By Kris McDowell
At the end of March, Imperial Bottle Shop & Taproom owners Alex Kurnellas and Shawn Stackpoole received notice from the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) that their furniture in the street plaza on SE 31st Ave., which had been in place since the pandemic, would have to be removed. Imperial was given approximately 29 days to remove the furnishings.
Imperial, at the corner of SE Division St. and SE 31st Ave., had applied for, and received, a Healthy Business space for outdoor dining during the pandemic. Initially, the street was only closed on weekends with the business putting out furniture each day and bringing it back in at night. Eventually, the furniture and A-frame seating set ups designed to keep people safe and warm during the winter were a regular fixture on the fully closed street. Throughout the life of the permitted space, customers of Imperial and other nearby businesses and neighbors utilized it, and it became a community space. Parents could feel comfortable with their children in the area that was free of cars and local musicians often played.
By early 2023, Imperial was notified that the Healthy Business program would be ending and rolled into the outdoor dining program. With the status of the outdoor seating and closed street in limbo during the transition, Kurnellas said that they were essentially on a month to month lease. While there were a “couple of touch points” with Imperial between then and early 2025, nothing solid was communicated in terms of the future of the space. According to Dylan Rivera, PBOT Public Information Officer, “The PBOT plaza program wanted to take this site under our program, with modifications, in order to save it. During that process, there was a nearby fire. Just before noon on February 26, Fire & Rescue crews responded to a fire in a home at 2525 and 2527 SE 31st Ave., just south of Imperial Bottle Shop.”
The fire brought the outdoor space to the attention of the fire department because “there was a person inside the burning building awaiting response from firefighters, who were delayed because they had to drive around the block. Because the plaza did not have a city permit, it was not on the maps that firefighters use, so they did not anticipate the need to take another route to reach the site. When firefighters gained access to the street south of the plaza, they had difficulty reaching the fire hydrant on the east side of the street, which was obstructed by the furniture that was in the street,” said Rivera.
After plaza coordinators, traffic engineers, fire inspectors and the Fire Marshall evaluated numerous scenarios regarding the street closure, it was determined that the plaza on SE 31st Ave. would not be feasible and furnishings would have to be removed from the street by April 29. Kurnellas noted that while the fire department provided meaningful feedback, the issue was non-negotiable.
Imperial announced via social media the need to remove their furnishings and received significant community support. People wanted to put together petitions to oppose the decision, Kurnellas said, “But deconstructing, moving, storing, moving back and reconstructing everything would be an endeavor that costs us a decent amount of money and, more importantly, a lot of our time.” The decision was “discouraging” after the winter season, when they and many other businesses see lower revenues. Imperial had also suffered multiple break-ins and incurred losses related to repairing the damage.
Not one to give up entirely, Kurnellas applied for the $1,200 permit to have sidewalk seating along SE 31st Ave. as a replacement for the street space. Under the permit’s regulations, he was able to configure seating so that he only lost the use of one of the tables that had been in the street plaza, and is “confident that we’ll be able to keep the same vibe and community going with our new set up.”
Kurnellas said, “PBOT was great working with the entire time.” Rivera went on to explain that, “PBOT has worked closely with the owner of Imperial…[and] ensured Imperial was not penalized for the fire violations from their street closure obstructions…during the adjacent building fire, since we were working with this business toward a transition to a plaza with new site plan at the time.” Kurnellas is also appreciative for the support and assistance Mayor Wilson’s office provided facilitating conversations with both PBOT and the fire department.
Imperial’s former street plaza on SE 31st Ave. looking south from Division St., provided ample seating for the neighborhood. Photo by Imperial.
