A proposal to remake a property with deep roots in Old Town Chinatown‘s Chinese-American community has stalled after running into opposition from Portland’s Historic Landmarks Commission.

Guardian Real Estate Services aimed to reposition the Tuck Lung building, at 140 N.W. Fourth Ave. The developer purchased the building for $8.25 million in May from investor John Beardsley.

After receiving design advice from the Historic Landmarks Commission, Guardian President Tom Brenneke said it appears unlikely the commission would accept the project team’s proposed alterations. Now, the developer may give up on updating the existing building and wait until a larger one can be constructed on the property, he said.

“Our proposal was to improve the façade and install a new storefront,” he said. “We don’t feel we’re going to be successful to convince the Landmarks Commission to allow us to do that. We’re unsure of our path. It’s frustrating.”

The two-story building’s ground floor is vacant, spurring Guardian’s desire for an update, Brenneke said. The second floor is leased by Allied Health Services of Portland, which operates an addictions treatment clinic there, while the basement is leased by Beardsley.

The existing building occupies approximately a quarter-block, and opened in 1978. It was designed by Chinese-American architects Edwin and Jessie Chen, and includes a number of characteristic Chinese architectural features, including a tiled roof, hexagonal windows and the use of red and green colors, a city staff report states.

The initial design by SERA Architects would have added glazed storefront openings on the ground floor and a wooden slat screen on the second floor. The proposal called for removing railings.

Brenneke defended the design put forward by SERA and Guardian.

“We’d like to bring a more modern look,” he said. “We appreciate the Chinese culture and attempted to bring in those motifs, but it’s not a particularly attractive building at all.”

Carin Carlson, a member of the Historic Landmarks Commission, did not return messages seeking comment on the Tuck Luck proposal.

With the planned façade improvements stalled, Brenneke said he may wait until the property is ripe for full redevelopment. The existing tenants have seven to eight years remaining on their leases, he said.

“That property is long-term suited for a larger building,” he said. “That’s certainly in the back of our mind.”

The existing building is regarded as a “non-contributing” structure to the New Chinatown/Japantown Historic District. But the property has long been an anchor of Chinatown. The property was known as The Paris House (also known as the Panama Rooms) from 1889 to 1946. It had a ground-floor Chinese-American restaurant called Chop Suey and a smoke shop below an inn, according to a historical photo included in city documents.

The 39-year-old building hosted Tuck Lung, a restaurant and associated grocery store owned and operated by the Wong family. The businesses closed permanently in the 1980s.

The Tuck Lung building is part of the changing story of Old Town Chinatown. The neighborhood has a large homeless population, and much of the metro area’s Asian community has shifted to Beaverton or to the so-called Jade District in East Portland.

Guardian is among the developers pushing for a taller, more modern Old Town Chinatown that would have fewer links to its history.

Guardian also owns Block 33, the lot neighboring Tuck Lung to the west across Fourth Avenue. The parcel is currently a surface parking lot. Guardian has proposed to build a 10-story, 125-foot-tall mixed-use building on the property.

Brenneke said the Tuck Lung building’s proximity to Block 33 was part of its appeal.

“We felt that owning more rather than less in the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood was a good strategy,” he said. “It was a bit of a defensive play to gain assurances that we knew what was going to happen there (at the Tuck Lung property). And we made a good real estate deal.”

Block 33 was the subject of a design advice hearing in January. Brenneke said the project is on hold until at least Jan. 1, when the city’s 2035 Comprehensive Plan takes effect. The plan raises the allowable height on Block 33 to 125 feet, up from 100 feet.

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The Portland Historic Landmarks Commission on Monday got its first look at plans for Block 33, at 125 N.W. Fourth Ave., and advised the development team to consider closely how the building will fit in the neighborhood.

“We have been working on the project for two years,” said Daniel Kaven, a partner at William Kaven Architecture, during the design advice meeting. “It’s come a long way.”

Plans call for a full-block, mixed-use glass and brick building. Still unresolved is how tall it will be. Currently, it’s designed to stand 125 feet, but the maximum allowed height in the New Chinatown/Japantown Historic District is 100 feet.

That height limit is expected to change with new rules being reviewed by the City Council. The rules, however, wouldn’t take effect until 2018 at the earliest.

The developers had planned to submit a design for review by Feb. 1. That date is important because anything submitted thereafter will be subject to the city’s new inclusionary housing rules.

“We are still examining our options,” Kaven said. “We thought the (height) guidelines would be in place by 2016 and here we are in 2017.”

Currently, plans for Block 33 call for five stories of residential units, four levels of office space, a ground-floor retail market and more than 300 underground parking spaces spread over a 140,000-square-foot site.

“This is an unabashedly big building,” Kaven said.

Some commissioners expressed reservations over a building stretching up to even the current 100-foot maximum.

“I would counsel the applicant to look more closely at the forms in the district,” Commissioner Kristen Minor said. “You need to do a lot more context study. It’s not reflective of the district. You need to have a more fine-grain understanding of the scale and proportion at the ground floor especially.”

The size of the opening bays was also a major concern of the commissioners.

“I would agree that the bays look like you could drive one of the contributing buildings right in there,” Commissioner Matthew Roman said.

Commissioners also suggested looking at comparable districts for inspiration.

“I just wondered if you looked at other chinatowns,” Commissioner Wendy Chung said. “A giant building causes people to know they aren’t in a chinatown. This is a big step toward making it look like it’s not a chinatown.”

The commissioners weren’t the only ones with reservations about the current design. It wouldn’t win the favor of the Portland Chinatown History Foundation, said Jackie Peterson-Loomis, its executive director.

“This is not necessarily a very strong response to the guidelines,” she said. “We want it. We want housing. We want retail. But we also want something that is going to be not only compatible, but respectful of this neighborhood and its Asian-American culture.”

Commissioners did praise the modern elements, brick façade and canopies included in the design, but expressed desire for something more representative of the neighborhood.

The developers will return for a follow up design advice review on Feb. 27.

Also on Monday:

Southeast Portland garage

The commission voted 7-0 to approve a staff recommendation to deny demolition of a 94-year-old garage at 1445 S.E. Division St.

The garage, behind the house, was disassembled during an effort to convert it into an accessory dwelling unit. Contractors needed to work on the foundation, and gained access by taking apart the garage.

That was considered demolition, despite the builder’s intention to reassemble the garage using the same materials and a design approved previously. That required a trip back to the Historic Landmarks Commission because the structure was in the Ladd’s Addition historic district.

Had the commission approved the demolition, the homeowner could have had to return to the commission to seek approval of a new design for a new garage.

By denying demolition, the city allows the contractor to rebuild the garage with the current materials and approved building plans. It also ensures that the garage will stays on the register of historic landmarks.

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