[MarkDaMan]

First page or two off topic about development in SW Portland. I don't know why as this is 6 years later.

[Dougall5505]

this could be promising

[zilfondel]

Think my jaw just hit the floor.

Is this in Portland? We're talking about the same Hillsdale, right?

[Alek184]

It would be nice to see this spots architecturally attractive.

[zilfondel]

I wonder if they actually want towers to be built in the area, or just 'taller' midrises. Any thoughts?

[Alek184]

I don’t see tall tower will fit any of the location unless long-term redevelopment project will apply to it.

[MarkDaMan]

that whole bowl of mess with parking garages, fast food, and the grocery store could be bulldozed and redeveloped.

[der Reisender]

that's absolutely awesome that the neighborhood group is knocking on city hall to ask for more density and height...though i am sure by tall they mean 4 stories or less. still, it'd be great to see Hillsdale built out more and especially that area of Barbur by the Fred Meyer. Now lets run light rail through it to Tigard to kick start things

[South-by-West]

Does this mean continuing development along Capitol Hwy, Beverton-Hillsdale Hwy, and Bertha Blvd? I hope so.

[MitchE]

I wish they would do the same thing for the Safeway on Hawthorne.

[urbanlife]

nice to see this idea of small urban cores throughout the city is actually happening, or at least being thought about in a positive manner.

[65MAX]

Time to start planning the Barbur Blvd MAX to Tigard/ King City. :tup:

[zilfondel]

Anyone read the inPortland section from last thursday? Dense townhome/rowhouse project almost finished near Multnomah Village just off Barbur, a couple miles further south from the Freddie's. Cool thing is that they daylit a creek, and the design for the homes are pretty modern, too. The neighborhood opposed the plan, even though it was built - because of 'too much density isn't appropriate for the neighborhood.'

To me much of SW Portland in this area is filled with yuppies who think they live in a suburban gated community where only the wealthy should live. Really makes me sick when they talk about how everyone needs to garden and purchase $10,000 home entertainment systems for their homes. Oh yea, and they all pretend to be green while driving SUV's. :hell:

[bvpcvm]

zilfondel, i think you're talking about this project (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=119761).

[zilfondel]

Aye, I was.

[mcbaby]

the headwaters at tryon creek:)

[MarkDaMan]

Neighbors discuss future of Fred Meyer store

The future of the aging Burlingame Fred Meyer store will be discussed at the Wednesday meeting of the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at St. Barnabas Church, 2201 S.W. Vermont St.

Store officials have suggested they are considering extensively remodeling or even replacing the store, 7555 S.W. Barbur Blvd. It opened in 1950 and lacks many of the amenities of the company’s newer stores, like large clothing and deli sections.

Recent construction projects in the area include Barbur Shops, a collection of restaurants and retail stores at Barbur and Terwilliger boulevards.
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=116527866970940900

[bvpcvm]

http://www.oregonlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/portland_news/1166046932278710.xml&coll=7&thispage=2

Planners dip toes in planning vortex

Thursday, December 21, 2006
Fred Leeson
The Oregonian

The Bermuda Triangle of Portland city planning, a vortex that figuratively swallowed planners, maps and residents a decade ago, is re-emerging as jobs, population and transportation create new pressures.

The vortex is Southwest Barbur Boulevard and a parcel near Barbur and Southwest Capitol Highway, identified by Metro in 1995 as a West Portland town center.

After years of controversy about increased density, and without consensus about its future, city planners and the City Council in 2000 simply left the Barbur corridor out of the much-debated Southwest Community Plan.

But now TriMet's general manager, Fred Hansen, has hinted about Barbur becoming a light-rail route, and some Southwest residents see a need to rethink everything from land-use patterns to sidewalks along the designated state highway.

Robert Liberty, a Metro councilor whose district includes Barbur, says he'd like to see it undergo a "gradual transformation as an enhanced location for housing, shopping and services." At the same time, he adds, "It's still going to carry a lot of traffic."

In the 1990s, residents near the corridor stood firm against increasing residential densities, partly in fear that newcomers would arrive, but without adequate roads and public facilities to serve them.

"There are a huge number of land-use and transportation issues wrapped up in that," says John Gibbon, chairman of the Southwest Neighborhood Coalition's planning committee. "High density without infrastructure to support it is just scary."

Liberty thinks Portland's recent condo-building splurge reflects a shift in attitude about density. Urban density is considered a plus in areas such as the burgeoning Pearl District and the South Waterfront tower village.

"The market is changing nationally and in the region," Liberty says. "We are seeing things we wouldn't have believed 10 years ago."

In Portland, 20-story buildings are now considered "mid-rises" instead of high-rises. Four- and five-story condo and apartment buildings blossoming in Gresham, Milwaukie and Beaverton could be harbingers for the West Portland district.

As part of its 2040 plan adopted in 1995, Metro identified 25 potential town centers, including this one in West Portland. In concept, town centers provide a variety of housing options, shopping, jobs and transit links to other regional centers.

Current numbers suggest the plan's population target will be reached by 2022, which Liberty takes as a sign that the region should implement the plan more quickly.

A West Portland town center, he acknowledges, "is a challenge," given its quirky street system and the attitudes expressed a decade ago.

So far, associations of two of the six neighborhoods around the town center area, Crestwood and West Portland Park, say they're willing to talk about the idea again. As Gibbon puts it, "If they want to send us a bucket of money to get Barbur Boulevard planned, hey, great."

No public agencies have stepped forward to tackle Barbur Boulevard. Despite Hansen's mention of light rail, TriMet has not begun studies.

Liberty says local investment and neighborhood enthusiasm make a difference on where Metro chooses to spend its limited dollars.

"If there is a lot of controversy instead of a unity of vision and purpose," he says, "it's harder to say that's where we should put our time and money."

Fred Leeson: 503-294-5946; fredleeson@news.oregonian.com



©2006 The Oregonian

[MarkDaMan]

good news!

South Waterfront tower village

I don't like that term...better than 'condo farm' I guess....

[Dougall5505]

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/DSC_0157-1.jpg?t=1167446055

[sirsimon]

I would like to see increased density in Hillsdale - but I do have an affection for this FM location. I am drawn to it specifically because it is so straight out of the 1950s.

[MarkDaMan]

Triangle plan requested

Members of the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association have asked the Portland Planning Bureau to prepare a master plan for the Hillsdale Triangle, an underdeveloped parcel bounded by Southwest 18th Avenue, Capitol Highway and Sunset Boulevard.

The request is prompted by triangle resident Lance Johnson’s plan to replace his house with 10 new homes.

Although the entire triangle is zoned for more homes, the association believes all of it should be redeveloped together – or at least in complementary stages. No other triangle property owners have proposed building any new homes yet.

Planning officials have yet to respond to the request.

A city hearings officer considered the case last month. One issue that arose was how Johnson planned to connect the new homes to the city sewer system.

Because much of the property lies below street level, he must either propose a pumping system or convince the city to reinstall the existing pipes at a lower level. Johnson has not yet submitted his proposed solution to the city.
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=116829764907958800

[bvpcvm]

http://www.oregonlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/portland_news/1169684726129860.xml&coll=7

Thanks for shopping at a new mixed-use Barbur development?

Thursday, February 01, 2007
The Oregonian

It was summer 2005 when Fred Meyer announced it planned to remodel or replace its Burlingame store, at 7555 S.W. Barbur Blvd. The Hillsdale Neighborhood Association thought it would hear about the plans in December 2006, but no word.

The glitch? A Fred Meyer official told the association recently that the company is in "active discussion" with one housing developer and may talk to others.

That means Fred Meyer is considering replacing the Burlingame store with a mixed-use building that would take advantage of housing densities allowed by the property's zoning.

Such deals are complex, however. If that's the direction Fred Meyer is headed, Burlingame shoppers probably won't see any changes this year.

[MarkDaMan]

The infill thread is getting a bit crowded, so for districts seeing a lot of infill, or other changes, it is probably best to subdivide out the threads. Anyway, this one is for NW Portland.



Parking squeeze
Council vote, paving have shop owners worried
By peter korn
The Portland Tribune, Mar 16, 2007

With construction continuing on the nearby 104-unit Westerly (top) and extensive repaving scheduled for next year, some Northwest 23rd Avenue business owners, like Blush Beauty Bar’s Deborah Haynes, are wondering where their customers will park.
Schucks Auto Supply

Kim Lane, owner of the Bee and Thistle boutique at 2328 N.W. Westover Road, would like the dust to settle.

It’s been three weeks since the Portland City Council, in a surprise 3-2 vote, upheld an appeal that has stopped construction of a long-planned parking garage behind Papa Haydn near Northwest 23rd Avenue and Irving Street.

Lane wanted that garage. And now she wants progress on alternative solutions to the parking mess that she’s afraid is going to drive some Northwest 23rd Avenue shop owners out of business.

But as far as Lane is concerned, the dust isn’t settling anytime soon, either politically or literally. The vote against the parking garage was only one of a number of factors combining to make parking in Northwest even more of an issue than it has been before.

It’s been an issue dividing the neighborhood association and area shop owners, led by Richard Singer – landlord to many of those shops – for years.

The unexpected ruling on the Irving Street garage has altered the political landscape in Northwest Portland. Singer said he has not yet decided whether he will continue to fight for the garage. But neighborhood officials opposing the garage have begun to discuss potential solutions to the parking problems in Northwest Portland without it. And they are clear that they will support other garages in the neighborhood.

