April 2012
NEWS
The Southwest Portland Post • 7
JP Morgan Chase Bank abandons plans for a new 4100-square-foot office
HILLSDALE NOTEBOOK
By Scott Mobley
The Southwest Portland Post
JP Morgan Chase Bank’s recent de-
cision to drop plans for a Southwest
Capitol Highway branch office should
rekindle long-term efforts to urbanize
the Hillsdale Town Center, some neigh-
borhood leaders are saying.
But the neighborhood will face serious
challenges meeting those goals even
with well-laid plans, others say.
Hillsdale risks becoming a generic
“weigh station on the way to Beaverton”
if the neighborhood doesn’t seize op-
portunities to bulk up its central shop-
ping area, said John Gould, a land use
attorney, Hillsdale Neighborhood As-
sociation member and 40-year resident.
More stores and apartments would
mean needed critical mass for local
merchants, he said.
Gould is one of many who had
strongly opposed Chase Bank’s planned
single-use, one-story branch building at
6361 SW Capitol Hwy next to the Baskin
Robbins outlet, calling it a squandered
development opportunity for the town
center.
Hillsdale neighborhood and business
associations should lobby Portland City
Hall for stronger zoning policies that
will attract density to the district, said
Gould.
“We need to find a way to break the
current inertia and induce higher in-
vestment,” said Gould. “Chase did us a
favor by hitting us over the head so we
don’t give away our land to single uses
that don’t cure the situation.”
But neighborhood leaders can’t sim-
ply demand developers build what they
want and expect to automatically get it,
said Sheila Greenlaw-Fink, who heads
Community Partners for Affordable
Housing (CPAH), a local non-profit.
Hillsdale is well positioned to negoti-
ate with developers based on a neigh-
borhood plan emphasizing multi-story,
mixed-used development in the town
center, Greenlaw-Fink said.
Yet mixed retail and residential build-
ings are riskier and more complex to
build than commercial strips, she said.
Not many developers are willing to take
that risk.
According to Greenlaw-Fink, “With-
out local incentives, as exist in urban
renewal or enterprise zones, we may be
waiting a long time.”
“The developer would need to prove
that a market exists for their product,
which by virtue of the design standards
and neighborhood input would produce
higher rent and lease rates than the
current Town Center inventory,” said
Greenlaw-Fink.
“They would need to attract new
businesses willing and able to pay sub-
stantially higher rates,” she said.
CPAH, the nonprofit Greenlaw-Fink
directs, recently completed the Water-
shed, a four-story affordable housing
center on the far west side of Hillsdale’s
commercial area.
On that project, neighborhood leaders
helped raise money for features they
wanted which the developer could not
provide such as a public bench, drinking
fountain and the building’s illuminated
“Hillsdale” marquee.
But 2,700-square feet of retail planned
for the Watershed’s ground floor are
serving as offices for the non-profit since
no businesses have come forward to
lease the space.
The debate over whether Hillsdale
should urbanize its commercial core
ended long ago, Gould said.
Town Center zoning calls for devel-
opment designed to limit auto use and
encourage transit, walking and biking
under a development plan in place
since 1997.
And Hillsdale has long been a transit
node, with 10 bus routes serving the
business district.
Yet the commercial core remains
essentially suburban and oriented for
private cars and trucks despite this plan.
The low-slung 1950s-era parking
lot-fronted shopping strips lining SW
Capitol Highway have changed little
over the years beyond some cosmetic
touches.
The struggle over the character of
development at 6361 SW Capitol Hwy
goes back at least to 2008, when crews
leveled a former Texaco service station
on the lot.
Wardin Investment Co., which owns
the property and much of the surround-
ing commercial land, had originally
planned to redevelop the lot itself. Ar-
chitectural drawings show a single-
story, 7,800-square foot building with
four retail spaces lining the sidewalk.
A bike shop and other prospective
tenants for the Wardin building with-
drew as the Great Recession deepened
in 2009.
Chase stepped in with a 30-year lease
proposal in 2010. In August Chase
asked the city for permission to build a
4,100-square-foot office -- less than half
the minimum size required under the
Hillsdale Town Center Plan.
The Chase proposal drew protest from
neighborhood and business association
members who said it did not realize
Hillsdale’s vision.
The bank in November agreed to
a larger building along with canopy-
covered parking and sidewalks to meet
zoning requirements.
Hillsdale leaders welcomed Chase’s
willingness to work with the neighbor-
hood, though the canopy idea irritated
many residents all the more.
Some 600 signed a petition in De-
cember opposing the Chase revisions
and asking the multinational bank for
a mixed-use, two-story building.
Chase in late February instead aban-
doned the project. Neighborhood lead-
ers now hope to attract a credit union
that would anchor a mixed-use devel-
opment at the former Texaco property.