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Standing in the second story open courtyard and looking out over the northern view of the city, it’s hard to believe that a bustling grocery store is operating immediately below. Here, the west edge of the courtyard is lined with the front doors of two-story townhomes and on the east side a residential tower rises into the Portland skyline. This is Museum Place South.
At ground level, a new Safeway covers three sides of the block bounded by Southwest 10th and 11th avenues and Jefferson and Columbia streets. Windows allow pedestrians to peer inside at the store’s flowers, shoppers, and on the northeast corner of Jefferson Street, the Chinese deli’s food preparation. This visual connection to the store’s internal activity brings color and movement to the formerly quiet street fronts.
According to Andy Brown, project manager at Howard S. Wright Construction Co., the city’s design review guidelines required window areas facing the sidewalks all around the block, but this didn’t always offer passers-by an interesting perspective.
“In places where the windows were in front of Safeway’s elevator and the deli freezer, window display boxes were created instead. These will be used to showcase some of the Portland Art Museum’s collection,” explained Brown.
Safeway opened Oct. 8 and the new store was immediately filled with local residents, business people buying lunch and curious citizens who have watched the development progress. The 47,000-square-foot store is approximately 30 percent larger than the former Safeway that was situated across the street.
Like most big box grocery retailers, Safeway normally builds their stores quickly on a flat slab. The block parameters were 3,000 feet shy of a normal Safeway store, and with the townhouses, courtyard and residential tower located on its roof, the new West End Safeway had to be designed differently.
The design took advantage of the fact that 11th Avenue is 10 feet higher than 10th Avenue and a mezzanine was created. All back-of-house functions, such as produce preparation, refrigeration, storage, meat preparation and bakery activities occur on the mezzanine level. Because the mezzanine covers only part of the space, windows allow Safeway customers to look up into the bakery room. A 30-foot hood over the Chinese deli’s cooking area rises through the building seven stories high to vent out above the residential tower.
“We basically poured the slab a year ago, so we had to make sure everything was in the right place a full year before opening,” said Brown. “This is very unusual for a Safeway to be organized this way, so it took a lot of coordination to make sure everything would work well for them.”
Given the limited space on the site, Brown’s construction team also had to give extreme attention to coordination. A parking garage below Safeway extends out beneath the sidewalk, creating virtually no lay down area. Brown mentioned that subcontractors had to have just-in-time delivery, and there was room for only a few trailers on site.
One of the greatest challenges was interfacing the garage ramps with the Safeway loading dock. Safeway needed a 50-foot-long loading dock for trucks that cantilevers over the store. A smaller step dock uses the same dock entrance. The underground parking structure includes two levels with 220 total spaces. The top floor contains 110 spots for Safeway customers and the bottom has another 110 parking spaces for residents.
The configuration has the garage entrance and exit weave beneath the loading dock.
“We actually had to build a model to make sure it worked,” said Brown. “It was essential to ensure the right clearances before we got into construction.”
Safeway is working with the neighbors to work out a 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. delivery schedule to minimize impacts on the community rather than the store’s typical 24-hour delivery cycle.
Because the project is seeking LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, several sustainable elements were incorporated. The Safeway has an employee shower and bicycle parking so staff can bike to work, and atop the residential tower, an Energy Star reflective roof was applied to reduce the heat island effect.
The six-story residential tower has 128 apartments with 28 of these designated for residents earning less than 50 percent of the area median family income. Within the tower, the one-story apartments range from 560 to 1,330 square feet and have 10-foot-high ceilings. In addition, there are six two-story units and two penthouse units at the corners of the tower.
Typically, each floor has 23 units. Every floor was designed with different colors and various kitchen configurations are available to residents. Windows at each end of the corridor bring natural light into the hallways and exposed columns give the hallways and apartments an urban feel.
A common room with a big-screen television and kitchen on the second floor is available for residents’ use. Just beyond, tenants can access the landscaped courtyard with its big lawn, curved landscaping, outdoor seating and barbeque area. This courtyard also serves as the “front lawn” for the 12 townhouses. On the east side of the townhomes, balconies look out over the trolley line below.
The development includes 200,073 square feet of building area and project financing came from FannieMae, U.S. Bank, the city of Portland, Portland Development Commission, GreenPark Financial and the Bernard I. Obletz Grantor Trust.
As Howard S. Wright puts the finishing touches on the tower, the new Safeway store is animated with shoppers and the 140 total rental units are filling fast.