Prosper Portland is preparing to take over approximately three-quarters of a block in Old Town Chinatown, with long-term plans to offer the property for redevelopment.

The site is Block 25, a 0.62-acre parcel that has been used for parking by NW Natural. The utility company is decamping from its building nearby, One Pacific Square, for a new office at 250 S.W. Taylor St.

Prosper Portland plans to move toward issuing a request for proposals. The agency will reach out to the Old Town Chinatown community, spokesman Shawn Uhlman said.

“We’re looking at a robust process over the summer months and the early fall,” he said. “That could help define what goes into an RFP – probably, it will end up being an RFP at this point. That, I would assume, would probably be in late fall.”

Block 25 is bounded by Northwest Third and Fourth avenues and Flanders and Glisan streets. The block is northwest of Lan Su Chinese Garden. NW Natural was given the right to use 116 parking spaces on the lot as part of the utility’s 99-year lease agreement with the city for construction of the Chinese garden in 1995.

The parking agreement will terminate 60 days after NW Natural vacates, which is anticipated sometime in 2020. The city gets revenue from evening and nighttime parking on the block.

Two other properties on the block are owned by Blanchet House – a charity group that offers meals and housing. No changes are planned to those properties for now.

“We’ll certainly track what their plans are as we’re thinking about redevelopment, and I’m sure it will come up in the community as well,” said Lisa Abuaf, development manager for Prosper Portland.

At an April 11 meeting, Prosper Portland approved an intergovernmental agreement to accept conveyance of the property from the city’s Office of Management & Finance.

Future redevelopment of the block is seen as part of an action plan to revitalize Old Town Chinatown. Earlier portions of the plan included redevelopment of the Society Hotel and Block 8L at Northwest First Avenue and Davis Street.

The area is part of a historic district with design guidelines required for any redevelopment.

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The new Blanchet House of Hospitality is rising quickly at Northwest Glisan Street and Third Avenue in Portland’s Old Town district. The four-story building will house a ground-floor kitchen and dining area to provide meals to the hungry, as well as three floors of no-cost transitional housing. General contractor is building the -designed structure. Here’s what the completed building should look like:

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General contractor is building a new four-story facility for the Blanchet House of Hospitality, which will include a first-floor kitchen and dining area and three floors of residential space.

More photos after the jump

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General contractor Fortis Construction is building a new four-story facility for the Blanchet House of Hospitality, which will include a first-floor kitchen and dining area and three floors of residential space.

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The Blanchet House of Hospitality will officially launch its “kick-off”party today to celebrate the construction of a multimillion dollar facility to replace its current location.

About $12 million dollars will go into the new building, which will replace a 100-year-old building that has served the nonprofit in its mission to feed the needy. Since 1952, the Blanchet House has served more than 15 million meals and provided transitional housing for thousands of men who trade room and board for stints  serving meals.

The construction is expected to take 12 to 13 months.

The new construction project is made possible thanks to city grants as well as private donations. Notable contributions came from Scott Duffens, who donated $500,000; the Murdock Trust, which awarded $450,000; as well as the Maybelle Clark MacDonald Fund, which awarded $150,000.

When: 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Where:  Northwest Third Avenue and Glisan Street

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Northwest Infrastructure is demolishing the Dirty Duck building for general contractor Fortis Construction, who will be building the Blanchet House of Hospitality homeless center on the site.

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Northwest Infrastructure is demolishing the Dirty Duck building for general contractor Fortis Construction, who will be building the Blanchet House of Hospitality homeless shelter on the site. Michael Martin, right, an apprentice laborer with Northwest Infrastructure, sprays water to contain dust as a building at the corner of Northwest Third Avenue and Glisan Street is demolished today.

More photos after the jump.

Northwest Infrastructure employees Dontay Martin, left, a journeyman heavy equipment operator with Local 701, and Neil Meokie, a heavy equipment operator, remove a ceiling beam from the building.

A cloud of dust envelopes Northwest Infrastructure owner Michael Martin as he removes bricks from the building’s facade.

