Tom Moyer, one of Portland's most successful real estate developers, will halt work Monday on his 32-floor tower now under construction in downtown Portland.

Moyer's decision to pull 350 workers off the Park Avenue West is a stunning sign that no city, no person and no block is spared from this recession.

Moyer is one of Oregon's wealthiest developers, and the Park Avenue West is anchored on prime downtown land, in a city that one company ranks as having the country's second most stable office market. The building, originally scheduled to open in 2011, already was more than half leased by a law firm and a Nike store.

In other words, if anyone in this town could get a loan, it would be this guy on this project.

"Construction financing does not exist right now," said Vanessa Sturgeon, president of TMT Development, Moyer's company, which is building Park Avenue West.

Moyer's financial woes show that even though the U.S. Treasury pumps billions of dollars into banks, that cash is not landing in the hands of the people who need it. Moyer, who has been in real estate since the 1950s, may be able to withstand the pain. But at the end of the line, lenders' reluctance means construction workers may not receive a paycheck, finding it harder to make the mortgage and buy new shoes for their kids.

Even though the banks are under pressure to improve their own health, borrowers remain frustrated by their unwillingness to lend.

"I get a little bit mad about it," said Bart Eberwein, vice president at Hoffman Construction Co., general contractor on the project. "The banks are getting the money, but they're not lending it out. Until private lending picks up, we are going to be in a prolonged slump."

The Park Avenue West was designed to be a new icon in the city skyline, rising 350 feet on a sliver of land along the historic South Park Blocks alignment. It falls just a few blocks from Moyer's previous downtown tower, the Fox Tower and the 1000 Broadway building.

Moyer finished the Fox Tower in the teeth of the dot-com bust, but it still became one of Portland's most notable buildings, attracting high-end retailers.

But this recession is like nothing that's come before it.

Developers in other cities have stopped midstream on high-rise construction projects. But in Portland, veteran real estate professionals said they couldn't recall any other developer who stopped construction on a high-rise in the last 30 years. "It seemed like something that happens in other places," Eberwein said.

Moyer had expected to pay for the construction himself and had kept up payments to his contractors.

Real estate brokers had taken to saying that Park Avenue West would be built by the "Bank of Tom Moyer." Moyer owns land throughout the Willamette Valley, and Sturgeon said the company planned to borrow against some of those holdings to fund the Park Avenue West.

But even the "Bank of Tom Moyer" has its limits.

Sturgeon said the book values of Moyer's other land holdings have fallen. Plus, lenders have tightened their requirements on loans and cut the amount of debt that borrowers can incur. In past years, lenders would allow developers like Moyer to borrow up to 75 percent of a property's value. Now, it's 45 percent, Sturgeon said.

"It's unprecedented," she said.

At the job site Friday, the concrete, mechanical and iron workers left the site about 3 p.m. with the building 15 percent finished. It remains just a parking garage, frozen for now about three floors below ground.

Rumors had circled for weeks that work would stop. But after news broke Friday, workers expressed disbelief -- even after reading the news online.

"If this shuts down now, once we hit street level I'll be unemployed," lamented Lance Cabanilla, 46, a crane bellman.

Cabanilla said he would seek work on a remaining Hoffman project in the South Waterfront district, but he decried the state of the construction industry, which has lost 32,800 jobs since it peaked at 110,800 in August 2007.

"What's happening to all the working guys?" he asked.

Carpenter Steve Callopy said he has no safety net beyond unemployment compensation and doesn't see any fresh work on the horizon. Commercial construction, in particular, seems to have fallen apart.

"Do you see any commercial stuff going on?" he said. "I see a lot of commercial 'For Lease' signs."

Sturgeon said she expects construction to remain stopped until they can find financing in early 2010. They'll use the time to redesign the building and lop off the top 10 stories that were to be "ultra-luxury" condos. The condos would have been listed for more than $600 per square foot, or about $1 million for an average unit of 1,800 square feet.

The Portland office market is getting worse as unemployment rises. The vacancy rate in the central city office market jumped from 8.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 to 10.2 percent in the first quarter of 2009, according to real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield.

Shorenstein Properties of San Francisco, one of the region's largest office landlords, is building new office buildings along Lake Oswego's Kruse Way and in downtown Portland. The company hasn't signed a tenant for either building, though interest seems to be picking up, said Matt Cole, senior vice president of Shorenstein Realty Services.

The Park Avenue West's primary tenant was to be Stoel Rives, Oregon's biggest law firm. Managing partner Wally Van Valkenburg said his firm hasn't decided how to respond to the delay, according to a news release.

In the meantime, the visible site behind Nordstrom and between the MAX light-rail tracks will provide a constant reminder of the economy we live in now.

-- Ryan Frank: ryanfrank@news.oregonian.com; blog.oregonlive.com/frontporch.