Bids are now being sought from subcontractors for work on a planned 46-unit apartment building being built by general contractor LMC Construction in the 2700 block of Southeast Belmont Street, on the Buckman neighborhood’s eastern edge.

The five-story structure, designed by Portland firm C2K Architecture for developer Green Light Development, will be solely residential. The scope of work includes demolition of an existing structure, site development and right-of-way improvements. There will also be 13 surface parking stalls.

The ground floor will have four walk-up apartments, long-term bicycle storage and the main entry lobby. Levels two through five will feature a mix of studios, one-bedroom units and two-bedroom units. Finally, the fifth floor will host a communal amenity space for tenants.

LMC Construction is accepting sub-bids through 5 p.m. on Oct. 15 in the following trades: concrete, masonry, metals, woods and plastics and composites, thermal and moisture protection, openings, finishes, specialties, equipment, furnishings, and conveying equipment.

Project plans can be obtained from LMC Construction by calling 503-646-0521, or sending a fax to 503-646-6823. Questions may be directed to LMC Construction Director of Pre-Construction Services Scott Dekker at 503-646-0521 or scottd@lmcconstruction.com.

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Efforts to build more affordable housing in Portland got a boost last week when the Design Commission gave final approval for the St. Francis Park Apartments. The 106-unit, 73,000-square-foot building will mostly include workforce housing, though 20 units will be reserved for homeless women and those who have been victims of domestic violence.

The new complex will be built on a portion of the existing St. Francis Park on Southeast Stark Street between 11th and 12th avenues, in the heart of the Buckman neighborhood.

City planner Jeff Mitchem said the U-shaped structure will be four stories on the 12th Avenue side and three stories on the 11th Avenue side.

MWA Architects‘ design calls for a community room, a communal front porch and a 6,300-square-foot enclosed plaza for residents. Mitchem said the open part of the U-shaped building will face Stark Street and the plaza will face Oak Street.

Mitchem said the commission included a couple of conditions with its approval: going back to an original design for building massing, and adding metal panel inserts under the windows.

“The two end components were wrapped in a box frame around the entire building mass,” Mitchem said. “The commission felt with the ends different, it felt too broken up. The intent was for (massing) to be broken down with subtle material shifts and not big form exchanges.”

Commissioners called for the metal panel inserts to help break up the fields of box-ribbed metal and give a more traditional expression to the windows, he said.

Diana Moosman, an architect associate with MWA, said the commission was “pretty quick” in approving the project after only about 45 minutes.

“The next step is building permits,” she said. “We’re hoping to start construction at the end of February.”

The developer for the project is Home Forward, the city’s housing authority. Mike Andrews, director of development and community revitalization for Home Forward, said it’s important that more affordable housing is being made available throughout the city. All of the St. Francis Park units will be priced for people who make 60 percent of the median area income or less, he said.

“The state of the housing crisis for renters is pretty prevalent and you hear about it everywhere,” he said. “Families are really struggling in particular in the good neighborhoods, like Buckman.”

The Buckman area has seen a lot of development in the last couple of years, Andrews said, and the St. Francis Park Apartments will help meet the needs of lower-income residents.

“There’s not been a lot of opportunities for low-income residents,” he said. “But this is in a great neighborhood where they can take advantage of good transportation, be close to jobs and reduce reliance on automobiles.”

The city is contributing $6.5 million to the $15.3 million project, Andrews said. Home Forward and Catholic Charities purchased the land from St. Francis of Assisi Church for $7.9 million in September 2014, he said. The general contractor for the project, he said, is O’Neill/Walsh Community Builders.

Andrews said he was pleased that the Design Commission approved the plans for the new apartments.

“They like what we presented and went back to a design we originally presented and made some landscaping changes,” he said.

Home Forward has built more than 150 new affordable housing units in the past year. Stephens Creek Crossing Apartments, in Southwest Portland, has 122 affordable units, and Beech Street Apartments, in Northeast Portland, offers 32 affordable units, Andrews said. Both opened in 2014.

“This is what we do,” Andrews said of Home Forward.

