Portland's new face, the affluent [Archive]

MarkDaMan

Dec 14, 2006, 4:16 PM

The new face of affluence
The rising towers of South Waterfront stand at the intersection of city trends: more -- and more visible -- wealth
Thursday, December 14, 2006
By Erin Hoover Barnett
The Oregonian

The closest that many Portlanders have come to the emerging South Waterfront neighborhood is the view from Interstate 5. The soaring towers of glass and steel sitting smack dab on the river are monuments to affluence of a type once rare in the People's Republic of Portland.

The condo towers stand at the intersection of several dollar-driven trends.

More people with more money live in Portland now than a decade ago. They're more in our faces now. And the range of people achieving affluence today -- and able to afford a South Waterfront condo -- is broader.

A decade ago, 13,499 Multnomah County taxpayers reported incomes between $100,000 and $500,000, or 4.5 percent of county filers. In 2004, that number jumped to 24,375, or 8 percent, even though there were fewer filers. And that's only one slice of personal wealth.

The single biggest manifestation of affluence, says Portland economic consultant Joe Cortright, is real estate. Prices soared, interest rates plummeted and construction boomed, lifting the fortunes of property owners, real estate agents, developers and mortgage brokers.

Affluence is also becoming more visible.

People with money used to be hidden in big homes in the West Hills and bumped into each other at Strohecker's grocery. Now some are coming down from the hills, in from the suburbs and out of Laurelhurst, drawn by an urban living option that didn't exist here before the Pearl kicked off the condo craze.

Affluence is no longer solely defined as a 4,000-square-foot house with a three-car garage and private backyard. It's also a 1,600-square-foot condo with a skybox view of the river and eco-friendly construction. Where people of means were once spread out over whole neighborhoods, they are now also stacked on top of each other in the sightlines of everyone else.

"The idealized vision of wealth was you could retreat to an enclave that would be isolated not only from other economic groups but from everyone else," Cortright says. "Not anymore."

You see the affluence in little examples all over the city -- obviously someone can afford $36.25 a pound for Stumptown coffee from Guatemala, $50 for a baby sweater on Northeast Alberta Street and $13.95 for silicone potholders at a Pearl cooking store. (Whatever happened to crochet?)

In a city with a strong egalitarian thread, where even if you're rich you're loath to act like it, this moneyed emergence rubs some people the wrong way.

That's particularly true at a time when the crevasse between the rich and everyone else is widening -- Multnomah County boasts the second-largest gap between the richest and the middle class in the state -- and particularly on a project like South Waterfront.

Public improvements for the development are subsidized with millions in urban-renewal -- taxpayer -- money. Stirring controversy, South Waterfront developers promised to include affordable housing but are pulling back on the number of units.

"It's not a model of government support for solving a housing problem among those who cannot afford it," says poverty analyst Chuck Sheketoff of the left-leaning Oregon Center for Public Policy. "A few people are making a lot of money off of that, and it is a development that is comforting the comfortable both at OHSU and those who are going to be living there."

Another view is that South Waterfront was for years a polluted field. Now it's becoming a $2 billion district of high-rises and jobs with an OHSU center, parks, restaurants and a river walk to lure the public, and a streetcar, tram and planned pedestrian bridge to get them there.

Property taxes generated in the district will offset the city's investment in public improvements and, when the urban-renewal designation expires in 2020, the tax money will flood onto local government rolls.

Mark Edlen of Gerding Edlen Development, a South Waterfront developer, says sure, Portland has more affluence. But what he sees is synergy -- from the influx of young creatives to the burgeoning alternative-transportation movement to success of mainline institutions such as the Portland Art Museum.

In Portland, Edlen says, "You're seeing somewhat of a maturing . . . a becoming more comfortable with itself."

Yet given that South Waterfront is so far home to the comfortable, the range of people who fit that category today is wide.

Yes, there are captains of industry -- Jay and Minnie Zidell of the barge-building family own a Meriwether condo, and Eric Hoffman of Hoffman Construction owns two. And there are surgeons and mortgage brokers and at least one NBA basketball player, Desmond Mason of the New Orleans Hornets.

But there are also civil servants and teachers and artists and retired politicians (former Salem Mayor Roger Gertenrich and his wife) and even a few couples with children. And in the Meriwether, the only building that has been completed and occupied, there are also renters, adding more variety to the mix.

Just ask Oren Glick.

When this retired social psychologist and software developer told a left-leaning friend that he planned to rent a condo in South Waterfront, her words stuck with him: "You're going to be living with a lot of rich Republicans, you know that, don't you?"

But so far, what he sees is a variety of ages, incomes, political leanings, family compositions and, to a lesser extent, races or nationalities.

Now Glick's message to his friend is: "She'll have to come down and see it for herself."

Erin Hoover Barnett: 503-294-5011; ehbarnett@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/116587410845370.xml&coll=7

MarkDaMan

Dec 14, 2006, 4:18 PM

TOM & MERLE NOGUCHI
Thursday, December 14, 2006
The Oregonian

Unit: 1,600 square feet, two bedrooms plus a den; paid $596,335

Profession: He's an electrical engineer with Bonneville Power. She's a teacher turned travel agent, now retired.

