Portland City Council has granted an appeal by the architects of a Pearl District affordable housing building against conditions imposed on the project by the city’s Design Commission. The proposed building will be located at Northwest 14^th Avenue and Raleigh Street and is being designed by Salazar Architect and LRS Architects for affordable developer Innovative Housing Inc.

The 12-story project was approved by the design commission in September with multiple conditions of approval, one of which was the subject of the appeal on the grounds that it would add significantly to the project’s cost. Commissioners wanted a set of oriel windows at the building’s fifth and sixth floors moved up to connect with another group on the upper three floors, creating a singular oriel.

“This comes down to a difference of opinion about two design choices,” Stevenson said. “One of the options presents a real increase in cost to an affordable housing development that is struggling to stay on budget. We’re appealing to you, our city council, to ask that you prioritize affordable housing over aesthetic nuance, and let us move forward with a project that will provide crucial affordable housing to families in Portland that need it today.”

Speaking for the design commission, member Julia Molinar read from a letter prepared by commissioners arguing that the project should be held to the same standards as others.

“It’s significant that the proposal fell short across width and breadth of its response to design guidelines,” she said. “It is the design commission’s decision that the proposed development does not need to be a model citizen, but it does need to demonstrate a willingness to participate in civic life.”

In a 4-0 vote to grant the appeal, with Commissioner Steve Novick absent, Mayor Charlie Hales and city commissioners were quick to praise the Design Commission for its work.

“I’m going to be very glad to support the appeal,” said Commissioner Amanda Fritz, “while also honoring the good work that the design commission is doing.”

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The Portland Design Commission on Thursday gave its approval for a 12-story mixed-use project (including affordable units), but the decision may be appealed to Portland City Council because of two conditions the commission imposed.

The planned building at Northwest Raleigh Street and 14th Avenue was approved unanimously after about two hours of discussion, but Sarah Stevenson, executive director of developer Innovative Housing Inc., said she and her team will decide this week whether to appeal the conditions.

One condition concerns the design team’s groupings of oriel windows at the fifth and sixth floors with another grouping at the top three floors. City planner Grace Jeffreys said that staffers recommended moving all of the oriel windows to the top five floors.

As submitted, the design by Salazar Architect and LRS Architects shows a gray and white checkerboard pattern on one side of the building with the oriel windows on the other side. The groupings of oriel windows would be orange and the spaces between them, at levels two through four and levels seven through nine, would be white.

But in addition to lumping the oriel windows at the top of the building, city staffers also recommended bringing the checkerboard pattern around the building to fill in all the white spaces.

After the meeting, Stevenson said she was surprised that city staffers created a new rendering showing the changes they recommended. She said she would meet today with her staff and the design team to decide whether to appeal the two conditions to City Council.

The conditions attached to the approval could make a big difference in what happens next, Stevenson said.

“If their changes were purely aesthetic, we could move forward,” she said. “But these changes aren’t purely aesthetic and we need to talk about what’s the cost and impact of doing that redesign.”

The building’s design calls for 93 affordable units at the top 11 levels, ground-floor retail space, a lobby connected to bike parking and ground-level parking for 16 vehicles. Exterior materials include metal siding and vinyl windows over ground-floor brick and aluminum storefronts.

The redesign required by the city could impact costs and construction schedules.

“For me, it comes down to time,” she said. “We need to get started on this project and I’m feeling a lot of pressure to not delay on new affordable housing.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify the roles of the architecture firms involved in the project.

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A 12-story affordable housing tower is planned for the north end of the Pearl District.

The 160-foot-tall, quarter-block development will contain 93 affordable units, community rooms, a small rooftop deck and a second-floor outdoor play area. The building will feature brick at ground level and metal-panel cladding above.

The project by Innovative Housing – still unnamed – is being designed by Salazar Architect and LRS Architects. Bremik Construction is the contractor and KPFF is the structural engineer.
It’s being funded by a combination of sources: a mortgage, money from the Portland Housing Bureau and low-income tax credits. There is also a chance that energy trust rebate dollars could factor in, said Julie Garver, housing development director for Innovative Housing.

Innovative Housing, a private nonprofit founded in 1984, has developed 1,000 units in the Portland area.

