a I justput JANUARY 19, 2007
THE GENDER FICATION
STARK STREET
Is the Pearl encroaching on Portland's gay district?
by Julie Sabatier • Photos by Marty Davis
f there’s one thing everyone in Portland can agree on, it’s that things
are changing on Southwest Stark Street and the Bumside Triangle.
The city’s unofficial gay district is seeing an influx of more upscale
businesses like the Ace Hotel and Living Room Theaters, while
some of the old standards like the Eagle PDX are closing up shop,
causing some to speculate that the area is becoming less gay—gender-fied,
if you will. Then again, Scandals only moved a block away and is going
strong in its new space, while the gay-owned Fish Grotto/Boxxes/Red Cap
Garage complex is keeping a steady pace in its Stark Street digs.
“I think most of us knew that as the Pearl District emerged and
continued to grow into its boundaries that things would jump across
Burnside eventually,” said Ron Mitchell, general manager of Restaurant
%
Services, which owns the Boxxes space as well as the Fez Ballroom and
Aura. His suspicions about an encroaching Pearl District might have been
confirmed when the architectural firm Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership
. announced in October its intention to build a 22-story high-rise on the
block bordered by Southwest Stark and Washington streets between 12th
and 13th avenues. The multimillion-dollar project, slated for completion
in early 2009, will be home to ZGF’s new offices plus retail and residential
space.
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