“It’s been a long time since somebody said no parking (garages),” said Juliet Hyams, vice president of the neighborhood association. Hyams said there probably will be at least one garage, along with meters or permits as some part of an overall parking plan.

The lines in the sand for the neighborhood association – there are two of them, according to a number of members – are no parking structures west of 23rd Avenue, which is where the proposed Irving Street garage would be, and no parking lots without a comprehensive plan that includes meters and residential permits.

Area shop owners say they have more immediate concerns than garages that may or may not be built. Construction on the Westerly, a 104-unit condominium on Northwest 24th Avenue and Everett Street, has made parking even more scarce, with construction and construction workers taking up available parking spaces.

“I think this has taken it to the next level of not having enough parking available,” Lane said of the construction.
Road slated for a redo

And there’s another level still to come that worries Lane even more. This fall the city is going to take bids on a $3.2 million project to completely reconstruct Northwest 23rd Avenue.

The project, scheduled to begin in January and continue through most of 2008, will mean four-block sections of the road will have single lanes of one-way traffic for months at a time.

Each four-block section under construction will cost the Nob Hill neighborhood an estimated 64 more parking spaces on 23rd Avenue.

Those lost spaces worry Mary Laase-Celik, owner of Turkish Imports at 816 N.W. 23rd Ave. She said she’s run her shop for five years, and the parking problem has steadily worsened.

“Many of my friends won’t even come down now because of the parking,” Laase-Celik said. “I tell them, ‘If you’re willing to walk two blocks you can find a space.’ It’s not always true, but that’s what I tell them.”

The most likely location for a parking garage, according to Chris Smith, ex-chairman of the neighborhood association transportation committee, is a surface lot next to the Metropolitan Learning Center on Northwest Glisan Street.

In the city’s zoning plan for the neighborhood, six sites were selected for zoning as eventual garages. All but the Irving Street property already served as surface lots.

Among the other sites are the surface lot outside of Trader Joe’s on Glisan and a nearby lot belonging to the Flanders Medical Center.

The neighborhood association, Smith said, probably will push the Metropolitan Learning Center site. “Of all the sites we looked at, the one that was least objectionable was the MLC site – 110 spaces on two levels,” Smith said.

While the Metropolitan Learning Center site would not be as close to 23rd Avenue shops as the Irving Street location, it would, Smith said, serve as parking for moviegoers at the nearby Cinema 21.

“If the city got moving today I’d bet we could get a parking structure behind MLC in two years,” Smith said. “But probably not quicker than that.”
2 years, 2 blocks, too much?

Two years might not be quick enough for some of the shops along Northwest 23rd to survive, said Deborah Haynes, owner of Blush Beauty Bar at 513 N.W. 23rd Ave. And the Metropolitan Learning Center site, just east of 21st Avenue and a little more than two blocks from Blush, may not even help in the long run, she said.

“Most people I know aren’t going to walk that far,” Haynes said.

As for the 23rd Avenue reconstruction worries, Haynes and Lane have begun meeting with City of Portland Office of Transportation officials hoping to find ways to mitigate the disruption the project is expected to cause.

They talk about hosting sales and special events, and possibly operating a shuttle bus along the avenue. But even Haynes knows those solutions won’t be enough.

“I don’t know what the answer is,” Haynes said.
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=117399177142237400

[dkealoha]

This may not be about development, but did anyone notice the fireworks tonight in NW Portland? It looked like they were coming from near the top of Burnside above Zupans.

[MarkDaMan]

NORTHWEST
Portland Tribune
Garage plan reborn

Just when it appeared that developer Richard Singer’s proposed parking garage behind the Papa Haydn restaurant on Northwest 23rd Avenue was dead, unexpected City Council maneuvering Thursday appears to have given it a breath of life.

In February, the council voted 3-2 to uphold an appeal by the Northwest Portland neighborhood association that denied approval for the garage.

Council members appeared to agree with the neighborhood association’s contention that the site on Northwest Irving Street would endanger pedestrians.

On Thursday, Singer won a round when – after urging the city council members – neighborhood association representatives agreed to meet with Singer and a city-supplied outside mediator in an attempt to find a compromise that would allow the garage to proceed.

But Juliet Hyams, acting president of the neighborhood association, said Friday she does not see much room for compromise, and was puzzled why City Council members wanted the mediation.

“The fact that they (council members) want to devote city money to this is baffling to me,” Hyams said.
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=117676392494960600

[der Reisender]

Some pictures of the Westerly under construction just off 23rd. It looks like its coming along quickly, and while it does seem a little big for the neighborhood, its a better use of the land than a parking lot

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/228/467446248_7696b71f5b.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/180/467446244_bc8621f750.jpg?v=1177186153

[westsider]

How is it big for the neighborhood? Just blocks away are the highrises at Park and Vista, the Envoy is practically across the street, the only thing different is that it's the first built in the last 30 years.

[Leo]

How is it big for the neighborhood? Just blocks away are the highrises at Park and Vista, the Envoy is practically across the street, the only thing different is that it's the first built in the last 30 years.

True, the Envoy has about the same visual mass, but it's at the foot of a steep hill and set back by a full block from the nearest pedestrian thoroughfare. And Park and Vista are just plain eyesores, so comparing the Westerly to those buildings does not do it any favors, in my opinion.

The Westerly just "feels" obtrusive to me ... Have you walked in that area now that the building is filling out? There just seems to be a lot of sunlight missing; the corner of NW Everett and NW Westover now feels like an alleyway...

It would be a great location to live. But for >$500/sf, the floorplans in the building are just uninspired ...

[westsider]

I might be a little apathetic because I don't live right there, but I don't really sweat the issues of shadows and "boxing". Northwest neighborhood is a dense area that is only getting denser and problems like that are unavoidable. Its quite difficult to have nearly any changes to an area that won't adversly affect some, so the only thing you could do is put a moritourm on building or declare every structure in the city historical.

[MarkDaMan]

http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/M_IMAGE.11220589918.93.88.fa.d0.479c01cf.jpg
kgw.com photo

Portland construction worker falls four stories when crane topples
05:32 PM PDT on Monday, May 7, 2007
By KGW Staff

A construction worker hoisted high into the air at a project site in Northwest Portland was injured when the lift fell over Monday morning.

Witnesses said the man was working about four stories up when the crane supporting his lift toppled over, sending him and his bucket crashing down.

“I was just in my office and could hear a lot of yelling and then just a huge crash, you could actually feel the building shake a little,” Mark Lintner said.

The worker was seriously hurt but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, authorities said. He was conscious when he was transported to the hospital.

When the machine tipped over, it crushed a car and severely damaged a truck. The work site was shut down.

http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_050707_news_worker_falls.478e2eda.html#

[MitchE]

I just did a photo thread on NW Portland.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=130803

[tworivers]

I kind of like what the Westerly is doing, especially from a distance. And I appreciate the fact that from certain perspectives, as in the top photo, it blocks out that nasty sh*t on the hill that Sera did many years ago.

[Dougall5505]

there is a render in todays inportland section(brick, three stories, nothing interesting)
City said no, but parking plan back on table
Thursday, May 17, 2007
By Fred Leeson
Somewhere in a closed room, a mediator is meeting with Richard Singer and Northwest Portland residents who oppose Singer's plan to build a parking garage at 2311 N.W. Irving St.

The private sessions could be the toughest test yet of Mayor Tom Potter's belief in mediation as a tool for resolving neighborhood disputes.

"It still seems to me like pounding a square peg into a round hole," says Juliet Hyams, vice-chairwoman of the Northwest District Association, referring to the three-story garage. Half the site behind the Papa Haydn restaurant is zoned commercial and half is zoned residential, a sticky point in a neighborhood that wants to preserve housing.

Hyams is not on the neighborhood mediation team, so her pessimism is mere opinion. But it's shared by two City Council members who were on the losing end of a 3-2 vote that seemingly killed the garage in February. "It can't work, to be blunt," Commissioner Randy Leonard said last month, when the council agreed to mediation.

The answer will come next month, when the parties return to the City Council after the private talks.

"Everything is on the table, from the number of cars to the height of the garage and the setbacks from the sidewalk," said Timothy Ramis, an attorney for Singer.

The garage has been in one planning stage or another for six years while the neighborhood and the City Council wrangle about neighborhood parking plans. Ramis said Singer listened to neighborhood objections at the City Council hearing and wanted to make a new attempt at compromise.

Leonard and Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who favored the garage plan in February, predicted mediation wouldn't work because the council had already tipped its hand voting against the garage. "I'm not sure what good it will do," Saltzman said.

Yet there is a possibility the vote wouldn't withstand a challenge to the state Land Use Board of Appeals. Potter, who is still tuning into quirks of Oregon's complex, quasi-judicial land-use rules, may have committed a faux pas in voting against the garage.

The mayor said his decision was based in part on a walking tour weeks before when he looked at the site and thought the garage would be a bad fit. The appeals board could return the case on grounds that Potter's vote was not based on testimony and written exhibits as required.

Hyams says she was surprised when Potter offered mediation. "I think he was trying to do a positive thing," she said. A mediated plan could allow neighbors and garage designers more leeway with the city's sometimes strict design guidelines, because the council probably would be pleased to approve a mutually acceptable compromise.

