A mixed-use development that will top out at eight stories won approval from the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission on Monday.

ARCOA Partners‘ project is planned for 1006 S.E. Grand Ave., within the East Portland/Grand Avenue Historic District.

Commissioners said the design had improved from earlier iterations, providing a path to approval.

“You heard and understood the comments and concerns of the commission and from my standpoint really addressed all of them,” Commissioner Andrew Smith said.

The project will add an eight-story, 75,932-square-foot mixed-use building to the existing U.S. Laundry Building (also known as the Arcoa Building). A two-story “sidecar” building will also be constructed, and a non-original, one-story building will be removed. The three-story U.S. Laundry Building was built in 1907.

Ink:Built Architecture was able to ease concerns about the planned 85-foot height and imposing size. The use of three separate forms helped reduce the apparent mass, commissioners said.

“We’re so often told larger buildings can never get approved, but you came in here and really worked with us,” Commissioner Matthew Roman said.

Vice Chairwoman Maya Foty likewise praised the project’s “elegant, thoughtful design that relates to the historical without being literal.”

ARCOA’s program calls for a mix of market-rate and affordable housing units on the upper floors and ground-floor retail space, residential amenities and mechanized parking.

The owner is ARCOA Partners, a limited liability company. Serving as owner’s representative is Eric Myers of Portland’s Arcoa Opportunity Funds LLC.

The commission approved the project 4-0, with votes from Chairwoman Kristen Minor, Foty, Roman and Smith.  Ernestina Fuenmayor was not present, and the commission has two vacancies.

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A proposal for an eight-story mixed-use building in Portland’s Central Eastside drew skeptical responses from members of the Historic Landmarks Commission this week.

An 85-foot-tall structure would rise at 1006 S.E. Grand Ave., and incorporate the U.S. Laundry Building – a contributing historic resource constructed in 1907. The project, valued at $9.8 million, is being pitched by ARCOA Partners, a limited liability company. Ink:Built Design of Portland is providing design services.

The project team received design advice from the Historic Landmarks Commission on Monday. Commissioners raised a number of issues with the scale, boldness and materiality of the proposal.

“I’m not against something more modern – and we have voted for more modern expressions – but not this large,” Commissioner Matthew Roman said. “It seems like it’s well out of scale with the adjoining context.”

Difficulties have arisen for heavily residential proposals in historic districts, where a need for more housing often clashes with stakeholders’ desire to maintain existing character. The Central Eastside is increasingly being targeted by developers looking to build relatively close to downtown.

Commissioners referred to precedents, including Grand + Belmont – a 131-unit apartment building nearby.

“We supported Grand + Belmont at about this height, and that was a bridgehead project, and I came around to voting for that because the applicant really sought a more compatible building,” Roman said.

Commissioner Maya Foty also said the building, as proposed, would clash with the context of the neighborhood.

“I feel like this is trying to be a statement building when it needs to be more of a background building,” she said.

The proposed height would be within the 100-foot limit for the property, but not necessarily suitable, according to Foty.

“The height, to me, it’s very large,” she said. “It’s very tall in this location.”

The building would offer studios and apartments with one or two bedrooms on upper floors. (The number of units was not included in project materials). The ground floor would have retail space, amenity spaces for residents, and mechanized, stacked parking.

Neighbors requested the building include as much parking as possible, Ink:Built Design principal architect Nate Ember said.

“The neighborhood really needs it,” he said, “especially if we have the Green Loop – we won’t have as much on-street parking.”

The building would adjoin the planned Green Loop on Southeast Sixth Avenue. That may pose an obstacle for alignment of the parking entrance; proposed access would be from Sixth Avenue. The Portland Bureau of Transportation is discouraging construction of new curb cuts along the Green Loop, said Teresa Montalvo, the bureau’s land-use review development supervisor.

“Because of the Green Loop, because we don’t have the standards yet – but we know fragmenting it all along the loop with driveways and creating conflicts is not going to give us what we have envisioned for this great park-like facility through the city,” she said. “So we’re starting to say if you’re on that frontage, and if you have another frontage you can go on, then we’re not going to permit off the top that driveway along the Green Loop alignment.”

A return for the project team before the Historic Landmarks Commission for a design review hearing has not been scheduled yet.

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