Portland Infill | Northwest Portland [Archive] - Page 6

MarkDaMan

Aug 9, 2007, 3:49 PM

Grand Central ready for area 'to explode'
Thursday, August 09, 2007
By TOM HALLMAN JR
The Oregonian

Developers have had no trouble finding tenants for the Grand Central Building, now undergoing the final touches in a $4 million remodel.

"I had four inquiries yesterday," says John Plew of Foresight, the Portland development and real estate company that bought the 37,600-square-foot building and adjacent parking lot for $3.9 million in 2005. "I could fill it up tomorrow with the national guys, but I don't want to."

The building, once the home of the old 24-hour Grand Central Bowl, will still have bowling lanes. But now there will be an upscale bar, restaurant and billiards room, too, plus 12 storefronts ringing the outside. Developers reduced the number of lanes from 28 to 12 and plan to use the old wood in the overlooking bar.

Plew says the restaurant and bowling alley will open in November. Other tenants will move into the building -- listed on the National Historic Register -- later in the year and in the first quarter of 2008.

Plew says the block-size location in a hot part of Southeast, between Morrison and Belmont, allows the group to be selective about who gets to call the building home.

"We want local and regional businesses that are distinctive to the city and the region," he says. "We want an urban feel. We're not looking to make it something you'd find in the suburbs."

The parking lot and underground parking garage make the building an easy destination for customers, Plew says. Daily car counts of 35,000 on Belmont and 50,000 on Morrison are attractive to retailers; Plew says major retailers look for at least 15,000.

"A pizza shop is taking a spot on Belmont," Plew says. "He wants to capture customers coming home. A coffee shop is going to take a spot on Morrison. They want to get the business in the morning when people are coming to work."

Tenant rates will run $23 to $30 a square foot, he says, compared with rates at other projects in the area of $12 to $23.

"We're 18 blocks from the river," Plew says. "This is an amazing corridor all the way up to 39th street and over to Hawthorne Boulevard. The area has been cleaned up, and high-end restaurants are moving into the district. That's always a first sign of change. We want to be there first."

Plew could be accused of hyperbole, but he and his partners have a reputation of seeing possibilities long before the market catches up.

"We started investing in Old Town when no one believed in it," he says. "We thought it had a chance to turn into Portland's version of Bourbon Street. Look what happened. We're not into flipping properties. We've been in Old Town since 1985. We find properties we feel good about and stick with them."

Partner Dan Lenzen oversees sister company Concept Entertainment, owner of several area restaurants and bars, including Gypsy Restaurant & Lounge in Northwest, the Barracuda Nightclub in Old Town and the Lotus Cardroom & Cafe in a Southwest area once known as a hangout for prostitutes and drug dealers.

"Our forte is finding underdeveloped properties and making them shine," Lenzen says. "This is going to be one of those projects. The Central Eastside is ready to explode."

Soon-to-be tenant Todd Sparks owns Sparky's Pizza, a small local chain. "This is an underdeveloped area that's changing," Sparks says, standing in the middle of a construction zone in the center of the building. "We want to be a part of it."

Tom Hallman Jr.: 503 221-8224; tomhallman@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/portland_news/1186295133103560.xml&coll=7

brandonpdx

Aug 9, 2007, 7:15 PM

although I'm not a huge fan of their restaurants and bars I applaud them graciously for trying to stock their properties with local businesses.

Drew-Ski

Aug 10, 2007, 1:05 AM

I'm an eastern Oregonian native and I moved back to Portland from Phoenix because people here do give a shit, most Oregonians do, as opposes to Phoenicians, and worse, Arizonans in general just don't seem to appreciate their beautiful state. Look how they fucked up Sedona, and the air in the Grand Canyon is so thick you can almost walk across it.

Mark, your dead on........it is an embarrasment!

MarkDaMan

Aug 14, 2007, 2:03 PM

Belmont project tests higher prices for Southeast Portland
Daily Journal of Commerce
by Alison Ryan
08/14/2007

Belmont Street is most vibrant amid the bars and shops and restaurants that line the street in the Southeast 30s. On Southeast Morrison Street, a pocket of city life teems closer to the Willamette River, in the corridor that starts around Southeast 15th Avenue.

With 2121 Belmont, the 123-unit condo project under construction on a 300-foot stretch of land between Belmont and Morrison streets, developers say they’re bridging a connection between the two vibes.

“We think the neighborhood is what the Pearl used to be,” Reliance Development’s Scott Stehman said. “Eclectic, eccentric, sleepy but known.”

And it’s a spot developers say people will pay bigger prices to live in – and they’re stepping out on a ledge with their one- and two-bedroom condos, which will run between $260,000 and $550,000.

The development is one of the first upscale projects to hit the neighborhood. The project, a joint venture between Williams & Dame Development and Reliance Development, plants a series of four- and five-story buildings bordered by outdoor living spaces.

High-end is the base model. The façade’s dark brown brick and wood grain panel is bordered by balconies; interior designs call for materials like maple or mahogany floors and marble counters. Three upgrades – stainless steel backsplash and addition of washer-dryer and window treatments – are it.

“We don’t want to come in and smack you over the head with $700,000, and then you have to upgrade,” Stehman said.

People are interested. The project sales gallery – which offers model looks at a kitchen, bathroom and bedroom – opened Saturday. About 45 people showed up to take a look, Stehman said, and about 200 have already requested information on the project.

But the high-end market hasn’t been tested in the neighborhood, and whether the prices will hit home has yet to be seen.

Stehman thinks it will. And he also thinks 2121 Belmont is just the first upscale effort to be introduced in the neighborhood.

“We’re not the last to do that,” he said. “I think there are people combing the streets, trying to do that.”

The first units will be available for sale in September. Move-in on the under-construction project is slated for spring 2008.

http://www.djcoregon.com/viewStory.cfm?recid=29939&userID=1

Dougall5505

Aug 14, 2007, 6:53 PM

holstarc:
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture1-27.png?t=1187117490

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture2-13.png?t=1187117512

MarkDaMan

Aug 15, 2007, 12:33 AM

^innovative, but it looks so much like their other projects. Innovation begins to wear away when everything you develop is so much of the same.

bvpcvm

Aug 15, 2007, 12:48 AM

^ anyone know where that's going to be?

sirsimon

Aug 15, 2007, 12:58 AM

I like the look of that one a lot. :)

MOPIdaho

Aug 15, 2007, 1:50 AM

^ anyone know where that's going to be?

Looks like NE 28, in the hungry tiger's spot.

bvpcvm

Aug 15, 2007, 2:27 AM

Looks like NE 28, in the hungry tiger's spot.

ah, so it's currently under construction, right?

sirsimon

Aug 15, 2007, 1:45 PM

^ Yep

MarkDaMan

Aug 15, 2007, 2:25 PM

Apartment project’s parking, size concern N.W. neighbors
Daily Journal of Commerce
by Alison Ryan
08/15/2007

An apartment building proposed for Northwest Portland’s historic district nods well to existing buildings, neighbors say, but the project’s parking and size have nearby residents concerned.

“It’s massive,” neighbor Jessica Richmond told the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission on Monday. “It’s just too tall and too bulky for this site in this area.”

Conversations between developers of the Couch Park Apartments and neighbors have been open, Neighbors West-Northwest executive director Mark Sieber said, with give-and-take on project details. But neighborhood residents have their concerns about the project proposed for Northwest 19th Avenue between Hoyt and Glisan streets and parking looms large among them.

The proposal provides below-grade parking stalls for about two-thirds of the 96 apartment units. But no parking is provided for the retail spaces, which are proposed along Glisan Street and at the corner of 19th and Hoyt.

Neither residential nor retail parking is required for the site. Although Northwest Portland is well-served by public transportation, including several TriMet bus routes and the streetcar, parking is a problem in the area.

“Car ownership remains the norm for our neighborhood,” neighbor Marion Thompson said.

Smaller-scale projects also remain the norm for the neighborhood. A six-story project would be of significant size in Northwest Portland, neighbors said, and adding 96 apartment units could potentially mean adding a couple hundred new residents to the district.

“There’s already a noise issue in the neighborhood,” Dr. Anna Karlsson, a neighborhood resident, said. “Having my house next to a very tall building with lots of balconies makes me nervous.”

The designs SERA Architects presented Monday to the Historic Landmarks Commission for advice show two “pavilions” joined by a setback center courtyard. The brick base is topped by five stories of stucco, with curved wrought iron balconies echoing the boxy bay windows that dot the façade.

Neighbors asked the development team to take a closer look at design features, recommending a deeper courtyard, a more articulated roofline, better breakup of the 200-foot block face and additional horizontal features to reduce the height’s visual effect. But parking and building size were at the forefront of public comments.

An additional 34,000 square feet needs to be secured through a floor-area-ratio landmark transfer before the project can hit the 94,000 square feet desired by its developers. The Northwest Neighborhood Cultural Center declined a request to transfer FAR from its site, developers said, but talks with other property owners continue.

Several commissioners suggested the team consider dropping a floor. Others said they were comfortable with the height.

“I don’t think it can be a criticism of a developer to be developing what’s allowed by code,” commissioner Art DeMuro said.

But, SERA architect Kurt Schultz said, that height – and the FAR transfer – is needed to make the project pencil out.

“The proposal of six floors is our proposal,” he said.
http://www.djcoregon.com/viewStory.cfm?recid=29944&userID=1

tworivers

Aug 15, 2007, 6:40 PM

Man... you guys are nuts if you're complaining about "innovative" architecture in PDX! I think that building looks hot. What is wrong with a firm having a recognizable style?

As far as I'm concerned, buildings like this can go up all over the city.

I also trust that Holst's design sensibilities will evolve as they continue getting commissions.

MarkDaMan

Aug 15, 2007, 11:41 PM

^I understand the economics, and I do like the building. When Holst first entered the market they brought something new to Portland. I just hope that for future projects they can continue to push the envelope instead of getting suckered into building the same project all over town with minor modifications.

Inkdaub

Aug 16, 2007, 9:18 AM

ah, so it's currently under construction, right?

There is no construction going on at 28th and Burnside. The old building has been demolished but nothing else has been done. I assume that will change relatively soon, though.

sopdx

Aug 16, 2007, 4:27 PM

I agree with Mark. Holst's projects are beginning to all look the same. They're nice, but very similar.