The project is scheduled to go back before the Design Commission on May 12.

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With another condo tower in the works, the Pearl District keeps pushing north.

Hoyt Street Properties recently began work on a 20-plus-story condo project tentatively named “Block 20.” Schematic designs have been prepared ahead of a December pre-application conference with the Portland Bureau of Development Services, according to Hoyt Street Properties President Tiffany Sweitzer.

The architect is Boora Architects, and Andersen Construction will likely be involved, she said.

The site is only two blocks north of Hoyt Street Properties’ Cosmopolitan, a 28-story condo tower under construction. As of Monday, 16 of its 150 units were unsold. The project is topped off, with all glass in place. Only interior and landscape work remains before anticipated delivery in June 2016, Sweitzer said.

Also nearby is the 16-story Block 17 Apartments; units recently began to be rented. And at the corner of Northwest Raleigh Street and Northwest 13th Avenue, BRIDGE Housing‘s six-story, 155-unit Abigail Apartments project is nearing completion. A quarter-block affordable housing project on city-owned land led by Innovative Housing is under way as well.

Hoyt Street Properties has played a large role in the transformation of the Pearl District from a gritty neighborhood of warehouses and rail yards, to one of hip restaurants, office buildings and large multifamily developments. Schweitzer said the company might look to add a senior housing project on one of its four remaining undeveloped blocks.

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The $15.9 million restoration of a pair of historic buildings in Old Town/Chinatown is nearly complete, and a grand opening celebration will be held this week. The Erickson Saloon and Fritz Hotel Buildings, located on Southwest 2^nd Avenue and Southwest 3^rd Avenue, respectively, have been combined and turned into the Erickson Fritz Apartments. The mixed-income project features 62 studio and 1-bedroom apartments, which project developer Innovative Housing, Inc. expects to be fully leased by the end of August.

Innovative Housing, Inc. purchased the buildings from the Bill Naito Co. last year and hired LRS Architects to design the Erickson Building remodel, and ORANGEWALLstudios to design the Fritz. The project’s general contractor was Silco Commercial Construction Inc., which subcontracted Djoseland Construction Services for project supervision, framing, and finish work. The grand opening celebration will be held Thursday, July 23^rd from 5-7 pm at 9 N.W. 2^nd Ave.

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A skylight frame built to cover a light well at the Erickson Building in Old Town/Chinatown was assembled and lifted into place last week. Innovative Housing, Inc. is converting the building and the adjacent Fritz Building to a 62-units of workforce housing.

A total of four skylight-covered light wells have been cut into the buildings to provide natural light for interior units and ground-floor atrium space. Concrete shear walls have been poured in the light wells to provide seismic support.

The skylight frame was fabricated and erected by Buffalo Welding, and lifted into place by Axis Crane. The project’s general contractor is Silco Commercial Construction Inc., with Djoseland Construction Services subcontracted for supervision, framing, and finishing work. The Erickson Building remodel was designed by LRS Architects, while the Fritz was done by Orangewallstudios.

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­A pair of historic Old Town/Chinatown buildings are undergoing a major overhaul to become a mixed-income housing development. The Erickson Building on Northwest 2^nd Avenue and the Fritz Building on Northwest 3^rd Avenue abut at the center, and are being connected to form a 62-unit apartment building.

The project’s developer, Innovative Housing Inc., purchased the buildings from the Bill Naito Co. earlier this year and hired two firms to design the remodel. LRS Architects is working on the Erickson Building, while Orangewallstudios is handling design work for the Fritz. The project’s general contractor is Silco Commercial Construction Inc., and Djoseland Construction Services is subcontracted for supervision, framing and finish work.

Work on the Fritz Building is scheduled for completion this December, and the Erickson is slated to wrap in May 2015.

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Innovative Housing Inc. has closed on its purchase of the historic Erickson and Fritz buildings in Old Town Chinatown, and moved a step closer to its $15.5 million renovation.

The nonprofit affordable housing developer bought the two adjacent buildings (which front Northwest Second and Third avenues, between Couch and Burnside streets) from Bill Naito Co. for $2.2 million. Innovative Housing plans to turn the combined 51,381-square-foot space into workforce housing.

