A social services organization has launched a new housing initiative to develop affordable housing alongside its wraparound services for the neighborhood.

Self Enhancement Inc.’s housing initiative, SEI Living, will break ground this summer with two projects: Mississippi Heights and Ruby-Mac Place.

SEI Living builds on SEI’s work co-developing affordable housing projects across Portland. In partnership with Community Development Partners (CDP), SEI co-developed the Alberta Alive affordable housing initiative, which includes five developments along Northeast Alberta Street; most recently the Luther Strong Jr. and Dr. Jackie Strong Empowerment Village.

SEI has been serving Portland for 45 years. Its work started with service to young people and then expanded to wrap-around services from “cradle to career,” said Trent Aldridge, chief executive officer of SEI, adding that the programming has been ongoing for three decades.

“In the last seven to eight years our housing department was one of the most referred parts of our programming,” Aldridge said. “Affordability really just became one of the main things we were working toward.”

Each SEI Living development, starting with Mississippi Heights and Ruby-Mac Place, will include SEI’s own wraparound services in the neighborhood, which include 40 programs and 400 services. These will include case management, after school programs, summer programming, sports, food pantries, educational support, health services and basic needs.

“Our approach here, the end result isn’t stable housing,” Aldridge said. “Getting into a place where you can pay your rent isn’t the end for us.”

SEI’s approach is to get residents stabilized with services such as mental health support, finishing school, job readiness such as working on resumes and supporting students with after school and summer programs.

“We want you to be able to go from stable at 30 percent to much more stable at 60 percent, getting you ready for the Ruby-Mac, which is 80 percent AMI,” Aldridge said. “You would get some support to get a stabilized job but also ready to rent or homeownership opportunities and first-time homebuyer programs.”

SEI Living’s first project, Mississippi Heights, is expected to break ground in a few weeks and be complete by September 2027.

Located at 4424 N. Mississippi Ave. in the historic Albina district in North Portland, the development will provide larger two- and three-bedroom units for families. The five-story, 29,465-square-foot building features 30 one-, two- and three-bedroom units, a community room, offices and support spaces for resident services. The units will be for households making no more than 60 percent of the area’s median income, with about 25 percent of the units dedicated to Permanent Supportive Housing.

The project team includes architect MWA Architects, Vega Civil Engineering, structural engineer VALAR Consulting Engineering of Clackamas, landscape architect Bothwell Landscape Studio, geotech Pali Consulting of West Linn and general contractor Walsh Construction Co.

Mississippi Heights is estimated to cost $24.5 million.

The second project, Ruby-Mac Place, is scheduled to break ground in September and be complete by mid-2028.

Located at 9801 N.E. 13th Ave. in Northeast Portland, the project will create 49 affordable homes designed to help families build stability and generational wealth, according to SEI.

The development will be managed under a community land trust model, with homeowners owning their homes and SEI maintaining ownership of the land over the long term. The development will offer homes for purchase to households earning up to 80 percent of the area median income.

Aldridge said the idea of Ruby-Mac Place is to get people across the threshold to own a home and take the equity built and be able to afford to buy a market-rate home in Portland in the future. SEI will offer services for the neighborhood, such as learning to take care of a home.

The net-zero development will feature a mix of single-family homes, cottages, duplexes and townhomes on a 6.5-acre site. Homes will be built using modular construction and net-zero energy design.

The project team includes architectural partners Propel Studio Architecture and Green Canopy NODE of Seattle, civil engineer and landscape architect Stantec, structural engineer Froelich Engineers, Pali Consulting and general contractor Colas Construction.

Ruby-Mac Place is estimated to cost $22.6 million.

Aldridge said SEI has a pipeline system so there will always be something in predevelopment. The organization plans to do this work in communities where they have roots in the schools and the community.

Up next, SEI plans to close on Garfield Commons at the end of the summer. It will be a 59-unit affordable housing building. In July or August 2027, SEI expects to break ground on the fourth planned project, another affordable housing project for the Gordly Burch House. The house is formerly the childhood family home of Oregon’s first Black woman senator, Avel Louise Gordly. The first floor will honor the Gordly family.

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A major federal project in North Portland has moved into design, and its impacts on the ground are coming into focus — including a potential downsizing of Heron Lakes Golf Club.