PDX City-State

Aug 16, 2007, 11:03 PM

I disagree. Belmont and Thurman are similar, but this is totally different. It has a wood exterior, but the assymetrical windows and balconies are unlike anything in Portland. I find Ankrom and GBD to be far more homogenous with design.

I would much rather have Holst's style all over the city than the aforementioned and nearly any other firm in town.

lil yuca x3

Aug 16, 2007, 11:57 PM

Hi Im new to diz forum does anyone know whats is going on around NE killingsworth st. between 60th and cully does anyone have any renderings of the housing projects and and yeahh....

MarkDaMan

Aug 25, 2007, 8:44 PM

there was a rendering of this one in the Oregonian's In-Portland section.

Looking to the past for apartment design
Thursday, August 23, 2007
By Fred Leeson
The Oregonian

As architect Kurt Schultz studied Northwest Portland for design ideas for a new apartment building, his eyes kept landing on buildings dating to the teens and 1920s.

Campbell Court. St. Francis. Biltmore. Alexandra Court. Trinity Place.

He liked the tug and pull of bay windows and balconies. He liked the bracketed cornices and the bricks and stucco. Most of all, perhaps, he liked the recessed-entry courtyards, usually landscaped with comforting greenery.

"What's exciting to us is it's a building type you don't see much in Portland today," says Schultz, a principal with Portland's SERA Architects. "It's great for pedestrians, and it's great for the street. It's also great for residents who live there. There's a sense of calm and peace as you go in the main entry."

Many of the ideas have surfaced in preliminary plans for the Couch Park Apartments, which would look west from a half-block site on Northwest 19th Avenue between Glisan and Hoyt streets. Opus Northwest, a major real estate developer, hopes to build a six-story building with about 96 market-rate units, ground-floor retail spaces and one level of basement parking.

But it's sensitive turf. The site faces Couch Park and sits kitty-corner from Temple Beth Israel, the domed synagogue Schultz calls "probably the finest piece of architecture in the city."

It also sits in Portland's densest neighborhood and in the Alphabet Historic District, where residents scrutinize new projects. In the past couple of years, Northwest residents helped shoot down plans for a new Apple electronics store, stalled a proposed parking garage and narrowly lost a City Council fight over a condo tower.

Schultz started meeting with the Northwest District Association's planning committee before putting pen to paper. After three meetings, "it's not yet quite perfect," says Mark Sieber, a Northwest representative. The committee would like to see a deeper courtyard, now proposed at 50 feet wide and 20 feet deep.

Dr. Anna Karlsson, who lives behind the site of the proposed building, worries that the 65 parking spaces won't be enough. She'd like more parking or fewer units. "Only those of us who live in the neighborhood understand the congestion," she says.

Jessica Richmond, who also lives nearby, thinks the building is too tall and blocky. "This is basically a chunk with a small courtyard," she says. "The building is getting better with time, but there are still basic problems with it."

But if the building does come to pass, it is likely to be at the size proposed. "We need to get the square footage to make the project pencil out," says Brian Bennett, an Opus senior manager.

To get to 94,000 square feet as proposed, Opus must purchase about 35,000 square feet of unused development rights from some nearby historic building. Talks with one historic property failed, but Bennett says Opus has "multiple people who are interested."

Then the apartment design would face scrutiny from the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission and possibly the City Council.

Bennett thinks the building would improve Couch Park safety by putting more eyes on it. He says he wants the building to blend into the neighborhood fabric.

Schultz thinks the key lies in using elements that made models from the teens and '20s successful.

"We want a building that is timeless and enduring," he says, "not a trendy design that says this year only."

Portland News: 503-221-8199; portland@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/portland_news/118722570892490.xml&coll=7

MarkDaMan

Aug 25, 2007, 8:45 PM

Some are flat unhappy with project's roofline
Thursday, August 23, 2007
By Fred Leeson
The Oregonian

Deadra Hall and her relatives have lived among the pitched-roof homes along North Vancouver Avenue for 50 years. Though the street has had troubles with drugs and crime over the years, it's a street on the rebound.

So Hall wasn't pleased to learn that an adjoining house would be cleared to build a triplex. Worse yet, the proposed building would have a flat roof and storefront-style windows -- nothing like the 1910 houses in the 4000 block on both sides of her street.

"The design really sticks out," Hall said. "It doesn't blend in with existing houses."

Indeed, the city's community design standards for infill housing in older neighborhoods recommend pitched roofs of specified angles. So Hall challenged the design in an appeal before the Portland Design Commission.

As other Portland neighborhoods may soon learn, flat roofs offer advantages. They provide opportunities for eco-roofs that mitigate storm-water runoff and allow more living space below.

Daniel Kaven, who designed the triplex intended for 4054 N. Vancouver Ave., called it "the greenest triplex the city has ever seen. I'm really proud of it." Besides the eco-roof, the triplex will have a swale to collect runoff and allow it to percolate.

Kaven said he took steps to make the building fit in. Floor levels will be at similar heights, and side yards will be larger than required. He's keeping the roofline a few feet below the 35-foot maximum. He also said the flat roof will reflect industrial buildings in the Williams-Vancouver corridor.

Hall and neighbors said a flat roof would be more appropriate on a corner, not in the middle of the block. "We share her concerns about the project not blending into the neighborhood," said Christopher Sahli, a board member with the Boise Neighborhood Association. The association never took a formal vote, however.

"I like my neighborhood," said Bernice Dunn, who lives across the alley from the site. "That's not me. We have a good neighborhood. Can't I have my neighborhood?"

Design commission members ultimately voted 4-to-2 this month to reject Hall's appeal. The two dissenters said they like the project but think the neighborhood association should have been given time to vote.

"To me, it's a good project," said member Michael McCulloch. "It's exemplary of the challenge we face across Portland. I think the designer has done a really good job in trying to transition into the neighborhood."

"I understand how hard it is to open a neighborhood to a new form of architecture," said member Gwen Millius. "It's happening all over the city."

"There is no doubt that it is larger and no doubt that it is not an 1890s Victorian house," said Jeff Stuhr, a third commissioner. "That's how cities become vibrant over time. This is a building that is truly of our time." To Hall and her supporters, he said, "I hope you'll be pleasantly surprised should this building be built."

Looking back, Hall noted that almost all commission members come from the city's development and design communities. It's difficult, she said, for a resident to overcome those professional biases.

And arguments in favor of the flat-roofed triplex gave her little solace. As commissioners cast their votes, she wiped a tear from her cheek.

Portland News: 503-221-8199; portland@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/portland_news/1187227540153770.xml&coll=7

pdx97209

Aug 26, 2007, 9:04 PM

bvpcvm

Aug 26, 2007, 11:16 PM

Does anyone know what is going on with the wood exterior on Thurman Street Lofts? Is this normal wear or is the wood finish failing? It does not look good.

On the same note.....what is the current status of the corrections/repairs taking place at Marshall Wells? Is the work that has taken so long to complete on the south side going to be done on the other three sides of the building?

Re: Thurman St Lofts, you know, I've wondered the same thing... the original renderings showed a light grey exterior with dark brown (wood) highlights. Then it was built - and no grey. I came to the conclusion that the parts that were originally supposed to be grey were meant to end up that way through weathering. But I've never been sure.

MarkDaMan

Aug 27, 2007, 4:05 PM

what about the Cambridge Condos? I haven't seen any work on that site the last few times I've been past, and the project is almost finished.

zilfondel

Aug 28, 2007, 3:49 AM

"To me, it's a good project," said member Michael McCulloch. "It's exemplary of the challenge we face across Portland. I think the designer has done a really good job in trying to transition into the neighborhood."

"I understand how hard it is to open a neighborhood to a new form of architecture," said member Gwen Millius. "It's happening all over the city."

"There is no doubt that it is larger and no doubt that it is not an 1890s Victorian house," said Jeff Stuhr, a third commissioner. "That's how cities become vibrant over time. This is a building that is truly of our time." To Hall and her supporters, he said, "I hope you'll be pleasantly surprised should this building be built."

There's hope yet!

westsider

Sep 2, 2007, 8:12 AM

what about the Cambridge Condos? I haven't seen any work on that site the last few times I've been past, and the project is almost finished.

I go by there on Westover all the time and there always seems to be guys out there working. The main condo portion is about done and they will start soon on the townhomes.

pdx2m2

Sep 2, 2007, 5:37 PM

The Cambridge Condo is a disaster. It must be the worst new building in the City.

Work is moving forward although the more they do the worse it looks. There are so many materials and architectural styles on the building it's shocking...fake traditional with fake stone quoins on the street side, cheap metal siding on the sides, cheap window wall systems on the east side....the buildings are very very close together and have windows looking into a blank wall or someone else's window..and now there are monster retaining walls going in along Westover and they are literally 3' from unit windows transforming some of the units from bad to worse...dark, basement like experiences.

The many building materials is consistent with many site materials...poured concrete retaining walls, brick walls and planters, concrete unit block retaining walls designed to look like massive stone although when you see the edge they are about 3' thick and sometimes stacked 30' tall.

I can't believe this got approved and mostly can't believe people are actually paying so much for this junk.

pdx2m2

Sep 4, 2007, 3:17 AM

the cambridge condos must be the worst project in the city...and there are some really bad ones.

the character changes every elevation...fake historical stone quoins on westover, dark brown cheap looking metal siding on the north and south elevations, modern window wall systems on the east elevation..crappy design and craftsmanship details everywhere.

now the sitework is in full swing and it goes from bad to worse...many site materials ranging from brick walls, concrete walls, precast concrete walls trying to look like giant stones but they are about 2" thick...and they are building them literally in front of peoples windows...about 3' away from windows of some of the most expensive condo units in the city...i find it hard to believe that people are this stupid...the developer, the architect and the buyers that are falling for this stuff.

i suspect it will get worse before it gets finished.

Sioux612

Sep 4, 2007, 11:10 AM

http://chatterbox.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/08/27/couch_view_from_park_small.jpg

Recently, by way of Design Advice Review with the city, SERA Architects unveiled preliminary designs for a new six-story apartment project in Northwest Portland just off Couch Park.

Park Apartments, as it's to be called, is a half block site on 19th between Glisan and Hoyt with six stories including retail on the ground floor and underground parking, and roughly 95 market-rate apartments.

--portlandarchitecture.com

PeterSmith

Sep 4, 2007, 4:39 PM

^^ Height is a nice thing, but it means very little if the tower lacks some of the basic fundamentals that this building has. It's an attractive design, it's got ground-level retail, it's parking is underground, it relates very well to the street. It's a near-perfect design for an outside-of-city centre project. This is why I love Portland :)

Leo

Sep 4, 2007, 4:50 PM

the cambridge condos must be the worst project in the city...and there are some really bad ones.

