Posted Apr 13, 2022, 6:15 PM
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Moderator
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Portland
Posts: 7,386
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Well, this is infuriating.
Quote:
The Pop Blocks on Sandy Are in Limbo After a Fight With the State That Only Kafka Could Love
The dispute means that a city desperate for affordable housing will get much less.
On paper, the Pop Blocks project on Northeast Sandy Boulevard is an urban development dream.
It would turn what was once a collection of aging Pepsi warehouses into a 4.7-acre, mixed-use, mixed-income complex with shops and a tree-lined plaza. It would even have a “woonerf.” That’s Dutch for a street shared by pedestrians, bicycles, slow-moving cars, and kids at play.
Best of all, Pop Blocks would have 44 subsidized apartments for renters earning 60% or less of area median income. The developer planned to put all of those in the first phase, called Splash. In a city that’s desperate for housing, it may be a drop in the bucket, but it’s a welcome one.
But Splash is on hold. The giant excavator hasn’t moved in more than five months, and the rock crusher is idled. The graceful arches on the beloved old bottling plant stand like a skeleton.
The project is stalled because Oregon officials ruled in February that the developer could not use a tax-exempt bond program and low-income housing tax credits to finance construction of the affordable apartments.
The rejection came as a total surprise, says Michael Nanney, senior director of development at Security Properties, the Seattle-based developer. Teams from his firm and the state met every Thursday for months, he says, hammering out the project’s finances. Investors, construction lenders, and various lawyers joined the calls, and everything appeared to be on track. Until it wasn’t.
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...continues at Willamette Week.
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