Management of the new St. Francis Park apartments will be contracted out to Cascade Management, said Trell Anderson, director of housing and community development for Catholic Charities. Anderson said Catholic Charities is collaborating with St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church and Home Forward to fund the project.

Anderson agreed that the location of the new complex is important for the Buckman neighborhood.

“We think it’s a significant project for the central east side and it’s very exciting to be able to offer affordable housing in a neighborhood where we see rapid rises in market rents,” he said.

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Before a once-vacant Southeast Portland lot served as pasture for a herd of goats and became the future site of a mixed-use superblock development, it was a pond.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, water from the dammed-up Asylum Creek covered a large portion of the site, bounded by Southeast Belmont and Taylor streets and 10th and 11th avenues. The pond and creek were then buried in a series of fill projects intended to promote more development on the east side of the Willamette River.

Now the site is under water again. Andersen Construction crews excavating the 385-spot below-grade parking garage for Killian Pacific‘s LOCA project over the past month have exposed and are working in and around millions of gallons of groundwater formerly hidden beneath the former pasture.

“It’s a filled-in lake, so that’s a problem,” said Stuart Albright, geotechnical engineer for the project and principal with environmental engineering firm Apex. “Really we’re just undoing what they did after the turn of the previous century when the city filled it in.”

Planning around the large amount of groundwater has been one of the biggest project challenges, he said. Anticipating how the water would impact construction involved identifying which portions of the site were once covered in water by examining old land plat maps. Wells drilled on the site also helped paint a picture of the location and depth of groundwater.

“We basically knew there was a pond here before we even started working on the site,” Albright said. “We relied heavily on the existing information. All of that data factored into us making an informed decision for where we thought the water would be.”

He learned that the pond once covered the Goat Blocks‘ eastern side. It provided drinking water to a nearby mental hospital and the city of East Portland. That use was eventually abandoned after East Portland became part of Portland in the late 1800s and the cities combined drinking water systems.

“At the time it was filled, nobody was using it and people were dumping garbage into it,” Albright said. “It was probably not very pleasant, which is probably why it was filled in.”

Draining site not an option

Normally, a construction site where groundwater is exposed is drained first so that crews can work on a dry surface, but the city sewer system surrounding the Goat Blocks site wouldn’t be able to handle the large amount of water seeped up during excavation, said Chris Copeland, a senior project manager with Andersen Construction.

“The project was kind of conceived by Killian with the knowledge that there was no place close to dump the water to do this the standard way,” he said. “We didn’t have any choice except to get creative for how we were going to do this … We had to come up with a scenario to contain that water.”

Draining the whole site would also be expensive because the city of Portland charges a fee for dumping groundwater into its sewer system, Albright said.

“There was a time when we would drain all this water, but the city charges for it so everybody wants to figure out where the water is and get around it,” he said. “It changes how we deal with (ground)water in the city of Portland. Very few clients want to pay for draining.”

Underwater construction

The Goat Blocks project team has devised a way to work around and in all that water. As excavation of the parking garage continues, construction crews are containing the groundwater in pools, ranging from 15 to 18 feet deep, using a steel sheet piling system. The metal walls are typically used to retain either water or soil.

“We’re essentially building underwater,” Killian Pacific Vice President Noel Johnson said. “Once you build it, you pump the water out.”

Project subcontractor West Coast Contractors, a Coos Bay-based firm that specializes in bridges and marine facilities, has assisted with this underwater work. West Coast crews used a boat to traverse the groundwater and check the level of the terrain underneath using grade rods. This helped a long-range excavator operator digging the flooded parking garage space, Copeland said.

A lengthy concrete pour that started Monday is taking place with the water still in place using a type of concrete that cures in wet conditions. Crews will pump concrete using hoses under the water to form a 6-foot-deep plug that after curing in about a week should prevent more groundwater from seeping into the project site, Copeland said.

“It’s the same technology that you would use to pour a bridge pier in a river,” he said.

