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Spreading the gospel of green
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Photo by Lincoln Ross
Barbour |
Ribeiro, an affable man his mid-40s, says his reasons for
building green have less to do with making money than with his
belief that the world’s oil production has peaked,
requiring a dramatic shift to alternative fuels, and his desire
to atone for nearly two decades of investing in shoddily built,
auto-oriented real estate, mostly in his native Southern
California.
“I’ve been leaving problems in my wake instead of
solutions,” says Ribeiro. “When my great-grandkids
look at what I did, I want them to be proud. I don’t want
them to say, ‘Look, Grandpa put up that
Costco!’”
Ribeiro, whose father made a living building condominiums near
the family’s home in San Marino, Calif., started buying
and selling homes and apartment complexes there in the
mid-1980s. None remain among his current list of properties,
which he declines to value but says range from “fixer
houses” in the Salem area to a 10-acre lot in Riverside,
Calif., to a 68-acre parcel of farmland in Kuna, Idaho.
Kuna, a fast-growing suburb of Boise, is home to
Ribeiro’s most ambitious venture, a $50-million-plus
development called Water’s
Edge. Its New Urbanist elements — a town square, 10
acres of greenspace and the promise of “European-style
sidewalk cafes” — are straight out of Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and
the Decline of the American Dream, the 2000 book that
Ribeiro says transformed him into a promoter of multi-use
buildings and compact, walkable neighborhoods.
Water’s Edge won a design award last year from a Idaho
nonprofit that recognizes smart growth. Ribeiro says he has the
financing in place to start building the village center and
several of its 395 homes this year.
But he hopes to make his biggest splash in Independence,
population 7,500, located 12 miles southwest of Salem on the
Willamette River. He moved there from San Bernardino, Calif.,
in 1997, opened a real-estate appraisal business with his wife
and became one of the city’s biggest fans.
“We bought a $400 Honda mower, left it on our porch for
three years and it never got stolen,” says Ribeiro,
moments before ducking out of a mid-afternoon shower and into
Taylor’s Fountain & Gifts, where he’s greeted
by the owner of the Main Street general store that dates to
1882. “People know you, they talk to you,” he says.
“It’s a good, small town.
“I love this town and I wanted to do something here that
was right and fun.”
Independence Station, in the
heart of downtown Independence is shooting
for a LEED platinum
designation with its aggressive sustainable design
features.
IN 2004, RIBEIRO BOUGHT a half-block parcel from the
Independence Urban Renewal Agency for $175,000 and a promise to
erect a mixed-use building there by June 2007. It was prime
downtown real estate — opposite the new $6 million
library, which opened in September 2003, and a block from Main
Street’s only stop sign — but the land’s
previous occupant, a ramshackle car-battery shop,
“wasn’t the kind of thing you expect to anchor
downtown,” says Portland architect Mark Seder.
The city hired Seder to explore options for the site, then
forged a development agreement with Ribeiro to build
Independence Station because his vision “fit with what
we’re trying to do downtown,” says city manager
Greg Ellis. Since 2001, the City of Independence has spent more
than $1 million on amenities such as ornamental streetlights,
widened sidewalks and a Riverfront Park amphitheater in a bid
to enliven its quaint downtown.
A sustainable showcase such as Independence Station brings
notice as well as new investment, says Ellis, and already has
helped lure more development: A Vancouver, Wash., developer
should begin construction this spring on an eight-theater
multiplex one block south. “Smart money is coming to
Independence,” says Ribeiro, who holds the option on
another downtown property and says he hopes to develop
others.
Current drawings of Independence Station show 14,000 square
feet of ground-floor retail, technology-rich office space and
eight third-story condo units with open floor plans and natural
light streaming through floor-to-ceiling windows. But its most
compelling attraction may be in the basement, where the public
will be allowed to peek into a 900-square-foot biofuels lab run
by Oregon State University. That’s where waste cooking
oil from local restaurants — collected by a used tanker
truck that Ribeiro has already re-emblazoned with a slick
“Energy for Independence” logo — will be
used to power everything from overhead lights to kitchen
toasters.
Eventually, Ribeiro plans to process oilseed crops grown by
local farmers into fuel for his generators and for the
diesel-powered shuttle bus he plans to operate between
Independence and next-door Monmouth.
Another notable green feature is the plan to distill and reuse
the building’s wastewater using a steam condenser that
relies on vacuums and low-temperature waste heat — a
system seldom used outside of industrial plants.
“We’re trying to avoid throwing anything
away,” explains lead engineer C. Mark Penrod, a principal
of Balzhiser & Hubbard Engineers in Eugene. So far, he
says, they’ve done a remarkable job. Of more than a dozen
LEED-qualified projects his firm has done, Penrod says
Independence Station’s projected 74% energy savings
“takes the cake.”
Ribeiro hopes to accelerate the industry’s march toward
sustainability by investing in the next generation of building
materials. He’s partnered with an engineer in Boise to
manufacture structural insulated panels with built-in green
utilities such as radiant tubing and photovoltaic cells.
He’s flown to Wisconsin to pursue a manufacturing deal
with the maker of a new nontoxic wood treatment that prevents
rot, and to Denver to meet with an award-winning University of
Colorado architect whose bio-based building materials
he’d like to mass-produce.
“We need to make serious advances in these old
technologies,” says Ribeiro, who characterizes his
ventures as “taking building out of the dark
ages.”
His first test awaits in downtown Independence, where
his half-finished project lies strangely silent. Ribeiro poured
the foundation and the footings for Independence Station before
the architectural plans were fully drawn to avoid paying
capital-gains taxes on the sale of some California real estate.
Now he says he’s awaiting more drawings and subcontractor
bids before determining what combination of bank loans,
energy-related grants and real-estate sale proceeds he’ll
need to finance the last $10 million of what he expects to be a
$15 million project.
Neither cost nor delay seems to fluster the buoyant Ribeiro.
Frustration surfaces only when discussing the string of
“thoughtlessly” designed apartment complexes he
once bought, where cheap rain gutters, un-insulated pipes and
shaded swimming pools underscored what he calls that
industry’s “dump-and-run” mentality.
At least here in Independence, he says, “I’m doing
the right thing — and having a blast.”
Have an opinion? feedback@oregonbusiness.com
Current Issue | MAY 08 |
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