If mediation is unsuccessful, nothing would stop Singer from submitting new plans aimed at resolving the council's concerns about pedestrian safety and other issues.

"As long as a property is controlled by a developer," Ramis said, "the developer can come back and back and back with other plans. There is a long history of cases where projects were rejected before one finally got approved."

Fred Leeson: 503-294-5946; fredleeson@news.oregonian.com

[MarkDaMan]

I can't find the Westerly thread either...

Westerly project presents a plethora of challenges
Portland Business Journal - May 18, 2007
by Wendy Culverwell
Business Journal staff writer
Charlie Kloppenburg | Portland Business Journal
Real estate brokers Alex Hughes and Debbie Thomas tour the under-construction Westerly.
View Larger

As construction sites go, The Westerly condominiums is a doozy.

The 14-story project sits at the edge of a busy parking lot. It overlooks Uptown Shopping Center on one side and the face of a steep cliff on the other. Then there's the parking issue.

The building displaced 57 parking spots, which had to be replaced. So, with construction proceeding on the floors above, 57 parking spots in the building's lower level parking garage are open to the public.

The Westerly presents a tricky balancing act for developer Jack Onder and his contractor, Andersen Construction. But Onder, a veteran builder and principal for Onder Development LLC, said there's nowhere else in Portland that he'd rather build luxury condominiums.

"It's absolutely perfect," he said.

The same goes for timing too. While news about foreclosure rates and a cooling residential market scare off some potential buyers, Onder said he has no concerns about The Westerly, which has been in the works for several years.

"I would start it today in a heartbeat," he said, echoing the stubborn optimism of local developers, who seem intent on keeping Portland's skyline full of cranes.

The Westerly, like its condo neighbors, stands firmly in luxury territory.

Prices begin at $412,000 and rise steeply from there. The asking price for a penthouse is more than $3.6 million. Several have sold.

Nelda Scott Newton, vice president for the real estate group at Wells Fargo, has studied Portland's condominium market. She doesn't doubt Onder when he says he wouldn't hesitate to build a project like The Westerly today, even with the shades of gray clouding the market. The Westerly has the makings of a popular project -- a unique location, desirable neighborhood and just 104 units.

"You're right there with your back against the hill. You have incredible views that won't go away. I'm not surprised that he would say he would start it today," she said. "That project will be a successful project."

While upper-tier projects such as The Westerly press on, a changing market is giving some developers pause.

The ongoing conversion of the former Portland Center apartments into the Harrison Condominiums is Portland's single largest condo conversion project by a long shot. The property consists of more than 500 units, including townhouses, contained within three towers.

The first two towers have been modernized and converted, with "nice steady" progress on sales, according to John Managan, spokesman for the developer, Reliance Development Inc.

Reliance recently began renovations for the third tower, which is on the south side of Southwest Harrison Street.

It remains unclear if the units in the third tower will be put up for sale, or if the entire building will be separated from the other two and sold as a single building, presumably to someone who will operate it as an apartment tower.

That's because apartment occupancy rates -- and rents -- are rising, giving operators a new incentive to keep multifamily properties as income-producing rentals rather than for-sale condos.

"It's not a secret that apartments are coming into favor," said Wells Fargo's Newton.

The phenomenon -- apartments being converted to condominiums and then back to apartments -- has a name: reversion.

Already one major project has succumbed to the lure of rising rents. The 21-story Ladd Tower project at 1300 S.W. Park Ave. was to include 220 luxury condominiums.

In March, Opus Northwest LLC changed its mind. Ladd Tower instead will feature 220 luxury apartments.

wculverwell@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3415
http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2007/05/21/story11.html?t=printable

[MarkDaMan]

looks like a 6-story something is proposed on 19th and Hoyt by SERA.

http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=156580

[pdxstreetcar]

isn't there a liquor store with parking on at least part of that site now (or something like that)?

[cab]

Its a nasty corner parking lot right across from Couch Park. This is a great place for infill development, nothing of value will be destroyed.

[MarkDaMan]

dup...see article next post down

[MarkDaMan]

S.W. Portland not quite ready for mixed-use development
Daily Journal of Commerce
by Kennedy Smith
07/03/2007


Along Southwest Capitol Highway, a four-lane throughway that connects Portland to Beaverton, there’s a small strip of businesses including Starbucks, Wild Oats and a McMenamins restaurant. Designated a town center by regional government Metro, the strip is what most people associate with the Hillsdale neighborhood, last stop on the way to Beaverton. But it’s hardly a stop at all.

Just before the road splits into Capitol Highway and Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway at 18th Avenue, the neighborhood’s first mixed-use project is under way. But most other development in the neighborhood is single-family infill.

The development is “the biggest thing going on in Hillsdale right now,” said Leonard Gard, a land-use specialist at Southwest Neighborhoods Inc., a consortium of 16 Southwest Portland neighborhood associations and three business associations.

The Watershed at Hillsdale, developed by the nonprofit Community Partners for Affordable Housing Inc., will contain 51 affordable senior housing units, a 1,500-square-foot community center and 3,300 square feet of commercial space.

But the rest of outer southwest’s development activity comprises single-family houses, row houses and condominium conversions, said Jeff Parker, a Realtor who markets Southwest Portland properties.

As far as mixed-use development goes, Parker said, the Watershed at Hillsdale stands alone.

Permit records from 1995 to 2004 show Portland’s west side comprising about 26 percent of the city’s single-family units and 5 percent of its multifamily units, according to the Portland Bureau of Planning.

The majority of the city’s large, multifamily projects have been built in Northwest, with the Southwest primarily housing smaller infill projects, the bureau said.

Because the Watershed at Hillsdale is the first development of its kind in Southwest, it’s hard to tell whether it will spur more mixed-use development, Gard said, especially when all the other development activity is single-family residential.

“Hillsdale has the best chances for row houses, so that’s what we’re seeing out here,” he said.

The major roadblock to mixed-use development, Gard said, is a zoning constraint that doesn’t allow for more than one use on most parcels.

In 2001, City Council adopted the Southwest Community Plan, which aimed to change some of the restrictions in order to rezone certain residential areas to commercial mixed-use. The Watershed at Hillsdale is the first mixed-use development since the plan’s adoption.

The plan encourages transit- and pedestrian-oriented mixed-use projects and a range of housing types, including affordable housing. But most of Southwest Portland is zoned for single-family medium- and low-density development.

Although most neighbors support more intense development with a mix of commercial and residential space, Gard said, Hillsdale is playing catch-up with the rest of Portland.

Gard said he’s holding out to see the kind of development outlined in the 2001 plan, “more intense development along the thoroughfares like Barbur, and some kind of project that would bring a work force with it.”

Land in Southwest is scarce for mixed-use projects, Gard said. Community Partners for Affordable Housing has applied to develop a project on Multnomah Boulevard that would comprise a mix of residential types but no commercial space.

The only other foreseeable opportunity for a mixed-use project in Southwest Portland is the Burlingame Fred Meyer store, east of the Watershed at Hillsdale, at 7555 S.W. Barbur Blvd. Fred Meyer is exploring redeveloping the store into a supermarket with housing attached, Melinda Merrill, a spokeswoman for the company, said.

“The community very much wants housing in there, so we’re working on finding a developer and figuring out how to do that,” she said.

Architect Richard Brown, whose firm rehabilitated an old auto garage into the Pacific Artists Dance Center on Capitol Highway, is eyeing a lot across from the Watershed at Hillsdale for retail use.

“We looked at mixed-use but it quickly became too complicated,” he said. “There was not enough parking to support it.” But, Brown said, mixed-use development in the area is “just a matter of time.”

http://www.djc-or.com/viewStory.cfm?recid=29691&userID=1

[CouvScott]

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/couvttocs/MVC-064F.jpg

[PacificNW]

Thanks, Couv.....I have been wanting to see that project...

[MarkDaMan]

http://www.djcoregon.com/_images/articles/djc3rd-19_&_JOHNSON_SCENE_6.jpg

Six stories don’t sit well with historic commission
A 65-foot mixed-use development proposed for Northwest Portland has Historic Landmarks Commission uncomfortable
Daily Journal of Commerce
POSTED: 06:00 AM PST Thursday, January 17, 2008
BY ALISON RYAN

Six floors and 65 feet wouldn’t stack up to much in downtown Portland or the Pearl District. But in Northwest Portland, where low-rises rule, six floors and 65 feet could nix a proposed housing complex.

“This is a big reason for why this is a historic district, and your building has a responsibility to respond to that,” said Brian Emerick, a member of the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission.

The commission Monday gave design advice for the mixed-use development proposed at Northwest Johnson Street and 19th Avenue. Too tall, commissioners said in a previous advice session.

And earlier this week, the message was the same: Anything above four stories is going to be a tough sell.

“We have some very significant buildings within spitting distance of this building,” Commissioner Harris Matarazzo said.

Among them are National Register spots like the American Apartment Building at Northwest 20th and Johnson and the Whidden & Lewis-designed W.B. Ayer House that sits directly across Northwest 19th Avenue.

Myhre Group Architects’ design, Commissioner Richard Engeman said, “has a clean classicism about it.”

Still, Chairman Art DeMuro’s informal poll of commissioners heard a chorus of “no” and “maybe” on whether the building was approvable at six stories. The commission asked to see more information on precedents for height in the area, including measurements of nearby four- and five-story buildings.