The construction of new levees on the Columbia Slough will replace railroad trestles and other decades-old makeshift solutions to prevent flooding in the low-lying area. Heron Lakes was built on the site of Vanport, which in 1948 was destroyed by a flood that killed 15 people and displaced 18,500 residents.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Urban Flood Safety and Water Quality District plan to build 27 miles of flood-safety improvements. The project is funded by congressional appropriations from 2021 and a local ballot measure — call it a levee levy — that passed in 2024.

Impacts to Heron Lakes — a city-owned 36-hole complex that dates to 1971— have long been foreseen.

A 2021 feasibility study identified “possible adverse effects” for Heron Lakes, which it noted could be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The study stated that “clearing and grubbing for the new parallel levee would impact 10 acres of the Heron Lakes Golf Course.”

Proposed improvements near railroad embankments on the courses’ western edge “will require … reconfiguration of some holes of the golf course and will impact the playability of the course during and temporarily after construction,” according to the feasibility study.

Impacts may extend beyond 10 acres. An image from golf course architecture firm Robert Trent Jones II that was posted on the clubhouse door at Heron Lakes identifies a primary impact of 30 acres, with a secondary impact to another 101 acres. If that holds, Heron Lakes golf holes could be required to downsize. How many has not been determined.

The project seeks to protect 13,000 acres of floodplain by raising levees and upgrading flood walls, pumps, pipes and drains. Construction is years away — likely in the early 2030s, project officials said.

Project officials suggested that any impacts to Heron Lakes pale in comparison to the need for flood safety improvements.

“This is an area where levee failure during the 1948 Vanport flood led to devastating impacts, and while we recognize there may be impacts to Heron Lakes Golf Course, we are working closely with our partners during the design phase to minimize those effects while keeping the community informed as the project moves forward,” Army Corps project manager David J. Empel stated in an email.

The project reflects strong collaboration among the government entities to strengthen flood-risk reduction for the region, Empel added.

Heron Lakes is consistently Portland’s top-performing golf facility in terms of rounds played. It’s a favorite of golfers in North Portland and Southwest Washington, with affordable green fees and two challenging modern courses designed by Robert Trent Jones II.

A 2021 city auditor’s report found Heron Lakes’ $4 million annual revenue overwhelmingly comes from golfers’ green fees and related revenue. The only city-owned course with higher revenue, RedTail Golf Center near Beaverton, has a large-scale retail operation that dwarfs its on-course income.

City officials had few answers about Heron Lakes’ future. Mark Ross, a spokesman for Portland Parks & Recreation, referred questions to the flood safety district and Army Corps of Engineers. He did not respond to follow-up questions about the city’s plans for the golf courses.

A city council spokeswoman likewise did not comment.

The courses’ design firm is “involved with ongoing discussions regarding future changes at Heron Lakes as a result of planned flood safety measures,” spokeswoman Karen Moraghan said. She referred additional questions to the flood safety district.

If Heron Lakes ends up with a smaller footprint, it would echo the courses’ earlier iterations. The complex has grown over time: After the 18-hole Greenback course opened in 1971, nine holes were added in the late 1980s. Finally, nine more holes were built in 1992, forming the second course, named Great Blue.

The golf holes most at risk, according to the Robert Trent Jones II diagram, are on the courses’ western edge, near BNSF Railway tracks and Smith Lake.

Heron Lakes sits in a flat, low-lying area — one official compared it to a bathtub — and is nearly surrounded by water. The Columbia Slough wraps around the golf complex’s south and east sides, Smith Lake and Bybee Lake lie to the west, and the Columbia River is only about 600 yards north of the nearest golf hole.

The levee project is to be funded both by federal appropriations and a local match. Federal urgency to strengthen the nation’s levees grew after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said Corky Collier, executive director of the Columbia Corridor Association.

The local funding comes from a 2024 ballot measure allowing the flood safety district to issue up to $150 million in bonds backed by an annual property tax in the district of 11 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. Subject to appropriation, that would be paired with nearly $100 million in federal funding.

The Army Corps is leading the design process in collaboration with the flood safety district. Designs are in an early stage, project officials said.

Existing protections “were built almost 100 years ago and required major capital investment,” said Colin Rowan, director of planning and public affairs for the flood safety district. An engineered levee “is something that has been needed since the creation of the system,” he added.

An existing railroad trestle that borders Heron Lakes is inadequate to the task, Collier said. “It was never meant to hold back floodwater,” he said.