Moved from: Four-bedroom home in Lake Oswego Story: The Noguchis wanted to downsize now that their two daughters are grown. They toured older, single-level homes but didn't want to face a remodel. They like the nature-centric feel of South Waterfront, with its river access and greenways.

So they unloaded dressers, chairs, a television and a dinette table; sold their home at a profit; and became early residents at the Meriwether.

Tom, 64, attends South Portland Neighborhood Association meetings, among other civic activities. He wants to build bridges with neighbors, many of whom have viewed the development skeptically.

"I saw it as an opportunity to try to make people more aware of the residents as individuals as opposed to just those rich people living down on South Waterfront," Tom says.

He has also joined in efforts initiated by the district's developers to get residents engaged. He's on the district's communications and self-governance committee and has signed on with a history project to chronicle South Waterfront's roots and record new chapters as they unfold.

An agreeable, detail-minded person, he looks well-groomed even in sweats and flip-flops when he comes down for "papers & pastries," a weekend morning gathering in the Meriwether's fireside lounge. He moves comfortably among the young and the graying professional types, chatting about their shared committee work.

His wife, Merle, also 64, is a charter member of OHSU's March Wellness Center, a stone's throw from the Meriwether. The center takes a holistic approach to health with offerings such as personal coaches, yoga and even Spanish conversation groups.

Tom recognizes they are fortunate to afford a South Waterfront condo. But he sees many others in similar circumstances -- baby boomers like him with the blessing of stable employment who were well-positioned to ride the real estate wave. He doesn't consider himself wealthy. He says, "I would think that over my career, I have invested wisely."

JEREMY & CARRIE STODDART

Unit: 2,400 square feet, two bedrooms plus a den, penthouse; $1,061,574

Profession: He owns a mortgage company. She's a model and a portrait photographer.

Moved from: A McCormick Pier condo in Old Town/Chinatown.

Story: Jeremy Stoddart grew up in Eugene spending Sundays after church touring homes for sale with his investment-savvy parents.

At 18, he devoured business classes at UO but tired of other coursework. At 24, he became a mortgage broker. A year later, he started his own company, Source One Financial. Now 29, he and his wife, Carrie, 25, have moved into a Meriwether penthouse.

"I always felt I would have loved to be in the first buildings in the Pearl," Jeremy Stoddart says. "Here was our chance" in South Waterfront.

Stoddart says the decision was a no-brainer investment -- a "holy moly" view of downtown, the river and the mountains; cutting-edge green architecture; close in; and all on one floor.

The couple have assumed they'll move to the suburbs to have children. But now they wonder if they'll want to leave. They're enjoying the neighborly feel and the developer-initiated social activities from kayak outings to wine and cheese parties. They miss the proximity to shops, coffee and groceries that they had at McCormick Pier, but they know amenities are coming. And just recently, they took the streetcar to MAX to the airport during rush hour with no problem.

"We're beginning to think this would be a great place to raise a family," he says. "It's more livable than you think."

OREN GLICK

Unit: Renting a 1,200-square-foot, one-bedroom unit. The owner paid $400,160.

Profession: Retired social psychologist and software developer

Moved from: Apartment on the Park Blocks

Story: Glick, 73, was considering a move from Ione Plaza when the opportunity to rent an investor's condo at the Meriwether arose. So he made a quick decision. Aside from his friend's prediction that he'd be joining a bunch of rich people, Glick had little time to contemplate his new home.

"I had a certain anticipation and curiosity and openness to whatever opportunity presented itself," says the unassuming retiree, who spent his career researching, teaching and working in community mental health and developed software to make bar-coded mailing tags on the side.

Glick found a welcoming environment at the Meriwether and has not sensed snobbery or a pecking order based on renters and owners, or anything else. He has met a good tennis partner and is joining in the South Waterfront history project along with Tom Noguchi.

He's decorated his lower-floor unit with an eclectic collection of contemporary art made cozy with an old rocking chair and the tick of his father's century-old Sessions clock. A roomy patio overlooking the West Hills, the Ross Island Bridge and a sliver of the river gives way to an eco-roof -- like having a large landscaped yard that also keeps storm water out of the sewers. One downside: The wind often drives him inside.

In Glick's old apartment, he didn't have room to put the leaves in his dining table. Now he hosts frequent gatherings in his airy living/dining/kitchen area and can seat 10 for dinner.

He misses the ready access to groceries and entertainment on the Park Blocks but has gained something in exchange: "I've ridden my bike more since moving here than in the whole nine years I lived in Ione."

JOANA FREEDMAN, 47 & CAROL COOK , 52

Unit: 2,400-square-foot, two-bedroom town home; $1,003,102 Profession: Freedman is a physical therapist. Cook is in management with an assisted-living facility developer and operator.

Moved from: A four-bedroom, five-bathroom home in the Beaumont neighborhood.

Story: In mid-2003, Freedman, 47, missed a chance to invest in The Henry, a premier high-rise in the Pearl. But eight months later, Realty Trust agents showed her a model of South Waterfront.

