This might be the last year for Lloyd Center. There’s a plan for what’s next, but a community that’s grown in the mall in recent years isn’t happy with it or the process of deciding Lloyd Center’s future.
Urban Renaissance, the real estate development group that partly owns the mall, has a vision for what comes after demolition. The group’s Lloyd Center Central City Master Plan wipes the venerable mall from the map in favor of development that will be familiar to most Portlanders: an intersecting street grid with green space and mixed-used architecture.
One of the plan’s central points is that Lloyd Center is “inward facing” and “auto-oriented.” The current structure interrupts the street grid and continuity of the neighborhood, and shows the outside world massive concrete walls instead of human-scaled shops and apartments. Future development would potentially change that, replacing the Lloyd Center “superblock” with a more conventional grid.
However, many of the people and businesses who have made Lloyd Center their workplace and/or third place are not happy with the plan.
The Save Lloyd movement is a coalition of business owners and fans of the mall who’ve turned the retail space into a kind of community center, one that hosts events like Beyblade tournaments, mall walking, and bug-themed drag shows. According to Daylynn Lambi, the director of ILYouth2, a youth arts program, resistance to demolition grew out of an initiative for businesses to all be open at the same time at least one day of the week. That paved a way for grassroots, horizontal community organizing, which then became a movement to save the mall.
Save Lloyd supporters have collected signatures, encouraged community members to contact elected officials, and showed up in force on February 4, when the Portland Design Commission discussed Urban Renaissance’s plan for the property. The developer’s presentation of the plan took about 30 minutes. It was followed by three hours of public comment. Every member of the public who spoke was there to oppose the plan.
According to Matt Henderson, the owner of Virtua Gallery and one of the founders of Save Lloyd, Urban Renaissance’s characterization of the mall as underused is unfair. He notes that their data about mall use and public opinion about the mall was taken when Lloyd Center was at what he calls “a historic low point.” Henderson says that public sentiment, as well as usage of the space, has changed quite a bit. The mall is much more active than it was when Urban Renaissance conducted research. According to Henderson, any development plans should be based on current use and sentiment rather than public opinion from years ago.
“I feel like a lot of the opportunities for input at the city level are almost after-the-fact,” says James Lucas Jones, the owner of Brickdiculous Shop & Gallery, a store that specializes in Lego toys. According to Lucas Jones, the meeting with the design commission “felt like a train that was already moving.… It didn’t feel like an opportunity for the public to comment on it. It felt like an opportunity to be placated.”
“There are so many smart people on the team. That they can’t find a way to preserve any of it seems preposterous to me,” Lucas Jones added.
A big sticking point for the Save Lloyd folks: the lack of year-round ice rink in the proposed plan. “Oregon is an ice desert,” says Krista Catwood, co-creator and leader of the Food Court 5000, a weekly retro mall-walking group that gained national attention and even landed Catwood an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show last fall. According to Catwood, there are only five ice rinks in the region. Urban Renaissance’s plans include the potential for future developers to install one or more seasonal ice rinks in the future, but there’s no guarantee. And Save Lloyd advocates are quick to point out that seasonal ice rinks are very different from anything year-round.
Members of the Save Lloyd movement say they’re not opposed to new development. Henderson is open to knocking down structures like empty anchor stores or unused parking lots for new construction, but wants to keep enough of the mall so existing tenants, events, and communities aren’t entirely pushed out.
Likewise, business owners currently at Lloyd Center aren’t naive about low rents persisting forever, regardless of when or if a wrecking ball arrives. “I think a lot of us would be willing to pay more,” says Lambi. “With what we’re paying now the mall isn’t financially sustainable.” Lucas Jones adds, “I think everyone in the mall is also going to be paying much higher rents elsewhere.” He notes that solutions like graduated rents or annual applications for incubator spaces haven’t been available to tenants, but cites them as a potential way for the mall to raise revenue.
A representative from Portland’s Permitting and Development bureau stressed that, while the city’s Design Commission is tasked with making a decision on the elements it has authority over within the plan, the board doesn’t decide demolitions or whether features like the skating rink will persist into the future. Its reviews are limited to matters listed in Portland’s zoning code that consider things like infrastructure, transportation, and the capacity for future development. It doesn’t directly decide which buildings rise and which fall.
The Design Commission is expected to deliver its decision on March 5, after which there are 14 days to appeal the determination. At that time, or at the end of the appeals process, the development team can move forward with additional land use reviews and building permits for specific ideas within its plan. The demolition permit process has no public review or appeals stage.
UPDATE: On March 5, the Portland Design Commission unanimously accepted the Lloyd Mall owners’ Revised Primary Master Plan, pushing the massive project one small step forward. This isn’t a demolition order, but the plan will eventually lead there.
