The Foursquare Gospel Church has big plans for its humble parking lot on the corner of SE 12th and Ankeny: They’ve applied for a permit to turn the lot into a a six-story, 132 unit senior housing development.

The “Foursquare Senior Living” building would put the 132 units above 7,200 square feet of ground floor retail space and a two-level parking garage. It would be six stories on the side facing Burnside, but step down to four stories on the Ankeny side. Still, in order to build the development, the church will have to get a special variance from the city, since the 65-foot building exceeds the neighborhood’s height limit by 20 feet.

The building looks like a boring modern condo cookie-cutter, but I think the project sounds good. Dense housing for seniors right on transit lines and close to the central city? Yes! Turning an ugly parking lot into retail and housing? Hallelujah!

Here’s a (not so great) rendering of the building from their application:

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Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

7 replies on “Six-Story Senior Development Slated for SE Ankeny”

  1. I think the city should allow it but require them to only have 1 floor of parking. The housing is for seniors, how many cars do they need. By removing one floor of parking they will be able to give people what they actually need which is a more reasonable price tag on the housing. They should look to model it on what vancouver did where people who agreed to not have a parking space got a free zip car membership and they have several dedicated zip cars, which allowed a whole floor of parking to be removed in a development up there, along with 30k cheaper prices on units.

  5. Just curious, how separate is the Foursquare Foundation from the ideological operations of the Church? Given the church’s past opposition to gay rights (and violence caused by a welcomed anti-gay speaker on their property, Scott Lively, who is now agitating for the murder of gay people in Uganda), will this housing facility welcome tenants who are same-sex couples?

    For example, see:
    http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-6573…

    “Lively—who lost a $30,000 civil judgment to Just Out magazine photographer Catherine Stauffer in 1992 after she accused him of throwing her against a wall and dragging her across Portland’s Foursquare Church by her hair during an OCA rally […]”

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