“I think it’s a stretch to say that those four-story buildings are similar in scale,” Emerick said.
http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDetail.htm/2008/01/17/Six-stories-dont-sit-well-with-historic-commission-A-65foot-mixeduse-development-proposed-for-Northw

[MarkDaMan]

I read somewhere this week that Richard Singer was giving up plans to build a parking garage at NW 23rd and Irving. Instead he is turning the plot into a surface parking lot. Waaay to go!!!

[pdxman]

So many bad things i could say about NW portland and its people right now...

[sopdx]

Well don't - because the NIMBYs here are not unlike the NIMBYs in NE, N, SE and SW Portland. Check out the article in today's DJC about development in Irvington - same thing or the attitude on Mississippi for the past year regarding proposed development.

The best one can do to counter those attitudes is become involved in your neighborhood association to present support of proposed development. These people aren't evil, they are just worried.

[MarkDaMan]

Apartments OK'd next to Couch Park

After extensive review, the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission approved plans last month for a six-story, 101-unit apartment building on Northwest 19th Avenue between Hoyt and Glisan streets.

SERA Architects looked to several other early 20th-century apartment buildings in the neighborhood to come up with a design intended to blend into the Alphabet Historic District. The new building will sit at the eastern edge of Couch Park.

Some residents objected to the size and mass of the building.

"It looks like something that belongs in the Pearl, not our district," David Goldwyn said. The architects met several times with Northwest District Association representatives, who in the end supported the plan. Given the sloping, half-block site, the roofline tops out at 65 to 72 feet high.

FRED LEESON
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/portland_news/1204255531237690.xml&coll=7

[MarkDaMan]

The Morrison mix
City’s housing experiment puts low earners next to ex-homeless, upscale condos
By peter korn
The Portland Tribune, Mar 21, 2008

Travis Howe has this problem. It’s not a big one — more of a situation, really.

Three weeks ago, the 23-year-old Howe, who recently graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in international marketing, was living with his parents in Gresham, where he grew up.

Howe hopes to go to law school — eventually. For now, Howe says, he would be satisfied with a job at an eco-friendly company. But not one that pays too much.

That’s the problem.

Howe is among the first wave of apartment dwellers at the Morrison, the city’s newest subsidized housing building, on West Burnside Street, a few blocks west of downtown. City housing officials and developers recognize the Morrison is part of a significant social engineering experiment.

Ninety-five of the Morrison’s 140 subsidized units are available at below market rates — $695 for the one-bedroom unit that Howe rents. But there is another type of housing at the Morrison — 45 of its apartments are offered nearly rent-free to the chronically homeless. And that is a mix that hasn’t been tried before.

In fact, the entire development next to PGE Park, of which the Morrison is a part, is something of an experiment in bridging the gaps that normally exist between people. The Morrison was built as part of one overall project that includes the Civic condominiums next door, where most units have sold for between $250,000 and $600,000.

The Morrison and the Civic are the type of experiment — sometimes criticized — that is happening in public housing in cities across the country, according to Robert Bruegmann, a professor of urban planning at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Bruegmann calls it “high-level social engineering in a top-down way.”

But experiments can fail, Bruegmann and others point out. If the 45 previously homeless tenants in the Morrison — most with histories of substance abuse or mental illness — prove to be difficult tenants, the building, which opened in November, won’t long retain its value as the new jewel among Portland affordable housing properties.

And if the Morrison should lose luster, it could affect property values in the condominiums next door.

The Housing Authority of Portland, which built and runs the Morrison, is well- aware of the risk. In fact, as originally planned, the Morrison had as its tenants a broad range of subsidized units that did not include the chronically homeless.

When the housing authority found it did not have money to complete the Morrison, it went to the city, which agreed to put up the last $3 million on the condition the building put aside apartments for the homeless.

“Nobody has really done this,” says Benjamin Wickham, asset manager for the housing authority, of placing housing for the homeless next to high-end condos.
College grads pick part time

Travis Howe doesn’t sense any risk — he’s ecstatic with his one-bedroom apartment at the Morrison.

“I feel alive again,” he says of living blocks from downtown. Howe, who is single, says he is able to pay his $695 with money from his part-time modeling career.

“It’s paid off my college, my Land Rover, and it pays my rent,” Howe says.

Full-time work would suit Howe, but he says he doesn’t want to exceed the $28,500 income limit that would force him out of the Morrison.

He calls this period of his life his “mental break” before a career or law school. If he weren’t able to live at the Morrison, he says, he’d probably go back to Gresham and live with his parents awhile, saving up money.

Seattle native Nick Martinez has been living at the Morrison about as long as Howe. He recently graduated from Willamette University in Salem. He’s working part time behind the counter at Banana Republic, and he’s looking for a job downtown in either public relations or journalism.

Martinez, 23, says the Morrison’s location is ideal for his downtown job hunt.

Martinez wants full-time work, but if it is going to put him over the $28,500 income ceiling for staying at the Morrison, he wants it to be a lot more than he’s making now. Otherwise, he says, it’s hardly worth it to earn a little more and spend it on higher rent at a market-rate apartment building.

“I really don’t think I would move out for anything less than $40,000,” Martinez says.
Will the mix work?

Martinez says that if he hadn’t secured a one-bedroom apartment at the Morrison, he could have found a market-rate studio apartment for about the same rent. He’s especially pleased with the mix of people at the Morrison.

“This is the most eclectic group of people living in one building I’ve ever experienced,” he says.

But the government’s subsidizing that eclectic mix is bad public policy and won’t work, according to Howard Husock, vice president of the conservative think tank Manhattan Institute and author of a book critical of traditional public housing policies.

Husock says that in the long run, working-class people leave public housing to the poor.

“Middle-class people with prospects and income will move into these places when they’re new,” Husock says. “They moved into (20th century) public housing when it was new. When it started to become hard to maintain they moved out. Things look good when you cut the ribbon.”

Steve Rudman, executive director of the Housing Authority, says the alternative to mixing incomes in a public housing project makes the experiment worth trying.

“It’s not without risk,” Rudman says of the Morrison. “A lot of planning is needed to make this work. But at the end of the day the trade-off, where people of poverty are isolated, is not a good idea.”

Alma Abrams isn’t sure Howe or Martinez should be living in subsidized housing anyway. And she supports diverse housing. Abrams, a senior citizen who lives in the nearby market-rate Trinity Apartments and says she lived in subsidized housing in Chicago years ago, walks by the Morrison nearly every day. She doesn’t like what she’s seeing.

“My tax dollars went to build that with the assumption that people who are in there didn’t have any other place to go,” Abrams says. “This is not what I envisioned.”

Abrams’ vision included more people close to her age. “I was hoping there would be more seniors in the building,” she says.

Public housing projects in Portland — especially in the Pearl District — have for years been subjected to similar criticism as they try to balance the need for rental income with helping the city’s poorest citizens find housing.

The Morrison is full of young people like Howe and Martinez, people who probably will be making significantly more money in a few years. That is at least partly by design, according to Rudman, and partly out of necessity. The housing authority owns and runs the apartment building.

With 45 apartments in the Morrison dedicated to tenants who previously were homeless, the rest of the building’s 140 apartments needed to be filled by tenants who not only could pay their own way, but could pay enough rent to keep the building operating and help the housing authority pay off its debt on the project.

Howe and Martinez are, in effect, subsidizing the low rents from the 45 “permanent supportive housing” units — to use the housing authority’s language — by paying $695 rents that are “shallowly subsidized,” according to Rudman. The housing authority estimates that the Morrison’s rents are about $100 below market rate.
Balance is key

If the housing authority had set the Morrison’s rents lower, Rudman says, the building wouldn’t have been able to sustain itself.

“That’s a tricky balance,” the housing authority’s Wickham says.

Besides, Rudman says, young residents such as Howe and Martinez, regardless of what they eventually may earn, deserve publicly subsidized housing.

“Think about how many (coffee) baristas in their 20s and 30s there are in the city with college degrees,” Rudman says. “If they qualify, who are we to say you shouldn’t live here?”

But the Morrison’s shallow subsidies create their own problems by making the building unattainable for many people who would qualify for apartments if the rents were lower.

Bill Buchholz is one of about a half-dozen seniors in the Morrison’s apartments. He’s the senior on fixed income who Abrams wants to see at the Morrison. But he may not stay.

Buchholz, 75, says he loves his apartment. He says his $695 monthly rent comes out of his sole income — his $880 monthly social security check. Add to that the money he has to budget each month for electricity, telephone and cable and, Buchholz says, “I can’t eat. I don’t have any money.”

Buchholz says he previously was in an assisted-living facility in Forest Grove, but he applied to live at the Morrison because of the location. He attends services at the nearby Trinity Episcopal Church and is a member of the Scottish Rite fraternal organization just two blocks away. He’s also partially disabled. The housing authority provided him with an apartment that includes a disabled assisted bathroom.

Housing Authority officials say they don’t require minimum incomes for occupants — as long as prospective clients are under the income limit, they can qualify for an apartment.

The housing authority hasn’t yet compiled demographic data on the Morrison’s residents, who began moving in to the building in November.

Here is what they do know of the initial renters in units not dedicated to the homeless: Most are men, 90, compared with 31 women.

