They may have a 15-year lease, but it is very unlikely they have the rent locked in that long, or capped to the extent that maximum periodic increases couldn't force them out.

A 15-year lease means nothing if the landlord can triple your rent with sufficient notice.

Hollywood Bowl also had a multiyear lease. Everyone has their price.

This seems like an awfully advanced step to just "see what's possible there." You could go do that at the planning counter for free. Smells bullshitty to me.

What other cities have that we don't have is a Preservation Society. Portland is in desperate need of an honest-to-goodness Preservation Society that is strong, well organized, motivated and funded for action. It's a big dream, I know. In both LA and San Francisco, Art Deco Preservation Societies have helped to save multiple historic buildings and the face of various neighborhoods from the same crushing effects of high density housing that we have seen exploding across the city here. Citizens cry out on Facebook, news articles are written that seem to share our chagrin, but there's little effect. I wonder how one would go about starting a Portland Preservation Society - the current climate is ripe for getting people with means involved, the whole city is sick of over-developement.

not that that doesn't suck, but they're not submitting for Design Review, it is for Design Advice. different process. not a hearing, but a relatively informal meeting to understand requirements and limitations related to the possibility of development.

Density is your only god now, Portland.

I visited Singapore about ten years ago.

Parts of Portland should be re-named SingaPortland because, gosh, parts of Portland are starting to look like Singapore, with shiny buildings nice restaurants with large outdoor seating areas.

You know, Singapore isn't all that bad. And Parts of Portland (N. Williams?) are just not tha cool.

Hales envisions compact housing for docile, high tech worker bees.

Join me in re-branding these crapartment complexes as SingaPortland. Erasing the past
is a big part of Singapore, and the past is evaporating in SingaPortland.

Singapore has 5.3 million people living in 277 square miles. Portland has 584,000 people living in 145 square miles. Singapore's density is 19,562/sq mi. Portland's density is 4,375.1/sq mi.

If anyone wants to see this interesting building saved, now is the time to put the pressure on the developer. The mere fact that they are having a pre-app conference is a big red flag. If you want to see the Club 21 building preserved you need to start thinking about it before the fences go up around it and its too late. As with the Hollywood Bowl, I don't think that the existing lease will amount to much of a roadblock in the end. Given that this is a mostly empty block, it seems that a creative architect could find a way to integrate the old building into plans for the new development. Of course that means finding a creative architect and I'm not so sure there are many around town these days.

**"There have been no decisions one way or the other about Club 21," he says. "This is merely an exercise to figure out how to get the highest use of the property."**

Uh, yeah, so this sounds like how developers say, "We're getting our ducks in a row."