The levee project has required tricky discussions with BNSF Railway. The existing trestle’s condition “is unknown as the railroads have declined access to obtain data to fully analyze the embankment,” according to the feasibility study.

Collier said he understood why BNSF had kept the project at arm’s length.

“It’s kind of hard to blame the railroad for saying, ‘we don’t do flood levees; that’s your job,’” he said.

Discussions with state transportation officials regarding the Interstate Bridge replacement project are ongoing, as a portion of the levee system would cross under Interstate 5.

Engineers and others involved in the project continue to work together to make the project successful, Collier said.

“The engineering on the drainage district has been so good, and the collaboration on the part of the Army Corps of Engineers has been fantastic,” he said. “All of that collaboration, all of that good, productive conversation, has led to a project that I think will be really good for everybody.”

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Vertical construction will begin later this week at the Williams & Russell project site, in North Portland. It’s a milestone for the Hill Block development intended to restore a cultural and economic center of the city’s Black community.

Housing will come first. Twenty townhomes with an additional four ground-level units will rise on the north side of the 1.7-acre block bounded by North Williams and Vancouver avenues and Russell and Knott streets — in the Eliot neighborhood.

Crucially, the townhomes will be offered for purchase to residents selected according to the city’s North/Northeast Preference Policy, administered by the Portland Housing Center. The policy aims to restore justice to residents whose homes were razed as part of the 1960s Emanuel Hospital Urban Renewal Project.

The Portland Housing Bureau will provide down-payment assistance to eligible homebuyers. More than 1,200 people initially applied via the North/Northeast Preference Policy, said Dana Fuller Shephard, executive director of the Portland Housing Center.

“We have more people than we have units,” Shephard said.

Homeowners will be able to earn equity over time, and if they choose, eventually sell the homes.

“The homeownership component was something that people really, really wanted to see in the project,” said Bryson Davis, president of Williams & Russell Community Development Corp., the nonprofit group leading the project.

The trade-off between keeping the homes affordable and enabling homeowners to build equity was a keenly debated issue in planning.

“That tension was a key component of a lot of our discussions,” Davis said. “Through the hospital expansion, the community lost a lot of wealth. We leaned towards — and for this project we are doing — the homeowner gets the benefit of their equity.”

However, project team members said they expect most homeowners at Williams & Russell will hold onto the homes long-term. North/Northeast Portland remains the center of the city’s Black community, but homebuying has become difficult amid prices spiraling upward, said Ta’Neshia Renae, chief operations officer of Williams & Russell CDC.

“Really, we’re looking at folks that have historical ties to the community and want to be a part of that,” said Anyeley Hallová, founder and CEO of Portland-based developer Adre.

A second phase will involve the construction of 85 units of subsidized rental housing in family-size configurations. Finally, a 26,000-square-foot business hub, built from cross-laminated timber, will include a mix of affordable office, retail and collaborative space.

The CDC was also able to acquire from Legacy Health a half-block north of the Hill Block that brings the project site to 2.99 acres. In total, the project is expected to cost $16.4 million.

Each project component was designed after an extensive public engagement process. Homeownership, with backyards and parking spaces, was important to Albina residents, and so was affordable rental housing in multibedroom units. Market-rate development has brought a steady supply of studios and one-bedroom apartments, but few larger units.

“The market doesn’t naturally produce the larger-sized units,” Hallová said. “So, the ability to produce those larger units at an affordable price is definitely a desire for the community.”

Vertical construction can begin only now after an extensive environmental remediation process. Legacy Health, which formerly owned the block, provided $10 million for environmental remediation. The Portland Housing Bureau and Prosper Portland also contributed some funding for remediation.

Crews ended up removing 41,000 tons of dirt from the site, Davis said. When the buildings on the Hill Block were demolished in the 1970s, debris from the demolition was used to fill 12-foot-tall basements.

“As you can imagine for buildings that were built in the early 1900s, there were elevated levels of heavy metals and all sorts of other contaminants all around the block,” Davis said.

Also, a gas station once occupied the southwest corner of the block. Decades-old fuel tanks had to be unearthed and removed.

“Despite all of that, it went pretty well,” Davis said.

Project team members are keenly aware that the site in the heart of the former city of Albina has sat vacant for decades, and know how important it is for Portland’s Black community to get it right.

“As a real estate developer and as part of Black community, I knew about the significance of the site to the community, the historical significance, and then also the fact that nothing had transpired on the site for fifty years after it was taken from the community,” Hallová said.