Both buildings have colorful stories beyond their decorative brick facades and elaborate cornices. The Erickson opened in the 1880s as Erickson’s Saloon – a roughneck haunt named for patron August Erickson. The Fritz was named for Fred Fritz, who operated a saloon and cabaret theater during the same time period.

Innovative Housing will preserve the exteriors while converting the interiors into 62 workforce apartment units. Ten units will be market-rate, but most will be for individuals earning 50 to 60 percent of the area’s median family income.

A full seismic upgrade will be required; however, instead of reinforcing the exterior frame, Innovative Housing will create an interior courtyard with concrete shear walls that run from the foundation to the roofline, Executive Director Sarah Stevenson said. The approach preserves the historic appearance, which is critical to project financing.

Innovative Housing is raising equity for the project through the sale of federal historic tax credits and a federal low-income tax credit. The Portland Housing Bureau also awarded the developer an approximately $6.3 million cash grant, which is tied to a commitment to provide affordable housing for 60 years.

Stevenson said she hopes to close soon on a construction financing package with Wells Fargo so that work can start in June. Silco Commercial Construction Inc. is the general contractor. LRS Architects is handling design for the Erickson building; ORANGEWALLstudios is handling it for the Fritz.

Robert Black, senior vice president for NAI Norris, Beggs & Simpson, brokered the purchase for Innovative Housing. He said the project will follow in the footsteps of the Modern Rich Apartments – a nearby historic building Innovative Housing converted to workforce housing in 2012 – and add to the vitality of Old Town Chinatown.

“(The Modern Rich Apartments) was the model they were trying to leverage off of,” Black said. “That’s nicely populated with good retail on the bottom, and it has these great rehabbed historic units up top. It was a successful project, like this one will be. It’s not the norm of what everyone else is doing.”

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Whiskey, wagers and women all could be found in Erickson’s Saloon.

With a 684-foot bar, card rooms and a brothel, the brick building at Northwest Second Avenue and West Burnside Street was something of an institution when Portland was still a rough-and-tumble logging town. In the flood of 1894, patrons literally paddled in boats to reach the watering hole.

“People were so desperate to get there that they set up a floating bar,” said Sarah Stevenson, executive director of Innovative Housing Inc., a Portland affordable housing developer. “There’s a lot of legend and lore around the Erickson Saloon.”

Today, the building is vacant; however, with a trifecta of public investment, Innovative Housing is hoping to turn it into workforce housing and ignite neighborhood revitalization.

The nonprofit is planning to transform the Erickson building and the adjacent Fritz building into a 62-unit apartment complex. The project will be similar to one that IHI completed in September: For the Modern Rich apartments, a 107-year-old hotel was converted into 34 workforce studios.

The residential portion of that building leased up before construction was even halfway completed, and IHI sees a pent-up need for more housing in the neighborhood.

“There has been a lot of investment going on by businesses and schools, and so the neighborhood is really kind of popping, and people want to be here,” Stevenson said. “They want to be near where they work and go to school, and there hasn’t been any market-rate housing anywhere in the neighborhood.”

Since 2000, approximately $100 million has been invested in Old Town Chinatown to serve institutions like the University of Oregon, the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine and Mercy Corps. Only the Modern Rich and the modest Everett Micro-Lofts have provided market-rate housing, Stevenson said.

The bulk of the Erickson-Fritz’s 62 units will serve individuals earning 50 to 60 percent of the area’s median income – approximately $24,000 to $29,000 a year. Ten units won’t have any income restrictions, and two units will be reserved for very low-income tenants.

Presently, Old Town is active during work hours and late at night. Gary Hartill, president and creative director of ORANGEWALLstudios, which is partnering with LRS Architects on the project, said housing is needed to fill the gaps.

“Once you get people living in the neighborhood, other services follow,” Hartill said. “You get restaurants and coffee shops and amenities that bring more life to the street.”

Old Town Chinatown has many vacant buildings that could play that role, but code requirements present challenges. The Erickson and Fritz buildings will require full seismic upgrades, which Stevenson said would never pencil without public subsidies.

The Portland Housing Bureau last week identified the Erickson-Fritz project as one of three that will be able to draw from a pot of $14 million for affordable housing efforts. Stevenson said the nonprofit also is applying for historic tax credits, as well as a 9 percent federal low-income housing tax credit that the organization will sell to raise equity. IHI is awaiting approval on the latter two funding sources.

