A vampiric restaurant and nightclub could be the first new business at Centennial Mills, a defunct former flour mill in Northwest Portland.

An early assistance application for Lestat Nightclub to operate at 1362 N.W. Naito Parkway was submitted to Portland Permitting & Development on Nov. 21.

The commercial concept is the latest twist for Centennial Mills, a 4.4-acre riverfront parcel that has long resisted redevelopment schemes.

The nightclub would reside in an existing building that was vacated by the Portland Police Bureau‘s Mounted Patrol in 2017, according to city documents.

That raises questions about the fate of a sweeping redevelopment plan for Centennial Mills that was approved by the Portland Design Commission in October. SERA Architects‘ design for the project, which was officially valued at $80 million, called for three new buildings encompassing 272 residential units and four retail spaces.

The two-story ex-Mounted Patrol building was not part of the plan presented to the Design Commission and would have to be demolished to make way for the new buildings.

Representatives of Lindquist Development, the site’s owner and developer, did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Ryan Wilson, a Vancouver architect who is designing the Lestat Nightclub, said the restaurant-nightclub idea is preliminary.

“At this point, it’s a very conceptual idea,” he said.

No lease has been signed for the nightclub, Wilson added.

Members of the Pearl District Neighborhood Association were unaware of the Lestat Nightclub proposal, said Stan Penkin, a former PDNA chairman and Pearl District resident.

“It’s news to us,” he said.

Penkin said it was concerning to see a different, much-scaled-down plan after the Design Commission approved a major redevelopment.

“It makes me wonder if the developer of the apartments is backing off, which would be extremely disappointing, as you might imagine,” he said.

The parcel is located across Northwest Naito Parkway from Fields Park in the North Pearl District.

The ex-Mounted Patrol building has approximately 38,000 square feet, divided between two floors. The change of use for the restaurant and nightclub would likely trigger a required seismic upgrade, Wilson wrote to Permitting & Development officials in a Nov. 11 letter.

The project would also require new shear walls, and roof and floor diaphragm upgrades, Wilson wrote.

Lestat is the name of Tom Cruise’s character in the film “Interview with the Vampire,” and the Anne Rice novels that inspired the film and TV series.

For more than 20 years, city officials sought to redevelop Centennial Mills. A series of private developers investigated building on the property before backing out of negotiations with the Portland Development Commission and its successor agency, Prosper Portland.

In September 2024, Prosper Portland sold the property to MLR Ventures, controlled by the Ralston family, for $1.25 million. The Ralstons then conveyed the property to an entity linked to Lindquist Development.

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The team with a long-awaited plan to redevelop Centennial Mills, in Northwest Portland, will have to wait at least four more weeks for potential approval after design commissioners on Thursday punted on a vote.

Commissioners agreed to a request from Portland Permitting & Development staff members who said they need time to write a condition of approval regarding river access, and to tie up other loose ends.

Commissioners had appeared to be on the verge of approving the redevelopment scheme, and a staff report prepared for Thursday’s meeting recommended approval.

The proposal from a local group led by Lindquist Development would transform the largely vacant 4.4-acre parcel at 1362 N.W. Naito Parkway. Lindquist proposes to construct three buildings with 272 residential units and four retail spaces.

Two of the buildings would be five stories, while the remaining building would rise six stories in a five-over-one configuration. Plans call for including 174 below-grade parking spaces.

The developer also has set aside land for open space, including a woonerf — a shared roadway for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists — a plaza and a staircase that would provide Portlanders access to the Willamette River.

“This has an opportunity to be an iconic moment along the river,” Commissioner Tina Bue said.

The plan also dedicates space for a pedestrian bridge over Naito Parkway. But Kurt Schultz, principal and director of housing at SERA Architects, who is the lead designer for Centennial Mills, acknowledged that there’s no funding in place for the bridge.

Members of the public who testified on Thursday expressed concern about whether the river access would be good enough, and how to ensure Lindquist Development follows through with its promises.

Centennial Mills represents a unique opportunity to give Portlanders access to the river in Northwest Portland, said Sage Bachman, community outreach manager for the Human Access Project, a local advocacy group.

“In reality, there are very few ways for people to physically connect to the river,” she said.

Bachman added that the city’s Northwest quadrant is “completely lacking in public access to the river.”

For design commissioners, the remaining questions were largely aesthetic. Some commissioners said they were torn between a desire to honor the site’s industrial history, while allowing for some design flexibility.

Designers don’t necessarily have to use the darker colors of industry, Bue said.

“Is there a different way to look at color as a response to the environment instead of just harkening back to what was there before?” she said.

The project is up against a ticking clock: A zoning change that will limit the site’s buildable land area will take effect in December. If the project is not entitled by then, the new rule may affect the project’s feasibility, Schultz said.

The project’s extensive public space is “more than adequate,” Schultz said.

“We’re just trying to preserve buildable site area on a very constrained site, and we’re concerned about losing even more buildable area to open space,” he said.

The four-week delay until the commission will again consider the project is only the latest setback for Centennial Mills. Prosper Portland tried for years to entice developers to build on the site after the city took control of the parcel in 2000, only to be repeatedly rebuffed.

Previous developers to consider the site before eventually backing away include Lynd Opportunity Partners, Harsch Investment Properties, LAB Holding, Venerable Properties and Intrinsic Ventures. Finally, in September 2024, Prosper Portland sold the site for $1.25 million to 1362 Centennial Mills LLC (MLR Ventures), tied to Portland developers Tim and Lucas Ralston, washing the city’s hands of the troubled property. The Lindquist group soon took over from the Ralstons.

The Centennial Mills project team is tentatively scheduled to return before the Design Commission on Oct. 16.

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