Salvage Heart

Spent some time this fall in the Woodlawn neighborhood, along NE Dekum west of Woodlawn Park, a fallen down commercial strip that you could drive past and almost see something happening at.

Now it's happening. A piece I wrote for The Oregonian on Dec. 6th barely scratches the surface.

I stumbled into the story while checking on a liquor license application for Good Neighbor Pizza, where they were finishing up build out and getting ready to host a neighborhood meeting. I came back a few days later to find almost 100 people packed in to try the new pizza and discuss neighborhood issues...at noon on a Saturday.

What's interesting is that much of this development is happening outside of "urban renewal" areas, at least as defined by the Portland Development Commission, although the PDC has extended its storefront improvement program to this part of the neighborhood.

What's also interesting is that no one major entity is driving it, and that the city is now coming in to support efforts already underway (mostly traffic and streetscape issues) with architect Stuart Emmons lending a hand.

I won't pretend to understand design issues here (we'll leave that for my reporting!), but the area is a conservation district, which is a sort of watered-down version of a historic district. So, buildings need to blend in...no ultra-modern condos here.

If there is a major player, it's Sakura Urban Concepts, a development company that owns a half-dozen properties along Dekum between MLK and the park. Most are mothballed until their mixed-use condo project gets going (Kadoya Lofts, see image at left). Or, succeeds.

There's a box factory nearby, a large parcel that now sits outside the conservation district (meaning that redevelopment--and the need to include 50% housing in any mixed use...I think--does not have to adhere to design guidelines such as the Western Storefront model. Worth watching to see whether someone picks that up.

Labels: development, Oregonian, Portland, real estate, restaurant, Woodlawn