CONSTRUCTION: Futrell looks to build seven stories in 'green' mid-rise

<p>Hugh Futrell, who has been redeveloping the Railroad Square area of downtown Santa Rosa, has two projects in the works for the east side of Highway 101.</p><p>In late May, Hugh Futrell Corp. submitted a request to the city for conceptual-design review, rezoning and a conditional-use permit for a seven-story housing and retail building to be built at a former bank branch site at 888 Fourth St. The site was acquired in October.</p><p>The proposed building would have 56 condominiums ranging in size from 900 to 2,400 square feet, on-site parking and 3,500 square feet of retail or restaurant space on Fourth Street, according to Mr. Futrell.</p><p>The site is on the eastern edge of the "core downtown" area that the city has defined as part of its mid-rise policy for development of multistory buildings. The site is zoned for two different uses, a five-story downtown commercial building – CD-5 – and neighborhood commercial along Fourth. </p><p>Mr. Futrell said he'd likely keep the neighborhood commercial zoning as is and seek a change for the rest to the CD-7 zoning, which allows buildings with seven stories up to a maximum height of 95 feet.</p><p>A feature of 888 Fourth will likely be "green" building aspects that would make the structure eligible for certification by the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, program. If it beats West Bay Development's 12-story Comstock downtown project, 888 Fourth could be the first such residential building in the county to get such an accolade.</p><p>A project that is further back in the development cycle is a four- or five-story building with high-end dwellings at Seventh and Riley streets. A Futrell building of similar size is the five-story The Burbank development on the block bounded by Seventh, Beaver and Orchard streets.</p><p>A conceptual-design package is expected to be ready for the city on the Seventh and Riley project later this month or in July, according to Mr. Futrell.</p><p>As Hugh Futrell Corp. is finishing its two-story brick office and retail building at 201 Third St. in Railroad Square, the company is set to go before the Planning Commission in July with a proposal for a four-story 70,000-square-foot office and retail building in the block ringed by Fourth, Fifth and Davis streets and Highway 101. The latter site currently is a parking lot just north of a class A office building Futrell completed last year at 200 Fourth St.</p><p>***</p><p>American Canyon-based Powerscreen California, which sells portable crushers, screens and conveyors for mines and landfills, has purchased the 6.6-acre American Business Park site at 5381 Broadway in for expansion.</p><p>A group of investors received entitlements to build 90,000 square feet of industrial condominiums on the site, but that project fizzled, according to Bill Kampton, the Colliers International broker who was marketing the property for sale.</p><p>Powerscreen California hired Napa civil engineering firm Chaudhary & Associates to seek city permits to build a sales and service facility on the site. </p><p>Powerscreen California currently is located at 10 Case Court and was started in 1986. It is affiliated with Northern Ireland-based Powerscreen, one of the world's largest makers of portable screening equipment and is part of Terex Corp.</p><p>***</p><p>Just three months after Atlanta-based home-improvement retailer The Home Depot submitted plans for a 128,000-square-foot store and garden center in Novato to anchor a retail development on the 19-acre Hanna Ranch property just south of the Vintage Oaks regional mall, the company has reconsidered that location.</p><p>A company spokeswoman said the company continues to look at sites in and around Novato but declined to delve into details of why the Hanna Ranch development wouldn't work. Wilson Meany Sullivan of San Francisco was developing the site.</p><p>The Home Depot has a store in San Rafael and one in Rohnert Park as well as higher-end Yardbirds Home Center stores in Petaluma and San Rafael.</p><p>***</p><p>John Derryberry, owner of a 166,900-square-foot former Optical Coating Laboratory Inc. facility just west of the company's campus at 2877 Giffen Ave., got the go-ahead from the Santa Rosa City Council last week to seek office tenants.</p><p>The City Council approved a General Plan amendment on June 12 to change the zoning of the 9.62-acre property from "light-industrial" uses to "business park," which allows building owner John Derryberry of Sonoma to market the building to tenants seeking professional office space. Colliers Interntional is marketing the building. </p><p>***</p><p><photo> Speaking of Colliers International, the commercial real estate brokerage has named Carlos Rivas managing partner of its new Santa Rosa office. Mr. Rivas was one of four brokers who started the office late last year. The brokerage's other North Bay office is in Fairfield.</p><p>•••</p><p>Submit items for this column to Jeff Quackenbush at 707-579-2900 ext. 206, jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or fax 707-579-8475.</p>