Once the concrete has set, crews will pump out the remaining water and the construction site should be essentially dry within the next couple of weeks, Copeland said. Crews have pumped out about 5 million gallons of water already, he said.

Although the project team was expecting a lot of groundwater to come up during the excavation process, Copeland said that in some cases it was deeper than anticipated.

“When you expose this water, the most interesting thing to me is it’s not all at the same level,” he said. “It’s very dynamic. It’s very fluid. (You have to) change your methodology as you go.”

A watertight parking garage

The LOCA below-grade parking garage is designed to sit just slightly above the typical groundwater level, Albright said. If the water were to rise above that level, it would flow into and be drained out of the garage, he said.

Johnson said Killian Pacific has owned the Goat Blocks site for a long time, and the Vancouver, Wash.-based developer learned of the underground pond about 10 years ago.

“We did a lot of testing and drilling test pits even when the goats were still there,” he said.

The amount of groundwater on the site didn’t come as a surprise because that’s typical for projects involving excavation in the surrounding Buckman neighborhood, Johnson said.

“That’s the reason there aren’t a ton of basements in that whole area of town,” he said.

But building below ground level was necessary for the superblock development, which will include 247 apartments and grocer Market of Choice and Orchard Supply Hardware as anchor retail tenants, he said. The development is expected to be finished by early 2017.

“The entire foundation is built like a ship, where it keeps the water out,” Johnson said. “We spent a lot of good engineering money figuring out how to build it given the amount of water.”

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When Petros Jarra and his wife Ainalem Sultessa moved to the U.S. from Ethiopia in 1974, they had no idea it would be permanent. But six years later, after they completed their studies, civil war made a return too dangerous.

Jarra and Sultessa changed their plans and opened Jarra’s Ethiopian Restaurant in Portland. It later moved to the Buckman neighborhood‘s southern edge.

“We wanted to do some business for ourselves,” Sultessa said. “(We thought) ‘We have this food that we can make that’s not familiar here. So we invited some friends to show them, and see if they like this food – and they did. So that gave us the idea to open up a very small place.”

However, after 31 years of service, Jarra and Sultessa are ready for another change. The restaurant will close, and the existing 4,100-square-foot building at 1435 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. will be razed.

Sultessa and Works Partnership Architecture last week presented plans to the Buckman Community Association for redevelopment of the property as a four-story, 30-unit mixed-use building – the Langano Apartments, named after a bar on the ground floor. When fully developed, the 9,500-square-foot site will include 2,800 square feet of retail space and 13 surface parking stalls.

Works Partnership Architecture and Yorke & Curtis General Contractors are walking Jarra and Sultessa through the development process.

The Langano, unlike most buildings in the area, won’t have a traditional square box frame. Instead, it will have three house-shaped masses with pitched roofs that appear to teeter over the ground floor.

Large, upper-story windows on the Southeast Hawthorne face will continue the asymmetrical theme, while the L-shaped floor plan will be canted inward at an acute angle. That feature may draw some added interest in the facade, but its main purpose is to open a south-facing hallway to additional sunlight.

During the meeting last week, one neighbor asked if there were other buildings around town that might offer clues as to what the Langano would look like when finished. Works Partnership Architecture principal Carrie Strickland couldn’t think of any examples – even in the firm’s portfolio.

“We’re not a firm that repeats a lot of our work,” she said.

Like many new urban apartment projects, the Langano has elicited concerns about its potential impact on parking. One neighbor believes the development, despite a parking ratio of 0.44 stalls per unit, would cause a “big mess” because little street parking exists in the area.

However, with only 30 units, the Langano isn’t required by city code to provide parking. Strickland said the group chose to include it because it not only increases livability, but also investment value.

“For Aina and Petro this is the next big thing that they’re going to be doing for maybe the rest of their lives,” she said. “So we’re setting up the building so that it can last an apartment market that may soften at some point, and setting up the building for the long haul.”

The Langano will include six studios, 18 one-bedroom units, and six two-bedroom units in an effort to attract a broad spectrum of renters. Strickland said many of those units will rent for less than $1,000, with studios starting at $850. The goal is to create a sustainable product.

