Córner Sees
Redevelopment
H um boldt G ardens, P o rtlan d 's
n ew e st p u b lic -h o u sin g ren ta ls
w ith s o m e o w n e r - o c c u p i e d
hom es, will open June I w ith a
m ix o f 100 units fo r very low -
incom e residents and 3 0 for those
o f m od erate incom e. A p p lic a
tio n s fo r tho se h om es o p en ed
M onday.
T he H ousing A uthority o f P ort
land project on N orth V ancouver
A venue and A lberta S treet re
p laces Iris C ourt, w hich had b e
com e a m aintenance liability and
w as not accessib le to p eople w ith
disabilities.
Humboldt Gardens rises
from the intersection o f
North Alberta Street and
Vancouver Avenue. The
1 30 units for low and
moderate incomes replace
Iris Court.
PHOTO BY
M ark W ashington /
T he P ortland O bserver
MLK Development Outpaces Demand
continued
fro m Front
to hui Id 12 homes for first-time home
buyers, plus a structure containing
ground floor retail below market-
rate condom inium s.
♦H enry V. T his com m ercial
project, also at Rosa Parks Place
and Highland, includes offices for
an entertainm ent booking agency.
*V anport. Phase one o f this
p ro je c t b e tw e e n A lb e r ta an d
K illingsworth streets is a 40,000
com mercial condom inium building
in the new ly renovated and ex
panded M arco M achine Building.
The physical work is com plete, all
o f the 16 business spaces have
either been sold or are under nego
tiation, and the new ow ners are in
the process o f moving in. These
include Living C olor beauty sup
ply, Norell Design bi-lingual graphic-
designs, M arco S haw 's Hard Shell
restaurant. Old Tow n Pizza, and a
coffee shop. D evelopers Leary and
W oolley, and PDC, are negotiating
with 24 Hour Fitness for recreation
o f a 40,000 square foot fitness club
on the south end o f the project.
♦H eritage Project. This 32,000
square fool renovation and expan
sion o f the form er W eim ers H ard
ware Building at N ortheast Mason
Street, by a team o f developers that
in c lu d e s W o o lle y an d E ric
W entland, is com plete and partially
rented.
♦Horn o f A frica block. The west
side o f the avenue’s 3900 block,
ow ned by W entland and newly
renovated, includes the Burqitu
p ilo ro by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
The new Mid-K Plaza on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boule
vard has yet to fill retail space a year after construction.
East African Restaurant in the old
Hom o f Africa space, C arboni's
P iz z a , J a v a r a m a
E sp resso ,
B arberam a hair styling and a vari
ety o f other tenants.
♦To the south, also on the w est
side o f the street, developer W ayne
A rm strong is planning to build a
four-to-fi ve-story residential struc
ture containing 85 affordable hous
ing units.
♦Beech Site. PDC has completed
an agreem ent for developm ent o f
this site by Planned Parenthood.
They propose a three-story build
ing that will include ground-floor
com m ercial activity, a headquar
ters for the nonprofit, and an ex
panded clinic to replace one on
N ortheast Frem ont Street at 15th
A venue.
♦Frem ont Project. Phase one of
this project by Abe Killing and Ron
Sykes a, Northeast Frem ont Street,
form er site o f the King Food Mar-
ket, is a tw o-story, 8,000-square-
foot commercial building completed
last year. Phase two is a row of
Lents Home Buying Fair
seven adjacent town homes facing
N ortheast G rand A venue, now
nearing com pletion.
♦M id-K Beauty Supply. The
form er Raven Cream ery site be
tw een Ivy and Cook streets now
has a new building that is the head
quarters for this com pany and has
20,000 square feet of additional re
tail space.
♦Grant W arehouse site. PDC has
issued a Request for Proposal for
developm ent o f this square-block
vacant property on the east side of
the street between C ook and Ivy.
The request is for proposals to build
24 to 48 units of for-sale housing,
p o ssib ly in co m b in a tio n w ith
ground-floor retail.
The Lents Homeownership Initiative and Kelly SUN
Community School presents the 3rd-annual Lents Home
Buying Fair, on Saturday April 12 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at
Kelly Elementary School, 9030 S.E. Cooper St.
The free fair is open to anyone wanting to learn about
buying their own home. Lenders, realtors, title companies,
developers, home-buying counselors, businesses, and non
profit organizations will provide plenty of helpful information
about their services and programs.
The highlight of the day will be a drawing for a $4,(XX)
down-payment assistance grant to be given to a qualified
potential homebuyer.
Last year, Toni Hessen and her family won the grant and
immediately used it to buy their first home. ‘Homeownership
was in my mind and I wanted to do it, but I wasn't sure,”
Hessen said. “Winning the grant at the Lents Home Buying
Fair was absolutely perfect; it was great, I was so ecstatic.”
PRESENTS
d ò l
hosted by The Links, Inc.
Portland Chapter
Bridgingthe Divide
continued
fro m Front
O thers go a step further to say
that the w hole project should be
scrapped or rethought.
“This massive project does noth
ing for north and northeast Port
land,” says Lenny A nderson, a
project m anager with the Swan Is
la n d Transportation M anagement
¡Association. “ It will degrade our
quality o f life ...co st us a lot of
m oney, dum p a lot m ore cars in our
neighborhoods and it’s bizarre that
Portland w ould even show up at
these meetings, frankly.”
A resident o f northeast Portland,
A nderson lost faith in the drive to
rebuild the connection whi le on the
G overnors’ l-5CorridorTa.sk Force
from 2000 to 2(X)2. This previous
project effort divided planners and
ended at an impasse.
Reducing single-occupancy trip
num bers will becom e the key an
sw er for the region's transporta
tion issues in A nderson's view.
“The tail is definitely w agging
the dog in term s o f solutions be
cause the people o f Clark County,
the tail, think that that they have an
inalienable right to an infinite num
ber of free auto lanes into Port
land,” he says.
Francis acknow ledges a cross
river divide but argues that the two
sides will have to com e together to
address continuing structure dete
rioration and expected traffic in
creases along l-5 's five miles be-
tw een north P o rtlan d ’s K enton
neighborhood and State Route 5(X)
in Vancouver.
“The problem is y o u 're looking
for a short-term Herculean effort to
change (driver) b eh av io rs, and
that’s not likely,” Francis says.
A nderson would like to see a
new neighborhood bridge over the
Columbia, like the Broadway Bridge
connecting north and northw est
Portland, to serve the 68 to 75 per
cent o f trips crossing in peak travel
hours that have origins or destina
tions within the five-mile project
area.
The neighborhood-bridge idea
made it to the “ Ideas Considered
and D ropped" section of the C o
lumbia River C rossing's website
because it would not address the
group’s safety concerns and be
cause o f studies show ing that only
13 to 18 percent of drivers would
use the link.
“A third bridge or an arterial
bridge d o esn 't bring enough traffic
off,” Francis says. “ Also, arterial
bridges or anything that’s outside
o f the corridor starts to imply a lot
more property acquisition th at's
necessary and a Io, more (neigh
borhood and environm ental) im
pact.”
T he S o u th w est W ash in g to n
R egional T ran sp o rtatio n C o u n
cil is studying the long-term need
for an additional brid g e cro ssin g
o u tsid e the 1-5 and 1-205 c o rri
dors.
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