This is why I think old-style buildings are hard to pull off. The Cambridge just looks fake - maybe it will look better after a few Portland winters. But for the prices they were charging, I was hoping for much better ...

zilfondel

Sep 5, 2007, 12:11 AM

the east side of the Cambridge is all glass, with black siding. It's not even faux-historical- it's only half that.

It only sports a piss-poor veneer of faux siding towards the street, which wasn't even done right, IMO.

PacificNW

Sep 5, 2007, 12:27 AM

I had the Cambridge project mixed up with the Uptown project. Any updated pics of the Uptown? Tks...

CouvScott

Sep 5, 2007, 6:16 PM

Additional Riverscape Buildings
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/couvttocs/riverscapeinfill2.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/couvttocs/riverscapeinfill1.jpg

Ziba HQ Building
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/couvttocs/ziba.jpg

pdxman

Sep 5, 2007, 7:20 PM

Where is the ziba hq located again?

pdxtraveler

Sep 5, 2007, 7:23 PM

Ziba is next to Station Place at 9th and Lovejoy/Marshall

CouvScott

Sep 5, 2007, 7:24 PM

Where is the ziba hq located again?

Just North of Station Place at 9th and Marshall <--- too slow

tworivers

Sep 11, 2007, 7:09 AM

I think Backbridge Station is cancelled.

When I zoomed by the other day (in a car, for once, so maybe I was seeing things) I swear everything was gone: all the signs on site, the models and office in the old gas station, the coffee cart...

Anyone know the story? I thought maybe it was sold out and they were on the verge of beginning construction, so they didn't need the sales office anymore. But that seemed like wishful thinking, especially with the extensive delays.

zilfondel

Sep 11, 2007, 11:27 PM

The Uptown tower is getting pretty big now. pictures!

zilfondel

Sep 11, 2007, 11:29 PM

The Uptown tower is getting pretty big now. pictures!

MarkDaMan

Sep 12, 2007, 3:04 PM

WEB EXTRA: Traffic still a jam for apartment neighbors
The proposed six-story Couch Park Apartments will create car-related problems, Northwest residents say
Daily Journal of Commerce
POSTED: 06:00 AM PDT Wednesday, September 12, 2007
BY ALISON RYAN

Traffic created by residents of a proposed six-story apartment building across from Couch Park will be too much for their quiet street, residents of Northwest Hoyt Street say.

The Couch Park Apartments, appearing Monday in their second design advice session before the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission, are planned for the half-block bordered by Northwest Hoyt and Glisan streets and Northwest 19th Avenue.

SERA Architects' preferred alternative is for residents to enter and exit the building's underground parking – which would have about 60 spaces – from Hoyt Street. Other solutions, architect Kurt Schultz said, would have forced designers to cut parking space, or residents to make onto the busy Northwest Glisan Street.

Parking and traffic concerns dominated the apartments' first design advice appearance in August. And though the project team has been good about working with the neighborhood, residents said, locals still want a different entry-exit strategy for the parking.

"We ask you to listen to the residents, and preserve the calm that still exists on Hoyt," Northwest District Association planning committee chairman John Bradley said.

Where apartment dwellers who don't have underground spots will park is another neighborhood concern. Rental property owner Jill Warren said that her tenants typically have two cars per unit, which would mean almost 200 cars and only 60 off-street spaces.

"Even if it's less than that," she said, "I think parking is going to be a real nightmare."

Meanwhile, developer Opus Northwest still hasn't secured the floor-area-ratio needed to actually build the six-story apartment. If they don't, Schultz reminded the commission, the project doesn't pencil out, because "the plan is contingent on the FAR transfer."
http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDetail.htm/2007/09/12/Traffic-still-a-jam-for-Northwest-residents-Neighbors-of-the-proposed-Couch-Park-Apartments-say-the-

buffy

Sep 12, 2007, 4:51 PM

"We ask you to listen to the residents, and preserve the calm that still exists on Hoyt," Northwest District Association planning committee chairman John Bradley said.

YOU LIVE DOWNTOWN!!! You gave up calm when you moved there. I am sorry but I get so fed up with people who live in DT or near by have a fit everytime there is a change or new construction. A downtown area is ever evolving. Dont like change, fine many people do not, but do not expect to live in the central city and not have change and traffic. Duh.

sopdx

Sep 12, 2007, 6:52 PM

I agree 100%!!! NIMBYism at it's ultimate. I live in NW and parking is a nightmare, that's just the way it is...deal or move.

Aya Murase

Sep 12, 2007, 7:56 PM

BrG

Sep 12, 2007, 10:19 PM

MitchE

Sep 16, 2007, 12:40 AM

Has anyone noticed that there has been virtually no construction activity on the Clinton condominiums for the last couple months. I'm wondering if the project has gone belly up because of the real estate slow down?

tworivers

Sep 16, 2007, 3:07 AM

^^^ Yes, I noticed. Nothing. Makes me worry about how long we're going to have a hole at 28th and Burnside.

BTW, I noticed, while googling for info, that someone wrote a brief comment on PDXArchitecture, at the end of Brian's old writeup on Backbridge, about the project being "killed". Aya, have you been by there since your last post? (<<I'm not in town right now.)

What gives? Doesn't this sound newsworthy? Like, oh I don't know, how the current "credit crunch"/real estate downturn is affecting local developers and their projects? Particularly if things are getting canceled or put in a holding pattern?

MarkDaMan

Sep 16, 2007, 4:39 PM

That would require the Oregonian to hire an actually architecture/development reporter. I didn't like a lot of Randy Gragg's late work, but now the Oregonian hardly covers anything on Portland's development, as opposed to six months ago having at least one story daily.

Even the Portland Tribune used to have one story an edition on something, now everything seems to be crime stories, schools (bleh) and the Blazers.

zilfondel

Sep 16, 2007, 7:13 PM

When I first moved to Portland 5 years ago, the Portland Tribune may as well have been called the Portland Developer - virtually every story in it was about architecture and building. Nirvana weekly for me!

Also of note that almost all the articles were positive; once they booked it over to the 'burbs it all turned negative.

Aaah, but since the 'new' 'media' has a mandate these days to not actually cover any actual news that's relevant to people's lives, what does it matter? Sports, murders, and political scandal rules the day!

Aya Murase

Sep 17, 2007, 3:53 PM

I did a double take this morning - you guys are right. While the coffee cart is still open and busy, all of the signage for Backbridge Station is gone and the little sales office looks very empty. I work in the neighborhood and we were all really looking forward to seeing the Backbridge development get started; a perfect addition to the N. Vancouver/Williams corridor (in my opinion).

I also drove past the clinton on SE Division, which looks to be in the same state it was 3 months ago. What gives? It seems like everyone is always saying how the Portland population is growing, how droves of new people are moving here... so why would new housing projects get killed/stalled? Does this mark the beginning of the end of Portland's housing growth? Can developments get the ax in the middle of construction?

Meanwhile, the Sera building (The Overlook?) on N. Interstate has gone up with amazing speed. I think they broke ground sometime early summer and windows are going in right now.

NJD

Sep 17, 2007, 5:35 PM

Even though the housing demand is still in good standing in PDX, the national trend of mortgage defaults has worried foriegn investors from London to Dubai who watch Wall Street closely (I prefer news sources from Europe on American news than our own newspapers). This international doubt has made all national lenders freak out. It's obvious which projects are locally funded or approved for funding prior to the current trend. As was predicted, and internationally intended, America will have a crash by the end of the year or early 2008.

*edit: This is humbly my opinion based on the articles and news I have read, I don't think the NW will be hit as hard, but I'm glad we have invested in the infrastructure we have in SOWA, the Pearl and soon in the Lloyd and SE Portland. Develpoment may slow, but none of the lands these cancelled projects are on will be vacant for long.

MarkDaMan

Sep 17, 2007, 7:14 PM

^I'm not completely sure of that, Oregon seems to always be at the tail end of everything...this article heightened my concerns.

Mortgage mess could hit home for Oregonians
The state has a lot of high-risk loans that may clobber the state economy as interest rates go up and homeowners default
Sunday, September 16, 2007
RYAN FRANK
The Oregonian

Homeowners in Oregon hold high-risk mortgage loans at a higher rate than those in most other states, potentially putting them -- and the state economy -- at greater risk of financial peril.

Oregon ranks among the top 15 states for high-risk loans made when lending standards were most lax. As home prices jumped between 2004 and 2006, Oregon home buyers turned to mortgages that could stretch their dollars by reducing the monthly payment -- at least at the start.

But soon, some of those homeowners may be in trouble.

They will face either rising payments because their interest rates are scheduled to kick up or may owe more on their home than it's worth -- putting them "upside down," in the parlance of the lending industry.

"It can be really devastating if people have not done the numbers right," said Ken Fears, an economist at the National Association of Realtors in Washington, D.C.

The next two years will be critical for some Oregon subprime borrowers, those with spotty credit. About 56 percent of new subprime home purchase loans in 2006 had adjustable interest rates that will increase in 2008 and 2009, according to mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

Delinquencies could increase if borrowers don't have enough income to cover the higher payments or aren't able to refinance the loan, said Cory Streisinger, director of the state Department of Consumer and Business Services.

On the whole, the home market in Oregon and the Northwest is still humming faster than California and the nation as a whole. The housing boom helped pull the economy out of the post-Sept. 11 recession, but a wave of foreclosures in Sun Belt and Rust Belt states has slowed the housing market nationwide.

New housing troubles in Oregon would ripple through the state economy. Home values statewide could level off, meaning people have less equity to drive consumer spending. It also could lead to fewer jobs for construction workers and suppliers who install everything from dishwashers to windows.

Worried about future problems, state leaders are watching for foreclosure rescue scams, and Gov. Ted Kulongoski on Friday announced a new work group to study potential new regulations for home lenders. For example, Oregon, unlike some states, doesn't require lenders to ensure borrowers can keep up with mortgage payments once their adjustable interest rate ticks up.

Homeowners usually default on mortgages when they lose a job, take out too much debt, get sick or divorce. They can avoid foreclosure if they've got a cushion of equity through a healthy down payment or years of market-wide price growth. They can tap the equity to refinance their loan or sell at a high enough price to pay off the loan.

