The Portland Design Commission voted Thursday to approve plans for a 35-story tower that will transform Portland’s skyline, disband the city’s largest collection of food carts and set a precedent for the much-discussed and yet-to-be-built Green Loop.

Commissioners approved the Block 216 project Thursday with conditions despite objections expressed by city transportation and environmental services bureaus, whose representatives said they hadn’t had adequate time to consider issues ranging from overhanging street lights to a century-old water pipe.

The 844,117-square-foot project was valued at $245 million by the Bureau of Development Services. The building, designed by GBD Architects, will provide the West End a luxury hotel, office space, condominiums, retail space and dining space.

In an unusual move, commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the tower and podium design despite a staff report that recommended denial until various technical issues related to the tower’s frontage on Southwest Ninth Avenue could be resolved. (Commissioners Don Vallaster and Andrew Clarke were absent).

“We’re not there yet, and we’re not supportive of the conditions that have been proposed,” PBOT senior planner Fabio de Freitas said before the commission voted.

The project was on its way toward staff approval, de Freitas said.

“We believe we’re going to be able to get to yes,” he said. “We just haven’t had the information, nor the time, yet.”

The commission’s approval now shifts responsibility for high-stakes changes on Southwest Ninth Avenue to city bureau staffers. They could deny a permit or impose conditions, in which case the applicant could appeal to the Design Commission.

The project will be the first to front the Green Loop – a concept for a bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly street throughout central Portland.

“This is a nonstandard street by every level of interpretation,” de Freitas said. “We’ve been working diligently with the developer to work through toward concept approval. We just haven’t gotten there yet.”

Much about the Green Loop remains to be decided even as developments such as Block 216 go ahead.

“We honestly found some folks who weren’t familiar with the Green Loop concept within those service bureaus,” GBD Director Phil Beyl said.

The project, located on a full block bounded by Southwest Ninth and 10th avenues and Washington and Alder streets, comes from local developer Walter Bowen’s BPM Real Estate Group. The block is owned by the Goodman family’s Downtown Development Group. The deal is structured as a long-term land lease; the Goodmans will continue to own the block.

“This is frankly the largest private-sector project to break ground since Big Pink (U.S. Bancorp Tower) in 1980, so this is a step in the right direction,” said Brian Owendoff, a local real-estate broker who is representing Bowen.

The project will displace Portland’s largest food-cart pod. The block hosted more than 50 food carts earlier this year. The number has dwindled as some carts have moved.

The project team hopes to break ground in June or July 2019, Owendoff said. The food carts would be evicted before then. The tower is projected to be open and operational in October 2022, Owendoff said.

“The approval’s great, but the real work now begins,” he said. “We’re looking forward to moving dirt and creating a 100-year building that will frankly increase real estate taxes, hotel taxes and income taxes to the city of almost $10 million a year.”

The project team also includes HKS Architects and Howard S. Wright, a division of Balfour Beatty.

Thursday’s meeting saw a flurry of last-minute changes to the design. A story was eliminated from the podium that fronts Southwest Ninth Avenue. One floor of the 35-story tower was converted from office to hotel, increasing the number of rooms from 232 to 249. Design changes were made to a floor containing a swimming pool that will be visible at the corner of Southwest Ninth Avenue and Washington Street, pulling the floor back into the structure.

The tower and podium were also redesigned so the tower “nests into the podium,” said Kyle Andersen, a GBD Architects principal.

Block 216 was the last undeveloped full block in downtown Portland. Its development marks the largest step yet in the steady elimination of surface parking lots in inner Portland in favor of vertical development.

The Block 216 project will likely be the largest Portland building of its era. A lack of available land, development headwinds and zoning restrictions make anything larger unlikely for the foreseeable future.

Even as commissioners voted to grant design approval, some expressed misgivings.

“It seems like we could be setting a precedent here to short-circuit bureaus,” Commissioner Jessica Molinar said.

It will be the project team’s task to meet conditions set by city staff, Commissioner Sam Rodriguez said.

“The risk is being borne here by the applicant,” he said. “If they can’t get there, they can’t get there. The whole thing goes away. I’m happy to put that burden on them if they’re happy to take it.”

Further delay of the project could threaten its viability, Rodriguez added.

“If we don’t show some flexibility to move with big, complex projects like this, we’re not going to see them,” he said.

It was critical to get approval Thursday, Owendoff said after the meeting.

“There’s an old saying in real estate,” he said. “Time kills deals.”