About

Cook Development Corporation (CDC) was started in 1988 in Portland, Oregon with a primary focus on developing “hard to finance” housing for people of lower incomes.  Its founder Terry Cook entered the construction and development industry after obtaining his Landscape Architectural degree from the University of Oregon in 1973.  Mr. Cook started a design-build company that provided landscape architecture, construction and grounds management services to the Portland and Central Oregon regions.  In 1982, Mr. Cook was selected as the Project Manager on one of the world’s largest landscape projects, the King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.  After successfully completing the project, Mr. Cook became the assistant general manager of the 800-person Saudi Fal Corporation, a construction and development firm with projects throughout the Arabian Peninsula.  In 1985 he returned to the United State to develop upper-end housing projects for international investors.

As a result of Mr. Cook’s experience with upper-end apartment development, he formed CDC to address the housing need of those least able to afford it.  Since inception, the firm has developed affordable housing for non-profit agencies and for its own portfolio using a variety of financing tools that enables it to deliver market quality projects at below market rents. CDC rental projects serve people earning 40% to 60% of median family income (MFI), and first time homebuyers with incomes up to 120% MFI.

CDC financed projects include those funded with tax-exempt revenue bonds, Low Income Housing Tax Credits; Oregon Affordable Housing Tax Credits and Farmworker Tax Credits.  Grant financing successfully employed includes HOME, CDBG, Housing Trust Funds, Urban Renewal & Tax Increment Financing Funds and Oregon Economic Development grants.

CDC is currently involved in developing prototype single family attached and detached affordable homes targeted to first time homebuyers earning 80%-120% MFI.  It is also focused on rehabilitation of mixed-use historic buildings and creation of new mixed-use downtown projects in rural towns and cities in Oregon. While the firm’s work continues towards finding new financing and better construction methods to deliver new affordable homes to the next generation of Oregonians and help stimulate downtown economic opportunities with its redevelopment projects, it continues its core commitment to developing affordable housing for the State’s working men and women.

In 1990, Terry and his brother founded Sunmark Seeds International, Inc as a wholesale native grass and woody plant seed distributor concentrating on the Pacific Northwest and Asia. Six years later the company added a complete line of lightweight aggregates used in sports field; green roof and storm water filter applications. In 2005, the brothers expanded into the environmental field with new line of sustainable, green products and services and began a study into means of improving soil productivity without the use of chemical fertilizers. That study led to the development of a new biologically fortified organic compound that mimics the natural biotic function of highly productive soils.  

Working with Oregon State University and Oregon Best, and armed with the results of its study, the company pioneered a new product category for soil remediation called “Biotic Soil Amendment”. Using available technology and equipment, Sunmark Environmental Services developed two, patented biological and organic soil improvement products: PermaMatrix BSA (biotic soil amendment) and PermaMatrix BSP (biotic soil particle). Shortly after obtaining the patents, Sunmark spun the products off into a new company called PermaMatrix, Inc. Which continues to serve the soil restoration industry successfully.  

Today Sunmark Environmental Services and PermaMatrix, Inc. Are leaders in stormwater filter media development, stream bank restoration and biotic soil amendments. The companies are the manufacturers and distributors of their respective products throughout the United States, Mexico and the Pacific Rim.