As with the Modern Rich, the developer will address seismic issues at the Erickson and Fritz buildings by dropping concrete light wells through their centers. The idea introduces structural support, as well as an opportunity for natural light to reach interior units and courtyards.

IHI is hoping to have all the financial puzzle pieces in place by the end of this year, and then start construction in 2014. Silco Commercial Construction and O’Neill/Walsh Community Builders are partnering to tackle general contractor duties. IHI currently is leasing the property from the Bill Naito Co., and must purchase the buildings by January 2014.

Until then, Stevenson said her organization is looking to partner with the Architectural Heritage Center to host historic tours, so people can witness the building before and after the project. Hartill said that walking through the old saloon is memorable.

“Back in its more sordid history, it was actually … Portland’s biggest brothel, which is kind of creepy because you go upstairs and you just see these tiny rooms – halls and halls and halls of rooms,” Hartill said. “I think we’re excited to bring it into more of a positive use.”

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From the outset, was challenged to make its project on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard pencil out.

The idea was to create a high-end living option for people making between 50 and 60 percent of the area median income, and to activate the building – as well as the neighborhood – with retail space. Compromises had to be made, but last month ground was broken on the five-story, 50-unit building at 3250 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

“It was hard,” said Sarah Stevenson, Innovative Housing‘s executive director. “The architects and the contractors went to the drawing board and we cut what we could and we saved what we needed to and we generated a bit more equity than we were originally budgeting. We had a good investor who was interested in being here.”

Early on, the $11.9 million project attracted St. Petersburg, Fla.-based equity investment company Raymond James, which Stevenson said was interested in entering the Portland market. Innovative Housing already had received $400,000 in state grants, but it also qualified for federal low-income tax credits, which it sold to Raymond James to raise $8.4 million.

The developer also received $975,000 in HOME program dollars and a $531,000 system development charge waiver from the city of Portland, and a $1.4 million loan from the Network for Oregon Affordable Housing.

Money was already being stretched when plans to include 1,400 square feet of ground-floor retail space – an early promise to the neighborhood – posed a new challenge.

“The (building’s) entire 48,000 square feet was subject to commercial prevailing wage,” Stevenson said.

The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries has a higher prevailing wage for commercial products than for residential projects, Stevenson said. Even though the vast majority of the MLK project would be residential, BOLI dictated that the entire job be billed at the commercial rate – generating a cost approximately $600,000 more than planned.

That sent the design and building teams back to the drawing boards. A decision was made to focus on long-term durability.

“One thing we maintained throughout the design of the project was all brick cladding, which, as you know, has a higher up-front cost but is seen as a long-term investment by the owner, not only for its aesthetic value but also its life span,” said Ben White, an architect at , the project’s designer.

Similarly, the team decided to invest in high-performance wall assemblies to achieve energy savings. It also chose to leave concrete floors exposed rather than install floor finishes in some rooms, and use granite countertops instead of cheaper alternatives.

And at the last minute, co-general contractors and suggested switching from blown-in fiberglass insulation to a mineral wall system. It has a higher up-front cost, but it doesn’t require gypsum sheathing, so it’s cheaper over the long run.

Wells Fargo provided a $3.6 million construction loan for the project, which could qualify for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design silver rating. Katy Patricelli, senior vice president for Wells Fargo’s community lending and investments department, said the project made financial sense from the start.

“The location is also geographically very nice,” she said. “It’s close to public transportation. It has a public park (and) grocery stores (nearby). It has a lot of things that people who have less money can get to very quickly and easily so they won’t be isolated.”

The building will have 42 one-bedroom apartments and eight two-bedroom units. It’s scheduled to be completed in August 2013. A planned second phase calls for constructing a second building nearby with two-, three- and four-bedroom units that also will cater to low-income families.

Stevenson said she is hoping that the first phase will be a kind of catalyst for more development along the northern stretch of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. And as the neighborhood develops, she wants the new building to become an anchor.

“As things have changed and the neighborhood has gentrified, I think a lot of people have been displaced,” she said. “We’re hoping we can create a place where people from the community can either come back to or find a place to stay.”

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