Just hours after quoting a “top Majestic Realty official” saying he weighs the controversy over a new Trader Joe’s at NE Alberta and MLK “every day”—part of a story exploring a lobbying rules technicality with the city’s urban renewal director—the Oregonian is now reporting the deal is off the table.
And it’s because Trader Joe’s wants out. Not because the developer has reconsidered.
“We run neighborhood stores and our approach is simple: if a neighborhood does not want a Trader Joe’s, we understand, and we won’t open the store in question,” reads the essential line in a longer statement published by the O.
The Portland Development Commission’s deal, selling Majestic land worth nearly $3 million for just $500,000, has been beset by concerns over gentrification ever since details went public in the fall.
Activists wanted housing and something that fit in with the neighborhood’s historic character. Supporters of the proposal said adding a major grocery store—there’s a Safeway nearby, which I guess counts…— would help support a second project at the corner filled with local small businesses. The PDC approved it last year.
Last week, Majestic announced it had chosen African American-owned Colas Construction as its contractor on the project. One of Colas’ vice presidents, Aneskha Dickson, sits on the PDC’s board.
It’s unclear if the decision by Trader Joe’s was influenced by this morning’s report in the O that PDC director Patrick Quinton, before the vote on the project, attended a food-and-wine networking event hosted by Majestic. Quinton put the event on his public calendar but didn’t list it on his lobbying gift reports. The PDC’s attorney told the O that Quinton didn’t have to, because the Trader Joe’s project wasn’t discussed at the event.
Update 12:55 PM: Mayor Charlie Hales, who oversees the PDC, has called the announcement “a loss for the city and particularly for Northeast Portland” in a statement just sent out by his spokesman.
We respect today’s decisions by Trader Joe’s and Majestic. We appreciate the various concerns raised by neighbors and other stakeholders, both in favor of, and opposed to, this project.
In all, we view today’s news as a loss for the city and particularly for Northeast Portland.
We are grateful for the effort that Colas Construction, a local, minority-owned construction company, put into making this project happen and we recognize all the hard work Majestic Realty has invested in this effort over the past two years.
Moving forward, we will be communicating with the various stakeholders: Including those who wanted this development and who were excited about it, and those who didn’t want it to happen.
It is too soon to say what comes next for this site. We will work with the full range of stakeholders to determine the next steps. And we remain committed to working with stakeholders to find projects for this and other development sites throughout the city.
Update 4 PM: The Portland African American Leadership Forum, leading the protests against the Majestic Realty proposal, addressed the news during a previously scheduled press conference at the development site this afternoon. They said their main grievance has been about displacement of black Portlanders the PDC’s work in historically African American neighborhoods—not the prospect of a Trader Joe’s.
The O‘s North and Northeast Portland reporter covered it:
In the past we have settled for far less,” [former State Senator Avel] Gordly said. “This is a people’s movement for African Americans and other communities, for self-determination.”
PAALF members reiterated previous demands to include an affordable housing component on the two-acre lot and issued several demands.
PAALF leaders said the development commission should publish a comprehensive accounting of the tax increment financing and spending in the Interstate corridor urban renewal area and compose a legally binding community benefits agreement to ensure the employment of African Americans in the construction of PDC sites.
The group also asked for the development commission to create a small business assistance fund for the shops and restaurants in Vanport Plaza.
Good for the NAACP! Always fighting the good fight.
Why would people want decent food in their neighborhood? I hope they hold out for more Korean Liquor stores instead of stuff you can actually eat. That’ll be standing up to the man!
P.S. The real story is that it looks like the PDC and the developer were engaged in shenanigans, including some lovely steak dinners. I can see how Aldi would get cold feet when blatant corruption rears its head. I seriously doubt the concerns of the 20,791 person strong Portland black community had anything to do with it.
as someone who lives nearby the proposed site, i was all for the addition of TJs. is it my favorite store? no. but it’s worlds better than that godawful safeway which has one of the worst selections in the city and super high prices. i was excited for p’s & q’s opening but have since been greatly disappointed by their dismal selection and prices that make whole foods look like the dollar store. is it so much to ask to have a grocery store within walking distance that carries something even close to healthy food at reasonable prices? apparently.
Sadly, until we stop passing farm bills that subsidize junk food, yes, it is too much to ask. In *any* neighborhood.
Sigh. Bets on how long it will be vacant now? Everyone make an extra effort to frequent the VanPort Square businesses so they don’t go under.
Not the way to do business and it sucks for those of you who live out there. I agree with the first comment here as well
Is this the field on MLK and Alberta that’s been sitting empty since forever? Why in the hell would anyone be upset about a Trader Joes going in there? I’m kinda confused.
The problem that some people had with this proposal wasn’t with Trader Joe’s itself — most agree that TJ’s has decent food for decent prices, and that this store would have employed local residents. And it would have been better than an empty lot. It’s just that the city (more specifically, the PDC) gave this developer a really sweet deal for the land and didn’t offer the local community much input as to what they actually wanted there. And though I appreciate TJ’s, we’ve already got a few of them in PDX. So if this neighborhood wants something else there (a local business? affordable housing?) hopefully they can come up with a good counterproposal. But since the land is now owned (?) by this developer, who knows.
So now it’s “We didn’t really have a problem with TJ’s going in!”? Too late!
It’s the $500,000 price for the $2.5M property that stinks. TJ’s should have walked from this from the outset.
The deal for Portland African American Leadership Forum and any other activist groups, really any topic, is you have to deliver the whole community in support of the plan. That creates value.
Instead you delivered just enough complaint to tip it.
Agree mixed use there is better than something like the Hollywood TJ. And TJ does mixed use sometimes. What’s the occupancy rate in similar developments on MLK? But let’s get real, it is completely impossible to do low income or moderate income housing in new construction without some sort of subsidy. So figure that out.
As community activists, pull a seat up to the table, and own negotiations on all the PDC plots in your domain, delivering the community, a developer and a business plan to the community vision.
Maybe we can add another per capita arts tax to buy the property back since the $20 million dollar budget surplus will probably just be used to service the interest on bonds sold so that other developers can get free land.
So the community doesn’t want a Trader Joe’s in the neighborhood because the city offered up a piece of property at well below market rate? Instead they want “affordable housing” put in, where the city would offer up the same property at well below market rate. Hmmm.
How about pay what the property is god damn worth, with the understanding that gentrification is going to happen whether the community wants it or not, as log as Portland remains such a desirable city to live in.
We’d LOVE a Trader Joe’s in our part of town (Oak Grove – McLoughlin/Hwy 99)!!! Bring it here! The nearest Trader Joe’s (39th and 82nd) are both pretty far.
@R Hollywood TJ’s is not mixed use, it’s more like what was proposed on MLK. You’re thinking of Whole Foods. And Whole Foods would most assuredly not locate to MLK at any time in the near future. But hey, after TJ’s is done single-handedly gentrifying the neighborhood, maybe the time for Whole Foods will have come?
The idea that “the neighborhood” didn’t want TJs is pure BS. I live less than half a mile away, and nobody ever even came round asking for opinions. And the idea that you can somehow stop gentrification, at a location that is halfway between the already-gentrified Alberta area and the already-gentrified Vancouver/Mississippi area, just flies in the face of logical thought.
Whenever I went past and there were protestors there, the opposition seemed like they were being coordinated by the church over the road from the site, so that might be the place to get to the bottom of this.