Antonio Gastulem, a journeyman laborer with Local 320 and employee of Northwest Infrastructure, removes a piece of rubble from the building.

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In the next week, crews from Fortis Construction are expected to start demolishing the former Dirty Duck building, in Portland at Northwest Glisan Street and Third Avenue, to make way for a new home for Blanchet House of Hospitality.

Blanchet House serves meals to the hungry and provides no-cost transitional housing at its existing location, adjacent to the site. The new building will be designed for longevity.

“The current building is very old and crumbling,” said Bill Reilly, a Blanchet House board member. “An analysis showed that it didn’t make financial sense to update it. What we’re looking for is a building that will last us 50 to 100 years and not cost a lot to operate.”

The new building is expected to have the same utility costs as the existing one – a noteworthy feat because it will be three times the size, said Joe Pinzone, principal-in-charge for the project. A highly efficient building envelope and other features are expected to help the project achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold certification.

Also, the structure will allow Blanchet House to serve more meals, and let clients line up inside instead of along the sidewalk. The number of spaces for transitional housing will eventually double from the present maximum of 30 to 60.

Warm touches such as upgraded carpeting and wood finishes will make the new building feel less institutional. The design team spent a lot of time to ensure that housing areas feel like individual, personal spaces.

“We want to help invite the public to see what the Blanchet mission is,” Pinzone said. “On the current building, there is one door and no windows on the main floor. The new design has a lot of transparency on the main floor. You can see in and out.”

A different approach is required to design for an organization like Blanchet House, rather than a “normal” commercial project, Pinzone said.

“One thing you consider is the number of air changes you provide. People may be sick, so you have to find what is an appropriate level,” he said. “That’s a consideration you don’t often enter into in a normal commercial project.”

The finishes on the main floor, where meals are served, are especially sturdy because of the harsh cleaning materials used there.

“Blanchet does quite a bit of bleach mopping. Materials have to be able to stand up to those cleaning products,” Pinzone said.

One of the most deceptive challenges was to design the building’s systems for simplicity, Pinzone said.

“All systems are maintained by residents, who may not have the specific skills to maintain these systems and who rotate out every three to five months,” he said. “The challenge was to make the systems very straightforward and very intuitive. It takes attention to detail to pull that off.”

The building’s exterior has its own story. The team initially planned to keep it simple, to respect the limited budget, Pinzone said. But that design received pushback from the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission and staffers because they felt it didn’t fit into the character of the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood.

The final design has more touches to make it “look historic,” Pinzone said. SERA team members also worked with the nearby Portland Classical Chinese Garden to add some Chinese architectural influences, such as ornamental hand railings.

The final result will be “comfortable, but not ostentatious,” Pinzone said. “We accounted for a broad spectrum of competing interests.”

General Contractor Fortis Construction next week will start demolition of the site’s existing building. Crews expect to break ground for the new building in early fall.

The total project cost is $11.9 million. Blanchet House will trade its existing land and building to obtain the PDC lot for the new facility.

In addition to SERA Architects, project team members include: developer Melvin Mark; PAE, mechanical and electrical engineering; KPFF, structural engineering; MGH, civil engineering; Welsh Commissioning, commissioning; PRC, envelope consulting; and RSA Inc., kitchen design.

The SERA design team includes: Paul Jeffreys, project designer; John Smith, project manager; Josh Lupkin, job captain; and Carissa Mylin, interiors.

“On the Boards” is a weekly feature that spotlights local firms’ best design work. Submissions from architectural and engineering firms are encouraged. Please email ontheboards@djcoregon.com or call 503-802-7240.

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Portland City Council on Wednesday tentatively approved a permit for the demolition of the Kiernan Building, also known as the former home of the Dirty Duck Tavern.

A plan is in place to replace the building in the historic Chinatown District with a new three- or four-story facility for the Blanchet House, which provides services to the homeless.

Next week, the demolition permit will come before City Council again before final approval is given.

At the council hearing, preservationists expressed concern that approving the demolition of the Kiernan Building would open the door for smaller historic commercial structures in the area to be demolished.

