Portland Infill | Northwest Portland

[PDX City-State]

um.... the answer you are looking for is $$$$$

Yeah--but the other developers in town have made a lot more money doing much better work.

[MarkDaMan]

new renderings of the Mississippi project by Trammell Crow from portlandarchitecture.com







Brian Libby also has a pretty good write-up on the project.

[MarkDaMan]

looks like the McMenamins are going to renovate the Mission and add a rood top lounge and observation deck.

http://www.portlandonline.com/shared....cfm?id=155946

[brandonpdx]

I like it! There's going to be some great views of the city from there.

[dkealoha]

Nice! That's just a few blocks from me. Not that I don't already have 2 other mcmenamins within 5 blocks... But I'm not complaining!

[pdxstreetcar]

very cool, i love the mission theater

[MarkDaMan]

Anybody know if all this infill is enough to create a large population gain for Portland and significantly higher density tracks for the 2010 census?

More mixed-use sprouts on Southeast Belmont
Daily Journal of Commerce
by Kennedy Smith
05/15/2007


Pearl District developer Williams & Dame is hopping the Willamette River to construct its first eastside project along Belmont Street in Portland.

It’s one of at least two condominium projects in the works along Belmont, adding to a landscape increasingly peppered with mixed-use living spaces.

Developer Homer Williams said the company decided to cash in on activity along the street because it’s “just emerging as a vibrant neighborhood. We felt that the market is ready over there.”

To be called 2121 Belmont, the 185,136-square-foot, five-story building will hold 123 market-rate condos ranging from 900 to 1,000 square feet, he said. The first tenants should start moving in around this time next year, he said.

The ground floor will hold 3,594 square feet of retail space.

The total project cost, he estimated, will be around $35 million.

A second condo building, planned for a site at 3811 S.E. Belmont St., is primed for its initial design phase after City Council on Wednesday approved a zone change from commercial to mixed-use at the property owned by longtime Belmont-area resident Kinh Thi Nguyen.

Nguyen has owned the property, which houses the Phu Hoa grocery, for 15 years, according to Sylvia Cate, a land-use officer with the city, who recommended the zone change. Nguyen wants to build a three-story mixed-use condominium building with retail on the ground floor and six units above.

Although the zone change doesn’t approve the specific design of the building, Cate told councilors a condo project on the site would “fit well with the surrounding zoning,” which is mostly commercial and mixed-use.

Additionally, she said, the Belmont Area Business Association supports the zone change.

Businesses along the street are “excited and supportive,” John Barker, president of the business association, said. “It’s nice to see some development, and we could use more retail and housing along the street.”

He said the development projects fall in line with the city’s push to increase density along transit corridors.

“We’re hoping it will spur more activity,” he said. “Relative to other streets like Hawthorne and Burnside, retailers along Belmont are few and far between.”

Last year, two condominium buildings sprouted along Belmont Street: Randy Rapaport’s Belmont Lofts at 35th Avenue and developer Jerry Haase’s Andria at the corner of 42nd Avenue.
http://www.djc-or.com/viewStory.cfm?...29428&userID=1

[tworivers]

FYI Mississippi Lofts are u/c.

Backbridge apparently hopes to start by the end of the month, possibly early next month. 7 or 8 units have sold.

[Room 606]

Originally Posted by MarkDaMan

Anybody know if all this infill is enough to create a large population gain for Portland and significantly higher density tracks for the 2010 census?

I just did some quick math and based on proposals mentioned in this thread, it looks like at least 1,200 multifamily infill units are proposed for Portland neighborhoods. This obviously doesn't include Pearl, South Waterfront, West End, Old Town, etc. I'm sure many of these 1,200 will not be built, but there are likely many that aren't listed or haven't been announced. The 1,200 figure is very rough because I had to make some guesses where unit totals were not readily available.

This in itself probably isn't enough for a major demographic shift or density boost in 2010. But the cumulative effect of this trend over the next 25 or 50 years will be significant.

[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

[zilfondel]

Don't forget the estimates of 75,000 additional net units over in outer SE.