Oregon's high rate of high-risk loans won't necessarily translate into more foreclosures. If home values continue to rise, homeowners may have enough cushion to avoid trouble.

Gerard C.S. Mildner, an urban studies professor at Portland State University, doesn't expect a foreclosure wave because he says Oregonians have sizable equity in their homes. "It forgives a lot of sins," Mildner said.

Dangers loom

Some buyers might not be that lucky.

People who bought when prices peaked and used a high-risk loan when lending standards were most loose are most likely to get into trouble.

They used interest-only loans, low introductory interest rates and super-low payment options that may not reduce the loan's principal to get into homes they wouldn't otherwise have been able to afford.

"That's why people are getting sucked into them," Fears said. ". . . As affordability dwindles, people look to these loans to help stretch their income with the assurance they can refinance later."

Between 2004 and 2006, Oregonians ranked in the top 15 states for loans that were interest only or negative amortization, also known as optional payment loans, according to estimates by LoanPerformance, a San Francisco company that analyzes mortgage performances for lenders and investors.

But many of those loans also included a scheduled interest rate increase after one month, two years or five years.

"These adjustable rate mortgages are coming due and they are not going down," said Angela Martin, director of Our Oregon's Economic Fairness Coalition, a nonprofit consumer group.

Subprime problems

Those payments will rise just as it's getting more difficult to escape trouble by refinancing. Lenders this year have tightened standards on new and refinance loans to reduce foreclosures.

Figures from the Mortgage Bankers Association show the foreclosure spurt is fueled by defaults from borrowers with adjustable rate mortgages or subprime loans. Oregon ranks below national averages for subprime loans but the numbers are growing here, too.

About 37,000 Oregonians had adjustable-rate subprime mortgages in winter 2007, up 17 percent from two years earlier. About 2.3 percent of those loans were in foreclosure in early 2007, which is six times higher than the rate for all loans, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Already, Oregon's subprime borrowers reported more trouble meeting their payments. In April, LoanPerformance reported, 7 percent of Portland-area subprime borrowers were more than 60 days late, up from 5 percent a year earlier.

Nowhere is it worse than the Medford area. There, 11 percent of subprime borrowers were more than 60 days late -- triple the rate from the year before.

Ryan Frank: 503-221-8519; ryanfrank@news.oregonian.com.
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1189819508121700.xml&coll=7

CouvScott

Sep 17, 2007, 8:58 PM

Location: The northeast corner of NW Johnson and NW 19th Ave
Proposal: The proposal is for a five-story, wood frame, 50-unit apartment building.
Ground level commercial space is proposed on NW Johnson. At-grade
parking is proposed with access from NW 19th Avenue. The building
will be located over a portion of the parking.

Leo

Sep 18, 2007, 10:03 PM

I also drove past the clinton on SE Division, which looks to be in the same state it was 3 months ago. What gives? It seems like everyone is always saying how the Portland population is growing, how droves of new people are moving here... so why would new housing projects get killed/stalled? Does this mark the beginning of the end of Portland's housing growth? Can developments get the ax in the middle of construction?

I never bought into the "everyone is moving to Portland" spin as a justification for the housing boom.

When a city gains in population, the first thing that happens is that rents go through the roof. That didn't happen here. Portland rents are not much higher than when I moved to Portland in 2000, adjusted for inflation. In fact, the *exact* apartment I rented in Sep 2000 now rents for only $50 more (less than 1% annual rent increase over 7 years!)

There was no rapid run-up in demand for housing, just a rapid run-up in demand for *buying* housing, and that was fueled by speculation and negligent lending practices. Now that investors are spooked about mortgages, that demand is gone.

I don't think there is anything that can force a developer to complete a project if the funding has dried up. If he doesn't have the money, what is he going to do? The last thing Portland wants is to have him finish the builing in some half-ass manner because he's short of money.

I do hope that the Clinton still goes up, though. It's a cool building.

kvalk

Sep 18, 2007, 10:43 PM

I can assure you that although things may be happening slowly the Clinton project is still moving and will be completed in the next few months.

MarkDaMan

Sep 19, 2007, 12:06 AM

pdx97209

Sep 19, 2007, 12:23 AM

The Wyatt announced today that they are canceling all of their condo sales and will instead complete the building as a rental project. This was confirmed by the sales staff at Pearl Real Estate.

Leo

Sep 19, 2007, 1:02 AM

The Wyatt announced today that they are canceling all of their condo sales and will instead complete the building as a rental project. This was confirmed by the sales staff at Pearl Real Estate.

That's pretty big news. I wonder if the Encore is next. Arguably, pre-sales have been just as slow, and Hoyt Street Properties is in a better position to manage rentals than Pearl Real Estate ...

How did they announce this?

Leo

Sep 19, 2007, 1:14 AM

actually Leo, Portland's rents are rising, especially in corporate complexes, and vacancy is at a 10 year low. In certain situations I'm sure rents are not incredibly much different. Many Portland apartments are small buildings, 10 to 30 units, owned by local landlords. My current landlord hasn't raised any of his rents more than $50 an apartment since he bought the place years before I lived there. His justification is that his mortgage payments didn't go up, so why should he jack the rates. He says he raises the rates by a little bit at a time because the cost of water and garabage, as well as the cost of power used in the common areas continues to go up. Otherwise he just assume leave the rents where they are. How very Portland of him, I think.

Otherwise, you look at Harsch, Guardian or other corporate managers and you will see rents increases by sometimes up to $100 between tenants.

I must've just gotten lucky then because the rent in my current apartment has stayed the same over the last two years also. I did notice that there are fewer vacancies, but I'm betting that at least 25% of my building is corporate rentals right now.

But I guess I'm also comparing rents against a time period when there was very high rental demand (Y2000). I had to spend three weeks in a motel before my apartment became available!

There's some business sense to keeping rents stable even when everyone else is jacking them up. After all, turnover is not inexpensive, and if he has decent tenants it could be worth the lower rent ...

pdx97209

Sep 19, 2007, 1:23 AM

The staff at The Wyatt started calling buyers today to give them the bad news.

MarkDaMan

Sep 19, 2007, 2:32 AM

I wonder if the Encore is next. Arguably, pre-sales have been just as slow, and Hoyt Street Properties is in a better position to manage rentals than Pearl Real Estate ...

Oh the Encore, in some of those condos you cold reach out and touch the freight trains. I'm not sure who thinks living on train tracks are 'luxury' but I'd like to smoke what they are smokin'

pdxtraveler

Sep 19, 2007, 10:56 PM

Here is an infill in Irvington. I think this well really fit the neighborhood. The
rendering looks great! (IMO)

http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=168265

zilfondel

Sep 20, 2007, 7:35 AM

actually Leo, Portland's rents are rising, especially in corporate complexes, and vacancy is at a 10 year low. In certain situations I'm sure rents are not incredibly much different. Many Portland apartments are small buildings, 10 to 30 units, owned by local landlords. My current landlord hasn't raised any of his rents more than $50 an apartment since he bought the place years before I lived there. His justification is that his mortgage payments didn't go up, so why should he jack the rates. He says he raises the rates by a little bit at a time because the cost of water and garabage, as well as the cost of power used in the common areas continues to go up. Otherwise he just assume leave the rents where they are. How very Portland of him, I think.

Otherwise, you look at Harsch, Guardian or other corporate managers and you will see rents increases by sometimes up to $100 between tenants.

My old studio apartment in NW Portland went from $435 to $650 in only 2 years. I got out right before it went up again... damn good deal at the time, tho. Hardwood floors and everything (even vintage wiring and a 1920s telephone painted over on the wall!).

MarkDaMan

Sep 20, 2007, 3:51 PM

Ideas drive cab company’s building design
Signature yellow paint, potential solar system signal a new turn for Northeast industrial area
POSTED: 06:00 AM PDT Thursday, September 20, 2007
BY ALISON RYAN

The view from the built-in staircase bench at Broadway Cab’s new Northeast Portland headquarters is prime. On one side, the Broadway Cab logo pops against a bright yellow elevator shaft. On the other, a wall of windows looks out on a heady transportation mix of train, car and plane traffic.

“Their business is about transit. Here you are in a cab company building, and there’s all this,” architect Liz Williams said, sweeping her arm across the scene of planes, trains, and automobiles.

Broadway Cab’s 200 vehicles and 300 drivers used to be tucked beneath the Fremont Bridge in Northwest Portland, in a spot that functioned fine without high design. But Pearl District development and a growing company made the move financially and logistically smart.

Cab companies don’t, as a rule, develop buildings. And design, Williams said, was tricky for a couple of reasons. Industrial zoning is ideal for a transportation company, but it limits office space to 3,000 square feet. The actual space also had to consider the needs of three groups – drivers, dispatch and an administrative team – that work in dramatically different shifts and settings.

Outside, the building nods to industry with the use of corrugated metal. But the metal is paired with warm wood, which borders windows and entry points, and the building shape curves and jets in ways that traditional industrial buildings don’t.

“It’s mean to fit in the I-zone, in terms of its massing,” Williams said, “but I also wanted it to be playful and comfortable for workers and drivers.”

Inside, an elevator lobby and central staircase divide the building. Downstairs, the space separates the light-filled quiet of the dispatch office from the driver’s room, which offers a place to play pool, watch TV, snack or pull up the roll-up door to access an adjacent courtyard.

Upstairs, the central stairs emerge onto a second-floor lobby space that’s bordered by administrative offices on one side and rooms for training – or “cabbie college” – and meetings on the other.

Creating an inexpensive office space, said contractor Carrington Barrs, was a big goal.

“Normally we would have built just a straight boxy building,” he said, “but we were able to make it more interesting for not that much more cost.”

And because Barrs & Genauer Construction exclusively builds sustainable projects, green elements were a must. Most of the wood was Forest Stewardship Council certified, with much of the interior wood coming from the deconstruction of an existing building onsite. Low-flow features, efficient lighting, low-VOC finishes and stormwater swales also were used.

The building, Barrs said, is also ready for photovoltaics, an addition that owners are considering.

“We literally moved the building 90 degrees so we could take advantage of the solar orientation,” he said.

Pushing the building right to the traffic-crossed edge of the property took advantage of another site feature. Drivers barreling down Northeast Killingsworth and Columbia streets have a prime view of the bright elevator shaft, which is lit at night. And Williams almost made a bigger splash with the signature color, she said, but in the end, the sunny stairway slice was it.