“This building is part of an already fragile district,” landmarks commissioner Art DeMuro said. “There is so much active planning going on in that area that is designed for more demolition that I fear testimony given today will be used for the next building.”

Despite a report compiled by Bureau of Development Services staff that advised against approving the demolition, all city commissioners, except Amanda Fritz, voted ‘yes.’ The consensus was that the services provided by a new facility for the Blanchet House outweighed the significance of the building, which is in disrepair and has no major ties to Chinese culture.

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The former home of the Dirty Duck is targeted for demolition to clear space for a LEED-certified homeless shelter, though an advisory panel may recommend saving the World War I-era structure.

The Dirty Duck building, located at the corner of Northwest Third Avenue and Northwest Glisan Street, would be torn down as part of a land swap between the Portland Development Commission, which owns the building, and the Blanchet House of Hospitality, a non-profit homeless center next door.

Blanchet officials want to tear down the Dirty Duck and build a three-to-four-story building for the nonprofit. Portland’s Historic Landmarks Commission is scheduled to hold a demolition review on Jan. 11.

At least one landmarks commissioner, Richard Engeman, said he plans to recommend denying the demolition. Engeman said in a phone interview Monday that it’s “unfortunate” public money would be used “to destroy a publicly designated historic resource.”

Built in 1916 or 1917, the Dirty Duck building sits in the city’s Chinatown National Register Historic District

“If that building is demolished, I feel that it truly endangers the entire district,” Engeman said.

The landmarks commission will give advice on the plan to Portland Bureau of Development Services, which will then make a recommendation to the City Council, which has final say on the demolition.

BDS spokesman Ross Caron could not immediately confirm how often the council, in voting on various projects, has agreed with the commission’s recommendations.

Other than Engeman, landmarks commissioners either declined to comment or could not be reached for comment this past week. But at a previous hearing, on Aug. 24, they criticized plans to demolish the one-story, green-and-cream colored structure.

Commissioner Brian Emerick, for instance, said razing the Dirty Duck “erodes that entire corner of the district.”

“People keep saying it’s on the edge of the district, as though that’s, you know, less important,” Commissioner Paul Salimano said during the hearing.

Formally known as the Kiernan Building, the Dirty Duck building got its nickname from its most prominent tenant, Gail’s Dirty Duck Tavern, a gay bar that shut down Aug. 23, after 25 years in business.

The Portland Development Commission bought the property in September 1999, as part of a redevelopment strategy for the entire block, said John Warner, a senior development manager with the agency.

He said the commission in 2002 earmarked $2 million to give the Blanchet House so it could build a new facility somewhere else. In exchange, he said, the group would deed its property, at Northwest Fourth Avenue and Northwest Glisan Street, to the commission.

The deal later changed to include giving Blanchet House the Dirty Duck property next door. Terms of the deal were finalized roughly a year ago, and as part of the swap, Blanchet would still get the $2 million.

Bill Reilly, a Blanchet House board member, said tearing down the Dirty Duck and building a new facility would cost an estimated $9 million to $10 million.

He said construction would last 13 months, and the group would operate from its existing facility while the center is being built. He also said the group wants the building to earn Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum certification.

Founded in 1952, Blanchet House serves up to 800 meals a day, typically to homeless and low-income people. It also offers temporary housing for homeless men.

Reilly and other officials there say a new building is needed to get more ground-floor space, allowing clients to line up for food inside the building, not outside, as they currently do.

It would also give them a bigger kitchen, and if the building is three floors high – the group has an option for a fourth story – up to 48 men could sleep there at any time, compared to the roughly 30 who can now sleep at the existing Blanchet House facility.

Nevertheless, Reilly said he didn’t know what the group would do if its demolition plans are denied. He noted the cost of refurbishing the Dirty Duck “would be way beyond what our budget is.”

According to a November 2008 report from the Portland Development Commission, the Dirty Duck is “functionally and physically obsolete” and would need heavy investment “to extend its useful life.”

“We don’t have a backup plan at this point,” Reilly said.

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