There are only six units with children, all of whom are under the age of 4. Five units are rented to black tenants, one to a Latino.

The majority of residents are in their 20s. A number are half-time students who work part-time jobs at bars, coffee shops and restaurants. Average stated income for the residents is $23,000.
Ex-homeless must adjust

Fifty-eight-year-old Betty Jenner, who lives in one of the units for the homeless, says the Morrison is the nicest place she has lived in, well, for about as long as she can remember.

Jenner says she lived on the street for 19 years, in Portland and other cities, until the nonprofit Portland-based Northwest Pilot Project found her transitional housing last year at Alder House, a downtown single-room-occupancy hotel. Jenner, who suffers from mental illness, describes Alder House as “rotten.”

The Morrison, she says, is different. “I can get my nerves calmed down.” Jenner says she suffers from epilepsy but since moving in to the calmer environment of the Morrison has not had one seizure.

“You can walk out in the hallway without getting yelled at,” Jenner says.

Jenner’s rent at the Morrison is $180, 30 percent of her monthly supplemental security check. At privately owned Alder House, she paid more for a 200-square-foot apartment with a community shower down the hall. Now Jenner has 525 square feet to herself, with her own bathroom outfitted to help her move around.

But a visitor to Jenner’s apartment can’t help but notice that Jenner smokes constantly in her apartment, though the Morrison is supposed to be nonsmoking.

And then there is the clutter. Jenner is a hoarder, according to Jessica Larson, a housing specialist with Northwest Pilot Project who comes to the Morrison twice a week. Larson works with the 45 previously homeless tenants on adjusting to what is for them a new way of living.

Larson says there’s a difference between cluttering an apartment and trashing it, and Jenner is on the right side of the line.

As for the smoking, Larson says, a special dispensation has been given to the Morrison’s formerly homeless tenants. If the homeless tenants were told they could not smoke, Larson says, “Then we’re just setting people up for failure, because they’re going to smoke.”

Larson says that living at the Morrison has changed Jenner’s life.

“She’s a new woman,” Larson says. “She’s going to live there forever. She loves it, and she knows the alternative.”
See the other side

More important, in terms of the social experiment going on at the Morrison-Civic project, is that Larson is certain Jenner will be a good tenant. There have been no complaints from other renters or building management, she says, about Jenner or about the other previously homeless tenants.

Larson says she has been amused when tenants have told her about a few bizarre conversations with some of the previously homeless renters. She says she figures the young residents at the Morrison are getting firsthand lessons in tolerance.

Larson says that she’s not certain if Jenner is any better off at the Morrison, surrounded by working-class and younger residents, than in a building set up for people with histories like hers.

Given the need, Larson says, it doesn’t matter.

“We’ll take housing as it’s available,” Larson says. “We need so much more housing for people like Betty. The reason things are the way they are in this building is because of how things penciled out. We’re not saying this is the best way to house the chronically homeless. We’re saying this is a financially viable way we can create housing for the chronically homeless. I think the Morrison is going to work, and I think we need 15 more Morrisons.”

peterkorn@portlandtribune.com

http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=120605139714837000

[Dougall5505]

As for the smoking, Larson says, a special dispensation has been given to the Morrison’s formerly homeless tenants. If the homeless tenants were told they could not smoke, Larson says, “Then we’re just setting people up for failure, because they’re going to smoke.”

maybe they are setting you up for success...or a extra 5-10 years to your life

[pdxlexus]

Notice for the proposed new 6 story Providence Health and Services office building located at NE 43rd and Halsey St..

http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=189535

[PuyoPiyo]

Welcome to Skyscraperpage :)

I believe I have seen similar design of structure somewhere in east Portland.

Also I get the feeling that this should belong in the City of Portland's threads instead of the suburb's threads which are more for cities such like Vancouver, Salem, Gresham, etc.

[MarkDaMan]

thanks pdxlexus...

glad to see this long awaited project to get started. Not impressed with the architecture, but oh well.

I assume the parking lot is for a future building?

[bvpcvm]

glad to see more infill in hollywood. is hollywood on track to be portland's 3rd "downtown" (after lloyd dst)?

[downtownpdx]

Apartments OK'd next to Couch Park

After extensive review, the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission approved plans last month for a six-story, 101-unit apartment building on Northwest 19th Avenue between Hoyt and Glisan streets.

SERA Architects looked to several other early 20th-century apartment buildings in the neighborhood to come up with a design intended to blend into the Alphabet Historic District. The new building will sit at the eastern edge of Couch Park.

Some residents objected to the size and mass of the building.

"It looks like something that belongs in the Pearl, not our district," David Goldwyn said. The architects met several times with Northwest District Association representatives, who in the end supported the plan. Given the sloping, half-block site, the roofline tops out at 65 to 72 feet high.

FRED LEESON
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/portland_news/1204255531237690.xml&coll=7

I noticed today (Sun) this property was fenced off -- glad to see this got approved!

I thought I read the NWDA had a problem with the courtyard not being wide enough, and it sounded like the developers might back out b/c it wouldn't be financially feasible to make that change. Guess not. This will be nice for Couch Park across the street, having more 'eyes on the park.'

[bvpcvm]

http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=120940993606676700

Undoing of a vision

BACK STORY • Con-way has bold plans but ‘dialogue’ could doom them

By peter korn
The Portland Tribune, Apr 29, 2008
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news_graphics/120941227629233400.jpg
Courtesy of Con-way INC.
Con-way Inc. has a bold plan for redeveloping some of the land its headquarters sits on in Northwest Portland. However, the heavy density of the proposed plan has neighbors worried.


On a drizzly evening in January, about 25 people, many unfamiliar with one another, sit around a long conference table in an upstairs office at Con-way Inc. headquarters in Northwest Portland.
Most in the room live or work close to the trucking company’s property. Some are members of the neighborhood association, others represent various local businesses and nonprofits.
Craig Boretz, Con-way vice president of corporate development, has just finished a private presentation of a slide show of what he calls “an early stage master plan” for a development on Con-way’s parking lot-dominated property in Northwest Portland.
And early stage it is, with few of the architectural or planning details that will, in the end, determine the project’s success or failure.
But the vision that Boretz and project designer John Spencer have created is bold enough that even without detail, it begs reaction.
Northwest Raleigh Street has become a canal, modeled after similar thoroughfares in Amsterdam. Streetcar lines pass through the development. A public plaza leads into a series of tall buildings at the development’s center. The artist’s renderings appear to show an entire neighborhood built from the ground up.
The Con-way plan is bold and ambitious. It also, many in the city believe, represents a litmus test for the city’s commitment to urban density. It includes residential towers taller than any building in the Pearl District, along with parks and a community center.
Boretz and Spencer talk about affordable family housing and open spaces, greenway corridors for pedestrians and bicyclists, possibly even a neighborhoodwide heating and cooling system that could be more efficient than individual building systems.
But there is a trade-off, Boretz explains, and that is density.
Low-density housing – such as a collection of townhouses – is not financially feasible, he says. It won’t bring in enough revenue to cover what may be as much as $50 million just to put in below-ground parking, much of it for the 1,000 Con-way employees who work in the company’s two office buildings.
It won’t pay the bills for the public spaces and the community center that won’t yield any revenue at all for Con-way.
What would help pay for all that is what Con-way is proposing: thousands of housing units, many of them in large condominium and apartment buildings, possibly adding between 4,000 and 5,000 new residents to Northwest Portland’s current population of 12,000.
The lights in the room brighten and no more than a few seconds pass before Greg Theisen, vice chairman of the planning committee for the neighborhood association, offers the first reaction.
“I’m a little shocked,” Theisen says. “This is much more than I ever thought I’d see here.”
Kim Carlson, chairwoman of the neighborhood association transportation committee, warns Boretz that he should expect some “pushback” from neighborhood residents concerned about increased traffic.
At meeting’s end Boretz is asked when the public will be shown this master plan, and he says February or March. That public presentation has not been held yet, and it has not been scheduled yet. In fact, the renderings of the plan that were shown in January are no longer available for viewing.
Instead, the Con-way team has been making presentations to a number of neighborhood groups and governmental agencies, but without the slides.
Portland has seen a number of large-scale developments in recent years. But the Con-way project, on the largest undeveloped piece of property left in the central city, presents a crucible for the city’s commitment to density in a way the other developments could not.
South Waterfront is a neighborhood created from scratch. Its primary impact on the nearby Lair Hill area is the way it blocks views of Mount Hood.
The Pearl District rose from an abandoned rail yard. There was no backyard from which people there could shout that they didn’t want the development in theirs.
But the Con-way property, all 20 acres, is a bridge between the single-family homes off Northwest 23rd Avenue and the Pearl District. There are plenty of backyards from which people have started to say, “Not in mine.”
Board members of the Northwest District Association, probably the most vocal and mobilized neighborhood association in the city, already have begun to raise doubts about the Con-way vision.
And the initial protests over the Con-way plan have raised questions of another sort.
Planning, most experts agree, is what Portland does well. But big, bold designs? Not so much – possibly because they die in the planning process.
“The cautionary principle is very much alive in the DNA of Portland,” says Gil Kelley, director of the Portland Planning Bureau.
He lists bold project ideas that haven’t happened: Making underground Tanner Creek a free-flowing surface stream through the central city again, a Frank Gehry building proposed for the Pearl District that died for lack of funding, capping Interstate 405 and moving Interstate 5 away from the river on the east bank of the Willamette River – both plans abandoned for lack of money and civic will.
Kelley says Portland’s city government is open to big visions, but that the process of putting them into action has to involve dialogue with the public and city agencies. And he thinks those deliberations, in the end, benefit the city.
“There’s no reason boldness can’t occur here,” he says. “It just isn’t going to be the result of one developer walking in with a drawing and everybody bowing down. It might represent a little design by committee, but, generally, it has a truer fit.”
As for reaction to his initial talks with Con-way, Kelley says: “I had a mix of feelings. They’re at least pushing the envelope with some concepts.”
Vision lost in process

