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Success Stories
Orenco Station, Hillsboro, Oregon
When Rod took over the project, the landowner, a business park developer, had already spent several years and several hundred thousand dollars on planning and entitlements, but he was not sure it would work, that it would be "nice" or that it would make money. He hired Rod for this.
Rod found a plan largely comprised of cul-de-sacs with a product type from California that was largely untested in the rainy Pacific Northwest. If the product failed to sell, all of the streets would have to be redone. Rod hired an urban designer and remade the project with a grid system that provided built-in flexibility, not only with respect to the product mix, but also the phasing and cash flows. The designer also recycled parts of the site that had been cast aside, bringing these inside as parks and features that improved the overall marketability.
Rod also found a situation in which the local planning department had been overly involved in the design process. Its insistence on approving the most minute of details threatened the timetable. Rod negotiated an innovative agreement that got the overall project approved in a matter of weeks, while still leaving the local government with review authority over individual phases.
Less than six months after starting, Rod had the project planned, approved, and under construction, all while reducing the development risk and initial outlays. The development has gone on to win numerous awards for livability and marketing.