Lee Fehrenbacher//August 23, 2013//

Mike Giomi looks forward to the day the industrial past of the Albina Fuel site in Northeast Portland is but a distant memory.
“When the Albina Fuel company decided to move to Vancouver, we were very excited to create something – I don’t want to say a gateway – that would bring in the Broadway corridor with something that was very attractive to the neighborhood,” said Giomi.
Giomi is married to a member of the Arntson family, which has owned the 4.9-acre property at the corner of Northeast 33rd Avenue and Broadway for the past 100 years. Giomi has managed it since 2003.
“[We wanted it to be] something to be proud of because it was a family legacy,” Giomi said.
After a decade of planning and with Capstone Partners as its development partner, the family is finally a bit closer to realizing its far-off vision. Capstone’s $60 million Grant Park Village, which boasts one of the tallest cranes in the city, is moving full-steam ahead.
But as the project takes shape, so are blueprints for a second and third phase, which when completed could easily double the project’s scope.
Chris Nelson, a principal at Capstone Partners, said the development team has started master planning for the second and third phases of development and is in discussions with numerous retailers. He said the second phase will include at least 150 residential units as well as additional retail space.
Phase one is slated to have 211 units and a 35,000-square-foot New Seasons Market as the anchor tenant. Nelson said New Seasons has been a big draw for other retailers, but the site has merit on its own.
“I think what we liked about the site, and even more so now, is it’s a large site that could support a major development,” Nelson said. “One thing that we found – and New Seasons obviously saw this as well – is you have the Hollywood area and the Broadway trade area, but Broadway peters out at 15th [Avenue]. So there’s a gap between the more formal Hollywood District and what I would call the west edge of the Broadway corridor.”
Capstone hopes Grant Park Village, which is named for the Grant Park neighborhood directly to the north, will bridge that gap and also offer a connection to the Laurelhurst Neighborhood to the south across Interstate 84. Nelson’s team interviewed with the Arntsons to develop the site back in 2003, but the family chose Spokane, Wash.-based SRM Development.
SRM’s concept also involved the construction of 300-odd condo units, and progressed all the way through design review before dying during the recession. Capstone re-approached the Arntsons in 2011 with plans to revive the project. This past May, Capstone closed on a $41 million construction loan from Key Bank.
Giomi thinks Grant Park Village will be an impetus for further development in Northeast Portland. Meanwhile, discussions for lease opportunities are underway, though perhaps not for long.
“We expect the project to lease up very quickly,” Nelson said.