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coverage inside
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‘City of Roses’
F s t a h l i s h e d in
970
Established
In 1 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume XXXVIII, Number 14
.Week in
Thc Review
Bill Visits, Hillary Due
Form er President Bill Clinton vis­
ited O H SU and a senior center in
Portland on M onday on behalf of
his wife's presidential campaign.
Hillary Clinton was scheduled to
visit Portland and Eugene on Sat­
urday, but released no further
details by press time. See sto ry ,
pageA2.
Voters Switch Parties
In the past seven w eeks, nearly
10,000 Oregonians have registered
to vote in the May 20 D em ocratic
Prim ary featuring Sen. Barack
O bam a and Sen. H illary C lin to n -
that’s about 1 percent o f the state’s
7 64,000 registered D em ocrats.
A bout 3,500 o f the potential vot­
ers were formerly Republican, with
form er nonaffiliated voters ac­
counting for m ost o f the others.
Housing Secretary Resigns
• 4
gfe;
IBB
f
As federal au-
thorities inves-
ligate whether
hehadgivenlu-
crative hous-
mg contracts
friends.
Housing Secre­
tary A lphonso R. Jackson resigned
on M onday, saying that he needed
to devote m ore tim e to his family.
S e e s to ry , p ag e A2.
R&B Singer Dies
Sean Levert, a third o f the 1980s
R&B trio LeV ert and son o f lead
O 'Jays singer Eddie Levert, has
died after falling ill while serving a
jail term for failing to pay child
support. He was 39. A uthorities
said M onday that an autopsy was
inconclusive, but foul play was
ruled out.
Questioning Big Oil
U.S. oil com pany executives told a
House com m ittee looking for an­
sw ers to record fuel costs T ues­
day that they know high prices are
hurting consum ers, but deflected
any blam e and argued their profits
— $ 123 bi I lion last y ea r— were i n
line with other industries.
Iraqi Violence Spikes
Fighting between security forces
and Shiite militiam en last month
has driven civilian deaths in Iraq
to their highest level in m ore than
six m onths, governm ent figures
show ed on Tuesday. A total o f
923 civilians were killed in March,
up 31 percent from February.
Election Mayhem
Zim babw e’selectionscom m ission
tried to calm grow ing disquiet
T uesday at the delay in announc­
ing the results o f three-day-old
presidential polls, am id w arnings
that the country was teetering on
anarchy.
Eg
a § o
lA/iAziA
/ n n r l k i n r l n h c p h / p
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • April 2, 2008
For Lease: MLK Properties
High market
prices blamed
for vacancies
by L ee P erlman
T he P ortland O bserver
In some ways, Northeast M artin Luther
King Jr. Boulevard is hopping, with new
projects either under construction, on the
ground or in the pipeline. W hat are lacking,
in som e cases, are people and businesses to
occupy the new spaces.
M onths after its com pletion, the Frem ont
Project at the intersection o f M LK and Fre­
mont Street stands em pty, its anchor Terroir
Restaurant having failed. The nearby Heri­
tage Project is partially fille d - the occupants
include classroom space for Portland C om ­
munity College, space for the Com m unity
Cycling Center and No Lim its M artial Arts,
but Eric W entland, one o f its developers,
says securing these tenants “h asn ’t been
ea sy .”
A frican-A m erican business leader Ray
Leary and neighborhood activ ist Jeana
W oolley spent years trying to attract ten­
ants for the Vanport Project on M LK north
of Alberta before they hit upon a com mercial
condom inium idea that attracted individual
ow ners, but even then they needed $7 m il­
lion in urban renewal funds to m ake it work.
Veteran com m ercial broker M ichelle
Reeves say s part o f the problem is that some
o f the new buildings, such as the Frem ont
Project, are isolated.
“ In the H aw thorne, M ississip p i and
A lberta districts, you started with existing
older buildings,” she told the Portland O b­
server. “Even on M artin Luther King at
Russell you had older buildings to start with,
and that area's thriving.”
