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Owners of Portland’s new generation of mixed-use buildings are hungry for commercial tenants, and restaurants are highly desired. Yet their presence below high-end apartments and offices has at times presented problems.

Greg Goodman, president of Downtown Development Group, met recently with the owners of Stretch the Noodle, a popular Chinese food cart in downtown Portland. They are considering a move into a brick-and-mortar location.

Goodman is seeking commercial tenants for his new building at Southwest Third Avenue and Ash Street. Construction of the six-story building is in the final stages, with a temporary certificate of occupancy in hand.

Discussions between the restaurateurs and the landlord came to a halt, however, after Goodman’s HVAC contractor, which handles the ventilation system, warned him that a Chinese restaurant would not be a good fit for a building with residential units, because of cooking smells and smoke, Goodman said.

Downtown Development Group is still actively seeking tenants for the building 鈥� possibly a different restaurant, a fitness center or another retailer.

鈥淲e’re looking at everything and anything,鈥� Goodman said.

The building, designed by GBD Architects, has 130 apartment units above the ground floor. Of those, 20 percent are designated as affordable at 80 percent of median family income.

Conflicts between restaurants and residents are becoming more common as urban density increases and developers seek buzz-worthy restaurants as ground-floor tenants.

For landlords, restaurants are often regarded as attractive tenants, generating foot traffic and publicity. And in Portland, it’s a way for designers to satisfy central city design guidelines that call for ground-floor 鈥渁ctive uses.鈥� Restaurants have also helped fill some of the gap left by the shift of much traditional retail to online commerce.

Typically, restaurants operate in mixed-use buildings without giving rise to any major problems, landlords said. But there have been other incidents.

In a recent episode that garnered extensive media coverage, developer Cairn Pacific was forced to install a rooftop scrubber on The Carson, a new building in Slabtown, to alleviate smoke coming from Mama Bird, a fried-chicken restaurant run by chef Gabriel Pascuzzi.

Residents of The Carson and a neighboring Cairn Pacific building, the L.L. Hawkins, complained, spurring the ventilation upgrade.

Installation of the scrubber is expected to cost Cairn Pacific approximately $125,000 to $150,000, principal Tom DiChiara said. Final costs are still being tallied, but the equipment seems to have solved the problem, he said.

鈥淭his wasn’t a cheap repair, but it seems to work to address the issues we were having,鈥� DiChiara said. 鈥淚t’s been up and running for a few weeks, and we haven’t had any complaints.鈥�

The smoke issues presented by Mama Bird were a 鈥渦nique circumstance鈥� because of its wood-burning stove and nearby apartments, DiChiara said.

鈥淚’ve done many, many mixed-use buildings and never had these issues,鈥� he said.

Duane Simard, who owns and operates Stretch the Noodle with his wife, Xuemei, said he was disappointed to not reach an agreement to occupy the 230 Ash location. Duane Simard said the couple engaged a consultant, toured the space and prepared a proposal before they were told it wouldn’t work.

鈥淚t did bother me that they would say our food had an odor 鈥� that it’s odiferous,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t has a very nice aroma.鈥�

Stretch the Noodle currently operates out of a food cart at Southwest Third Avenue and Washington Street, where regulars often wait 40 minutes for hand-pulled chao mian and other dishes.

Simard said he suspects delays in arranging financing for the restaurant also played a role in the Goodmans’ decision to move on.

鈥淚 really like Greg,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 wish we could have worked that out.鈥�

There are other examples of Chinese restaurants at mixed-use buildings in Portland. Beam Development‘s building at Southeast Eighth Avenue and Stark Street is home to Danwei Canting, a restaurant that focuses on food from Beijing. The restaurant is vented to the roof, Beam principal Jonathan Malsin said, and hasn’t posed problems with smoke and odors 鈥� even with a roof deck near the vent.

鈥淚t hasn’t been an issue,鈥� he said.

Beam also hasn’t had any issues with Wa Kitchen Kuu, a ground-floor restaurant at the Slate building at the Burnside bridgehead, Malsin said. Slate has office space and residences above the ground floor.

Other mixed-use buildings also house restaurants that heavily feature smoked or fried meats, including Bullard on the ground floor of Provenance Hotels‘ Woodlark Building. Provenance did not respond to an email message for comment.

Approximately four locations, including Mama Bird, have given rise to smoke complaints in the past year, Multnomah County spokeswoman Kate Willson stated in an email message. Details on the complaints were not immediately available.

Elsewhere, a Houston restaurant called Turkey Leg Hut in November was ordered to temporarily stop smoking meat at night after neighbors filed a lawsuit, . And in 2016, a restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was forced to shut off its grills after neighbors complained. The restaurant switched to cooking with gas, a .

Going forward, developers will need to tackle these issues during build-out, DiChiara said.

鈥淟essons learned,鈥� he said.