Lovejoy Columns find a home
Two of the fabled Lovejoy Columns have found a home in the Pearl District. Developer John Carroll has agreed to place two of the 30’ remnants of the old Lovejoy Ramp in the Plaza at The Elizabeth. Before the ramp was demolished in 1999, the columns were a cult attraction because of folk art
murals painted on them in the 1940’s by rail switchman Tom Stefopolous.
Safeway on the boards
Designs for the two-block mixed use project between 12th and 14th at
Lovejoy have begun to make their way through city planning channels. The new development features two buildings. The first includes a Safeway grocery store, three levels of parking above the store, and 60,000 square feet of office space. The second building will also have ground floor retail, three or four stories of parking, and a 12 story tower of apartments above.
Development promises to change the look and function of the Pearl District’s waterfront.
The Waterfront Pearl Condominiums will dramatically change the look of the Pearl’s waterfront.
Today, it’s easy to be in the Pearl District and forget that the
Willamette River is just a short walk away. But new public and private projects sprouting up along the river will likely change the Pearl’s relationship with the waterfront.
Riverscape
Apollo Development’s Riverscape will be a mixed residential development. The first phase consists of 104 town homes priced from $525,000 to about $1 million and is under construction on the 15.4 acre site just north of the Fremont Bridge. The project’s future phases were anticipated to be complete in five years.
Original plans included a marina, 91 brownstones and two condo towers, although at press time developers were seeking further input from potential residents and customers. “These townhomes are geared for Pearl folks who are looking for more space,” Brian Ramsay of Realty Trust explains, “or considering starting a
family, hoping for more room for kids. One element of the project
is a large Riverwalk [part of the Willamette River Greenway] that will
be monitored for security but open to the public.”
Waterfront Pearl
Naito Properties/Pemcor’s Waterfront Pearl is a $130 million
riverfront condo project near the end of Overton Street, between the Broadway and Fremont Bridges.
Phase One includes 200 units, priced from $350,000 to $1.3 million, in two metal, stone and glass towers sitting in a unique sustainable reflecting pond. This phase is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2007.
“The reflecting pond cleans water that drains from the roof, it provides stormwater management, it helps control building temperatures and it serves as storage for firefighting. It does a lot more than just look pretty.” says Judd James in Northwest
Construction Magazine. James is project manager for Portland’s Otak
Architects, who partnered with Walker Macy of Portland and Soren
Rasmussen Architects of Vancouver, B.C. on the design.
Centennial Mill
Eighty years ago, 50 different steamship lines called on Portland,
then the world’s largest lumber export But the ships docked at Centennial Mill weren’t taking on wood, they were picking up flour made from Oregon grain. Today, depending upon your perspective,
the mill can be a scenic and restorable relic of the district’s maritime history, or a decaying collection of nearly 100-year-old buildings awaiting the wrecking ball.
The fate of Centennial Mill is, if you’ll forgive the pun, a watershed issue for the Pearl waterfront. Even with Waterfront Pearl and Riverscape underway, the mill’s fate will define the overall philosophy of future redevelopment efforts according to
Bruce Allen, senior development manager at the Portland Development Commission.
“We’re facing a key decision point,” Allen points out. “Do we want active or passive uses on the waterfront? They are really
polar opposites. You can also ask what is more open space worth?”
The “active” use Allen refers to is development and “passive” use means parks.
“Given the current ownership and development future,” he says, “if the mill is preserved, only one acre will remain available for open space on the waterfront. If the mill is torn down, a five- or six-acre
park is possible. I’m not advocating either course, but there is a direction that needs to be chosen.”
That direction was a foregone conclusion in the 1994 River District
plan, which called for the mill complex to be demolished for an expansion of Tom McCall Waterfront Park. In 2000, the Portland Development Commission paid $7.7 million for the property. In May 2005, however, the City Council gave Centennial Mill a stay of execution, directing PDC and the Bureau of Planning to explore other
options.
“Tearing down the historic mill would be a shame for the city, an absolute tragedy,” says Patricia Gardner, Pearl-based architect
and planning committee chair for the Pearl District Neighborhood Association. “The taller buildings at the site can be preserved,
as can the wharf. The rest of the buildings are problematic, but during this process everything is on the table.”
The City of Portland is currently engaged in a request-for-proposal (RFP) process to gather ideas on how to preserve and make the best use of the site. The RFP will likely hit the streets in late winter;
People on both sides of the issue will have an opportunity to come forward. The site is a difficult one, but some combination of preserved and new buildings with retail, office and housing components will likely emerge. The old wharf on the site contains piers that are still solid below the water line, and could be restored as a base for new structures, as was accomplished on
Astoria’s waterfront.
Whatever the outcome, many believe that the process itself will be an improvement. “We’ve been developing the waterfront by
neglect rather than by plan,” says Gardner. We need to know where we’re going. Is history worth saving?”
“I think it’s healthy to see what people have in mind,” adds Allen, “although it will probably be at least a year before any activity
starts, one way or the other.”
Sales will start in October for The Metropolitan, the latest project from Hoyt Street Properties. The 19-story tower will feature 136 units, including 15 loft style live or work units. The building is currently under construction between 10th and 11th, Lovejoy and Marshall Streets.
The Crane Building at 14th and Irving is being renovated and developers are seeking tax abatements. These abatements
require that the building’s 30 lofts be rented out as apartments
until 2012. (The two penthouses are new construction, and do
not qualify for tax abatement). The developers hope to have the
building occupied in late 2006. No word yet on when sales begin.