“At one time, the building was going to be yellow,” she said. “Corrugated metal, painted yellow.”
http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDetail.htm/2007/09/20/Bright-ideas-drive-cab-companys-building-design-Signature-yellow-paint-potential-solar-system-signal

http://www.djcoregon.com/_images/articles/djcthird.broadwaycab.jpg
(from the article)

MarkDaMan

Sep 21, 2007, 4:12 PM

http://www.djcoregon.com/_images/articles/djcthird.lents.rendering.jpg

Lents sees high-impact project potential
Big efforts – like a transit-oriented, development-ready parcel of land and a senior housing development – are on the horizon for the urban renewal area
POSTED: 06:00 AM PDT Friday, September 21, 2007
BY ALISON RYAN

With its collection of vacant lots, busy roads and broken buildings, Lents is perhaps the least “label-able” – and most label-ready – of Portland Development Commission’s 11 urban renewal areas.

But development energy in the outer Southeast Portland area has been building since the 2,472-acre Lents Town Center Urban Renewal Area was created in 1998. A handful of projects are out of the ground, including insurance company Assurety NW’s under-construction headquarters building and Southeast 92nd Avenue street improvements. Interest in the area continues to rise with the construction of the Interstate 205 light-rail project, which will send Portland- and Clackamas-bound trains through the heart of the Lents area.

But still, Guardian Management development manager Ross Cornelius says, Lents is largely untested.

“It’s been really tough to get something going there,” he said. “There’s still a lot of opportunity to bring some vitalization into that community.”

The Portland Development Commission is counting on that. The agency is working on more projects in Lents, including a relocation of an existing Lents Little League to a brand-new, $1 million ball field in Lents Park that will be completed in 2008. The field move, along with the light-rail project, creates a 3-acre void that PDC would like to fill with a transit-oriented development project.

“We’re seeing the beginnings of change,” said Amy Miller Dowell, the PDC Lents Town Center URA development manager. “And, you know, it always depends on the market, how things continue. But we certainly are seeing the beginning fruits of our investment.”

The market that Guardian Management and the owners of a big parcel of land bordered by Southeast Foster Road, Southeast Woodstock Boulevard and Southeast 92nd and 94th avenues are targeting is senior housing. The site, currently home to the New Copper Penny night club, is in the early stages of development as Parthenon Center, a mix of senior housing, senior services and retail. When the development team looked at potential for a large commercial building, Cornelius said, independent, affordable senior housing emerged as the strongest use, with organizations like Providence and Loaves and Fishes also interested in rounding out the facility.

“We’re trying to trade off the risk of developing in an area that hasn’t had a lot of development with a market that is going to be able to fill it up,” Cornelius said.

Building a large-scale project that has potential to thrive from the beginning could be a boost for Lents at large, said architect Stuart Emmons, whose Emmons Architects did conceptual designs for the Parthenon project.

“When people see this up and actually working, and it’s got a viable, vibrant retail function, things will happen from there,” he said.

Design for the two-building project focuses on connections: the visual and physical ties between the adjacent light-rail stop, the street-level retail scene, the drivers who’ll fly by the building on the I-205 freeway, and the bike-path access that’s right outside a senior community deck.

“It’s designed for high speed and also designed for neighborhoods,” Emmons said.

Project developers, too, see the Parthenon as a catalyst. But, Cornelius said, the project is complicated, and big pieces like architectural development and financing, including efforts at New Market Tax Credits, are still to come.

“In an area that is challenged like Lents, it takes a lot of creativity to put together financing to make it work,” he said.

http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDetail.htm/2007/09/21/Looking-ahead-Lents-sees-highimpact-project-potential-Big-efforts--like-a-transitoriented-developmen

WonderlandPark

Sep 24, 2007, 2:02 AM

Is Bside6 in trouble? I am in town and noticed no progress, was supposed to be a Spring groundbreaking, no? Nothing at 28th and Burnside, either, outside of demolition.

Man, Bside6 was my favorite infill project. Oh well.

bvpcvm

Sep 24, 2007, 3:51 AM

i heard through the rumor mill about a month ago that the guys who are developing bside6 are definitely going ahead with it (and some other projects as well). the person i heard this from seemed to have no doubt it would start soon. my impression was that it would start this month.

zilfondel

Sep 24, 2007, 9:22 AM

The 28th and Burnside site just got netting around the fence a day or two ago. Should be expecting some action soon I guess...

Eagle rock

Sep 24, 2007, 3:49 PM

That would really suck if that building on 28th and Burnside did not pan out and there is big hole breaking up the commerical strip for years and years. I would hope that Rappaport or any developer would not tear down a viable building untill everything is in place for the new building.

oregone

Sep 26, 2007, 1:10 PM

I must've just gotten lucky then because the rent in my current apartment has stayed the same over the last two years also. I did notice that there are fewer vacancies, but I'm betting that at least 25% of my building is corporate rentals right now.

I took over managing a building on Belmont below 39th in late 2003, and the rent for studios was $450. Today, rent for that same studio is $650. The building has been purchased by a different company as of this weekend, and they are raising the rent to $750. So I guess that's about a $75/year increase on 450 square feet.

Also, vacancies are at 0% in all 8 of the buildings I manage, from 40th and Powell to SW 1st and Curry. There just doesn't seem to be any available apartments in this town anymore. Of course, that will change once these shiny new apartment buildings like the Wyatt, Encore, and 2121 Belmont are completed.

Leo

Sep 26, 2007, 6:42 PM

I took over managing a building on Belmont below 39th in late 2003, and the rent for studios was $450. Today, rent for that same studio is $650. The building has been purchased by a different company as of this weekend, and they are raising the rent to $750. So I guess that's about a $75/year increase on 450 square feet.

Also, vacancies are at 0% in all 8 of the buildings I manage, from 40th and Powell to SW 1st and Curry. There just doesn't seem to be any available apartments in this town anymore. Of course, that will change once these shiny new apartment buildings like the Wyatt, Encore, and 2121 Belmont are completed.

I can definitely see that for recently yuppified areas such as Belmont. My personal experience in solidly yuppified (:) )neighborhoods (NW 23rd & Pearl) is that rent hasn't changed much since I moved here in 2000.

MarkDaMan

Sep 27, 2007, 2:48 PM

MarkDaMan

Sep 27, 2007, 2:49 PM

Score one for the neighbors
Tired of infill that doesn't fit, residents are fighting back -- and winning
Thursday, September 27, 2007
By Erin Hoover Barnett
The Oregonian

The developer and the neighbors sat speechless, trying to grasp what the City Council had just done. The developer couldn't believe his project had been rejected. The neighbors couldn't believe they'd won.

With a Sept. 13 vote on a plan to build 19 rowhouses amid homes in the Foster-Powell neighborhood, the City Council confirmed that it's a new day for infill.

It's no longer enough to meet the regs. City leaders want neighbors and developers to collaborate, even if it hurts developers' bottom line. This developer -- Jeremy Osterholm -- met with neighbors. But he failed the earnestness test.

"The signal from the council is: Are both sides trying hard?" said Commissioner Randy Leonard, who oversees the bureau that shepherds development. "We give the benefit of the doubt to the side that tries."

It's a sign of maturation -- or complication -- in the history of Portland infill. Residents, once told to suck it up when it came to increased density, have City Hall's full attention. Developers, once largely viewed as the good guys fulfilling density goals, face a new layer of strategy -- and potential cost.

"It used to be much more hard-line of 'We've got the urban growth boundary, we need to be able to provide for new housing needs, and people need to accept it,' " said Rebecca Esau, whose Bureau of Development Services staff implements the zoning code.

"Now," she said, "it's a little bit of stepping back and going, 'Well, maybe we can do better -- for the developers and for the neighbors.' "

But how do developers step from the mapped world of city code to the treacherous terrain of neighborhood demands?

Developers of the Mississippi Lofts in North invited residents to help redraw plans after the Historic Landmarks Commission rejected their original minimalist design.

And developer Opus Northwest used the city's new "design advice request" to get neighborhood feedback on its six-story apartment building overlooking Couch Park -- before drawing final plans. Now Opus faces the city review process with Northwest neighborhood leaders on its side. (See sidebar, Page XX.)

But as Osterholm learned, it's a delicate and high-stakes process. His experience illustrates neighbors' newfound power and developers' peril.

Jan Mooyman stands in the driveway of his old farmhouse off Southeast Powell Boulevard at 74th Avenue, envisioning his past and his future.

He points to where his kids played on a 73,000-square-foot former nursery that runs like a wide river between backyards. He points to the garden where the family has a hot tub. Then he points to where a new road would shave his driveway as it sweeps into the veritable village Osterholm proposed for the old nursery.

Though the neighbors recognize that homes will -- and should -- be built there, the project exemplified what many think is wrong with Portland-style infill.

When the city rezoned neighborhoods in the 1990s to ramp up density, many say it did little to account for how condo towers and rowhouses would fit in. That's how the nursery was zoned for as many as 25 attached units, more than double the density of the blocks around it.

That hodgepodge effect -- and the cheap design that sometimes accompanies it -- angers neighbors, particularly on the outer east side where streets and storm-water drainage weren't built to shoulder the load.

"They just placed all this junk here," said Lisa Mooyman, Jan's wife, who grew up in the area.

Osterholm, however, was not proposing junk. He also grew up in outer Southeast and joined the development business -- Ostercraft -- that his father, Gary, started in 1974.

He got a representative to consult with neighbors late last fall. Neighbors say they raised concerns but that their message wasn't cohesive and they tried too hard to be polite. The report Osterholm heard: no major opposition. So he proceeded.

That's when the path grew twisted.

Margie Dilworth remembers her surprise when she received a city letter about the project last spring. She, like many others, had not been at the fall meeting. Now she wondered: How could so many homes be jammed behind their backyards? Neighbors circulated a petition and showed up en masse at a design-review hearing.

Osterholm remembers his surprise. Why hadn't all this opposition surfaced sooner?

Next, a hearings officer, who got an earful from neighbors, denied permission for the project in late June because its dead-end street lacked a turnaround for garbage and emergency vehicles.

Osterholm appealed to the City Council. At a hearing Aug. 16, the council was supposed to focus on the turnaround. Instead, commissioners quickly absorbed neighbors' fury.

Some neighbors argued tactfully. Joe Shapiro noted that adding a turnaround pushed several rowhouses closer to neighbors' backyards. Losing a few units would relieve that pressure.

Others used humor. Constance Crain, a former heavy-equipment operator, testified that she would communicate her opposition through interpretive dance. She didn't. But she got everyone's attention.