“It’s all part of making sure this is a long-term investment project,” she said. “We’re not filling it up and selling it as soon as it gets stabilized.”

Jarra and Sultessa plan to retain ownership of the development, but hire a management company to look after it. The plan is to begin demolition by June 15, and finish development by March 2015. The group declined to share financial details of the project.

A Buckman Community Association board member, Susan Lindsay, said at last week’s meeting that she was pleased the Langano will include not only parking, but also ground-floor commercial space – details that other developers in the area have often skirted. She offered appreciation for the couple’s longtime commitment to the neighborhood.

“It’s rare that we get to have a long-term Buckman business owner redeveloping and continuing to manage their property,” she said. “You are our neighbor and you’ve been a part of our neighborhood much longer than many people that are now a part of our neighborhood, and I’m very happy you’re going to continue to be a part of our neighborhood.”

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A group campaigning for the Buckman neighborhood in Southeast Portland to become a historic district recently was thrown a curve ball.

A procedural tool that would have frozen the Buckman Historic Association’s application for listing on the National Register of Historic Places was deemed inapplicable by the state. Now, after five years of work, the Buckman group is facing a fall deadline to submit its application.

Christine Yun, an architect at and a main driver for the BHA, believes a historic designation would help citizens influence what kind of development occurs in their neighborhood. Past proposals in the area have called for demolishing century-old homes to make way for new multifamily complexes.

“Right now it is the only citizen-initiated avenue of … voice over what kind of development happens in our city,” she said. “The current zoning code … all it talks about is what is allowed to the developer by right, and it doesn’t talk about what the neighborhood can ask for by right.”

But in March, in the face of overwhelming opposition from neighborhood residents concerned that a historic designation would disproportionately raise the cost of design review for home improvements, the BHA opted to delay its effort seeking a Determination of Eligibility.

Since applying for the DOE in February, the BHA has formed a think tank to try and figure out ways to make the design review process more palatable to residents. The Portland Coalition for Historic Resources represents the Buckman and Irvington neighborhoods, the Bosco-Milligan Foundation and the Portland branch of the American Institute of Architects’ Historic Resources Committee. The coalition’s primary goal is to identify ways to lower design review fees for simple home improvements.

Yun said the BHA plans to host small home gatherings in the coming months to discuss in greater detail the possibility of Buckman becoming a historic district.

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One way to settle into work in the morning is to make the office feel like home.

“It was very home-like,” said Thomas Karter, a retired private attorney, of the office he operated out of for 38 years. “One of the things I liked about the building was it wasn’t downtown in a big, tall building. It was a home.”

Karter’s 2,300-square-foot office was in fact a Tudor-style home built in 1927. He said it was an office before he purchased it in 1976 for $79,000, but he couldn’t recall the business that preceded him. About four years ago, Karter retired and sold the building to property owner Greg Best, who owns the adjacent G Best Color Salon.

Best is now looking to sell the three-bedroom property at 3565 N.E. Broadway for $369,000. Best said the home is zoned for residential and commercial uses.

“It’s the most accessible business district in Portland because there are so many on- and off-ramps,” Best said of the area where the property sits.

And while the building has some years under its belt, Best said he recently renovated it with a new roof, new siding, updated plumbing and wiring, and a new furnace. He said the space also features much of the original woodwork.

“It has very good bones for somebody that wanted to run an office or spa,” he said.

The space presently is occupied by attorney Stan Wax, who has been in the building for the past 10 years. He said he would like to continue to lease the office from the new owner if possible.

“It’s a comfortable spot,” Wax said. “Most of my clients don’t like going downtown, so they like having a place to go other than that.”

Best said there is plenty of on-street parking with an option to lease a few additional spaces from his adjacent lot. One major selling point is that Best said he is willing to carry a note with 20 percent down to help a buyer.

“It makes it nice for a lot of people that can’t get financing,” Best said. “With the job situation, a lot of people are having a hard time.”

Block by Block is a weekly look at commercial real estate around Portland. Send suggestions for properties to BlockxBlock@djcOregon.com.

