Artists' colony being built in Northeast Portland

[PacificNW]

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingn..._built_in.html

Posted by Ed Hershey April 25, 2007 12:40PM
Categories: Breaking News, Portland
An artists' colony is taking shape at a former assisted-living complex in Northeast Portland's Montavilla neighborhood.

Construction is under way at the old Baptist Manor at 81st Avenue and Oregon Street. The 1915 buildings and a 1959 addition are expected to yield 54 condominiums, priced at $95,000 and up, plus as many as 85 rental units.

Some of the rentals will share baths and kitchens, and rents will be as low as $250. Completion is scheduled for the end of 2008.

The idea is to create a live/work space for artists while avoiding the typical pattern of artists transforming a run-down area only to be forced out by the resulting gentrification and skyrocketing rents.

"Our goal is to attract and serve a new creative class by building in living space and having space that is not immediately priced out of the market," says Bill Neburka of Works Partnership Architecture, who is collaborating with Brad Malsin of Beam Development on the project conceived by City Commissioner Sam Adams. "Affordability is a big consideration. We want to serve everybody's need, not make a lot of money."

Communal resources under consideration include kilns for potters and glass makers, wood and metal shops, an exhibition gallery, a performance and meeting center, a restaurant and a business center.

The complex doesn't have a name yet, and organizers are still working on how to define who qualifies as an artist. Interested artists can call Deborah Johnson, 503-331-1752, ext. 100, at HOST Development, one of the nonprofit housing agencies involved.

[MarkDaMan]

Construction is under way at the old Baptist Manor at 81st Avenue and Oregon Street....avoiding the typical pattern of artists transforming a run-down area only to be forced out by the resulting gentrification and skyrocketing rents.

they sure as hell picked the right place to make sure gentrification wouldn't take hold. If there is one black hole in Portland, it's everything within five blocks of 82nd Ave. No worries with that location that a major transformation is forthcoming.

[65MAX]

^^ Oh, I don't know about that, MDM. Once ClackaMAX is running and densification starts, it could become quite the trendy new hotspot.... after everything closer in has been gentrified, that is. Who would have thought 20 years ago that Alberta, Mississippi and Williams/Vancouver would become trendy?

[MarkDaMan]

^I guess we will see in 20 years...but it is starting off with TWO WalMarts and about a half dozen large strip malls...not an easy thing to fix.

[PDX City-State]

There are a couple of cool pockets just off 82nd--like Stark and Washington--but I agree with Mark. I wouldn't expect 82nd to ever be really cool.

[KCS]

The DJC had this back in March:

Former retirement community to become artist work/live space
by Kennedy Smith
03/07/2007


A former retirement community in Northeast Portland will soon be home to work/live spaces for artists now that Beam Development has purchased Baptist Manor for $2.2 million.

“We’re converting it into an art incubator community,” said Brad Malsin, CEO of Beam Development. “Artists can live and work in the small but functional spaces.”

Rental rates for the 250- to 300-square-foot apartments, Malsin said, would start at $200 to $300 per month. About 50 of the projected 160 units, he said, would be for sale starting around $95,000. Larger, for-lease units would be around 400 square feet, he said.

Malsin is working with the office of Portland Commissioner Sam Adams, who announced a desire to turn the property into artist space in January. Other stakeholders include Portland Affordable Housing Preservation Trust, the Regional Arts and Culture Council, and Works Partnership Architecture.

Adams has been “championing the idea for finding space for artists since he was first elected,” said Jesse Beason, a senior policy director in the commissioner’s office. “When we discovered that this was a possibility, Sam agreed to help facilitate for the developers the need for this kind of housing.”

Adams’ office last year conducted a survey among artists and discovered “there was huge demand,” Beason said. “Folks were interested in being among other artists, co-locating, and living in raw spaces.” The survey, Beason said, also showed artists preferred rehabilitated buildings over newly constructed spaces.

“Obviously, not all types of artists will fit into the units,” Malsin said. “Some units will be appropriate for industrial-type endeavors, but mostly the goal is to have nontoxic, nonintrusive kinds of artists.”

The community, Malsin said, would also provide business counseling for residents.

“There are plenty of great artists, but they can’t always translate that into supporting themselves in a sustainable manner,” he said. “This would allow the physical presence of business training to learn how to be independent business people.”

Located at 900 N.E. 81st Ave., the 150-unit retirement home was built in 1931.

[sirsimon]

Very cool!

[PDX City-State]

Funny that Malsin does what the PDC wants to do--without the PDC.

[MarkDaMan]

Old Baptist Manor may soon house artists
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Ed Hershey
The Oregonian

A real estate broker, an architect, a builder, an arts administrator and a city commissioner -- it's a group you might expect to find at a gallery in the Pearl District, not a defunct assisted-living complex off Northeast 82nd Avenue.

And that, the group says, is precisely the point.

The people behind a novel live/work artists colony under construction at the old Baptist Manor in the Montavilla neighborhood hope to change the typical pattern of artists transforming a run-down area only to be forced out by the resulting gentrification and skyrocketing rents.

"What we're after is sustainable artist work space," says Bill Neburka of Works Partnership Architecture, who is collaborating with Brad Malsin of Beam Development on the project conceived by City Commissioner Sam Adams.

"Every great city is also a really good locale for arts and culture and innovation," Adams says, "and as we move more and more jobs overseas, it becomes a basis for economic progress as well."

The 1915 buildings and a 1959 addition at Northeast 81st Avenue and Oregon Street are expected to yield 54 condominiums, priced at $95,000 and up, plus as many as 85 rental units. Some of the rentals will share baths and kitchens, and rents will be as low as $250. Completion is scheduled for the end of 2008.

"Our goal is to attract and serve a new creative class by building in living space and having space that is not immediately priced out of the market," Neburka says. "Affordability is a big consideration. We want to serve everybody's need, not make a lot of money."

Communal resources under consideration include kilns for potters and glassmakers, wood and metal shops, an exhibition gallery, a performance and meeting center (in the old chapel), a restaurant (possibly run with a cooking school) and a computer-equipped business center.

The project landed at Baptist Manor after Ted Gilbert, a commercial real estate broker and chairman of two nonprofit housing agencies, met with Adams about development in Lents. As he was leaving, Gilbert says, Adams asked him to be on the lookout for a locale for an artists community.

"I said, 'Sam, I know just the place!' " Gilbert says. "I mentor a young man out in Southeast, meet him for breakfast every Saturday, and we walked past Baptist Manor every week. One day there was a 'for sale' sign."

That week, Gilbert says, a tentative buyer withdrew, opening the door for him to put a deal together with the two housing agencies. Portland Affordable Housing Preservation Trust advanced $2 million, which Gilbert leveraged into a $15 million line of credit. HOST (Home Ownership a Street at a Time) Development is the marketing/sales/rental agent.

Adams recruited Neburka and Malsin as well as Eloise Damrosch, executive director of the Regional Arts & Culture Council.

"There are models for this idea elsewhere, but I don't think anybody has ever done anything of this scope," Gilbert says. "We envision providing artists with more than just living and working space. We want to help them build their careers -- promote them, work with them to get funding and show their work."

The complex doesn't have a name yet, and organizers are still working on how to define who qualifies as an artist. It also requires a zoning change, but Adams staffer Jesse Beason doesn't expect a problem, saying every community organization in the area has expressed support for a project expected to add to Montavilla's cachet.

"Montavilla," Adams says, "is a great undiscovered neighborhood."

Portland News: 503-221-8199; portland@news.oregonian.com
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