Gantry has arranged a $12.3 million bridge loan for Workshop St. Johns, providing refinancing of existing debt and fresh capital to advance the property’s ongoing redevelopment and lease-up. The financing supports a historic adaptive-reuse campus that is being repositioned as a hub for creative and maker-oriented tenants.
The property is located at 6635 N Baltimore Avenue in Portland’s St. Johns neighborhood, where it benefits from frontage along the Willamette River and views of the surrounding area. The campus covers five acres and includes more than 200,000 square feet distributed across 10 interconnected buildings. These structures were originally constructed between 1911 and 1970 and are unified by a common roof span, reflecting the site’s legacy as a long-standing industrial and commercial complex.
Workshop St. Johns previously served as the home of Columbia Sportswear. It has since been reimagined as a multi-tenant environment accommodating independent makers, artists, workshops, wellness operators, and other creative concepts. The adaptive-reuse strategy preserves the property’s historic character while introducing new uses aimed at a diverse mix of small businesses and creative users.
The borrowing entity is Workshop Cathedral Owner, LLC, a joint venture between Baum Revision and Owen Gabbert. Gantry’s Portland production office led the financing assignment, with Director Charlie Kokernak and Associate Hrishi Bukshin representing the ownership venture in securing the new debt.
The loan is a floating-rate bridge facility provided by a regional bank. According to Kokernak, the structure was tailored to the asset’s current operations and to ownership’s next phase of redevelopment and leasing. The capital is intended to allow further investment in the campus while supporting continued occupancy growth as the project advances its repositioning strategy.
By refinancing existing obligations and adding fresh proceeds for improvements, the bridge loan is designed to give the joint-venture ownership additional runway to execute its business plan for Workshop St. Johns. The transaction underscores ongoing lender interest in well-located historic campuses that have already attracted a base of creative and maker tenants, even as redevelopment and lease-up activities continue.