They’ve had plenty of time to think about it: The project team came together in 2021 in response to a request for proposals from the project working group that later transformed into the CDC.

The project is being designed by LEVER Architecture and Hood Design Studio. Colas Construction, Portland’s largest Black-owned contractor, is serving as general contractor.

The project will add housing at a time when state and local leaders say more options are desperately needed. But Williams & Russell means more to its backers than square footage, timber and drywall.

“What we’re bringing back is more than just buildings,” Renae said. “We’re bringing back people and their descendants. We’re bringing back culture.”

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As officials with the 1803 Fund and Black community leaders gathered Tuesday to lay out plans to redevelop Lower Albina, one message rang out: We own it.

Formed in 2023 and backed by a $400 million gift from Nike co-founder Phil Knight, the fund has spent $70 million to purchase two groups of properties in North Portland‘s Albina neighborhood.

Fund leaders laid out plans to transform portions of the neighborhood into a modern “Third Place” — apart from home and work or school — for the Black community to gather.

The properties include grain silos along the Willamette River near the Rose Quarter that will become part of Albina Riverside, a 3-acre site linking Albina to the waterfront. The other major area, known as The Low End, comprises approximately 20 tax lots and more than 7 acres along North Russell Street.

The Low End will have a mix of uses, including housing and spaces for art, culture, business and community initiatives. Plans for Albina Riverside are still being developed.

On Tuesday, the group held a press conference at a former craft brewery, 670 N. Russell St., that it now owns.

“Yes, we are rebuilding Albina,” said Rukaiyah Adams, CEO of the 1803 Fund. “But, really, what we are up to is transforming the region.”

The event functioned as a celebration for Portland’s Black community, and a promise to reinvigorate Albina — a historically Black neighborhood that was subjected to relocations, residential demolitions and racist urban renewal practices in the mid-20th century that made way for major infrastructure including Interstate 5, Veterans Memorial Coliseum and Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.

“We cannot talk about Albina without talking about the pain that we have faced as a community,” said Ed Washington, a longtime resident and former president of the NAACP’s Portland chapter.

While details of the redevelopment were scarce, 1803 Fund officials said it’s critical that Black Portlanders now own much of the neighborhood, and will redevelop it as they wish, without heeding outside expectations about what Albina should or shouldn’t be.

“This is not charity,” Adams said. “This is investment.”

Mayor Keith Wilson sparked an exchange when he thanked the building’s proprietor for allowing the event to be held, apparently not realizing the building was purchased by the 1803 Fund.

“To Mayor Wilson,” Adams said, “we own this building. So, yeah, that’s the thing now.”

Yet a long road lies ahead for Albina boosters. Much of the neighborhood requires environmental remediation. The 1803 Fund released renderings showing landscaped public spaces, but a spokeswoman said it remains to be decided what buildings will be constructed on the properties.

Speakers noted that the announcement came at a precarious moment for Portland. President Trump’s threat to deploy the National Guard in the city’s streets appears to have receded for now, but many stakeholders feel the city still has a target on its back. The Trump administration rescinded funds dedicated to building highway covers over I-5 in Albina.

At the same time, the city’s growth spurt of the “Portlandia” era has stalled, attended by rampant homelessness, widespread commercial real estate vacancies and a general economic malaise.

Adams noted, without naming the president, that the Albina redevelopment comes as Trump builds a “gold ballroom” at the White House.

“This is a very let-them-eat-cake moment,” she said. “We’re about to own the damn cake.”

Wilson and City Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney pledged to support to the plan, saying it could galvanize broader economic development.

“Albina’s renaissance will help fuel Portland’s renaissance,” Wilson said.

The group’s plan “reframes development,” Pirtle-Guiney added.

“It frames it as an act of restoration, an act of renewal,” she said. “This is going to have a transformative impact on our entire community.”

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A series of plans were released Tuesday for the Williams & Russell Project, a community-driven initiative to revitalize a historic Black neighborhood in North Portland. The project is currently in the design phase.

The Williams & Russell Project centers on a 1.7-acre vacant block at North Russell Street and North Williams Avenue, which is owned by Legacy Health. The block was once the Albina community that housed the majority of Blacks in Oregon before being acquired for urban renewal in the early 1970s, Williams & Russell CDC – the project lead/owner – stated in a press release.

The Williams & Russell Project consists of three development projects: affordable apartments, affordable homeownership and a Black Business Hub.