"Something that's bad for the neighborhood is not good for the city," she said.

Consultant Ken Sandblast, on Osterholm's behalf, argued the code. The developer didn't believe he needed a turnaround because the street would one day go through. But he nonetheless provided three solutions, all of which city staff had signed off on.

Density, argued Sandblast, was not at issue. The code allows 25 units. Osterholm was proposing only 19.

Leonard didn't buy it.

He told Sandblast he was prepared to vote right then on the turnaround issue -- hinting that it wouldn't go in the developer's favor. But he gave the developer a choice: We can vote now or wait while you meet with neighbors again and work out a solution.

Sandblast chose the latter. But despite Leonard's directive that they discuss not only the turnaround but concerns about density, Sandblast thought city code was on Osterholm's side. At the meeting with neighbors, Osterholm wouldn't budge on the number of units.

Standing outside the Mooymans' farmhouse a week later, neighbors wondered aloud what would happen.

Dave Dilworth, Margie's husband, furrowed his brow: "I wish they would recognize the magnitude of people opposed to this."

Margie Dilworth watched Osterholm and Sandblast enter the City Council chambers Sept. 13. She nodded. They didn't.

Sandblast reviewed for the council how they had met the requirement for the turnaround, but he held firm on 19 units. "We all acknowledge it all boils down to the mighty buck," he said.

Then it was Dilworth's turn. "Not even one shingle" came out of their plan, she told the council. "No compromise has been made, although the neighborhood is willing to compromise."

The vote among commissioners present was quick. Sam Adams, Leonard and Erik Sten upheld the hearings officer's denial.

Sten later said the developer lacked a compelling strategy for why the project should proceed despite neighbors' and the hearings officer's objections. And the developer wanted to separate the turnaround issue from density concerns -- even though the turnaround deepened those concerns by pushing units closer to homes.

Neighbors needed a minute to understand the council's decision. Slowly they stood and mingled, expressing relief.

Then Dilworth and her husband approached Sandblast and Osterholm. She explained that neighbors did want houses on the land. They just hoped the developer might come back with a better proposal.

"Unfortunately, we tried to do the right thing the first time," he said tersely.

Outside the chambers, Osterholm fumed. "It's pretty frustrating to run your business based on city code, and then when you meet that city code, you can't run your business."

The following Monday, Sept. 17, he and Sandblast met in Sandblast's Tigard office. Osterholm said he had never encountered such vociferous neighborhood opposition. Sandblast noted the wild card:

"Neighborhood associations are elementary democracies in action," he said. "There's a moving target to some degree. Different people show up at every meeting, and they vote at every meeting no matter who shows up."

But he reserved his most pointed remarks for the City Council.

"You have rules. If you don't like the rules, change the rules," he said. "You don't operate outside of them."

Osterholm looked worried: "Now I'm faced with, how do I try to make the best situation I can and not be that bad guy?"

An e-mail from Sandblast on Sept. 20 spread home to home on either side of the old Foster-Powell nursery.

"What think we?" Margie Dilworth e-mailed neighbors. "I'd say it looks like an answer to prayer."

Osterholm had revised his plans. Instead of 19 rowhouses, his project featured 12 single-family houses.

In an interview, he said the larger, detached homes would sell for more and make up for the smaller number of units. Pride rang in his voice.

"I have to look at the path of least resistance, and by no means do I want to sit in front of a board of politicians again," he said. "It could be a positive all the way around. . . . When the houses are going up in the neighborhood, maybe it will just be a perfect fit."

Jan and Lisa Mooyman learned the news when they returned to their farmhouse that night.

"It seems like democracy really works," Jan said. "If you stand up together, then you can achieve something. That is a good feeling that people can do something about it. We showed it."

Erin Hoover Barnett: 503-294-5011; ehbarnett@news.oregonian.com

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/portland_news/1190489101225540.xml&coll=7

MarkDaMan

Sep 27, 2007, 2:50 PM

Proposed apartments rankle 103rd residents
Thursday, September 27, 2007
By Fred Leeson
The Oregonian

The housing boom that followed World War II set down a tidy row of houses on Northeast 103rd Avenue, sitting comfortably on suburban-size lots outside city limits.

Now a wave of development is taking the houses to a place their first owners never dreamed of: high-density urban living. A developer wants to build two apartment houses of five and six stories on 102nd.

"It's going to destroy our neighborhood," says Andrea Heckman, a resident in the 200-400 block of 103rd. "Nobody's happy. It's very stressful for us."

Joe Rinella, who has lived on the block for 29 years, says the buildings will block sunlight and infringe on yard privacy. Now, his yard gets sunlight as late as 9:30 p.m. in summer. He expects the new buildings to cast shade by 3 p.m. "The proposed structures limit what we can do on our properties."

The proposed project follows the city's plan for the Gateway District, now part of Portland. The City Council adopted a plan in 2004 to shift the area from low density and car-oriented to high density and pedestrian-oriented. Residents, Rinella says, were outgunned at hearings by planners and businesses.

Portland developer Andrew Kelly proposes building about 90 units in two buildings with one level of underground parking. Tentative plans show a courtyard with a water fountain separating the buildings, which would face busy 102nd.

Kelly originally proposed reserving the ground floor for commercial uses, but a revised plan shows housing instead. Architect Craig Monaghan says there's not a market yet for the retail in the first plan.

Rinella says Kelly has been cordial in meeting with neighbors and altered the design so the buildings' rear side steps down, presenting a less imposing view. But Rinella says Kelly "feels handcuffed to make the plans pencil out" and can't shrink the project any further.

Brent Mason, who lives on 104th, thinks six stories is too tall. "I don't want to have a barbecue with someone on the sixth floor looking down with binoculars."

The new units also could attract as many as 50 children, Rinella says, with a park no closer than three-quarters of a mile. "Where are they going to hang out?" he asks. "It doesn't make sense to pack people in and expect children to thrive."

The Portland Design Commission, which reviewed the plans this month, wants Kelly and Monaghan to incorporate amenities neighbors might appreciate, such as playground space.

"Because you are the first (developer), there's a pretty good obligation to come back with something for the neighbors," Andrew Jansky said.

Monaghan is expected to return with revisions in several weeks. Although neighbors will probably argue for reduced mass, Rinella isn't optimistic.

"I've somewhat given up on the idea that we are going to be able to make changes here," he says. "I've come to the conclusion they are going to do this to us."

Portland News: 503-221-8199; portland@news.oregonian.com

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/portland_news/119032893538670.xml&coll=7

zilfondel

Sep 29, 2007, 9:54 AM

oregone

Oct 1, 2007, 5:38 PM

dkealoha

Oct 1, 2007, 6:12 PM

Leo

Oct 1, 2007, 6:36 PM

^That's great, and you should send a list of the places you've lived in so the rest of us can move into the thriving districts without being robbed by landlords jacking the rents up. Actually, I do find it hard to believe you don't see the price increases especially in those neighborhoods. Craiglist itself is a great example of the tight market. It used to be hundreds of listings a day, I've seen that drop by more than half, and the prices for the best districts are getting really expensive for renters...not that there aren't deals out there, but not like it used to be just three or four years ago.

Like I said, my experience is anecdotal. I’ve only lived in two apartment buildings, The Barcelona on NW 20th and the Burlington Tower. My rent at the Burlington did actually increase by a small amount last year, but the Burlington dropped my rent on the garage space and storage unit by an equivalent amount, so I’m treating that as my total rent staying the same.

It’s never going to be like the last 3-4 years again. That was an anomaly caused by negligent lending standards. Basically, anyone that could fog a mirror could get a mortgage, and that sucked the rental population dry. My lease application at the Burlington in 2005 was more rigorous than my mortgage application for my condo in 2003. This speculative madness was a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon; you are not going to see it again...

zilfondel

Oct 1, 2007, 10:11 PM

I don't know who said that the Clinton Condos are going to be abandoned, but I went by today and it was full of construction workers... erm, doing stuff. Its getting closer to being done...

dkealoha

Oct 2, 2007, 4:30 AM

I’ve only lived in two apartment buildings, The Barcelona on NW 20th and the Burlington Tower...

My lease is up at the Barcelona next month (which is why I am moving) but I have to say that the rent here is on the low end compared to other similar buildings in the area. "Low" being a debatable word...

MarkDaMan

Oct 5, 2007, 3:28 PM

Historical printing house turns luxury apartments
Portland Business Journal - by Wendy Culverwell Business Journal staff writer

A year ago, the heirs of legendary Portland printer Alan Lane made a fortuitous decision. When they redeveloped the Northwest Portland building that once housed the now defunct family business, it would contain apartments, not condominiums.

This month, as work wraps up on the $10.5 million redevelopment of the Lane-Miles Standish Printing Inc. facility, the Lane family is looking pretty darned smart.

Condo construction has slowed and two local developers even scrapped plans to sell units in major projects. Ladd Tower and The Wyatt both will operate as apartments and not as condominiums as originally planned. The reason? Slowing demand for luxury condominiums.

Indeed, the two newest undertakings at the South Waterfront are also apartments, not condominiums.

Steve Lane, Alan's grandson and scion of the family, said good old-fashioned luck played a big role in the decision to get into the apartment business.

Lane said his family didn't have any special insight into the mortgage industry crisis and how it might put the brakes on what had been a booming market for new condominiums.

Rather, he, his mother and his children simply wanted to keep the Lane-Miles Standish building in the family, not just for themselves but for future Lane generations.

His grandfather built the printing business at the corner of Northwest 19th Avenue and Quimby Street in 1929 when horses still dotted the neighborhood. The business was a success for decades, but eventually became obsolete and closed, leaving the family with a piece of real estate that just kept rising in value but generated no income.

To keep the property, the Lanes needed cash flow. For that, they chose to remake it with office and retail space and 20 units of luxury apartments.

A year ago, at the launch of construction, Lane pledged that his children and their descendants would own the old Lane-Miles Standish property for generations to come.

Today he remains committed to the idea, although one hang-up remains. He needs to secure permanent financing when construction wraps up and worries that the ongoing credit crunch may complicate matters, despite the fact that the family has significant equity in the property.

"This is a legacy," he said.

To make the project work, Lane allied with the Lake Oswego office of Birtcher Development & Investments, a company more typically associated with major construction projects and institutional developers, not small infill projects and family-led investors.

Steve Lane and Jim Edwards, senior vice president of the Birtcher office, are old friends and a deal was struck. JE Dunn Construction, a successor to the firm that constructed the original fortress-style office in 1929, signed on as general contractor.

