91视频

There鈥檚 a buzz about town that the St. Johns neighborhood in north Portland is on the cusp of change. It just needs someone to get the ball rolling.

鈥淚 think the St. Johns area didn鈥檛 get any great surge in newer multifamily apartment communities when the surge was on and so it鈥檚 our feeling that there鈥檚 a need for some really nice apartment communities,鈥� said Michael McKenna, president of Summit Real Estate Management. 鈥淓verybody needs a few more apartments because even though the economy鈥檚 not fabulous, there鈥檚 still population growth. And where are they going to live? Not everybody鈥檚 going to buy a house.鈥�

Summit is planning to build a 72-unit apartment complex, called Cathedral Park Village, at 6825 N. Salem Ave. The 42,219-square-foot complex will include a mix of studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and loft units in three three-story buildings. Project plans are presently being reviewed by city officials.

The development will be near the St. Johns Bridge and North Lombard Street 鈥� a thoroughfare in the neighborhood鈥檚 downtown area. And while Summit hopes to draw on strong rental demographics citywide, the project鈥檚 success will likely be tied to the fate of the burgeoning area.

鈥淪t. Johns is definitely one of the areas that I see as still an area that you can buy into pretty inexpensively,鈥� said Risa Davis, principal broker of Nouveau Realty Group in Portland and a resident in the Cathedral Park neighborhood. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 just on the corner of turning, so it鈥檚 a good place to buy into in hopes that you鈥檙e going to gain value pretty quickly over the next few years.鈥�

Davis said business is beginning to pick up in the neighborhood and that she and her husband are planning to build a 36-room boutique hotel on North Lombard Street with an upscale restaurant on the ground floor. They鈥檙e hoping to have financing lined up by next month. Risa Davis said McKenna鈥檚 development will be a welcome addition because its residents will be able to support the local businesses that have popped up in recent months.

But St. Johns has had its economic woes.

Tim Manickam, a real estate agent with JMA Properties, said property values in St. Johns had increased steadily in the 10 years prior to 2008. But many of those values dropped when the economy collapsed.

In 2010, condominiums were proposed for the Cathedral Park Village site. However, Chesapeake Holdings LLC was halfway through construction of some condos nearby when M&T Bank became owner of that complex and the vacant lot on North Salem Avenue.

鈥淭hey had aspirations of building out the rest of this land as condos but the market certainly ended that dream,鈥� McKenna said.

McKenna said the design for the $6.5 million (including land costs) apartment complex isn鈥檛 drastically different from the condominium project that Chesapeake originally proposed. In fact, the project鈥檚 architect, Otak Inc., is the same company that designed the sidelined condos. But a lot has changed in the past two years.

Recent data from Nick Krautter at Keller Williams Realty shows the for-sale housing inventory in St. Johns at 3.3 months (where six months represents a balanced market between buyers and sellers). That seller鈥檚 market makes for a strong rental market as well.

Jennifer Nye, an Otak architect, said she also thought the Cathedral Park Village project would help satisfy unmet demand.

鈥淚t鈥檚 one of the few areas around Portland that鈥檚 begging for a little bit of redevelopment,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a great location being close to the river; there鈥檚 transit nearby. It鈥檚 a fairly low income area and I think this will bring some diversity there.鈥�

To help foster a sense of permanence, Nye said the exterior facade will feature heavy, hardy materials like brick and fiber cement siding. Most units will come with laundry appliances, and the building will also have several private garages as well as carports.

Andrew De Veux, chairman of the Friends of Cathedral Park neighborhood association, said there are few apartment complexes in the area. He said he hopes the variety of unit sizes will draw single adults and young families to the neighborhood.

鈥淭here are a lot of new businesses over there in Cathedral Park Place and supporting them is key,鈥� De Veux said. 鈥淗opefully it will allow people, when they have families, to move out into the neighborhood from those apartments into bigger areas and hopefully they鈥檒l stay in the community.鈥�

Davis thinks those people may be surprised by what they find.

鈥淲e鈥檙e only 10 minutes from downtown and I think people normally forget that,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he inner Southeast is getting pretty expensive to lease and the folks that like that sort of a community 鈥� the Clinton area, the edginess 鈥� would be happy to come out here if they just hung out here a little bit.鈥