Block 216 Tower - Ritz Hotel and Condos | 459'-11 1/2" | 35 floors | Complete

[green_man]

Looks like at least some of the Alder Street Food Carts might finally have new digs close to their former home, as part of the proposed Portland Green Loop (which is also slated to run along the east side of Block 216). From the KATU website:


https://katu.com/news/local/alder-food-carts-could-find-new-home-in-downtown-portland

Alder Food Carts could find new home in downtown Portland

by KATU Staff | Monday, May 3, 2021

The popular Alder Food Cart pods could soon be relocating.

There's a proposal to allocate more than $260,000 in the city of Portland's budget to move the pod to a new location.

The new site would be right off Burnside, near Southwest 8th and Ankeny...

[subterranean]

Great

[2oh1]

HERE?

[downtownpdx]

^^ Yeah this was the spot they'd proposed moving to, I think almost 2 years ago?

[DMH]

Originally Posted by downtownpdx

^^ Yeah this was the spot they'd proposed moving to, I think almost 2 years ago?

This is great news if the plan incorporates all of SW Ankeny from Broadway to Park as well as SW Park and SW 8th south of W. Burnside, basically wrapping around the little N. Park Block south of Burnside. It would be an opportunity to renovate and repurpose (café or ?) the historic one-story brick park buildings and the terrace between them, truly activating a sleepy area of Downtown that has a nice pedestrian scale.

Does anyone have access to a site plan of the proposal?

[maccoinnich]

No site plan, but here's a press release and renderings.

In some ways this could be better than SW 10th & Alder was. There was a great collection of carts there, but it was always badly missing somewhere to sit.

[DMH]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

No site plan, but here's a press release and renderings.

In some ways this could be better than SW 10th & Alder was. There was a great collection of carts there, but it was always badly missing somewhere to sit.

Thanks very much for posting the images. I am very happy with the proposal which meets about 80% of my wish list. So I emailed the Green Loop contacts as well as Mayor Wheeler and the city commissioners to urge them to go further. Because of the area's pleasing pedestrian scale and narrow streets, I urged the City to go further and fully pedestrianize what is still being shown as open to vehicles. They should also close SW 8th Avenue between W. Burnside and SW Ankeny and SW Ankeny between SW Broadway and SW 8th. This would result in a really nice pedestrian zone that would attract the public.

Furthermore, I hope that the City will fund the restoration / rehabilitation of the two historic brick park buildings and the terrace between them.

[downtownpdx]

So glad to see this being activated, it's such a great little corner of dt. Hopefully it attracts a healthy crowd, being somewhat off the beaten track. There isn't a huge amount of pedestrian activity in that area, at least not like the Alder pod. But Burnside does provide lots of drive by visibility so lots of people will at least know of it, and there are apartments across the street being competed in the old Firestone tires site. I walked through here a few months ago and it was a pretty sketchy scene. Winter, weekday morning + pandemic could explain that but still, this will be such a welcome change.

[downtownpdx]

Looking at the renderings (I didn't realize there were more than the one what I'd seen), now I'm more excited about this and I could see it lifting that part of dt up a little, the way the Alder pod contributed to the West End neighborhood.

[maccoinnich]

Developer seeks new investors for Ritz-Carlton hotel under construction in downtown Portland



While still insisting publicly that his high-stakes Ritz-Carlton development in downtown Portland is fully funded, real estate developer Walt Bowen is again fishing for dollars from local investors.

BPM Development, Bowen’s company, this week sent out invitations to various stockbrokers, money managers and other investment professionals to an online update on the Ritz project. “Join us virtually to learn about this unique OZ (opportunity zone) real estate investment opportunity,” reads an invitation.

At just about a million square feet, the Ritz will cost nearly $600 million to build, making it one of the largest and most expensive real estate developments in city history. The risk of the project has soared due to the pandemic, social unrest in downtown Portland, and the lasting effect either could have on tourism or high-end real estate.

A Bowen spokesman warned against reading too much into the resumption of fundraising. It does not, he said, mean that the project is running short of cash or that costs have been significantly higher than expected.

....continues at the Oregonian ($).

[CorbinWarrick]

I said it a few comments earlier but this building broke ground at the perfect time. If this was 6 or so months later this would have never started construction. It would have effectively been another “what if” tall tower Portland could have had..

Honestly as a tall tower lover I was happy this building was happening in my hometown but at the time I was shocked by the choice of the location. How could they have so disastrously overlooked real estate's prime directive, location, location, location? How many people who have $2 million or more to spend on a residence would want to live in that location?

