One of Medford's most recognizable organizations has made a $200 million move into the heart of Portland's South Waterfront development.

Pacific Retirement Services Inc., parent company for the Rogue Valley Manor, said Monday it will build a 30-story tower for a continuing care retirement center in Portland. That comes on the heels of similar, but larger development in Seattle.

Ground breaking is scheduled for the spring of 2008 for the development, called Mirabella at South Waterfront.

The 325-foot-tall, 507,300-square-foot center will cover a full block near the Willamette River. It's also near Portland's new aerial tram and the Oregon Health Sciences University.

Plans call for 224 independent living residences, 16 assisted living apartments, 20 skilled nursing private rooms, 21 special care memory support private rooms, 244 parking spaces that include an underground garage and clinic and research space.

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P acific Retirement Services originally planned to lease the roughly 1-acre parcel from OHSU, but as negotiations went on the medical school decided instead to sell it to PRS for $8 million.

The purchase and alliance with OHSU allows PRS to provide state-of-the-art care and services and to investigate new technologies, said PRS chief executive Tom Becker. As part of the agreement, Mirabella residents will have access to the adjacent OHSU Center for Health & Healing.

"There were five applications turned in for this project when we submitted our proposal a year and a half ago," Becker said. "They went up and visited our Seattle office and liked what we were doing up there and also liked what we were doing elsewhere in Oregon."

Although the project is smaller than the Seattle Mirabella, Becker said, construction costs will be "north of $200 million."

PRS issued $256.7 million worth of bonds in November to cover construction costs of the 288-unit project in Seattle.

PRS anticipates Hoffman Construction Co., which built the Skyline Plaza in Medford, will be the general contractor, while Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects, also of Portland, is designing the facility. Completion is projected for summer or early fall in 2010.

Apartments and penthouse suites with views of the Willamette River, Mount Hood and greater Portland are available in sizes of up to nearly 2,000 square feet. Amenities will include a 24th-floor restaurant for residents and their guests. Mirabella's footprint is smaller than the Rogue Valley Manor, but it will be nearly double the Manor's original 250,000 square feet.

"We just started selling today," Becker said. "Seattle sold out very fast, once we started taking deposits we were sold out in six or seven months.

The project will create 130 full-time jobs and as many as 175 jobs overall in Portland. It will have a residual influence on staffing in the Medford home office where there are about 75 employees overseeing the non-profit corporation's 46 retirement communities and service organizations in Oregon, Washington, California and Texas. The corporation employs approximately 1,600 people.

"On the West Coast we're developing more CCRC (continuing care retirement community) type projects than anyone else that I'm aware of," Becker said. "We just finished up one in Saratoga, Calif., and we're looking at a couple opportunities in California and we don't have agreements yet. But I imagine we'll be developing more communities down there."

Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail business@mailtribune.com.