91视频

A renovation of the city-owned SmartPark parking garage at Southwest Yamhill Street and 10th Avenue is planned, but funding is not approved yet.

Dave Benson, parking services group manager for the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), told the City Council on Wednesday that redevelopment of the seven-story building has been considered for more than a decade. He asked the council to approve an ordinance to provide $5 million for the project.

The hearing did not conclude on Wednesday; it will resume at the City Council’s July 15 meeting.

The balance of the renovation’s $25 million cost will be underwritten by the Portland Development Commission‘s garage revenue and debt financing fund, said John Brady, director of communications for PBOT.

The renovation will take about a year to design and another year to build, with construction scheduled for completion by the end of 2018, Brady said. The city is currently in negotiations with FFA Architecture and Interiors to handle the design, he added.

The garage won’t shut down altogether during construction, Benson said. Instead, one or two floors at a time will be closed. However, plans call for ground-level retail spaces to close for an entire year.

The 799-space parking garage garners the city about $1.2 million annually, but the retail spaces 鈥� 28,000 square feet in total 鈥� are costing the city between $80,000 and $100,000 each year because of low rents, Benson said. Retailers pay below market rate because the building needs extensive repairs and maintenance, he said.

鈥淭he project scope is to take care of the general and deferred maintenance and take care of seismic remediation,鈥� he said.

The city has had three engineering studies performed on the building, Benson said, and all revealed the same problems.

鈥淭here is fatigue in the holes for the sky bridge bolts across that leads to Target, there’s wear on the corbels or end beams and there’s concrete cracks and rust stains on the steel deck diaphragms, all of which will be remediated,鈥� he said.

Seismic improvements would protect life and safety in the event of an earthquake, Benson said, but not necessarily ensure continued functionality of the building. That concerned Commissioner Amanda Fritz.

鈥淲e’re paying $25 million and we don’t know if this will be up after the 鈥榖ig one?’ 鈥� she asked.

鈥淭hat depends on how you define the 鈥榖ig one,’ 鈥� Benson said. 鈥淭he problem with all hazards, for things that will absolutely stand up no matter what, are pretty high engineering standards.鈥�

鈥淗ow much will that cost?鈥� Fritz asked.

鈥淚 have no idea,鈥� Benson responded.

Chris Armes, project manager for the city, then explained that studies showed that the stairs on the building’s four corners would be most at risk if a sizable earthquake were to occur.

鈥淭he stairs are the major hazardous piece in the case of a seismic event and they will be replaced and relocated,鈥� she said.

Commissioner Nick Fish said that after an earthquake, functionality is more important for structures like hospitals than parking garages.

鈥淧arking garages are not so essential that they would require the highest level of retrofit when you have limited resources,鈥� he said.

Later in the meeting, Doug Peterson, owner of Peterson’s Convenience Store, which operates in a ground-level space in the garage building, said he had commissioned his own seismic study conducted by structural engineer Franz Rad at Portland State University. That study, he said, showed that seismic retrofitting alone would cost between $5 million and $9 million.

Peterson added that he didn’t believe retail operations would need to shut down for an entire year.