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Main Street Partners, LLC Named as Preferred
Developer for Milwaukie's Town |
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After meeting with the Milwaukie Town Center citizen advisory committee on
March 27, the Project Management Group (PMG), comprised of staff from Metro and
the City of Milwaukie, named Main Street Partners, LLC as the preferred team to
develop the Town Center project. The one-acre Town Center site is located across
the street from Milwaukie City Hall and is bound by McLoughlin Boulevard and
Harrison, Main and Jackson Streets.
The recommendation is the product of a series of meetings with the eight-member citizen advisory committee and takes into account the committee's comments and observations as well as the public input gathered at the March 13 open house. The PMG, which includes Phil Whitmore of Metro's Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and Centers program, Meganne Steele, Development Project Manager of Metro's TOD and Centers Implementation program, Milwaukie City Manager Mike Swanson, and Milwaukie Community Development Director Kenny Asher, also conducted analyses of each proposal team's financial capacity and business offer before arriving at its recommendation.
"I appreciate the valuable feedback provided by the public and the citizen advisory committee into this decision process," said Metro Councilor Brian Newman. "While all three proposals had merit, I'm very excited to move forward with Main Street Partners on this project to continue the revitalization of downtown Milwaukie."
The citizen committee was impressed by the Main Street Partners' ability to demonstrate an in-depth understanding of Milwaukie's development environment and by its successful track record in building projects that are consistent with its original commitments. Main Street Partners recently completed the North Main Village project, which is located adjacent to the Town Center site. The development concept offered by Main Street Partners provided the most detail and the best balance between diverse community aspirations and financial reality of the three proposals submitted. Costa Pacific Communities and Winkler Development Co. submitted the other two proposals.
According to the citizen committee, the distinguishing characteristics of the Main Street Partners' proposal were three stories on Main Street including ground floor retail and two-story town homes above, four to five stories on McLoughlin Boulevard with ground-floor commercial and condominiums above.
The PMG identified the positive attributes of this proposal in terms of the scale of the building on Main Street, the gap in the upper floors to respond to the form of City Hall across the street, the amount of ground-floor active space on both Main Street and McLoughlin and the strong presence of the building fronting directly onto McLoughlin.
The Main Street Partners' initial program calls for 76 town homes and condos, 10,000 square feet of retail space on Main Street, 6,000 square feet of office space facing McLoughlin, and 80 residential parking spaces within the first floor. Unit sales costs for the town homes and condos are projected to range from $235,000 to $295,000.
The project will continue the economic development and main-street feel begun by North Main Village as well as providing desirable housing and retail services close to transit access.
"The citizen committee really worked hard," Swanson said. "Their input was critical to the PMG recommendation and I think we're going to get a project that does Milwaukie proud."
The PMG will present reports supporting the recommendation to Metro's TOD steering committee on April 11 and to Milwaukie City Council on April 17. Pending approval from Metro and Milwaukie City Council, the PMG will begin negotiating a memorandum of understanding with Main Street Partners to solidify the developer's commitment to the project and to begin refining the project concept to address community objectives.
Contact information:
Grady Wheeler, City of Milwaukie, (503) 786-7503, wheelerg@ci.milwaukie.or.us
Patty Unfred, Metro, (503) 797-1685, unfredp@metro.dst.or.us
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