Peter Finley Fry, a planning consultant to developers, says the multiple layers of bureaucracy that have a say in how a proposed development looks makes bold visions nearly impossible in Portland. One reason, he says, is the process takes too much time.
“The trouble is our planning becomes a process of compromise,” Fry says. “You might start out with an exciting vision and people who had that vision will fade away and people afraid of that vision will stay put. And the planning bureau draft will dumb it down and the planning commission will make it further dumbed down.”
In Fry’s estimation, the biggest obstacles to bold, visionary design such as Con-way has proposed are Portland’s neighborhood associations.
“We artificially empower mediocrity,” he says. “There’s a certain proportion of people who have fear of change anywhere. In Portland, those people are empowered with authority through the neighborhood associations.”
Fry says that when he first saw a picture showing Con-way’s proposed canal street, “I loved it.” His second reaction, he says, was thinking that it is unlikely he’ll ever see it in the real world “because of the fundamental lack of leadership at the city level.”
Without strong leadership from the mayor’s office, Fry says, the fate of projects such as Con-way’s are left to the bureau of planning, which inevitably result in compromise.
John Spencer, a Portland urban designer who helped envision South Waterfront years before being hired to work on the Con-way project, disagrees with Fry. He calls South Waterfront bold, and says it was made possible because then-Mayor Vera Katz was willing to actively support it.
Spencer says his years as chairman of the city’s design commission convinced him that it isn’t the city that’s keeping more visionary design from occurring in Portland.
“I would hear from people that it was difficult, but I was on a committee that was encouraging architects and their development clients to act more boldly,” he says. “It was easier to design a building that played by the same rules as the last building that got approved, and that was the safest and most predictable way to go.”
But Fry argues that the city’s lengthy approval process encourages designers to take the safer route because they want their projects approved. “That’s just human nature,” he says.
Striking deals or going public

Homer Williams, the developer who helped create the Pearl District and South Waterfront, says that with enough will and political capital, developers can put bold designs into place in Portland. But it’s hard, he says. And Con-way has taken a wrong first step, he believes.
By showing its preliminary master plan to groups with a stake in the development, including the neighborhood association, Con-way opened itself up for criticism before it was ready to deal with it, Williams says.
He says he learned from his experiences with the Pearl District and South Waterfront that he had to have agreements in place on specific pieces of developments before his plans went public.
With South Waterfront, he says, he secured commitments from Mayor Vera Katz and from Oregon Health & Science University on its investment in a campus that would be connected to its main campus by the tram. And those two weren’t the only ones with whom bargains were made.
“We got everybody around the table every Monday for months, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.,” Williams says. “PDOT, OHSU, PDC (the Portland Development Commission), (the) planning (bureau). We said, ‘OK, let’s make an agreement.’ ”
He says the parks bureau, for instance, wanted a greenway left along the Willamette River. In response, he and other developers agreed to give up the four acres of property along the river that is worth tens of millions of dollars.
In return, Williams says, the developers received commitments from the city for more height in South Waterfront buildings and more tax increment financing that made the Portland streetcar’s arrival in the new neighborhood possible. OHSU got its tram.
“It’s the only way to do it,” Williams says. “Let planning defend the plan. No developer can defend the plan. The developer has to be willing to take the bullets.”
But architect Jerry L. Ward, who lives within a mile of South Waterfront, says the fact that the neighborhood association as well as other property owners and public interest groups were not included in those early negotiations made the process unfair.
“The neighborhood association never knew about the heights (of South Waterfront towers) going to 325 feet until after all the amendments were signed and delivered,” Ward says.
Williams says he fears the Con-way plan, even with its green streets and sustainable design, is unlikely to successfully bridge the divide from vision to reality because criticism has begun and Con-way has no allies in place.
“I like the plan,” Williams says. “It was a bold plan. The minute they put that plan out to the public, I thought, this is going to be dead on arrival. It’s just sad.”
Boretz says he made a decision to include the public early, and he still thinks it was the right choice.
Specifically, Boretz says he didn’t want to follow the South Waterfront model.
“It wasn’t something I was comfortable doing – back room,” he says. “I just felt we needed to listen to what people were saying and respond to that in conceptual terms and not try to create special deals.”
Boretz says most of what he’s heard in response to his presentations has been positive, and that he’s not surprised at some neighborhood resistance.
“It may be because this is the first project I’ve worked on, but I don’t think it will be picked apart,” he says. “I think it is big enough and incorporates enough really good public benefit elements that it won’t get picked apart.”
The trouble with cars

But the key, Boretz says, will be solving the traffic problem. That’s why the master plan focuses on bike lanes and the streetcar, and why Con-way currently is drawing up a traffic study.
Boretz says he hopes Con-way employees live in some of the development’s housing. And maybe, he says, Con-way’s final design could change the way people in Portland think about traffic.
“I don’t know if this will be the development that will tip the scales, but people generally recognize they’ve got to find ways out of their cars,” he says.
Roger Vrilakas, a member of the neighborhood association planning committee, isn’t counting on people getting out of their cars. He thinks the Con-way development is going to lead to massive traffic jams in Northwest Portland.
He also says Con-way should not get the zoning variances that would be necessary to build its tall buildings and dense housing.
Vrilakas, who lives on Northwest Johnson Street, says he has heard all the arguments about inner-city density as the solution to suburban sprawl.
“Northwest Portland is already very dense,” he says. “If anybody has done their part in preventing suburban sprawl, it is certainly the people that live in Northwest. There is a point at which we need to start thinking about urban sprawl. Sprawl implies more and more and more. And that’s what they want – more. I want what everybody has agreed to. I don’t want more people, more cars, higher buildings.”
Vrilakas says Con-way possibly adding 2,000 housing units could mean a 40 percent increase in Northwest Portland’s population, and more drivers.
“Here’s a way to think of it,” he says. “Next time you’re in your car going down the street (in Northwest Portland), count 10 cars, and put four more in there. See if they fit.”
Juliet Hyams, president of the neighborhood association board, says there is not much support for the Con-way project among board members.
John Bradley, chairman of the neighborhood association planning committee, says he would like to see Con-way stick to current zoning designations with a variety of buildings, none taller than the currently allowed 140 feet.
But Carlson says she is “optimistic” that the neighborhood can find common ground with Con-way.
Carlson says she has seen the Con-way presentation at three showings, and she’s noticed it change in response to comments by board members, with one street that in the initial version of the plan was designated for automobile use later emphasizing bicycles and pedestrian use.
“This is a good problem to try to solve,” Carlson says. “We shouldn’t be whining about it. They can find friends in this neighborhood if there’s a little less presentation and more working together on it.”
Neighbors have concerns

There are plenty of people and institutions near the Con-way property who would like to work together with Con-way, and who are worried how the final project design could hurt them.
But small requests can be the undoing of bold vision, Fry says.
Parishioners from St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, at the northeast corner of the Con-way property, have told Boretz they don’t want the church to end up in the shadow of tall Con-way buildings and they have asked that a small Con-way parcel behind the church – once a church school – be given back to the church.
Representatives of Food Front, the neighborhood’s longtime co-op, have told Boretz that they’d like to have a place as the new neighborhood’s grocery store – aware that if they don’t, and another grocer specializing in natural foods goes in, it could severely hurt the co-op.
Officials with nonprofit community center Friendly House would like to run the Con-way development’s new community center, and are afraid a competing community center could threaten Friendly House’s survival.
Tad Savinar owns two blocks of property a block north of the Con-way property that he hopes to develop, and is concerned that Con-way will develop first and in doing so will use up the infrastructure capacity of the area.
“The challenge of big-vision planning, to people who are adjacent to it, is that they have the horsepower to get to the finish line first,” says Savinar, who adds that much of the Con-way plan appeals to him. “My concern is, what happens if we want to build in 15 years? Will the transportation department say, ‘You can’t build because we’re already at capacity?’ ”
Savinar says he recently met with planning bureau officials who assured him he will be included in talks about the area’s growth.
Boretz says he recognizes the local neighborhood association will have some impact on the final design of the of the Con-way development, but he also knows he’s got an “economic engine” that won’t be easy for the city to put aside.
Con-way could spend between $1 billion and $2 billion in development costs over the next 10 to 15 years, Boretz says.
“That’s a lot of construction jobs and a lot of things that spin off those construction jobs,” Boretz says.
But the presentations Boretz makes now to various public groups are less compelling than the one he made in January. The only visual aid is an aerial view of the Con-way property.
Asked why in presentations he no longer shows the visionary slides of grand buildings, public plazas and canal streets, Boretz says: “We don’t want people to think we’re locked into it. We’re not. We love the concepts. We think they’re bold and they look terrific. But they’re just concepts right now.”

peterkorn@portlandtribune.com

[urbanlife]

you know I really hope this happens because it would change the face of Portland for the better. It would be amazing to have a South Waterfront style development that was focused towards middle and lower incomes and families.