Freedman peered at the white miniature buildings. She noticed a row of two-story town homes flanking the towers that would become the Meriwether. One of the town homes sat right on the river.

She asked: What would I have to do to get that one?

Realty Trust put her name on it.

Then Freedman drove home and told her partner, Carol Cook. The couple had planned to downsize and now had two years before the building was completed to shed belongings and for the town home to appreciate. If they didn't like it, they could sell.

Now Freedman sits in front of the fire in their living room and stares out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the river and its inhabitants, from dragon boats and the sternwheeler to osprey and eagles.

"Every time you look outside, the view is different," she says.

Freedman works part time for a company that sells equipment to skilled nursing facilities and draws income from several commercial buildings she inherited from her parents. The couple also made a considerable sum on their Northeast Portland home.

Freedman, who grew up in Raleigh Hills, says Portland has always had people with money. Yet she doesn't get a status-conscious vibe at Meriwether gatherings.

"Half of them, I don't even know what they do," she says. "Everyone is starting with a blank slate. People who want to be part of the adventure are going to be more outgoing and nice."

And those who don't, she speculates, don't come out of their condos.

ROLLIE & ANNIE WHITE

Unit: 1,525 square feet, two bedrooms, $571,110

Profession: He's a federal biologist. She's a stay-at-home mom and manages their real estate projects.

Moved from: Four-bedroom bungalow in Laurelhurst. Story: Annie White was interim director at Portland State University's affirmative action office when she decided to stay home with the couple's daughters. They sold a car and dipped into Annie's retirement and the equity in their home to buy several rentals. Soon they bought a few homes, fixed them up and sold them.

They planned to buy a Meriwether condo as another rental investment. But then they made the unconventional decision to rent their Laurelhurst home and move with their daughters, 6 and 9, into the condo. They liked the developers' attempts to create a village feel through social and civic activities. They were attracted to the eco-friendly focus, using odorless paints and green roofs to filter storm water.

"Financially, it really wasn't the smartest thing," says Rollie, 41.

Annie, 40, says it was more about following their hearts.

Daughters Jenny and Julia share a bedroom and no longer have a playroom. They store their model horses, Boggle Junior and Lincoln Logs in the laundry room next to their parents' Veuve Clicquot and Rosenblum Zinfandel, pulling out a bin when they want to play.

"We actually have more family time because we're in this space together," Annie says. "The girls aren't just going in their playroom, and I'm not just in the kitchen."

The views provide spontaneous entertainment. "Oh the tram!" says Annie, jumping up from their dark leather couch to look out as the uphill and downhill cars float past each other.

Jenny and Julia still attend Laurelhurst Elementary. When friends visit, they go fishing on the river. The Whites won't let the children on their terrace or near the river without an adult.

"But," says Rollie, "that means as a grown-up, you get outside and play with your kids."

Having children has also helped the family meet people. Jenny's broken arm awhile back was worth 25 introductions, Annie says. The girls say they miss being closer to their friends. But both see advantages. Jenny, 6, says she likes taking the streetcar to Powell's and the library, and she likes the river.

"It looks like it's paintings in the daytime," Jenny says. "The waves look like brush strokes."

DESMOND & ANDREA MASON

Unit: 2,032 square feet, two bedrooms plus den; $939,148

Profession: He plays basketball with the New Orleans Hornets. She is home with 14-month-old Jada and is opening a South Waterfront clothing boutique.

Moved from: They also have a home in Oklahoma City, where the Hornets were relocated after Hurricane Katrina.

Story: Desmond Mason, 29, discovered Portland when he met his future wife. Andrea Mason, 27, grew up on the city's east side, and her family still lives here.

A Texas native and an Oklahoma State University graduate, Desmond, 29, started his professional basketball career in 2000 with the Seattle SuperSonics before moving to Milwaukee to play for the Bucks. He joined the Hornets a year ago as a small forward, which seems like a misnomer for someone who is 6-foot-6 and 225 pounds.

The Masons decided to buy a summer home in Portland. Desmond says the weather is good for golfing, he likes how clean the city is and "how carefree people are. You can walk up to people and have a conversation."

They became among the first Meriwether residents, and Desmond, easygoing and friendly, says it was fun introducing new arrivals to the building.

Desmond, with a degree in studio art, is an abstract painter. He faced an early challenge when he realized that his 9-by-6-foot Mark Rothko-inspired painting would not fit in the Meriwether elevators or the stairwell. So he huddled with South Waterfront construction managers. They tied a rope around the painting.

"We pretty much hoisted it up six floors on the side of the building," Desmond says. "It fit through the balcony door by three inches, and it fit my bedroom by another three to four inches."

The Masons also bought a unit in the John Ross condo tower, under construction, and are leasing a commercial space for Andrea to open a boutique. Desmond says they figure they'll stay in South Waterfront for the foreseeable future, possibly buying a bigger unit when they have another child.

"With the amount of things that are going to be available in the area," from the parks and bike path to stores, restaurants and an OHSU center, Desmond says, "it's just going to be a great community."
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/portland_news/11658723039190.xml&coll=7