91视频

Time is growing short for downtown Portland’s largest food-cart pod as construction of a 35-story tower nears. A diverse group of cart entrepreneurs now has few options.

Developer Walter Bowen’s BPM Real Estate Group aims to break ground on the Block 216 project in June or July 2019, said Brian Owendoff, a real estate broker who is representing Bowen. The carts would be evicted before then, although the exact timetable is unclear.

Bowen, through spokesman Pat Walsh, declined to answer questions. More information would be available in the 鈥渇irst quarter鈥� of 2019, Walsh stated.

Some food-cart owners said they were actively looking to move, or establish brick-and-mortar restaurants. But many others weren’t sure what they’ll do when they are forced to vacate the block bounded by Southwest Ninth and 10th avenues, and Washington and Alder streets.

鈥淲e really don’t know where to go,鈥� said Lin Chen, owner and operator of Shanghai’s Best Street Food, a cart that sells Chinese steam buns. 鈥淚 hope somebody can help us. I still want to do the food cart, but I don’t know where.鈥�

Carts have been on the West End block since Altengartz, a bratwurst cart, opened in 2000. At the pod’s peak, more than 50 food carts lined the block’s edges.

Food-cart boosters have suggested several ways forward. A small group of civic activists recently proposed to the City Council a concept they call the Culinary Corridor for food carts to line Southwest Ninth Avenue from O’Bryant Square to Director Park.

Randy Gragg, part of the informal group, last week met with city officials from various bureaus and the mayor’s office.

鈥淚t’s pretty clear that they want it to happen,鈥� he said. 鈥淎fter our presentation at council, it seems like everyone’s engaged. I’ve had a lot of conversations at City Hall, and there seems to be enthusiasm.鈥�

Gragg is pushing for a phased approach that would begin with minimal infrastructure.

鈥淲hat I’m advocating for is let’s get something going,鈥� he said. 鈥淟et’s try something out, and we can go back and retrofit it with infrastructure if it’s working out as a retail concept.鈥�

Food carts can get by on little more than electricity, but new pods are providing more infrastructure. Beaverton’s BG Food Cartel was built from the ground up as a food-cart pod, so it has dedicated electricity 鈥� meaning no extension cords run around the block 鈥� and is connected to sewer, so wastewater removal is unnecessary.

Portland isn’t going to let the carts go without a fight. Mayor Ted Wheeler has embraced the Culinary Corridor concept, and the city’s planning and transportation bureaus are trying to figure out how to make it work.

鈥淣ationally, we are known for our food carts,鈥� said Kyle Chisek, director of bureau relations and policy for the mayor’s office. 鈥淲e did something really interesting here in Portland, and we want to take this to the next level. This Culinary Corridor concept 鈥� we want to move forward on it.鈥�

The city is investigating permanently placing food carts along Ninth Avenue, Chisek said. That would involve utility hook-ups, he said.

鈥淔or a permanent installation, yeah, we would be pulling utilities,鈥� he said.

City bureaus are also looking at where to put carts temporarily until infrastructure can be built. Staffers are focusing on the Ninth Avenue corridor as a temporary option as well, Chisek said.

Timing is in question. Fully developing something like the proposed Culinary Corridor could take years 鈥� far too long for the Block 216 cart owners to transition without disruption.

Some cart owners were philosophical, if not resigned. Food carts, after all, are meant to be mobile and occupy space in the urban grid wherever the customers are. And no one expected a full block in the heart of downtown Portland to remain undeveloped forever.

鈥淚 think everybody’s just going to scatter to the winds and see where they end up,鈥� said Matt Breslow, who opened a Grilled Cheese Grill cart, his third at the time, on the downtown block in 2012. 鈥淚t’s kind of sad. But what are you going to do? It’s America.鈥�

Breslow said he is scouting locations for a possible brick and mortar version of Grilled Cheese Grill. He also has a cart on Northeast Alberta Street to fall back on.

As Portland loses food carts, the suburbs are gaining. BG Food Cartel in Beaverton opened Feb. 1 and now has 29 carts, with two vacancies.

