The D.W. Sivers Co. of Portland is moving ahead with its plans to develop the former Bohnenkamp Interiors property on Adams Avenue as a mixed-use project.

The company, which agreed in February to purchase the site from the city for $28,600 after the city paid $55,000 for it the previous September, has had people on site in recent weeks as the firm comes up with the design work for a new building.

Dennis Sivers showed off a model of his proposal to the city’s Urban Renewal Advisory Commission last week. He said he had not yet lined up financing for the project.

"I’m dealing with a couple of local financial institutions. I have to have approval completed to see that the project makes sense financially. It goes to the residential market in La Grande, which seems to have plenty of low-rent units," Rivers said.

A four-story building will go up on the 80-by-100-foot lot. The building will have a plaza or mall look inside, with an atrium opening to the skylight. Retail is planned for the first floor, with 10 apartment units of varying sizes on each of the upper three floors, Sivers said. The apartments will be around a central atrium. Some balconies are planned.

"There will be parking and loading areas in the back and storage for both retail and residential in the basement,” he said.

He said he was happy with the design by HDN Architects of Portland. His contractor will be Yorke and Curtis, which has priced the building at $3.4 million.

He could not say when construction was likely to start.

The Sivers Co. was one of two firms that responded to the city’s request for proposals of the Bohnenkamp site, the former location of a two-story, upscale furniture store that burned April 4, 1994, and collapsed into its basement.

The Sivers company is involved in the construction of the Integrated Services Building on Gekeler Lane on the Eastern Oregon University campus.

Started in 1952, D.W. Sivers Co. is a real estate development, management and investment company with a string of successful industrial, retail and office projects to its credit. It has earned a reputation as the leading "build-to-suit" developer in the Portland area.

On the Web: www.sivers.com