Lets hope the next mayor will be on board with pushing this idea forward.

[pdxtraveler]

If the neighborhood fights too hard I am afraid that we will be left with parking lots. Con-way needs density to make the project work. As the article says it takes a lot to make the under ground parking affordable. So if the density gets thinned too much there is no project at all.

[twofiftyfive]

I noticed today (Sun) this property was fenced off -- glad to see this got approved!

I thought I read the NWDA had a problem with the courtyard not being wide enough, and it sounded like the developers might back out b/c it wouldn't be financially feasible to make that change. Guess not. This will be nice for Couch Park across the street, having more 'eyes on the park.'

The old buildings and their parking lots across 19th Ave from Couch Park are now gone, and the half block is nothing but dirt. My wife commented on how much of an improvement it already is.

[bvpcvm]

Just noticed, while walking home, a sign for a new 4-story building at 2653 NW Thurman. The site is currently occupied by some nasty 70's apartments, which I will be glad to see go. Web site is www.2653Thurman.com. To me the design seems acceptable, nothing special about it, but nothing offensive either. About a year back there was a design review or pre-app conference for this site; the design was quite different as I recall.

[sopdx]

I like the fact that it's not a mega building, however I wish them luck selling them. I'm sorry they didn't include a den or another area that could be used for sleeping instead of one bedroom.

[zilfondel]

This is interesting: the building has no parking.

14 units + 2 commercial units

[bvpcvm]

the crappy apt at this location doesn't appear to have any parking either.

also weird: they're all 600-s.f. 1-br units. even on the top floor.

[Leo]

the crappy apt at this location doesn't appear to have any parking either.

also weird: they're all 600-s.f. 1-br units. even on the top floor.

The small size and lack of parking are probably related... Larger apartments would be a hard sell without parking. It's nice to see 600sf apartments that are not tunnel lofts, though ...

[MarkDaMan]

I would consider something slightly above $2, but $275 is steep. Good neighborhood though.

[bvpcvm]

fyi - the NW Examiner can now be downloaded in PDF format:

http://nwexaminer.com/issues/ (http://nwexaminer.com/issues/)

it's useful for NW/Pearl news. it's also impressive for it's capability to always find something to complain about. it's worth checking out anyway, tho.

[pdxman]

^^^Oh my god that is so very true. I was reading through it the other day and couldn't help but laugh at the amount of articles that were basically complaints and whinings about everything wrong going on in NW.

[twofiftyfive]

Apparently the development across 19th from Couch Park is now called "Park 19". There's a new website (http://www.livepark19.com/).

[twofiftyfive]

Apparently the development across 19th from Couch Park is now called "Park 19". There's a new website (http://www.livepark19.com/).

They've finally replaced the placeholder with a real website showing floorplans. No rental prices listed yet, though.

[urbanlife]

They've finally replaced the placeholder with a real website showing floorplans. No rental prices listed yet, though.

Looking over the plans, the one bedrooms dont look that bad, but the studios all suck. Gotta love sharing the only closet with a washer and dryer. Talk about no room for clothes.

[Leo]

Did construction on this building start, or is this project dead? I noticed that these condos disappeared from RLMS...

[2oh1]

Good lord... look at the closet space in x14 units! On floors 2 and above, the x02 x04, x05 and x17 units aren't much better... but x14?!? That's awful.

What do you think they'll be priced at? The typical $1,000+?

[NewUrbanist]

The building at NW 20th and Pettygrove has begun demolition and remediation work.

http://www.portlandmaps.com/detail.cfm?action=Summary&propertyid=R141124&state_id=1N1E33AB%20%2010500&address_id=625121&intersection_id=&dynamic_point=0&x=7640379.554&y=687872.597&place=1984%20NW%20PETTYGROVE%20ST&city=PORTLAND&neighborhood=NORTHWEST%20DISTRICT&seg_id=136168

Good News - Nice to see that this construction is moving forward. The vacant site has an eyesore and magnet for illicit activity since Dove Lewis relocated to it's current location.

Bad News - The construction site is next to my place. Now I know why SoWa residents complain about the noise. I sure didn't see this one coming. Here is the pre-application conference. http://www.portlandonline.com/bds/index.cfm?c=47126&a=220899

Not a bad looking building, though I feel as though this design has been recycled several times on the west side. The ground floor is also parking, and judging by the way it appears here, it looks like it will be visible from the street. Too bad, I was hoping for a coffee shop.

[WestCoast]

development outside your window is always fun, even if it is a bit noisy.

take lots of pics for us!

[Sekkle]

2 pics of Park 19 from today (1/30/09)...
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/7830/img80111gt4.jpg
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/2400/img80121ld4.jpg

[zilfondel]

ah, so nice to see some density in NW!

[zilfondel]

or better yet, a webcam!

[msallen]

I also live next door to the property. It looks like a good improvement over the old modular buildings but at six stories it will sadly block my views of forest park. It looks similar to the newer fixed-income buildings in NW/downtown areas. Will this be the case? Not that there is anything wrong with that. However, I would prefer a coffee shop as well (with free wifi), instead of the visible bottom floor parking. Can't wait for the pile-driving to start, lol.

[NewUrbanist]

I also live next door to the property. It looks like a good improvement over the old modular buildings but at six stories it will sadly block my views of forest park. It looks similar to the newer fixed-income buildings in NW/downtown areas. Will this be the case? Not that there is anything wrong with that. However, I would prefer a coffee shop as well (with free wifi), instead of the visible bottom floor parking. Can't wait for the pile-driving to start, lol.

OH NO! I forgot about the pile driving.

Oh well, maybe that will help me get out of bed on time in the morning. As of sunday, the site looked clear and haven't seen any other movement on the ground. Msallen - Do you see machines moving outside of your window? I only see a preapplication conference listed on Portlandmaps.com.

[msallen]

no machines as of this morning.

[NewUrbanist]

no machines as of this morning.

There were definitely some trucks today - mostly hauling away the remaining demolition refuse. They are either keeping very kind hours, I think they started after 8am - or I sleep like a rock.

[msallen]

Looks like no basement, they were filling in the old excavation today. Also, I may be wrong, but I think I saw some mini-pile drivers today. Not very loud ones. Hopefully this is the extent of it. lol. I still wonder if they will be high-end condos or fixed-income apartments.

[msallen]

There has been a little activity lately, after months of nothing. There are a bunch of traffic barriers, a roto rooter, a couple of trucks, some digital reader boards and an office trailer now. I wonder if they are just going to use the lot for storage now or what? Hopefully they will move on with the construction and get it over with!

[bvpcvm]

well, according to this (http://www.portlandmaps.com/detail.cfm?action=Permits&propertyid=R141124&state_id=1N1E33AB%20%2010500&address_id=625121&intersection_id=&dynamic_point=0&x=7640379.554&y=687872.597&place=1984%20NW%20PETTYGROVE%20ST&city=PORTLAND&neighborhood=NORTHWEST%20DISTRICT&seg_id=136168), the last permitting activity was 4/13, so it could go either way i suppose. actually, that was an electrical permit for an irrigation controller. the last permit activity (http://www.portlandmaps.com/detail.cfm?action=Permits&folder=2834668&propertyid=R141124&state_id=1N1E33AB%20%2010500&address_id=625121&intersection_id=&dynamic_point=0&x=7640379.554&y=687872.597&place=1984%20NW%20PETTYGROVE%20ST&city=PORTLAND&neighborhood=NORTHWEST%20DISTRICT&seg_id=136168) having to do with building anything was on 2/29, but when you read the summary it implies the builder has to apply elsewhere for housing credits (for low-income housing), which may take a while (?).

[msallen]

Kerr Construction replied to an email saying:

"We are using this property as a storage yard only for the I-405 project and I am unaware of any other activity for this site."

Sounds like the apartment building is history. What an ugly view I have now of a dusty storage yard. At least the old Dove Lewis building had some trees around it.

Who is the developer of this lot anyway?

[bvpcvm]

That's disappointing.

Looking at the sale history (http://www.portlandmaps.com/detail.cfm?action=Assessor&propertyid=R141124&state_id=1N1E33AB%20%2010500&address_id=625121&intersection_id=&dynamic_point=0&x=7640379.554&y=687872.597&place=1984%20NW%20PETTYGROVE%20ST&city=PORTLAND&neighborhood=NORTHWEST%20DISTRICT&seg_id=136168) it is plausible to think that a developer gave up. Bought in 2008, permits applied for 2/09, sold 4/09.

[msallen]

That is too bad. Also too bad they have the sidewalk closed off by a chain-link construction fence. Shouldn't they have to remove that since there is nothing going on besides a surface parking lot now?

[cab]

Was that a way to get the land cleared? Could they have destroyed the lot by proposing a surface parking lot? On 11th and Washington a few years back an older apartment was trashed for a proposed new development. Nothing happen the lot stayed empty, but after a few years parking was allowed on the spot. Someone now is making cash off of the dead space.

[msallen]

What a waste of prime real estate. They should at least open up the sidewalk since they aren't doing any construction, right?

