GED/CNH/Port of Portland/Sellwood Bridge

Bob Gerding, the co-founder of the largest sustainable development company in the U.S., leaves a lasting legacy in the Northwest.

Portland - Bob Gerding, co-founder of the development company that has produced more LEED-rated space than any other company in the world, died August 18. He was 71 years old and suffering from cancer.

Gerding founded Gerding Edlen with Mark Edlen in 1994. Together they changed the Portland skyline, first with the Brewery Blocks, then with projects that created a live-work-play neighborhood at Oregon Health Sciences University. The company also built Bellevue Towers in Bellevue, Wash., and had projects in Los Angeles.

His projects are known as models of energy and water conservation. The latest to open is located at 12th and Washington in Portland. It’s one of the few in an urban area that uses wind turbines to supply energy.

“That whole outdoor ethic of the Pacific Northwest was in my opinion what really drove his deep, deep interest in sustainability,” longtime partner Mark Edlen said. “Bob really embraced a lot of the principles that we have fostered here in Oregon, such as the beaches, the urban growth boundaries and now our big move into sustainability.”

He is also known for dedication to the arts, partly due to his wife Diana’s interest.

CNH Unveils Plans for New Distribution Facility

Portland - CNH Parts & Service, the product support business of agricultural and construction equipment maker CNH Global N.V. plans to occupy a newly developed 250,000 sq ft distribution center in Portland.

Company officials expect the parts distribution facility to be fully operational in the first quarter of 2010. The facility will serve more than 130 New Holland, Case IH and Case Construction equipment dealerships in the Pacific Northwest, and is expected to bring 35 to 40 new jobs to the Portland area.

Portland Port Implements Contracting Program Changes

The Port of Portland’s successful small business contracting programs are getting a boost. As a result of a recently completed Disparity Study, the Port will today resume setting Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) contracting goals on federally funded projects and will expand its definition of “small business” to increase the pool of subcontractors available.

The Port will expand its small business definition to include firms certified as small businesses in Oregon and Washington and will require that at least two of the bids in solicitation processes for $5,000 to $100,000 projects are from small businesses—the current requirement is one. The Port will also research and develop a contractor rotation process to ensure that work is spread fairly among pools of on-call contractors.

DBEs are businesses that are certified as socially or economically disadvantaged and can be based on race and gender. Recent court rulings prohibited setting DBE contracting goals on projects funded through the Federal Aviation Administration without first having evidence of the presence of a disparity between the availability of contractors and the utilization of contractors, or its effects on the recipients’ contracting processes. Disparity studies help establish that evidence.

“The bottom line for us in this study,” says Port small business development program manager Rhonnda Parsons Edmiston, “is to make sure we do the best we can with our small business contracting programs within the legal guidelines. We want to insure open and fair access for all businesses to compete for and be awarded contracts for Port business opportunities. Ninety-eight percent of the businesses in the Port’s contracting market are small businesses and are important stakeholders. We have successful programs at the Port now, but we know we can always do better in reaching out to those businesses.”

Sellwood Bridge Funding Winds Though Approval Process

Portland - The project to replace the Sellwood Bridge gained approval of $1.3 million in a 2010 appropriations bill approved by the U.S. Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee.

The Sellwood Bridge appropriation is one of the largest in the bill for a road or bridge project in Oregon. It was a top priority for Oregon’s Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley. Senator Merkley serves on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which has partial jurisdiction over transportation legislation.

The Multnomah County Commission is hopeful that this federal appropriation will help bolster their case to include the Sellwood Bridge project in the next major federal transportation bill, which is up for renewal.

Inspections show the bridge has serious structural deficiencies.