A Northeast Portland building that for years hosted a complex of adult entertainment businesses is undergoing demolition. An affordable housing facility to be built in its place is the result of years of work by Cully neighborhood residents and nonprofit organizations to transform the site into a positive community asset.

Located on a triangular lot at the intersection of Northeast Cully Boulevard, Killingsworth Street and U.S. Route 30, the site was formerly home to the Sugar Shack strip club, which was a haven for prostitution and human trafficking.

A team of community nonprofits, including Hacienda CDC, Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East, Verge and the Native American Youth and Family Center, formed a coalition called Living Cully and purchased the property in 2015. Hacienda CDC bought the property from the partnership two years later and is planning to redevelop the site with a 140-unit affordable housing complex.

Much of the building’s interior has already been demolished: Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. used it in years past to teach hands-on demolition skills to pre-apprenticeship students. Before structural demolition commenced last month, the ReBuilding Center held a community giveaway for salvaged materials and furniture reclaimed from the site.

General contractor LMC Construction is overseeing the demolition. Abatement contractor IRS Environmental of Portland removed asbestos roofing and interior materials, and demolition contractor Lauzon Contracting last week began structural demolition work.

The 67-year-old building’s exterior walls are made of 18-inch-thick cast-in-place concrete formed with dimension lumber.

“It’s actually a pretty stout old building,” said Art O’Leary, a project superintendent with LMC Construction.

The 26,000-square-foot building will be taken down to the slab by next week. The new affordable housing project is still in the development phase. Salazar Architect is designing a four-story, 140-unit apartment building with three floors of residential units over at-grade parking, community space and residences. Plans also call for food cart vendors involved in Hacienda CDC’s Micro-Enterprise programs and an urban plaza/green space.

In an effort to honor women and bury the exploitive nature of the site’s past, the new development will be named Las Adelitas in homage to a group of women who participated in the Mexican Revolution as soldiers, medics and spies.

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