Old Town/Chinatown News

[downtownpdx]

Awesome to see this infill happening in Old Town. Renovate a historic building, tear down a crappy 2-story, and build new 6-story. Very cool.

[2oh1]

Originally Posted by downtownpdx

Awesome to see this infill happening in Old Town. Renovate a historic building, tear down a crappy 2-story, and build new 6-story. Very cool.

Yup! The historic building they're renovating has such great bones, and the new 6 story addition looks like it could be fantastic.

[maccoinnich]

Photos: Old Town buildings converted to multifamily housing



A large light well on the Erickson Building, as well as three smaller ones on the Fritz Building, have been punched down to the ground floor. Concrete shear walls are being poured in the wells to provide seismic support, and the resulting atrium areas will provide residents with outdoor space and bring light into interior units.

A pair of historic Old Town/Chinatown buildings are undergoing a major overhaul to become a mixed-income housing development. The Erickson Building on Northwest 2nd Avenue and the Fritz Building on Northwest 3rd Avenue abut at the center, and are being connected to form a 62-unit apartment building.

The project’s developer, Innovative Housing Inc., purchased the buildings from the Bill Naito Co. earlier this year and hired two firms to design the remodel. LRS Architects is working on the Erickson Building, while Orangewallstudios is handling design work for the Fritz. The project’s general contractor is Silco Commercial Construction Inc., and Djoseland Construction Services is subcontracted for supervision, framing and finish work.

Work on the Fritz Building is scheduled for completion this December, and the Erickson is slated to wrap in May 2015.

...continues at the DJC (no paywall)

[maccoinnich]

After 3-day demo, city council moves to ‘next phase’ of rethinking 3rd Avenue

• Video Link

The widely praised experiment that created a temporary protected bike lane and big new pedestrian areas on 3rd Avenue in Old Town this month seems to be reshaping the way the city sees the street.

“For the last 20 years, I’ve noticed the extraordinary width at that point on 3rd and I should have noticed an obvious use for all that space was ping pong tables,” Commissioner Steve Novick, who had enjoyed a game of table tennis during the demonstration, joked at a city council hearing on the subject Wednesday.

...continues at BikePortland.

[maccoinnich]

Magic Garden Strip Club Is Closing
New Year's Eve will be the iconic club's last night.



The longtime, iconic Old Town strip club—always twinned to Mary's as long-running doyennes of Portland's famed strip scene—will have its last night on Dec. 31.

Founded in the 1960s as a lesbian club, Chinatown's Magic Garden evolved into as much a coed hangout as a strip club, a place where nude dancing coincided happily with lunch-hour discounts or a game of pool, and the music selection ran from Violent Femmes to Tom Waits to Kurt Vile. The bar has been presided over for more than 20 years by retirement-age bar manager Patty Wright, onetime owner of Patty's Royal Cafe, a beloved and prickly presence almost as well known to old-time Portlanders as the bar itself.

...continues at the Willamette Week.

[RainDog]

Never did care for that place. It will be interesting to see what becomes of that building.

[PDXDENSITY]

http://www.opb.org/news/article/port...ors_picks=true

Doesn't 10% of units in any building seem like a crazy number to anyone else? That's going to constrict any housing supply that's built and drive up monthly lease rates. I think this is terrible.

[2oh1]

10% does seem like a crazy high number until you realize how unrealistic it is to expect to reach anywhere near that. 10% of a building with 100 units is 10, obviously, but it might as well be zero since most condo boards would probably never allow it, and apartment landlords are even less likely to. Time will tell. Still, any apartment lost to a hotel-style rental is a bad thing when you consider how tight the supply of housing is here.

[PDXDENSITY]

That's exactly it. I worry about it restricting the market further than it already is. With all honesty, I feel the demand for this boom should be pushing much more development than it already is. I actually hope this is the initial sign of an accelerating trend of development. I just hope there is a way to keep us from getting to restrictive due to NIMBYs forcing through obstructionist zoning...

[maccoinnich]

Allowing short term rentals is a case of making the zoning code less restrictive though.

[PDXDENSITY]

It's less restriction on hotel spaces, not housing. I'd argue it's more complex than just being less restrictive. The easing of zoning on hotel space can result in a crimping of housing supply. It's more a loophole that creates an issue of supply. Create more shortage, demand will cause rents to go up higher. We should be thinking about the impact on housing supply and rents due to the flight of the poor to the suburbs. We don't want to end up with an income segregated city.

[maccoinnich]

Old Town, New Tricks
Hatred of City Policy Has Sparked Promising Changes in Chinatown

By Dirk VanderHart

FOR ALMOST two years, Old Town slumped and scowled under the weight of Portland City Hall-mandated barricades.

Friday and Saturday street closures, conceived initially to help cops overwhelmed by weekend bar traffic, chafed at business owners and residents alike. Calls from Mayor Charlie Hales that property owners should pay into a special fund to improve this roped-off "entertainment district" went ignored, as did the city's announcement that Old Town's bars could apply to put tables out in the streets.

It looked, until very recently, like another failed effort to help revitalize the huddled mass of Portland's skid row, that bastion of unrealized commercial promise in the city center.

Now that's all changed. Old Town businesses just came out in favor of a year-long extension of the street closures. More important: For the first time, they're considering taxing themselves to help pay for major improvements.

...continues at the Portland Mercury.

[maccoinnich]

Historic Resource Review [PDF, small] for the Baggage & Carriage building has been approved.

[maccoinnich]

In this week's list of land use intakes there is a Early Assistance fore renovation of the Smiths Blocks building. Architects are Scott Edwards, whose signboard Google Streetview managed to catch at 111 SW Naito Parkway.

Early Assistance to discuss project to include interior renovation of the existing Smiths Block building & small addition for new restaurant/cafe.

[maccoinnich]

Two new bars/restaurants in Old Town, via Eater PDX: SuBe Sushi and Sake Bar and Big Trouble.

[cab]

Big Trouble looks great. I expect Jack Burton to wander in.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by cab

Big Trouble looks great. I expect Jack Burton to wander in.

It really does, it reminds me of a red lit version of the Tube. If I was still single and younger, I would totally be hitting this place up when bar hopping.

[bvpcvm]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

If I was still single and younger, I would totally be hitting this place up when bar hopping.

Just did a double-take. Urbanlife, saying "If I was still single and younger". Urbanlife, whom I don't know in person, but whom I remember, when I first signed up here, was fresh out of high school and moving from Spokane to the big city of Portland (not stalking you, you just talked about it a lot, and then stuck around). Which is still the person who shows up in my head when I read his posts. Then I realized I've been on this board for *ten* years. Holy crap. How time flies, huh?

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by bvpcvm

Just did a double-take. Urbanlife, saying "If I was still single and younger". Urbanlife, whom I don't know in person, but whom I remember, when I first signed up here, was fresh out of high school and moving from Spokane to the big city of Portland (not stalking you, you just talked about it a lot, and then stuck around). Which is still the person who shows up in my head when I read his posts. Then I realized I've been on this board for *ten* years. Holy crap. How time flies, huh?

Haha, yeah we have all been on this site for a really long time.

[RED_PDXer]

true.. five years ago, i'd be hitting up old town for going out. now I hit up the grocery store after walking my dog.