Sad news: Former Sellwood funeral home-turned-music venue The Woods is likely not long for this world. The owners of the Woods are lingering negotiations with their landlord over the lease, and the outlook isn’t good. Unfortunately, the property owners are looking to hike up the space’s rent, which essentially prices out the venue, necessitating in it closing its doors. (And if that is the case, the property owners have plans for the lot—and comfy, cozy music venue isn’t part of those plans.) Lease negotiations remain open until later this week, but the outlook isn’t good. Barring a last-minute miracle, the days of the Woods are numbered.
More information and confirmation in the next couple days—including the possibility of a closing celebration, if things do indeed go the way they seem to be headed.
A personal note here: The Woods is my favorite venue in town, for a variety of reasons: The booking, which ranges from music to readings to comedy to dance nights, is exceptional. Every show I’ve seen there feels like something extraordinary, perhaps due to the space’s intimacy, which is the antithesis of your typical rock club. The building itself is slathered in ambiance, both from its former incarnation as a funeral home—it can be downright spooky in there—but also from the incredible design and decor that the owners brought within the space. I’ll be incredibly unhappy to see this place go.
Oh man, what I bummer, I got married there-why do all of my sentimental Portland landmarks keep going under?!
Yeah that is hella bad news.
THIS IS SHIT NEWS. WHY? WHHHHHHHYYYYYYYY????????????!???
Boo, property owners! Don’t they know we’re in a recession? (Can we still use that as an excuse for things?)
Sad face for sure.
The owners should plan a 4 story condo block. The hood can use the housing, it will be near the MAX. But it will take years of permitting, zoning approvals, romancing the neighborhood, financing, so why not keep the Woods there for cheap over the next few years, it’s not like there are any other uses for the existing building!
Oh, that’s a shame. The Woods is a really cool venue. Any idea what the property owners’ plans for the space might be?
This news is redolent of sadness and bad things.
Oh, this just blows. Where will I dance to deep-cut vintage soul and R&B 45’s now? DJ Cooky Parker 4ever!
The owners are Claybourne Commons LLC. Their applications to the city show plans to ‘develop’ the hell out of the rest of the block but leave standing the building that Woods is in. Dunno what they plan to do with it.
I don’t like this one bit.
Let me get this straight: somebody comes up with an awesome plan to invigorate an empty funeral home, and the owner rewards them by pricing the continued endeavor out of existence? Who is this owner? We should all get in touch and share our feelings and middle fingers.
Ned, I’d love to see an extension of this story that interviews the owners and gets them to face up to or at least explain their fanged avarice.
Realistically the music and late night days are over with the new residential development. But it’s hard to imagine another use for that building. Restaurant, church, clinic, day care? It’s not ADA compliant. And although the buildings replacing the Artistery went up fast, it’s going to be a while before The Woods has new NIMBY neighbors.
There’s more information about The Woods on the Portland Preservation blog. http://portlandpreservation.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/whats-going-on-at-the-woods/
It’ll become a McMenamin’s.
bikefor, likely. But it’s sad that The Woods built up the venue and the business for the owners and McM’$. Personally I don’t care to preserve the building. The music and audience community, at a low price, stylish venue is what matters to me.
Please don’t go Woods!!! You are my favorite venue in town!
You want answers? Here you go…
A quick look the online City of Portland buildings database shows the property is owned by an outfit named “Claybourne Commons, LLC”. Do a further web search for “Claybourne Commons” and you come up with several documents, such as this one –
http://www.portlandonline.com/bds/index.cfm?a=359358&c=42262
This is a pretty complete explanation of the plans for The Woods, which is incidental to the block on which it resides.
The documents states – “The applicant is proposing to divide a 33,123 square-foot site into 21 lots and three tracts.”
In other words, this city block will become an officially-classifed “subdivision” of 20 lots, with lot sizes of 576 to 772 square feet.
So what kind of development can we expect? Let’s look up “Clayborne Commons” on the State of Oregon Corporation Division site, and you see that this business is located in Lake Oswego and owned by James Morton and Drew Prell.
This business look like it’s one of those mini-corporations started up by real estate developers for a particular project and limits their liability to that project.
So let’s look on the Corporation Division site for other businesses involving these partners, and we find they own many of these dedicated corporations. One of the Morton/Prell projects was the “Sellwood Trolley Barn” subdivision, which is a ugly mishmash of crypto-Craftsman/Mission/Prairie townhouses. Ironically, the “Sellwood Trolley Barn” developed is named after the Sellwood Trolley Barns, which in turn were demolished to make room for the development. According to the State Historic Preservation Office, the Barns were “one of only a few, and the most intact example of this building type in the state.” A few feet of the original trolley barn were retained as an pathetic gesture to preservation, and now are just a sad reminder of what was lost.
Mr. Morton lives in the Eastmorland neighborhood, at 7911 SE 30th Ave., and can be reached at 503-774-1884. Mr. Prell lives in Lake Oswego at 722 Maple Street. I’m sure they welcome your comments.