鈥淭he suburbs want them,鈥� said Dana Bigi, a co-owner with two brothers of the Beaverton pod. 鈥淎s downtown is pushing these people out, the suburbs are willing to open up their lots.鈥�

James King, owner of The Frying Scotsman fish and chips carts, saw the signs and moved recently from the downtown block to Beaverton.

鈥淚 knew it was coming to an end,鈥� he said.

King said he considered opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant, but couldn’t find an affordable location. He applied to BG Food Cartel and was accepted.

鈥淚’m actually busier in Beaverton than I was downtown,鈥� he said.

Portland food carts were featured on television travel shows and articles ranking the best ones. Travel Portland, the city’s tourism organization, has used the Block 216 pod’s food carts in its marketing materials.

The downtown pod hosts a free-wheeling collection of international food of a breadth that is nearly impossible to find elsewhere. The many gyro and Middle Eastern carts are joined by others selling Mexican, Italian, German, Greek, Thai, Chinese, Japanese and American.

Kyohei Yasukawa opened a Japanese fried chicken cart, Donya, on Block 216 after working as a sushi chef at several Portland restaurants. The city will be losing a popular tourist attraction, he said.

鈥淚 just think this city is going to be really boring,鈥� Yasukawa said. 鈥淭here’s no Disneyland. There’s no aquarium.鈥�

Food carts elsewhere in Portland continue to be successful, including some at a downtown pod along Southwest Fifth Avenue between Oak and Harvey Milk streets. In other neighborhoods, pods such as Cartopia on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, and the Prost! Marketplace on North Mississippi Avenue appear to be thriving. A new pod called Hawthorne Asylum is under construction at Southeast 11th Avenue and Madison Street.

Some cart owners said the Block 216 pod peaked a couple of years ago. Nearby construction and the closure in March of O’Bryant Square, where customers would often take their lunches, have taken a toll.

Rents on Block 216 have risen as well, cart owners said. King said his rent at the downtown pod jumped from $850 to $1,100 beginning Oct. 1. Cart owners also pay for the removal of restaurant wastewater, known as 鈥済ray water,鈥� at a cost of about $400 a month.

The lot is one of several managed locally by City Center Parking, part of Impark Co., a management company based in Vancouver, British Columbia. City Center Parking referred questions to Impark, which did not respond to written questions.

Plans for the tower on Block 216 also call for a food hall with stalls fronting Ninth Avenue, which will become a Dutch-style woonerf. It’s not clear how many stalls the food hall will have or whether rents will be comparable to those paid by food carts. The building is projected to open in October 2022, Owendoff said.

鈥淚t’s just whatever we can do to help them find new places and maybe have some of them come back into the food hall in 2022,鈥� Owendoff said after the design was approved at a Dec. 13 meeting.

In the meantime, cart owners, the nomads of the restaurant world, will do what they’ve always done: move where they can.

Food carts coming to Buckman neighborhood

A new food-cart pod is projected to open in Southeast Portland in February, providing an outlet for some of the carts displaced by the impending closure of Block 216.

Owner Steve Johnson and his son Brock plan to open Hawthorne Asylum along the Buckman neighborhood’s southern edge on Feb. 1. The pod on the property bounded by Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, Madison Street, and 10th and 11th avenues was once home to the Oregon Hospital for the Insane, which was co-founded by J.C. Hawthorne.

The pod, which is currently under construction, will have room for 23 carts.

It hasn’t taken long to attract interest, Steve Johnson said.

鈥淚’m almost completely leased out in about three weeks,鈥� he said.

Johnson plans to add a three-story building on the block’s southwest corner, with two floors of creative offices over retail space.

The pod will have a Gothic feel, with a massive steel gate holding lit torches, Johnson said.

Johnson and his son are building the pod themselves. The carts will be provided individual gas and electrical meters, and they will be connected to sewer and water utilities.

Steve Johnson said he does not plan future development on the food-cart area, ensuring carts will be able to stick around.

鈥淭hese people aren’t going to be displaced in three or four or five years,鈥� he said. 鈥� Chuck Slothower