In contrast to other buildings in developer Kevin Cavenaugh’s eye-catching portfolio, his next project may be unlikely to attract hundreds of Instagram followers.

The Portland Design Commission on Thursday approved, by a 6-1 vote, plans for Great Scott Trio – a four-story mixed-use building that Cavenaugh’s Guerrilla Development has proposed for a prominent lot on East Burnside Street.

Guerrilla Development has gained an outsize profile for singular buildings such as the colorful Fair-Haired Dumbbell and leafy Tree Farm office buildings in inner East Portland.

Great Scott Trio’s design is comparatively muted: There is no Seussian color palette or tree pods. Instead, the building would have blue-gray steel cladding and durable precast concrete for an arcade along Burnside Street. An interior courtyard would have warm wooden trim.

“I wanted it to be strong enough to stand on its own without me whispering in your ear what the major design moves are,” Cavenaugh said in an interview.

It is the building’s program that is more unusual: 37 small multifamily units – 12 of which would be intended for 18-year-old renters who have aged out of foster care. The 12 units will rent at rates below average: 60 percent of area median income, or approximately $920 a month. The market-rate apartments will rent for about $1,100 a month while offering a modest living space of approximately 390 square feet, Cavenaugh said.

The building will rise on a half-block at East Burnside Street and Seventh Avenue; the existing parking lot previously served Burnside Brewing Co., which closed in 2019, and later a pop-up for Mikkeller, a trendy Danish brewery. The single-story restaurant and warehouse building will remain and be renovated, Cavenaugh said. The developer said he has a “handshake agreement” with Kurt Huffman of ChefStable to open some type of restaurant or brewpub in time.

“That’s going to be a really good engine for the block,” Cavenaugh said.

The third leg of the Great Scott Trio is the space between the two buildings, Cavenaugh said. (Disclosure: The 91��Ƶ leases space at another Guerrilla Development building, the Fair-Haired Dumbbell.)

The design by Portland’s Convergence Architecture was based on Cavenaugh’s “napkin sketch” concept, but Convergence did the actual architectural work, he said. Design commissioners were largely complimentary of the split-level walk-up design that Cavenaugh said was in part a response to institutional multifamily developments.

“I’m disliking a lot of Portland’s big monolithic boxes, the five-over-ones, that have been dropping down from Phoenix or Dallas institutional money on our landscape,” he said.

The project changed substantially from an earlier iteration that drew some skepticism from the Design Commission, and proved to be too expensive for the affordable-housing mission, Cavenaugh said.

The building’s design was influenced by its neighbors, including the Orleans building at Eighth Avenue and Burnside Street. Like the Orleans, Great Scott Trio will have an arcade fronting Burnside. The new building will have three retail suites of approximately 650 square feet each on the Burnside arcade.

Design commissioners were largely complimentary.

“The project has really borrowed the industrial language and material prevalent in the district in a very clever way and a very modern way,” Commissioner Zari Santner said.

Commissioner Chandra Robinson cast the lone no vote. The proposal did not fit the neighborhood context, she said.

“Other buildings have greater level of detail,” she said.

Cavenaugh said he plans to apply for permits immediately, and begin construction later this year. He said he has a general contractor in mind but was not ready to publicly identify it.

Construction is expected to cost about $6 million, Cavenaugh said. The project’s backers are local investors, he added.

“They’re always individuals that I’ve had cups of coffee with,” he said. “There’s no outside money.”

Great Scott Trio is an opportunity zone project, offering capital-gains tax breaks that escalate until the property has been held for 10 years.

The post A simple Burnside Street building appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Oct. 19-25, 2020

• Pacific Power requested an early assistance meeting for the relocation and consolidation of power cable to a crossing beneath the Willamette River and onshore duct banks. The project, known as the Portland Underground Network River Crossing Project, is being planned in conjunction with the Portland Harbor Superfund site cleanup led by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The applicant is Bryce Foster of Pacific Power. Owners are the State of Oregon Department of Lands, city of Portland, Prosper Portland, Pacific Power & Light Co., Portland Terminal Railroad Co., Cargill Inc., the Waterfront Pearl Condo Owners Assn. and Peter Lemman of Seattle.
• Early assistance was requested for a repositioning project at the Montgomery Park office building, including seismic and elevator improvements. The applicants are Scott Martin and Katherine Schultz of GBD Architects.
• A single-family home would be demolished, and a new single-family home built at 9413 N. Calhoun Ave. The applicant is Brett Barton of NW Development Inc. and the owner is Elizabeth Randol of Portland.
• An adjustment request is pending for a four-story mixed-use building with 84 apartment units and approximately 2,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space at 4937 S.E. Woodstock Blvd. The project would offer studio through three-bedroom units. The applicant is Tom Byrne of Scott Edwards Architecture. The owner is UAA Woodstock LLC, et al., of Portland.
• A four-story, affordable mixed-use building, the Great Scott Trio, is proposed at 701 E. Burnside St. on the location of an existing parking lot. An existing brewery building will remain. The new building would have 38 apartments and retail space. The applicant is Eli Elder of Convergence Architecture and the owner is Great Scott Trio LLC of Portland.

Source: Portland Bureau of Development Services

The post Land use review intakes for Oct. 26, 2020 appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.