Even before the pandemic and the wave of vandalism and surge in homelessness and camping downtown, that location fell far short of being prime residential real estate. The corner between Target and the parking structure was a bum magnet. Compared to the Pearl, it was and still is a restaurant, grocery-store and shopping desert. A short walk away are the street people who congregate in front of the library and the used needles of the Park Blocks. Views from the condos would showcase the Pearl and the trophy neighborhoods in the West Hills and so feed the flames of a burning case of buyer's remorse.

The only demographic I can envision buying condos are absentee foreign nationals who fall for the developer's glossy sales pitch and never get around to ground truthing it.

But hey it’s not my money and this tower is absolutely beautiful and fills a gap in the skyline.. so we’ll take it

[eric cantona]

Originally Posted by CorbinWarrick

I said it a few comments earlier but this building broke ground at the perfect time. If this was 6 or so months later this would have never started construction. It would have effectively been another “what if” tall tower Portland could have had..

Honestly as a tall tower lover I was happy this building was happening in my hometown but at the time I was shocked by the choice of the location. How could they have so disastrously overlooked real estate's prime directive, location, location, location? How many people who have $2 million or more to spend on a residence would want to live in that location?

Even before the pandemic and the wave of vandalism and surge in homelessness and camping downtown, that location fell far short of being prime residential real estate. The corner between Target and the parking structure was a bum magnet. Compared to the Pearl, it was and still is a restaurant, grocery-store and shopping desert. A short walk away are the street people who congregate in front of the library and the used needles of the Park Blocks. Views from the condos would showcase the Pearl and the trophy neighborhoods in the West Hills and so feed the flames of a burning case of buyer's remorse.

The only demographic I can envision buying condos are absentee foreign nationals who fall for the developer's glossy sales pitch and never get around to ground truthing it.

But hey it’s not my money and this tower is absolutely beautiful and fills a gap in the skyline.. so we’ll take it

Buyers will likely be folks who aren't buying into the dying city trope. If I had the money I would love to live in that area of downtown.

[downtownpdx]

Yeah I really don't think this is such the bad location Corbin. At the moment it isn't ideal that's for sure. But once things turn around, I don't think many urban dweller types will freak over a few street people if they have Powell's, Whole Foods, Safeway, Target, Nordstrom, Living Room Theaters,..... numerous new hotels and their adjoining restaurants/ bars, West End and Pearl shopping/ nightlife... i could go on...all in a10 minute walking radius. And if they don't wanna walk all that way there's a streetcar at their front door.

[subterranean]

I lived at SW 12th and Taylor and loved it, even if I had to step over bums and pull passed out druggies out of the street from time to time. There’s more and more going on West End-wise, and the commuting to west side jobs is killer.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by downtownpdx

Yeah I really don't think this is such the bad location Corbin. At the moment it isn't ideal that's for sure. But once things turn around, I don't think many urban dweller types will freak over a few street people if they have Powell's, Whole Foods, Safeway, Target, Nordstrom, Living Room Theaters,..... numerous new hotels and their adjoining restaurants/ bars, West End and Pearl shopping/ nightlife... i could go on...all in a10 minute walking radius. And if they don't wanna walk all that way there's a streetcar at their front door.

Here is the way I look at it, I remember visiting Belltown in Seattle during the height of the building boom (which is still going on in Belltown) and some guy that lives in a high end unit in Belltown pulls into a parking spot on the street in his $100K car next to a homeless junkie and the guy wasn't even remotely phased.

Basically people with money that want to live in a vibrant urban area isn't going to care much about there being homeless, junkies, or some graffiti around.

[CorbinWarrick]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

Here is the way I look at it, I remember visiting Belltown in Seattle during the height of the building boom (which is still going on in Belltown) and some guy that lives in a high end unit in Belltown pulls into a parking spot on the street in his $100K car next to a homeless junkie and the guy wasn't even remotely phased.

Basically people with money that want to live in a vibrant urban area isn't going to care much about there being homeless, junkies, or some graffiti around.

I hope your right but pretty ballsy by the investors but like I said we’ll take it! Great skyline filler for us

[subterranean]

Why is the title of this thread still called Block 216? The project has had a name for awhile now.

[downtownpdx]

Originally Posted by CorbinWarrick

I hope your right but pretty ballsy by the investors but like I said we’ll take it! Great skyline filler for us

Not discounting your concerns, there is of course a limit to what people will put up with. I don't think this project would fly on NW 5th and Couch of course. But the hood it's in is pretty low on the grit and danger factor.

[ORNative]

Originally Posted by subterranean

Why is the title of this thread still called Block 216? The project has had a name for awhile now.

What is that name?

[maccoinnich]

Originally Posted by subterranean

Why is the title of this thread still called Block 216? The project has had a name for awhile now.

?

https://www.block216.com/