[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/port...ml?t=printable

[CouvScott]

Proposal and Property Information
Location: 1830 NW Hoyt St. and 510 NW 19th Ave.
Proposal: Six-story, 91,260 square foot mixed-use building containing 80
residential units, ground floor commercial, with 58 below-grade parking
stalls.
Land Use Reviews Expected: Type III Historic Design Review
Site Zoning: EXd Northwest Plan District; Alphabet Historic District

[CouvScott]

1. LU 06-185546 PD / HO 4070029 Stephanie Beckman, 503-823-7056
Applicant: Wendy Gibson, Blue Sky Planning
Site address: SE 174th Ave/SE Powell Blvd
Planned Development Review with modifications within the Johnson Creek Basin Plan District for mixed-use
commercial/residential development with 80 residential units and 1st floor retail space. Existing house, garage
and sheds to be removed.
Increase the maximum height in the R3 zone from 35 to 45-50 feet (Zoning Code Section 33.120.215)
Reduce the minimum front building setback from 10 feet to 9 feet (Section 33.120.220)
Reduce the minimum landscaping requirement in the R3 zone from 35% to 28% (Section 33.120.235)
Reduce the minimum perimeter landscaping requirement for parking areas from 5 feet to 0 feet
(33.266.130.G.2c and d)
Increase the maximum height in the CG zone from 45 to 56.5 feet (Section 33.130.210)
Increase the maximum transit street setback in the CG zone from 10 feet to 10.1-26 feet (Section 33.130.215).

[zilfondel]

BTW, the Hungry Tiger is half-way down (take some pics ASAP - some cool graffiti on the building behind it too!), the Jeffry apartments over by the Elliot is almost completely down, and there are 2 or 3 buildings along east burnside that are fenced off and look like they might demo them. (??)

[bvpcvm]

Originally Posted by zilfondel

BTW, the Hungry Tiger is half-way down (take some pics ASAP - some cool graffiti on the building behind it too!), the Jeffry apartments over by the Elliot is almost completely down, and there are 2 or 3 buildings along east burnside that are fenced off and look like they might demo them. (??)

I haven't been over there in a couple weeks. AFAIR, the Jeffry is the name of the building they're going to build. Which building are they actually tearing down? (It's replacing several, isn't it?)

[zilfondel]

^ I typo'd. It was an old convenience store or something that is being torn down, plus its adjacent mini-parking lot. No other buildings - just the 1.

For stage 2 - the condo tower - the entire southern end of the block will be demolished - the 3 story SRO/mixed use building that used to house the copy place and currently has the Jef Theatre and River City bar.

[brandonpdx]

Originally Posted by bvpcvm

I haven't been over there in a couple weeks. AFAIR, the Jeffry is the name of the building they're going to build. Which building are they actually tearing down? (It's replacing several, isn't it?)

they just tore down the NW Film Schools old building. The Jeffrey is going up in it's place and the adjacent surface parking lot.

[zilfondel]

^ There we go, that's what it was. An ugly, nondescript building.

[MarkDaMan]

TriMet sells land that's discounted in housing deal
Development - The agency says affordable living units will generate riders and fare revenue
Thursday, May 24, 2007
JAMES MAYER The Oregonian
The Oregonian

The TriMet board of directors approved the sale Thursday of the Crown Motel property along the Interstate MAX line to Reach Community Development for an affordable housing project.

The sale of the motel at 5226 N. Interstate Ave. falls under a federal rule that allows transit agencies to sell property for significantly less than it's worth if it will generate riders.

The agency bought the 24,000 square-foot property in 2005 with $907,000 in light-rail money. TriMet planned to use the land for redevelopment around the MAX line.

Reach will pay TriMet $300,000 for the site. The nonprofit developer agrees to build an $11 million project featuring at least 50 units of affordable housing, including 12 to 13 hard-to-find three-bedroom units, and 3,000 square feet of retail.

TriMet estimates 30 years of transit fares generated by the project to be worth $602,000.

"This is really a positive," said Fred Hansen, TriMet general manager.

Federal Transit Administration rules, Hansen explained, allow transit agencies to discount the sales price of property in order to encourage transit-oriented development that might not otherwise be supported by rents.

Last year, Reach announced that SERA Architects and Walsh Construction Co. would work on the project.

The Portland Development Commission is planning a residential/retail development that would include owner-occupied houses at North Killingsworth Street and Interstate Avenue. Late in 2005, a more ambitious version of Killingsworth Station fell apart when developer Tom Kemper backed out.

Other projects in the area include the city's redesign of Patton Square Park, next to the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center. There's also a condo project in the works at the site of Christ Memorial Church, 1552 N. Killingsworth St.

Stephen Beaven of The Oregonian contributed to this report. James Mayer: 503-294-4109; jimmayer@news.oregonian.com

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/orego...190.xml&coll=7