Vancouver developer eyes Camas project

Camas city leaders got a dose of good economic news last week, after meeting with representatives from the Vancouver-based residential and commercial property developer Holland Partner Group. At a pre-application conference held Wednesday, Dec. 6, city officials learned that Holland plans to build a massive mixed-use development on 35 acres in west Camas, near Fisher Investments' headquarters, off Northwest Fisher Creek Drive and Northwest 38th Avenue. Current plans call for a five-phase development with three 100,000-square-foot office buildings, a 20,000-square-foot, one-story retail artisan market and a 276-unit multi-family housing complex with clubhouse and swimming pool. In documents provided to the city of Camas, Holland Partner Group states that the project "is unique in that it functionally integrates office, retail and residential units over a broad scape, with intertwining and connecting open spaces and walkways," would be accessible to the nearby Fisher campus, which employs more than 1,000 workers, and that its inclusion of a retail market offers Camas "the rare ability to attract retail sales tax revenue from outside the community." Headed by CEO and Chairman Clyde Holland, the Holland Partner Group formed in 2001, owns more than 15,000 residential units, manages close to 25,000 additional units and has nearly 7,000 more residential units under development and construction on the West Coast, including several projects in Washington and Oregon. Many of the company's residential units offer upscale apartment and condo living. The group's Ladd building in downtown Portland, for instance, offers apartments -- studios as well as one- and two-bedroom units -- that range in price from $1,340 to $3,900 a month. At the group's Domaine and Villebois apartments in Wilsonville, Oregon, a 527-square-foot studio apartment rents for $1,265 a month. And at the Rowlock in Hillsboro, Oregon, a 1,252-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment goes for $2,010 a month. The group is still in very early development for its proposed Grass Valley project in Camas, but states in its pre-application documents that the proposed multi-family housing development, along with its related clubhouse, pool and parking areas will be phased in after the first 100,000-square-foot office complex. The retail market would be phased in fourth, after the apartments and first two office buildings, but before the third and final office complex. Although the group states in its pre-application proposal that "it is unclear at this stage how many studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units will ultimately be proposed," they have requested permitting for 600 parking stalls at the multi-family development, which would be "sufficient for all units to be (two or more) bedroom units." Representatives from the Holland Partner Group did not return calls for comment from The Post-Record in time for this issue's publication. This story was updated on Dec. 14, to reflect the fact that Fisher Investments now employs more than 1,000 people at its Camas headquarters.

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