Six months ago, SE 43rd and Division was home to the Artistery, a DIY all-ages space that hosted shows, radical lectures, and punk potlucks in its falling-apart house and venue. Then, in January, the space was sold to a huge developer, DR Horton, for $649,000 and the Aristery was razed. RIP. So what’s the big […]
Build Out
Posted inBuild Out
Hollywood Theater’s New Neighbor: Five Story Apartment Building
It looks like the Hollywood Theater will be getting a new neighbor soon—one that has historical preservationists worried. Myhre Architects are planning a to turn that vacant lot on the west side of the Hollywood Theater into a five-story, mixed-use building with 51 market-rate apartments and ground floor retail. The lot is right between three […]
Posted inBuild Out
Heading to NE Couch: Big New Apartments
Until last year, NE Couch was a quiet back street. But after the city turned Burnside and Couch into a couplet, suddenly Couch is an major thoroughfare. It’s only a matter of time before big developments start popping up and the newest is a five-story mixed use development slated for NE Sixth and Couch. A […]
Posted inBuild Out
Top 10 Most Expensive City and PDC Projects
I posted last week about a just-released study that shows the Portland Development Commission (PDC) did not use as many women and minority contractors as it should have. The studies of city and PDC practices looked at 9,000 contracts on construction projects worth $2.4 billion altogether. That got me interested in who exactly is getting […]
Posted inBuild Out
Yes, the New McMenamins Has a Modest Mouse-Themed Bedroom
McMenamins invited me this past weekend to explore the interior of their new Crystal Hotel, the swank project built on the site of what used to be an infamous gay bathhouse. The hotel is slated to open in June. After years of construction and hauling away decades worth of trash and oddities, the triangular building […]
Posted inBuild Out
Six-Story Senior Development Slated for SE Ankeny
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 […]
Posted inCity Hall
Should Immigration Detention Center Be Built Next to a School in South Waterfront?
South Waterfront is cold on ICE’s planned new facility. South Waterfront clearly needs development. After the city and urban renewal dollars have sunk $93 million into developing the area, what we have to show for it are a very nice-looking tram and condo towers auctioning off units at cut rates. Of the eight operating retail […]
Posted inBuild Out
Burnside’s Galaxy Karaoke Lounge To Be Demolished
Local history and architecture blog Portland Preservation pointed out today that one of Portland’s funniest looking buildings is scheduled for the wrecking ball. The Galaxy lounge and restaurant on East Burnside and Ninth Ave will soon become a bland brick-faced restaurant Trio, according to permit paperwork (pdf) filed by the building owners. Google It turns […]
Posted inFashion
More on the Portland Development Commission and the Portland Design Collective
In this week’s Sold Out column, I delve a bit into the relationship the Portland Design Collective has with the city, specifically the Portland Development Commission and the downtown retail strategy, as told to me by PDC’s (the commission, not the collective) Katherine Krajnak. Unfortunately, due to print space restrictions, I only had room for […]
Posted inBuild Out
Blazers Get Rose Quarter Development Rights for Another Six Months
Mark Searcy This morning city council approved a six-month extension of the Trail Blazers’ exclusive development rights in the Rose Quarter, but not without some pushback from ol’ Randy Leonard. Trail Blazer’s development group Portland Arena Management (PAM) has been engaging in some strategery to remake the Rose Quarter as “Jumptown”, a 24-hour “entertainment district.” […]
Posted inBuild Out
Free Parking is Socialist
Seattle’s liberal new mayor is talking big about bumping up the price of parking in the central city and the response is outrage on the right. In response, Eric Hess de Place over at NW enviro think tank Sightline has a funny write-up about how right-wingers should support paid-for parking because free parking is essentially […]
Posted inBuild Out
Custom House Going, Going, Gone for $2.5 Million
The long-vacant Custom House downtown finally has a new owner! One of Oregon’s largest real estate companies, PREM Group, snagged the historic building on the North Park Blocks for $2.5 million after a heated auction wrapped up this week. The Daily Journal of Commerce reports that the PREM group is planning to use the Custom […]