Louisa Flowers (Block 45) | 138'-6" | 12 floors | Complete

[maccoinnich]

Block 45 has been submitted for Type III Design Review by LRS Architects and Lever Architecture:

Proposal is for a new 12-story building with 7,500 square feet of ground floor retail and approximately 240 residential units. Project is a mix of affordable and market rate housing. No parking is proposed.

[maccoinnich]

Design Review hearing now scheduled for March 16th.

[bvpcvm]

So when I heard that Mayor Wheeler put a hold on spending the affordable housing funds, I thought that applied to this project. Maybe not?

[maccoinnich]

This project isn't funded through the bond.

[maccoinnich]

Request for Response

[maccoinnich]

Notice of a Public Hearing

[maccoinnich]

Staff Report and Recommendation to the Design Commission

[maccoinnich]

Drawings: Exhibit A [PDF - 13MB] and Exhibit C [PDF - 25MB].

[maccoinnich]

Block 45 was approved today.

[maccoinnich]

Final Findings and Decision by the Design Commission

[maccoinnich]

[maccoinnich]

Block 45 has been submitted for building permit review:

New 12-story mixed use building; 240 apartment units with ground floor retail; basement for bike parking

[maccoinnich]

On City Council agenda next week:

*1245 TIME CERTAIN: 10:30 AM – Authorize conveyance of city-owned property located at 1010-1034 NE Grand Ave to Home Forward, and funding not to exceed $5,600,000 to its affiliate, Lloyd Housing Limited Partnership, for the construction of a new mixed-use, affordable housing development located in the Oregon Convention Center Urban Renewal Area (Ordinance introduced by Mayor Wheeler) 30 minutes requested

Interestingly the project will now be 100% affordable housing (it was originally proposed to be mixed-income).

[maccoinnich]

The City Just Approved Its Largest Affordable Housing Project in 50 Years



Portland City Council today approved the largest affordable housing project the city's seen in five decades, a 12-story, 240-unit development in one of Portland's most desirable areas. It was far more tense than you would expect.
Once it's finished in 2019, the project in question—known for now as Block 45 and located at Northeast Grand and Hassalo—will inject hundreds of affordable units into the booming Lloyd District, near streetcar and MAX lines and a short distance from the city center. But as council considered an ordinance [PDF] approving $5.1 million in urban renewal money (and dedicating land) to leverage tens of millions of dollars from other sources, two questions served as sticking points: Is Block 45's price tag too high, and will it run contrary to the city's brand-new emphasis on housing homeless residents?

Most persistent on the latter question was Commissioner Nick Fish, who in recent months has pushed for a renewed focus on so-called "supportive housing." That model combines extremely affordable rents with intensive social services, and is aimed at getting chronically homeless individuals off the street. In a vote last month, City Council ordered up a study on strategies for creating 2,000 units of this housing over the next decade, an effort that could cost $300 million.

...continues at the Portland Mercury.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

...continues at the Portland Mercury.

I like seeing this size of affordable housing development going up in Lloyd District because I feel like this is what the city should be doing in that district before it one day is packed in with residential buildings and there is no room for affordable rate buildings.

While it would be nice to see something taller in the Lloyd District, I do like the size of this building and would love to see more buildings this size throughout that urban district. Now if only they could figure out what they are doing with the mall because the improvements just aren't doing it for me.

[tworivers]

This is U/C.

[TurnKey]

Crane went up a few days ago

[urbanlife]

Gonna miss the Ripcity sign, but good to see this lot developed.

[maccoinnich]

Home Forward developing 240-unit low-income high-rise in the Lloyd



There are 240 affordable housing units being added to the Lloyd District in the largest single low-income building Portland has seen since 1969.

Home Forward is developing NE Grand Apartments located at 1010 N.E. Grand, which will be Oregon's largest affordable apartment building financed with low-income housing tax credits in the past 50 years. The 12-floor building's half-block site is located at Block 45 between Hassalo and Holladay streets in the Lloyd District.

"I did a little records research and surfaced this fact: to the best of my knowledge, the last affordable housing building of a similar scale to be developed in Portland was Hollywood East at 4400 N.E. Broadway," said Julie Livingston, senior project manager at Home Forward of Hollywood East, which was completed in 1969 with 286 apartments. "As far as we have been able to discern, it is the largest affordable housing development developed in Portland in the last 50 or so years."

...continues at the Business Tribune.

[maccoinnich]

New affordable housing high rise is Portland’s largest in 50 years

With a party on Thursday, Portland welcomes the largest new affordable housing building to open in the city since 1969.

The 240-unit Louisa Flowers is welcoming new residents who make 60 percent or less of Portland’s median income and are moving into 88 studios, 109 one-bedroom units and 43 two-bedroom apartments on Grand Avenue in the transit-connected Lloyd District.

Though far from meeting Portland’s gaping need for affordable housing, the Louisa Flowers, named for the matriarch of the first African-American family to settle in Portland, is a notable addition to the portfolio of the region’s housing authority, Home Forward.

...continues at the Portland Business Journal.