Ashforth-Pacific, the longtime locally based affiliate ofStamford, CT-based Ashforth Co., is the 800-pound gorilla acrossthe Willamette River in the Lloyd District, where it owns the vastmajority of the office space and much of the developable land. InNovember, it ventured across the river for the first time,acquiring the 24-story, 400,000-sf ODS Tower for $123 million.

Its second purchase looks a lot like its first in many respects.Although ODS Tower is a larger, newer building, it has a majorlocal employer as a tenant, it's namesake, a provider of dental andmedical coverage and professional liability insurance that leasesone-third of the building. Also, both buildings are on the city'slight rail line and within a block or two of Tom McCall WaterfrontPark. Finally, both assets were acquired in partnership with GEAsset Management, which is headquartered in Stamford.

Ashforth Pacific president Scott Langley tells GlobeSt.comAshforth Pacific was simply looking for core, institutional-qualityreal estate. In One Pacific Square, Ashforth Pacific acquired abuilding that has been 70% refitted as class A office thanks to thehealthy tenant improvement package that EOP gave Northwest NaturalGas as part of the lease agreement. Moreover, he says the 17,000 sfof vacant space is only available because Northwest Natural used itas staging for the phased renovation of their space.