It's strange how empty Pettygrove is when compared to the blocks immediately south. Isn't Conway supposed to develop their huge parking lots someday as well?

[NewUrbanist]

What a waste of prime real estate. They should at least open up the sidewalk since they aren't doing any construction, right?

It's strange how empty Pettygrove is when compared to the blocks immediately south. Isn't Conway supposed to develop their huge parking lots someday as well?

Someday - yes, maybe. I think a new downtown URA will need to be established before any real changes occur there. This will be the next effort by local/ national developers and will likely not take place until SoWa and the Pearl have completely been built out. Expect activity in the next 8-12 years. This will likely happen when Lincoln High is redeveloped as the students will need to migrate elsewhere before construction.

Also, there is a commercial building at 1610 NW pettygrove that is beginning construction. It is a 5 story storage building with retail space on the ground floor and an apartment manager's offices above. You may have seen the area fenced off and stakes in the ground.

[bvpcvm]

Looks like there are new plans for a six-story apartment building on this site. Here's a link to the design review notice (http://www.portlandonline.com/bds/index.cfm?c=42259&a=272799), which is dated 11/18/2009.

[bvpcvm]

New NW Examiner out today with a front-page article about a possible urban renewal district in NW "transition zone" (which is roughly the Con-Way property, plus some additional blocks).

http://www.nwexaminer.com/issues/12December2009.pdf

The Urban Renewal Question

By Allan Classen

The siren song of urban renewal is calling Northwest Portland, but the Northwest District Association is playing hard to get.

While other parts of the proposed Central City Urban Renewal Area compete eagerly for inclusion, the Northwest neighborhood alone is taking a “show me” approach.

“Urban renewal could lead to better jobs, parks and public amenities,” said NWDA President Juliet Hyams. “However, it could also invite development that does not fit the character of the neighborhood. It could bring more traffic and residents than our infrastructure can accommodate.”

Hyams represents NWDA on the evaluation committee created by the Portland Development Commission to consider if and where a new URA should be formed, a decision expected to be made in mid- February.

NWDA board members have defined the question in terms of whether urban renewal would advance the association’s long-established goals, spelled out in the 2003 Northwest District Plan.

“We have a plan already,” said NWDA Secretary Steve Pinger. “If a URA helps us reach that goal, great.”

He asks this question: “Does urban renewal help achieve things that the market wouldn’t, and is that enough of a reason to bring it into being? … If all we’re doing is accelerating the development process, is that a good thing?”

Since the idea of a new urban renewal area was first floated early in the year, Northwest neighborhood activists have been highly critical of the whole concept, from its excesses and inequities to its unpredictability. One board member likened the system to pigs feeding at a trough.

But when pushed to take a firm either/ or position, most neighborhood representatives here have balked.

John Bradley, chair of the NWDA Planning Committee, asked its members last summer for a show of hands on who was definitely opposed to urban renewal and who was definitely in favor. Then he asked who was leaning for or against.

When hardly anyone took the bait, he finally asked, “Who is completely ambivalent?”

Every hand in the room shot up, though some were overreacting in jest.

So the association set out criteria for possible future support of urban renewal rather than boiling it down to a simple yea or nay. The amenities most often mentioned are a park or some type of open space, a community center and a streetcar extension. Beyond that, activists want diverse, mixed-use development that produces employment and fosters a pedestrian-friendly “20-minute neighborhood.”

They do not want development as intense as the Pearl District to the east, and they do not want a spike in traffic volume that could undermine livability.

“It will be a transportation nightmare if they make this West Pearl,” said Hyams. “We don’t want 5,000 cars going in and out.”

Left unsaid is what this means for Con-way, the transportation and logistics company whose 20 largely undeveloped acres are the magnet for urban renewal officials. For two years, Con-way has tried to persuade the neighborhood to go along with bold redevelopment plans for its property, located roughly between Northwest 19th, 23rd, Pettygrove and Thurman streets. The initial rollout in early 2008 featured towers up to 25 stories, broad public spaces—even a canal.

The company wanted twice the overall density level (6:1 floor area ratio) designated in the neighborhood plan (3:1 floor area ratio). It was a tough sell with NWDA representatives, who equated development of this scale with the Pearl—the epitome of runaway growth in their minds.

Yet, revenue projections prepared by the Portland Development Commission considered Con-way’s desired density level in formulating potential revenues under urban renewal. PDC calculated “low,” “medium” and “high” development alternatives, the latter two of which were based on Con-way getting zone changes to increase density.

An eye for the enormous possible upswing represented by turning acres of surface parking to high-rises is what makes inclusion of this area in the Central City Urban Renewal Area so attractive to PDC and city officials. Even under the low scenario, the Northwest node of the proposed renewal area has the greatest potential for growth and added tax revenues. A preliminary study done for PDC by ECONorthwest showed the Northwest portion of the URA would entail only 7 percent of the proposed 900-acre area while generating 17-20 percent of the tax revenues.

Those numbers make inclusion of Con-way’s holdings attractive and explain why the proposed urban renewal boundaries were drawn to encircle this property while skipping over most of the district to the south. Maximum growth potential does not, however, count for much with NWDA, which has failed to budge as Con-way pushed for extra development rights.

It appears that Con-way is now willing to consider a smaller vision. Drawings showing how its property would look at two development levels—3:1 and 6:1—have been withdrawn as the company participates in an NWDA process to refine neighborhood goals for the area.

“Those early massings are being tossed out (not being included in any further presentations) as we are looking to see what aspirations the Slabtown workshops come up with,” said Craig Boretz, who heads real estate development for Con-way.

“We are not locked into anything from a height-and-density standpoint and would not like to be characterized in that fashion. “We are definitely open to many different options but absolutely know we need a URA to make great things happen on the site. Many of the goals that we have are fundamentally consistent with the Northwest District Plan,” he continued.

Asked to clarify if that meant Con-way could live with a 3:1 density cap, Boretz affirmed that “we are not locked into anything from a height-and-density standpoint and will await the community-workshop input that the Slabtown Plan Committee hopes to generate.”

The Slabtown Plan Committee was formed by NWDA to work toward a consensus on the greater Con-way area after a Con-way controlled committee that included NWDA representatives failed to bring the neighborhood association in line with the company’s higher-density vision.

Hyams called Boretz’s latest statement encouraging, and Ron Walters, who chairs the Slabtown Plan Committee, is optimistic that “things are on the right track.”

PDC staff say they have no stake in how dense community members want the area to be or even if they want urban renewal at all.

“We’re completely agnostic,” said Keith Witcowski, PDC’s director of government relations. “It’s up to you to decide if you really want it.”

“It does accelerate the pace of development,” he said. “It turns what would have been low-scaled development into something more dense.”

Along the way, it can also underwrite public projects and purposes.

“It gives you the ability to inject public benefit into private investment,” said Peter Englander, manager of the Central City URA.

[bvpcvm]

Also while poking around the PDC website, came across a PDF presentation about the possible URA (http://www.pdc.us/pdf/future-of-urban-renewal/ccstudy/Northwest-Geography-Presentation-2009-12-04.pdf). Lots of maps and renderings. You might be interested in another one I found regarding potential urban renewal and relocation of Lincoln HS in Goose Hollow (http://www.pdc.us/pdf/future-of-urban-renewal/ccstudy/Goose-Hollow-Geography-Presentation.pdf).

[Rhome]

You might be interested in another one I found regarding potential urban renewal and relocation of Lincoln HS in Goose Hollow.
I'm not sure that relocation of Lincoln HS is being strongly considered as a viable option -- unless you mean, of course, its relocation on its existing campus. I was at the PDC presentation and Lincoln HS packaged up what was essentially last year's study by them and added some drawings done by a PSU student group. It looks pretty cool, but will take lots of $$$. For those interested, there's much information to be had in the Goose Hollow neighborhood website (http://www.goosehollow.org/) including history, visioning studies, Lincoln HS and PGE park development information, associated transportation plans, etc. And, a link to this forum.

[bvpcvm]

The Sheldon, a new 6-story over-55 building at 19th and Lovejoy. Link (http://www.thesheldoncooperative.com/index.html)

[Okstate]

Looks good from what I can tell.

[Leo]

The Sheldon, a new 6-story over-55 building at 19th and Lovejoy. Link (http://www.thesheldoncooperative.com/index.html)

Nice floorplans. Maybe one good thing that comes out of the burst of the bubble is that developers will stop building tunnel lofts ...

[MarkDaMan]

Here's the appeal from the NWDA...it is kinda a POS building and they have valid points.

Anyway, there is a color rendering too.

http://www.portlandonline.com/bds/index.cfm?c=42259&a=281426

[PacificNW]

You have been busy Mark...thanks for all the info..

[tworivers]

it is kinda a POS building and they have valid points.

They sure do. That is *ugly*. Put the parking underground or don't build it.

[Rhome]

I was at the Design Commission meeting yesterday for this one -- actually for the PGE park hearing taking place on the same day. The Commissioners sent it back for another design try. Common criticisms among the Commissioners were the low quality of materials used, the color scheme, the odd arrangement of front door to lobby, the prominent bike parking, the lack of 24/7 connection to the street, and the top floor window arrangement. No mention was made of burying the parking, but several Commissioners suggested studying how to take out some of the 1st floor parking in exchange for some ground-floor units. This is apparently the same developer as with the Dove Lewis space.