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Historic preservation can polarize. Christine Yun of the Buckman Historic Association recently learned that lesson firsthand.

This month, a five-year effort to get her Southeast Portland neighborhood listed on the National Register of Historic Places came to a halt in the face of overwhelming opposition from other community members.

“A lot of people were shocked, they were incredulous and they were very, very angry,” Yun said of a public outreach meeting in October, when residents first learned about the permitting fees associated with a historic design review process.

Historic design review of even a tiny remodel can cost at least $1,050, and so Buckman residents balked at the idea of historic congruence.

The effort was initiated in 2007, when Buckman residents resisted a proposal for a mixed-use development at 20th Avenue and Morrison Street. The project would have resulted in two homes – one built in the 1890s and the other built in the 1920s – being torn down and replaced with a 50-something-unit complex.

Yun, an architect with , said she and others believed a historic listing could prevent development that would be out of place in their neighborhood. She added that Buckman is the oldest neighborhood in East Portland and is significant because its history tells the story of working-class families.

Together with other volunteers, Yun said their organization has dedicated between 20,000 and 25,000 hours trying to preserve Buckman’s history. She believes that work will disappear if Portland doesn’t re-evaluate its process.

“If this issue isn’t addressed by the city there aren’t going to be any more historic districts in Portland because the residents aren’t going to buy into the fees and process, and nobody in their right mind would try to push a district through with that kind of opposition,” she said.

Opponents rallied behind Buckman property owner Greg Moulliet, who created a coalition called “Keep Buckman Free.” Shortly after the Buckman Historic Association’s meeting in October, he invited residents to his home to sign a notarized petition against historic listing.

Moulliet said he is not opposed to the idea of Buckman being a historic district as much as he is to the costs that come with it. He said he also takes issue with the regulations that historic status would trigger on the use of modern amenities like solar panels, eco-roofs and skylights.

“(Historic design reviews) are expensive and time-consuming,” Moulliet said. “A lot of people end up hiring architects just to usher the process through the city.”

In a letter Moulliet delivered to the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission during a hearing on the issue last week, he wrote that a recent $6,000 project to install a new wood stove in his 1890 Victorian home would have cost $1,900 more with historic design review.

Bob Schatz, another Buckman resident and an architect with Allusa Architecture, not only opposes the added costs, but also the restrictions he feels a historic listing would put on creative expression.

“I don’t think Portland should live the rest of its life in the 1910s (and) 1920s,” Schatz said. “To me, if you like that, go to Disneyland.”

Tim Heron, senior planner with Portland’s Bureau of Development Services, said he understands homeowners’ concerns.

“When the base fee is at $1,000, it’s a steep fee for an individual homeowner, and a lot of these historic districts aren’t big developers,” he said. “The majority of them are single-family homeowners.”

The problem, he said, is that after a budget cut in 2009 shaved more than 50 percent of BDS’ staff, fees had to be adjusted accordingly. Most of the bureau’s budget, Heron said, is based on applications it receives.

“Meaning, if it’s not coming in, we can’t pay the bills,” he said.

Dave Skilton with BDS’ design and historic resource review team said the minimum fee for historic design review had decreased in recent years and that the bureau is trying to streamline the process even more.

Heron said the adoption last year of the Irvington neighborhood as a historic district, which essentially doubled the number of historic residences in Portland, has taught the agency some valuable lessons. He said the solution is to rewrite codes so that cases can be processed faster.

“Write black-and-white standards that if you do A, B, C, you can get out of this review,” he said. “If we can do that, that means we can either reduce fees, eliminate fees or eliminate review processes all together.”

But that process will take a while, he said.

In the meantime, Yun and the Buckman Historic Association have found some middle ground in the form of a Determination of Eligibility, which essentially lets work be placed on hold until a later date.

And Yun plans to continue advocating for her neighborhood’s history.

“It’s something that gives the city its character,” she said. “It’s something that invites tourists to come and visit. And once you destroy your historic resources you can’t get them back, because nobody does that kind of work anymore.”

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