phase from starting tile and all the way through. It’s all over the boards; some of the (mechanical) equipment is already set, so we’re moving.”
On nearly all floors as well as the rooftop, where a mechanical penthouse is being constructed, carpenters from Anning-Johnson, Mortenson’s crews and workers from other firms are installing metal framing. Meanwhile, ironworkers are installing steel staircases and other elements, and electricians, plumbers and HVAC technicians are installing mechanical equipment. Also, glaziers are installing windows on floors 13 and higher.
SERA Architects designed the hotel to hold more than 131,000 square feet, including some 3,000 square feet of meeting space. The Hyatt Centric is intended to appeal to younger businesspeople interested in exploring the city instead of hunkering down in their rooms.
A destination restaurant will operate on the ground floor, in a space facing Alder Street.
“There’s an operator on board, but they’re probably about a month out from announcing,” Helfert said. “We are super excited once the restaurant operator announces. They’re a local, and we finished the design for that space, so that will open at the same time as the hotel.”
By: Josh Kulla, the Daily Journal of Commerce; on June 4, 2019