August 28, 2019
Page 5
House
Demolished
for Hotel
Economic forces
transforming
neighborhood
by m iChael l eighton
p ortlanD o bserver e Ditor
The demolition of a house used for of-
fice space to make room for a new 5-unit
hotel is a clear sign of the economic forces
and gentrification changing the character-
istics of historic black neighborhoods in
inner north and northeast Portland.
Located in the Humboldt Neighborhood
at North Vancouver and Alberta Street, a
once majority black neighborhood that has
lost a big chunk of its diversity over the
past couple of decades, the former 2-story
structure came tumbling down last week,
just 14 years after it was built and became
an office for the black-owned Ernest J. Hill
Jr. Insurance Agency which has moved to
another location.
The incoming new three-story hotel will
also include office space and rise above an
existing commercially-zoned lot of just 1,788
square feet, less than half the size of a stan-
dard residential lot, records from the Portland
Bureau of Development Services show.
photo by D anny p eterson /t he p ortlanD o bserver
A two-story house at North Vancouver Avenue and Alberta Street that was constructed just 14 years ago but ended up provid-
ing office space for the Ernest J. Hill Jr. Insurance Agency was demolished last week to make room for a new 5-unit hotel.
The hotel is estimated to cost $1.1 mil-
lion to build. The contractor is YK (Yorke
and Curtis) Building Excellence, a build-
er of new modern apartment buildings in
other parts of the city, including a 34 unit
complex at Northeast 19th and Alberta.
While located is in a historic residential
block, and also facing a state Employment
office across the street, the commercial
zone allows some of the greatest flexibility
on building plans with no parking require-
ments under city code.
The property was purchased for
$450,000 for redevelopment in 2018 by
Aaron and Meghan Saito of Lake Oswe-
go. The previous sale price for the property
was $239,000 after the former home on the
site was constructed in 2005.