Reeves says when you have a district
photo by M ark
W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
A signature Portland Development Commission-backed project at Northeast
Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Fremont Street sits mostly empty with signs
in the widows offering space for lease.
that’s still developing like M LK, the single
most im portant factor for a potential tenant
is the price. The break-even rate for new
buildings is $16 to $18 per square foot, she
says. However, at that price they can find
places to rent in developed areas that are
inherently more desirable. A com petitive
rental rate fo ra building in isolation is$ 10 to
$12 per square foot, she says. "It may be a
new building, but the market is what it is."
Reeves says some projects that got fi­
nancial assistance from the Portland D evel­
opm ent Com m ission in a good real-estate
market are now struggling with a dow nturn
in the market.
For such projects to succeed now, PDC
would need to provide additional assistance
such as tenant improvements, or subsidies
to tenants based on ground floor utilization
or other public benefits. Otherwise, she says,
"the developers w ill take a lo s s , w hich means
you might not get people to participate in the
future or the buildings will sit em pty for
awhile until the market changes."
W entland, who also ow ns a vacant block
on the east side o f the avenue between
Fargo and C ook streets, says he has put off
earlier plans to develop it.
“This is a really bad clim ate to try out
som ething new ," he says, "and the people
who finance developm ent projects are really
afraid o f it." A factor may be the rising price
o f gasoline, and people’s subsequent reluc­
tance to travel far to destinations. "W hat­
ever the reason, real estate in this area is
worth 30 to 50 percent less than it was a year
ago,” he says.
A partial inventory o f new projects on
MLK includes the following:
♦Piedmont Place. The PDC owned site
between Northeast Rosa Parks Place and
Highland Street is currently negotiating its
sale to developer Tom W alsh and the Port­
land C om m unity Land Trust. They propose
continued
on page A7
Bridgingthe Divide
Controversial
1-5 project
on fast track
by R aymond R endi . eman
T he P ortland O bserver
Plans are on the fast track for a
new Interstate 5 bridge crossing
the C olum bia River.
Construction could begin as
soon as 2010 for a $ 3 .1 billion to
$4.2 billion project if acoalition of
public tran sp o rta tio n -m a n ag e­
ment and governm ent agencies
has its way.
Proponents argue that a new
bridge is necessary to relieve rush-
hour congestion, allow for mass
tran sit, p rotect ag ain st e a rth ­
quakes, and im prove access for
freight, bicyclists and pedestri­
ans.
Planners have already enlisted
the support o f several politicians
and local trade unions behind
building som ething soon.
A public-com m ent period d u r­
ing thc next couple months will go
a long way in influencing votes on
w hether the Portland City C oun­
cil. M etro regional governm ent,
and other city and county ju ris­
dictions back the initiative.
M omentum is also growing to
question the efficacy o f building
a new connection that will push
thc transportation grid with tens
o f thousands o f additional v e­
hicle trips per day.
An organization called C olum ­
bia R iver C ro ssin g , based in
V a n c o u v e r an d d e v e lo p e d
th ro u g h a p a rtn e rsh ip o f the
W ashington and Oregon trans­
portation departm ents, has o rg a­
nized regular m eetings in an at-
Community activist Marcia Ward (left) speaks with Carley Francis of the Columbia River Crossing project about the future of con
nections between Oregon and Washington.
photos by R aymond
A transportation
department
maintenance
worker, Dave
Lowles believes
that something
should be
resolved soon to
ease the conges
tion on the
Interstate 5
bridge in and out
o f Vancouver
during rush
hours.
R endi . eman /T he P orti . and O b . se r \
i k
tempt to address all the issues,
but some attending have left un­
sure that the bridge will pay of f l or
taxpayers.
A resident o f V ancouver who
com m utes to Portland and meets
w ith the gro u p 's Com m unity and
Environmental Just ice committee.
M arcia Ward is trying to repre­
sent low -incom e com muters.
Carley Francisol theColum bia
R iverC rossm gsays it's likely that
daily loll fees will be needed in
addition to local, state and federal
funds
W ard would appreciate a new
bridge Io ease traffic congestion
but argues that no one should
have to pay extra taxes
continued
I
on page A7