Just before Prendergast was to begin pouring concrete, however, the city decided to extend a height bonus on nearby properties to Prendergast's property and several others. Having wanted to go higher in the first place, Prendergast happily had Bob Thompson of Thompson Viavoda & Assoc. redesign the building as a taller, skinnier office tower.

The changes not only altered the space Young & Roehr had signed on for, but it also pushed the project's completion from the end of 2001 to the middle of 2002, six months later than Young & Roehr had planned to relocate from their current offices in the Skidmore Fountain Building. To try and ease the pain, Prendergast is giving Young & Roehr its pick of floors in the redesigned building, and remains "hopeful" he can still accommodate the growing ad firm. Young & Roehr CEO Bob Warren remains undecided.

"Of course, what we wanted was the building we agreed to, but that option doesn't exist anymore," Warren tells GlobeSt. "We are still in discussions with Pat about how our needs can still be met. We haven't resolved anything. He's outlined options and we are still looking at those."

Signing a tenant is about having the right space in the right place at the right time, and then meeting that time deadline. But in a tight market like Portland where you expect the space to be absorbed easily, the benefit of being able to turn a six-story, 80,000-sf project into one that's 10 stories and 148,000 sf ultimately outweighs the inconvenience it causes one 15,000-sf tenant.