Owner: Arthur A. Pozzi

Developer: MVG Development, Denver

General Contractor: Ordell Construction LLC, Eugene

Architect: Steele Associates Architects, Bend

Contact: 541-747-8734

Details: The frame of a 69,367-square-foot distribution center for FedEx has risen on an 11.5-acre site near Brinson Boulevard and NE 18th Street.

The building occupies a spot on the north side of the lot; on the south side, along Brinson Boulevard, rock hammers mounted on excavators turned a layer of basalt into gravel.

“The biggest challenge is hammering through all the rock,” said Don Long, Ordell Construction project manager. “The whole site has either been blasted or rock hammered.”

The resulting rock debris is being used to fill and level the building site and surrounding parking area, and provide a gravel base for the building. Cutting up and removing that basalt rock layer is a routine job on Bend construction sites, Long said.

FedEx confirmed in February that it was considering the site for a new center. Ordell Construction obtained the building permit, which values the project at $5.2 million, in September. Long said the building should be finished in June.

The building will have room inside for 60 delivery vans, he said, and conveyor belts that move packages from incoming tractor-trailers to the vans. The building is not a warehouse. “They don’t store stuff,” Long said.

The building facade will have a bright color scheme and faux windows, he said, to give it “street appeal.” This is the seventh facility that Ordell Construction, a Eugene firm, has undertaken for FedEx in Oregon and the first in Central Oregon, Long said.

— Joseph Ditzler, The Bulletin