Retail could thrive in Lloyd area – but not yet
Developers, architects and district advocates cut a planned retail space facing the Convention Center, saying it would fail
Daily Journal of Commerce
POSTED: 06:00 AM PST Monday, November 19, 2007
BY ALISON RYAN
Eventually a project will launch the retail renaissance of the area edging the Oregon Convention Center, but a new office building at 100 N.E. Multnomah Street won’t be the project.
The 19-story office tower, planned for an empty grassy lot bordered by Northeast First and Second avenues and Northeast Holladay and Multnomah streets, will be a catalyst for the area in many ways, Lloyd District representatives said during a Portland Design Commission meeting Thursday.
The tower will be a major part of redeveloping an area that sees a lot of visitors, said Brian McCartin, a Portland Oregon Visitors Association executive vice president, but doesn’t have the appeal of the Pearl District or Northwest 23rd Avenue.
“It doesn’t seem safe,” he said, “and it seems to be lacking in what they appreciate in many of the other areas of town.”
The tower, which puts a pair of distinctly patterned, geometric building slices atop a parking podium, is part of bigger plans for the area. The Portland Development Commission, which owns the tower site and another adjacent block, is working with developer StarTerra on creating a four-acre, mixed-use development on the PDC-owned blocks as well as adjacent property owned by StarTerra. The office project would be followed by a phase two development, anticipated as residential, retail and entertainment venue uses.
But for now, adding activity to the southwest corner of the tower, where the building will face a blank convention center wall, is a challenge.
“Our board of directors essentially said the southwest corner of this building was unleasable,” said Rick Williams, executive director of the Lloyd Transportation Management Association.
While retail uses are planned for several ground floor spaces, the spot in the southwest corner is essentially a stand-alone space – and too small and isolated, said Allyson Reed, a Portland Business Alliance downtown retail advocate, to succeed as such. And while TriMet riders waiting for MAX light-rail trains populate the district, she said, they’re not there to shop.
“The usage is episodic,” she said. “It is largely centered around the commuting hours.”
During a design advice session, commissioners originally asked the team from Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects to push retail uses for the southwest corner of the tower. The designers did exactly what was asked, commissioners said, but that exploration showed retail wouldn’t work.
“Retail likes to have retail next door to it,” Commissioner Tim Eddy said. “It likes to have retail across the street. It doesn’t like to be trapped 50 feet away from everything else.”
The pedestrian experience, Commissioner Jeff Stuhr said, has been well-championed in Portland. But there are places where the city can step back and look at activating the street in a site-appropriate way.
“If we become too Draconian,” he said, “we’re shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Flexibility is also key for the building. The team designed the tricky southwest corner space, which is niched into the parking structure, to be convertible to retail should the market demand it.
While district advocates were confident that change is ahead for their district, they said they couldn’t pinpoint when the transformation to thriving retail area might come.
But, Commissioner Ben Kaiser said, “If everybody’s going to wait for the first retail to get there, how can it get going?”
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