The redevelopment team also included Opsis Architecture, DCI Engineers and Heritage Consulting Group, as well as First Independent Bank, which provided the construction loan.

Edwards called the project a success and said Birtcher is eager to work with other property owners who want to redevelop flagging properties. He said he's pleased the apartments will open in a market in which demand for luxury units is strong. He wasn't entirely surprised to see the tide turn on the apartment market during construction.

Rising rents and vacancy rates suggested an investment in for-rent housing would be a sound move.

"We did early on speculate that something like this might happen," he said.

The Lane-Miles Standish property redeveloped in two parts. The original printing business filled about 15,000 square feet of office and manufacturing space in an armory-style building complete with a turret.

Capital Property Management, which is managing the 20 apartment units, leased the turret section of the building. North, an advertising agency, leased the remaining 10,000 square feet, transforming it into an ultramodern office with a conference room that appears suspended from midair.

The six-story apartment building was constructed in place of a former warehouse. It carries the distinction of being one of the tallest insulated concrete structures ever built in the country. While it hasn't been registered with the U.S. Green Building Council, Chris Humphries, vice president for Birtcher, said the Lane 1919 Apartments are packed with green features, from a central boiler to sustainable finishes and dual flush toilets.

The growing strength of the apartment market also had the happy effect of increasing the amount of rent the owners can ask for the apartments, three of which have been leased. Rents will range from about $1,100 a month for smaller units on the lower floors to about $3,000 a month for larger top-floor ones, Humphries said.

Steve Lane, who professes little experience with for-rent housing, couldn't be more pleased that he chose to create something the family can hold onto for years.

"Being part of the community is important. Having continuity in this area is important," he said.

"We're not just in it to make money. There's pride of ownership."

wculverwell@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3415
http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2007/10/08/story11.html?t=printable

MarkDaMan

Oct 23, 2007, 2:50 PM

Planners show new look for Interstate
More transit-oriented development is key goal for rezoning
By Lee van der Voo
The Portland Tribune, Oct 23, 2007

A new zoning plan for North Interstate Avenue will make its public debut Nov. 3, paving the way for taller buildings, more people, more businesses and fewer cars.

The plan aims to boost transit-oriented development along the Interstate MAX line, anticipating future population growth.

The Portland Development Commission and Portland Planning Bureau teamed up with a citizens advisory group to create the proposal, which will change the zoning along Interstate Avenue between North Greeley Avenue and Columbia Boulevard in 2008.

The work of the citizens group kicked off with a public meeting last spring. The results of its eight-month process will debut at an open house from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 3 in the cafeteria at Ockley Green School, 6031 N. Montana Ave.

What people can expect to see there is a plan that increases the allowed building heights along most of Interstate Avenue to up to 75 feet, or about six stories.

The proposal also encourages mostly retail businesses topped by housing, aimed to revive Interstate Avenue’s sluggish economy while adding housing and fixing outdated zoning rules.

“We’re really trying to come up with the best way to make transit-oriented development happen without decreasing livability for neighborhoods, so we need the public’s help to figure that out,” said Kevin Cronin, the PDC’s senior project coordinator for Interstate Avenue rezoning.

Feedback from some residents already has changed the direction of the plan, lowering proposed building heights from 100 feet, or nine stories, to the 75 feet now suggested.

Maximum heights also are being suggested along some parts of east-west streets that cross Interstate, such as Rosa Parks Way and Lombard, Ainsworth and Killingsworth streets.

Rough lines have been drawn showing where those suggested heights should drop off into neighborhoods. Cronin said officials want specific feedback to fine-tune those borders and factors affecting building design.

Contact Kevin Cronin, at cronink@pdc.us or 503-823-3305, or Julia Gisler, at jgisler@ci.portland.or.us or 503-823-7264, with questions or comments about the plan.

http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=119309154959272000

Aya Murase

Oct 23, 2007, 9:03 PM

I am SO hopeful that the new zoning changes come through. We have two properties on N. Interstate which we would like to redevelop in the future.

hymalaia

Oct 26, 2007, 5:42 AM

I'm an apartment manager, and up until Friday afternoon I managed a nice building on lower Belmont. According to the tenants I've talked to since, the new owners just raised everyone's rent on their studios from an average of $560 up to $710--30% in one day!

ah belmont court, this place musta been sold mere hours after you got my deposit. I was gonna just eat the extra costs and take it but the renovations they've been doing are a joke. First I was told it'd be ready in two weeks, than one month, than six weeks. At that point I said "screw it" and started looking elsewhere. Apparently it's hell on those who are staying in the building. Shutting off water during the day for a week? Entering whenever they want? They should have just evicted everyone and been done with it.

Fortunately I found another place near Burnside + 28th. Similar price but it's a one bedroom. They want a six month lease minimum, but I'm paranoid you know who (or a comparable compay) may buy this building as well and jack up the rent to 900$/month or some crap. They (the new belmont owners) actually tried to sell me on a studio in that same area for 745$.

I feel as if I've been priced out of this city before I even got to move in. :(

zilfondel

Oct 26, 2007, 6:17 AM

Wow, I live on Burnside and 28th and rent an entire HOUSE for $800 amonth!

4 bedrooms, no less!

MarkDaMan

Oct 26, 2007, 3:27 PM

Wood takes work
Ipe is durable, but building with it means embracing maintenance
POSTED: 06:00 AM PDT Friday, October 26, 2007
BY ALISON RYAN
Daily Journal of Commerce

The façade of the Thurman Street Lofts wasn’t the first place Holst Architecture used ipe, a Brazilian hardwood, as an exterior element.

But, architect John Holmes said, it’s a place where the design team was taking a leap with the material.

“It was definitely, ‘We don’t know what’s going to happen here,’” he said. “You experiment, and it works out.”

Renderings show what the lofts will be: silvered ipe for the long stretches of façade, with geometric deck elements dark in contrast. But the journey from dark to light will mean periods of patchiness for the Northwest Portland building.

“It’s an organic thing,” Holmes said. “It’s going to not be uniformly aging.”

Ipe’s a prized material for many reasons. It’s durable. It’s long-lasting, with a typical life span of 75 to 100 years. In short, it earns its “ironwood” nickname.

But the initial dark patina – which appeals on an aesthetic level – takes work to maintain. At Belmont Lofts, Holst’s initial foray into ipe façades, the wood is maintained through periodic oiling. Without oiling, the rich color fades. And if it’s used on a façade, it generally ages unevenly.

“Seeing this warm wood turn gray has a potential of reading to the public as if the building isn’t holding up,” said Jim Kalvelage, a principal at Opsis Architecture.

Expectations play a big part. Although ipe used on a horizontal surface – like the Pearl District boardwalk that’s aged to a delicate gray – is exposed uniformly, a façade is exposed to sun and rain in a different way.

“The transition’s not going to be as even,” Holmes said. “But after a while, that will all even out.”

In the meantime, Kalvelage said, “if someone embraces that aesthetic, you’re fine.”

For Lee Turlington, who rents one of the 16 homes in the Thurman Street Lofts, the building’s shifting patina appeals.

“When you build something like this out of a natural material,” he said, “to expect it to age uniformly and perfectly kind of goes against the grain.”

Expectations of sustainability and supply are harder to meet. Ipe is the best-known – and most popular – durable hardwood, and that’s made it tougher to find and more expensive, about $6 per square foot.

“The demand for ipe is such that it’s basically sold out every year as soon as the harvest season’s over,” said Ed Mays, who owns Endura Wood Products.

Cumaru, tigerwood and machiche are other varieties of long-lasting hardwood. But architects know ipe. And, designers say, they know ipe that’s certified sustainable by the Forest Stewardship Council is especially hard to get.

“We’ve been trying and trying to find sources of ipe that are FSC-certified,” Holmes said. “I just think the demand for the product, for whatever reason, means it’s very hard to come by sustainably harvested wood.”

Holst, Holmes said, is actually moving away from using ipe in its projects. The firm is looking at other alternatives like bamboo, a rapid-growing grass. Kalvelage, too, says he’s not sure the material’s always the best to use.

“You just have to be very careful,” he said, “about how you use the wood.”
http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDetail.htm/2007/10/26/Wood-takes-work-Ipe-is-durable-but-building-with-it-means-embracing-maintenance

MarkDaMan

Oct 26, 2007, 3:34 PM

It's been bumpy ride, but condos are a go
Thursday, October 25, 2007
By J. David Santen Jr.
The Oregonian

The first real estate agent quit. The high-profile consultant is gone. And the half-block at Southeast 28th between Burnside and Ankeny where the Hungry Tiger once stood looks just as abandoned as it did after the buildings were torn down in early summer.

To believe the spot will be home to four stories of condos and mixed-use retail a year from now -- in a condo market falling faster than autumn leaves -- is some leap of faith.

Nonetheless, plans for the $14 million 32-unit SunRose Condominiums are a go, says property co-owner Ann Cohen, with new financing and a new broker -- and no Randy Rapaport, best known for developing the Belmont Street Lofts.

"We didn't see eye to eye on some things," Cohen says.

Rapaport had been tasked with assembling the project team and, according to him, is 75 percent responsible for the plans now in place.

"They got the building to a point that they didn't need me anymore," he says. "I was on that team; I made every decision. I'm really happy with the result. My guess is that it's going to be a provocative building and a forward-thinking building."

But with his own mixed-use project, the Clinton Condominiums, months behind schedule and not quite half of the 27 units sold, Rapaport says he's fine with moving on. He questions whether the SunRose project would be better off going to market-rate apartments, calling the financial risks of new condo projects "quite significant."

Kathy MacNaughton of The MacNaughton Group at Realty Trust will represent the SunRose condos. She acknowledges that, with nearly 1,000 unsold condo units clogging the Portland market (and home sales lagging, too), "buyers have a lot to choose from, and they don't have a gun to their head" in terms of rising prices or fast sales.

SunRose does have at least one thing going for it: a prime location, with restaurants, a Wild Oats market, the Laurelhurst Theater and other amenities literally across the street. "We jokingly call this location, 'The center of the universe,' " MacNaughton says.

"This is one of, if not the, best spots on the east side for development," says Kevin Valk, project manager with Holst Architecture, which designed SunRose. The low-density urban location allows for a more intriguing design less likely to draw the kind of neighborhood resentment that's snagged other projects around town.

