C.E. John Co., a family-owned company on a development streak in Northwest Portland, is pulling the plug on its development efforts.
Two of the executives that led the Vancouver-based company in developing a handful of mixed-use apartment communities in Northwest Portland, President Rob Hinnen and Senior Vice President Thomas DiChiara, will leave later this year to form their own development firm.
“We understand their need to change direction,” DiChiara said. “And they understand our need to continue working on the projects we’ve started.”
First Hinnen, then DiChiara came to C.E. John to build a development arm after working together at Trammell Crow Residential.
The new company will also take over the role of master developer for the land holdings of trucking company Con-way Inc., a job Hinnen and DiChiara had won for C.E. John. One of the first projects in that redevelopment effort, a mixed-use project that will be anchored by a New Seasons Market, may be delayed by the transition as the new company seeks an investor.
But Craig Boretz, Con-way’s vice president of corporate development, said he doesn’t expect the change to have much effect in the long run.
“I’ve been working on Tom and Rob on all this stuff we’ve been engaged in, so the fact that they’re kind of going off on their own is fine,” Boretz said. “They’ll need to go through this process and then we’ll be on to other things.”
DiChiara said the change comes as the company transitions from its second to third generation of family ownership. It was influenced by the retirement of some family members, and looming decisions to be made on whether to move forward on the New Season-anchored Slabtown Marketplace project added urgency.
But the split has been amicable, DiChiara said, and the new company may end up working with C.E. John to develop some of its other Northwest Portland holdings.
