Apartment tower slated for Bridgehead
Portland Development Commission is in the process of selling Block 67, part of the Burnside Bridgehead, to Key Development Corporation, staffer Steve Schain told the Central East Side Urban Renewal Advisory Committee last month. The block is bounded by NE Second and Third avenues, Couch St., and the Burnside Bridge.
Key proposes to build a 12-story building on the side with 290 market rate rental housing units, ground floor retail, and 175 parking spaces. The estimated cost of the project is $60 million.
PDC is asking $1.65 million for the property, which they say is the appraised fair market value. Key will receive no subsidy from the agency for the project. This would be the largest project in the Burnside Bridgehead.
PDC once envisioned the four square block property on the east end of the Burnside Bridge as a mega-project containing more than a million square feet of development, generating tax revenue that would finance other programs in the urban renewal district.
In recent years they have been looking at far more modest developments. The 40,000 square foot Convention Plaza office building immediately to the north of Block 67, which PDC had once planned to remove to make way for something bigger, had emerged as the anchor of the Bridgehead.
The PDC Board will hold a public hearing on the project the morning of December 12 at 222 NW Fifth Ave.
SEUL receives grant applications
Southeast Uplift Neighborhood Program received 21 applications, requesting a combined total of $55,832, for funding through the latest round of the Neighborhood Small Grants program. SEUL this year has been awarded $21,603.
The program is funded through the City General Fund and the Office of Neighborhood Involvement, and is distributed to SEUL and the city’s six other neighborhood offices and coalitions.
Grants are awarded to community groups for projects which “increase the capacity” of the group, involve partnerships among groups, and encourage participating by under-represented communities.
Friends of Trees starts planting season
It’s tree planting season, and Friends of Trees is offering trees for sale to property owners for planting in their parking strips.
Prices range from $35 to $75 depending on the type of tree and neighborhood; a fraction of the commercial price. All trees offered are “appropriate” to the site, with roots systems calculated not to cause damage and maximum heights that won’t extend into overhead wires.
The price includes required City permits, and planting by volunteers. In return, owners must pledge to care for and water the tree for at least two years.
Here are scheduled deadlines and plantings for southeast neighborhoods:
For Creston-Kenilworth, Foster-Powell, Kerns, Laurelhurst, North Tabor, Reed, South Tabor and Sunnyside: reserve trees by December 17 for a January 19 planting.
For Mountavilla and Mount Tabor: Reserve by January 28 for a March 2 planting.
For some neighborhoods, the deadline for tree purchase is past, but you may still be in time for the plantings.
For Buckman, Hosford-Abernethy and Richmond, the planting will be December 1, with volunteers gathering at St. Paul Lutheran Church parking lot, 3880 SE Brooklyn St.
For Brentwood-Darlington, Mount Scott-Arleta and Woodstock, the day is December 8 at Our Lady of Sorrows Church, 5329 SE Woodstock Blvd. In all cases, the deadline is 9 am.
Come ready and dressed for physical and dirty work, possibly in the rain, and bring work gloves. Crew chiefs supply instruction, and you’ll get coffee and pastries before, pizza afterwards, and a chance to meet new friends throughout. You’ll also get exercise and the satisfaction of helping make a neighborhood a nicer place to live.
For more information call 503.282.8846 or visit www.friendsoftrees.org.