The one- and two-bedroom condos are turned 90 degrees from the typical "shotgun" orientation, Valk says, creating wider layouts. Most have off-street parking and small balconies that jut from the building like barnacles. "It's a more urban-feeling building, and it fits in with that neighborhood."

Construction is to begin before Thanksgiving and should take about 14 months.

SunRose is a family affair. Ann Cohen and her four siblings own the parcel, as their family, the Wongs, has since 1964. Relatives have committed to buying five units.

Although the Hungry Tiger, owned by Ann and her husband, Alan, won't reclaim its spot at 28th and Burnside, another restaurant run by the family will: 2800.

The Hungry Tiger was preceded by the Sun and Rosie Restaurant, run by and named for Ann's parents. Thus the SunRose name.

"The whole building is a legacy to my mom and dad," Ann Cohen says. "I'm a happy camper right now."

Portland News: 503-221-8199; portland@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/portland_news/119284532035290.xml&coll=7

MarkDaMan

Oct 26, 2007, 3:40 PM

High expectations greet loft project
Portland Business Journal - by Wendy Culverwell Business Journal staff writer
Cathy Cheney | Portland Business Journal
PDC officials are closely watching the success of the Graham Street Lofts project.
View Larger

Architect Hilary Mackenzie isn't losing any sleep over the slowing housing market.

That's impressive for an untested developer with a $4.3 million condominium project in construction on an untested stretch of Northeast Portland.

Mackenzie broke ground earlier this year on Graham Street Lofts, a 12-unit complex being constructed on a former parking lot that fronts Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at Northeast Graham Street. Mackenzie bought the property in 1991 and has operated her practice there ever since.

The Graham Street effort is a bold project that has the attention of the development community, said Sara King, manager of the Portland Development Commission's Convention Center urban renewal district. The district runs along MLK in front of the project.

King said Mackenzie is providing a useful demonstration of the market potential for development on the boulevard, which is in an area devoid of new developments -- especially for high-density residential projects.

Portland Development Commission officials are interested in developing a live-work project on property it owns in the neighborhood.

The four-story building contains traditional one-floor units and four two-story penthouses. But at ground level, Mackenzie is connecting her building with busy MLK by creating units with space for offices or small shops in the front and living quarters in the back.

Mackenzie believes the time is right to bring something new to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, where she has had her practice for more than a decade.

"It seemed like the right time and stuff is starting to change on the avenue," Mackenzie said.

The loft project is two blocks north of the Nike Factory Store along a stretch of MLK. The stately American State Bank building is one block to the south. Once one of the largest minority-owned banks in the region, it closed several years ago. The building itself is under contract to a buyer who plans to remake it into a retail center, said a Melvin Mark broker involved in the transaction.

Joanne Stone, a broker with Wright Commercial Real Estate services, is representing Graham Street Lofts and several other properties, including vacant lots, along MLK.

The southernmost 10 blocks of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard are gaining more attention, she said. Newcomers are installing pizza restaurants, a hot dog eatery and, in the coming weeks, a new wine bar.

Mackenzie said she understands her project is viewed as a test case for Martin Luther King. While others wait to see how it does before committing to their projects, she's already designing her next undertaking, Ruby's Tower.

Ruby's Tower will contain 14 small condominiums and will be built on the lot adjacent the Graham Street Lofts.

If all goes according to plan, Ruby's Tower will represent a major local debut for Apex Construction Systems Inc., a local startup attempting to commercialize construction blocks made from cement dust, recycled polystyrene and binders.

"We'll start as soon as Graham is sold," she said.

wculverwell@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3415
http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2007/10/29/story4.html?t=printable

MarkDaMan

Nov 1, 2007, 3:25 PM

Williams catching fire, but with a slower burn
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Erin Hoover Barnett
The Oregonian

North Williams Avenue may be the next urban frontier for redevelopment in North/Northeast, but it won't be like the wildfire change that swept Mississippi Avenue eight blocks west. While rehabbed storefronts are springing open with new shops, the saturated condo market is slowing or changing big developers' plans.

Seattle-based Ivy Street Partners bought the old Hostess distribution facility out of bankruptcy last year on the southwest corner of Williams and Fremont.

The project started as a mix of 300-plus condos and apartments, but now they're moving forward with just apartments and ground-floor shops, says Ivy Street's Brendan Lawrence. They're having lead- and asbestos-based paint removed before tearing the building down and must figure out the most cost-effective plan for parking.

But Lawrence says they remain positive about the corridor's potential given its location between Mississippi and an evolving Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on one side of the river and on the other, just over the Fremont Bridge, the Pearl and Downtown.

"There surely is some inherent risk with being the big boys in the neighborhood at the moment -- some inherent risk and some inherent reward," he says.

Developer Ben Kaiser, meanwhile, has put plans for two condo/loft projects on the northwest and southeast corners of Williams and Fremont on hold for at least a year.

"I'm keeping the land and keeping optimism up for the near future of putting it back on the market and getting momentum going again," Kaiser says.

He's still moving ahead with a five-unit housing and commercial building at Williams and Sumner called Williams Five. Its contemporary design will include cutting-edge conservation features.

Eliot Neighborhood Association leaders like both Kaiser's and Ivy Street's plans. They think higher density along Vancouver and Williams will create thriving boulevards of housing and shops.

"I think we're a little more pro-growth than some neighborhoods," says Mike Warwick, the association's land-use chairman.

The rest of Williams isn't waiting for the big boys.

A cluster of reborn buildings at Failing Street feature Pix Patisserie, Lark Press and the School and Community Reuse Action Project, or SCRAP. Across the avenue and south of Failing, a concrete tilt-up building houses Yoga Shala and a restaurant called Nutshell.

"It's a developing area and this space is raw," says Nutshell owner Sean Coryell, grooving on the vacant lot/boarded-up-homes atmosphere evident in pockets on Williams.

Nutshell features gourmet vegan food, and its walls eventually will be covered with graffiti-style art by such subculture greats as Europe's Galo and the London Police. The Oakland, Calif.-based artist called Bigfoot has already covered the cafe's longest wall with floor-to-ceiling Bigfoot images.

When Nutshell moved in, Coryell noticed motorcycle tracks on the walls and surmised that some wild riding went on in the former motorcycle repair shop.

"I dig it, so I kept it up," says Coryell. "It's part of the art now."

The change is exciting and unnerving to older businesses on the street.

Lula Parker opened the Tropicana Bar Be Cue on Williams three blocks south of Fremont in 1957 when it was the heart of the African American business district. She is glad to see Williams inching back but isn't sure how the avenue can thrive now that it's a major thoroughfare.

"Everything is going so fast and so they hardly have time to see the place before they're gone," she says. Still, she figures that more development will give people a reason to slow down and take a look.

North of Pix Patisserie, Jay Laviolette hopes the overhaul will serve his Jay's Mower & Chainsaw. His repair shop "keeps the lawns looking nice!" he says. "If I could get into an ownership deal, that'd be a good thing. I don't think it's going anywhere but up."

Erin Hoover Barnett: 503-294-5011; ehbarnett@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/portland_news/1193187324210910.xml&coll=7

hi123

Nov 3, 2007, 1:00 AM

have they started construction on the new riverscape parcles yet?
These :

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/couvttocs/riverscapeinfill1.jpg

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/couvttocs/riverscape9-12.jpg

CouvScott

Nov 7, 2007, 2:53 PM

have they started construction on the new riverscape parcles yet?

I drove by these yesterday and they are still working on the eight story mid-rise only.

CouvScott

Nov 7, 2007, 2:54 PM

Neighborhood residents fear an increase in traffic and building heights along the light-rail line

POSTED: 06:00 AM PST Tuesday, November 6, 2007
BY TYLER GRAF

In North Portland, light rail has glided along for three years, fulfilling a promise by the city to expand high-density public transportation northward. Unfulfilled, however, has been the promise of high-density residential and commercial growth along Interstate Avenue.

On Saturday, the Portland Development Commission released its latest plans for rezoning along Interstate and increasing density through mixed-use developments. The heaviest rezoning will occur within close proximity to Interstate, using what the PDC calls “up zoning” – increasing commercial and residential density.

But some of the zoning changes make a handful of residents apprehensive. One such proposed zoning change, allowing greater flexibility in residential property use, isn’t universally accepted.

Killingsworth resident Severn Durand says he fears an increase in residents running businesses out of their houses – home-based hairstylists, caterers and day-care operators, for example.

“It would only bring more traffic from people who don’t already live in the neighborhood,” Durand said. “I think they should keep (businesses) on the main strip.”

But according to the Portland Planning Bureau and the PDC, non-conforming use – business in an area zoned residential – is already prevalent in North Portland. The changes proposed by the PDC would allow greater flexibility and growth among this sector, the PDC says.

“It’s tricky (through this process) to respect the quality of the neighborhood,” Deborah Stein of the PDC said, adding the trickiest aspect of rezoning neighborhoods is creating a transitional buffer between high-density areas and the adjacent neighborhoods. “We looked at different variations, and other zones have other implications.”

Stein’s views were shared by residents of the Overlook neighborhood who conferenced Saturday to discuss issues pertaining to rezoning near Massachusetts Avenue. They said they worried that the increased height requirement for mixed-use properties would negatively affect sunlight absorption and that rezoned residential blocks would create a market for condominium development.

But Kevin Cronin of the PDC said enacting high-density zones around Interstate Avenue, the thoroughfare for North Portland’s light rail, is an important step in facilitating a smooth transition among commerce, living and transit. The mixed-use zones would, he said, spur livability

“You’ll be able to get off the train and get a sub, get a bite, get a pint if you want to,” Cronin said.

The PDC intends for new developments in the area to work in conjunction with affordable, mixed-use development projects. Developer Jim Winkler is expected to go before the PDC on Nov. 14 to discuss his plans for Killingsworth Station, a mixed-use project that would incorporate 9,000 square feet of bottom-floor retail space with 50 affordable housing units for families with incomes that are 80 percent to 100 percent of the median family income for Portland.

Winkler is going ahead with the development, long stalled, with a revised budget due to an increase in construction costs and an increase in the prevailing wage for construction workers, Kate Deane of the PDC says.

The Crown Motel, two blocks south of Killingsworth Station, is a mixed-use affordable housing project encompassing a 24,000-square-foot site TriMet acquired using federal funds allocated for light-rail expansion. Developed by Reach Community Development, the project will be a mixed-use, affordable rental property.

The PDC emphasized that its proposed zoning changes aren’t yet set in stone.