Old Town projects have two goals
Development - Plans try to wed middle-income housing and a big retailer along with a day center for the homeless
Monday, December 17, 2007
ANDY DWORKIN
The Oregonian
Homelessness and seaweed sushi-wrappers are seldom linked. But the two are mentioned in discussions about how to develop two parts of Portland's Old Town Chinatown neighborhood.
One discussion is where the city will put a day center where homeless people, barred from shelters during the day, could rest and access services.
City Commissioner Erik Sten said that project will move ahead on city-owned Block 25, southwest of where Southwest Third Avenue and Glisan Street cross what's often called the "Dirty Duck" block after a bar located there.
Some local businesses and neighbors worry the day center might hinder neighborhood development.
The other discussion focuses on developing middle-income housing and space for a major retailer, such as the Asian grocer Uwajimaya, between Southwest Fourth and Fifth avenues around Couch Street.
That could further the development momentum brought on by several major projects already in the gritty neighborhood, including a University of Oregon building and Mercy Corps headquarters.
The chain connecting the two ideas, in some minds, is the aging Grove Hotel, a low-rent place at 421 W. Burnside that the Housing Authority of Portland recently bought for $2 million.
The Grove occupies all of the valuable Burnside frontage of its block. The rest of that block, and the block to the north, is owned by businessman David Gold's Goldsmith Properties.
Gold and his developer, Doug Obletz, would love to get the Grove land and develop both full blocks with housing and a big retailer. Sten says that's possible, if the city can replace the Grove's units with low-income housing elsewhere.
One candidate: Put that housing on top of a day-access center. That's far from a done deal, and development near the Grove isn't necessarily linked to the access center.
Sten noted that the Housing Authority could continue running the Grove as-is. Or the city could try to move those units somewhere outside of Old Town.
But the Grove and access center are linked by more than the Gold-Obletz development. The Old Town Chinatown Visions Committee, a group of businesses, residents and service agencies, expressly connected the two at a meeting last week, where many committee members raised worries about the city's plans for Block 25.
Portland leaders have always insisted that the access center be in Old Town, home to many of the city's homeless and the agencies that serve them. The city considered three sites: Block 25, a block called the A&N Block near the Steel Bridge and land owned by the Goodman family along Northwest Fourth between Hoyt and Glisan streets.
But the city couldn't agree on a price with the Goodmans, Sten said. And service providers worried that the A&N Block, near railroad tracks, was unsafe and too small.
Some neighborhood residents complained that the city's choice of Block 25 was a surprise, made without enough consultation. Others worried that the city would dramatically increase the amount of very low-income housing at Block 25 and the Grove.
Gold said he and others in the neighborhood have agreed that there should be no reduction in the number of low-income units in the neighborhood. But they don't want a big increase, either.
"We're willing to live with what we've got. We don't want to close anybody down," Gold said. But "don't bring us any more until the other areas (of Portland) do their fair share."
The city, Housing Authority and Transition Projects -- the nonprofit that would run the day-access center -- have agreed to pause their planning until Jan. 9. Sten will meet with the Visions committee that day to explain the city's block selection.
The city also will involve the neighborhood in plans for developing that block, including discussions about the type of housing there, said Heather Lyons, who works on homelessness for Portland's Bureau of Housing and Community Development. "I think that people are mostly concerned about the process. And they want to have a say in the housing, and they don't want more low-income housing than the area can bear," Lyons said.
A new development could solve some neighborhood concerns, said Brian Ferschweiler, executive director of Blanchet House, a nonprofit that serves meals to the homeless and houses 28 men on Block 25.
Some neighbors complain about the lines that form to get into the house's dining area, which feeds about 700 a day but seats only 41 at a time. The city's plan would expand Blanchet House's 50-by-50-foot space into a quarter-block, doubling the dining space and letting people wait inside, sheltered from weather. The access center would occupy at least half the block, Sten said, with the remaining quarter-block going to the center or becoming housing.
Obletz and Gold, meanwhile, are moving ahead with plans for some sort of mixed-use development near the Grove. Obletz's firm, Shiels Obletz Johnson, has developed similar projects, including Museum Place, which mixes a Safeway and middle- and low-income housing.
Obletz has a similar vision for the area north of the Grove. Gold said the city has hoped for an Asian grocer to anchor that area, and Sten said Uwajimaya is likely. But Obletz said it's too soon to discuss specific retailers, especially with the Grove's fate unknown.
Obletz said he's talking with the city and Housing Authority about being able to develop the Grove, which would make the whole project more visible and valuable. He expects it will take at least through 2008 to work out details.
But "I'm very optimistic that there's a win-win opportunity here, with bringing new market-rate housing into Old Town and bringing a major retail client," he said.
Andy Dworkin: 503-221-8564;
[email protected]
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1197863776127580.xml&coll=7
Prev
Linear Mode