The project team includes project lead/owner Williams & Russell CDC, developer Adre, developer/owner Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives (PCRI), partner Portland Housing Center, architect LEVER Architecture, landscape architect Hood Design Studio and contractor Colas Construction. Structural and civil engineers for the apartments project have not yet been selected. For the homeownership project, engineers include civil engineer Vega Civil Engineering and structural engineer Valar Consulting Engineering. For the Black Business Hub, engineers include civil engineer Vega Civil Engineering and structural engineer Holmes. Other project partners include the city of Portland, Prosper Portland, the Portland Housing Bureau, and Legacy Health Services.

The approximately $115 million project aims to honor and enrich Portland’s Black community, create wealth and promote a healthier economy by providing affordable rental apartments and homeownership, as well as business opportunities for the community, especially those whose families were impacted by the displacement.

The apartments portion of the project will consist of an approximately six-story, 97,000-square-foot building with 85 affordable one- to three-bedroom units to be rented to individuals and families with a total household income less than 60 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI) and 10-15 percent of the units will be designated for individuals and families with a total household income less than 30 percent AMI, the project team stated in an email. The project, led by PCRI, will include a community room, outdoor space, onsite parking, resident services and a culturally specific daycare. The project is expected to cost around $66.1 million.

The homeownership portion will consist of 20 homes with two or three bedrooms, five of which will include an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) and another five which will be fully ADA accessible. This “missing middle housing” will offer homeownership to low- and moderate-income families and individuals at the 60-120 percent AMI affordable level. The homes will have private outdoor spaces and balconies. The project, led by Adre in partnership with the Portland Housing Center, is estimated at $16.3 million.

The Black Business Hub project will be an approximately four-story, 30,000-square-foot landmark center for the creation and support of local Black businesses. The cross-laminated timber (CLT) development, led by Adre, will offer affordable office and retail space for Black-owned businesses and community partner organizations. In addition, a plaza and central garden will be designed by MacArthur Genius Fellow and landscape architect Walter J. Hood, and will incorporate environmental graphics and public art. The project is expected to cost $32 million.

Each building is pursuing Path to Net Zero, LEED or Earth Advantage certification, and solar energy generation. Adre was previously awarded a grant for the Williams & Russell Project from Energy Trust of Oregon, as part of the organization’s Net Zero Fellowship to explore the feasibility of creating a district-scale micro-district across the three development projects.

The projects have collectively secured $10.3M in pre-development funding from Oregon Housing & Community Services (OHCS), congressionally directed spending, Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF), and Meyer Memorial Trust’s Justice Oregon for Black Lives, and has over $23 million in pending funding from the Portland Housing Bureau and Prosper Portland.

The project is focused on creating equitable economic opportunities and is targeting over 30 percent of the project budget toward women and/or minority owned businesses. The campus planning phase also involved 50 percent participation from Minority, Women and Emerging Small Businesses (MWESB) certified firms, Williams & Russell CDC stated.

The Williams & Russell Project is on track to break ground on the first phase of construction in May 2025. The entire project is expected to be complete in 2027.

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broke ground today on a $26 million, 155-unit apartment building in North Portland.

The Prescott Apartments, designed by , will be six stories on its tallest side, facing North Interstate Avenue. The C-shaped building will include 9,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space and underground parking for 111 vehicles.

Construction is a long time coming for the Prescott. The development entity affiliated with Sierra Construction Co. purchased the lot on the corner of Interstate Avenue and Skidmore Street in 2008, but blows from the economic downturn prevented the project from advancing until last year.

Crews will start excavating the site on Thursday and work will begin in earnest next week, according to project manager Jason Baerlocher. Construction is expected to last 19 months, with crews working mostly on the foundation and ground level slab until September.

A few blocks east of the Prescott, Sierra Construction and another of its development entities own a nearly three-acre site known as the Bakery Blocks. New Seasons Market will open a 30,000-square-foot store on the north portion of the vacant site next year.

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On the heels of the announcement that grocer will open its 13^th location on North Williams Avenue, early plans came out today for a new residential project across the street from the store.

The grassy, half-acre lot on the corner of North Williams Avenue and Fremont Streets has seen several proposed developments come and go over the past few years. The from , which owns the land, include a 15,305-square-foot, 45-foot-tall building with 14 on-site parking spaces on the southern portion of the lot, as well as a 52,272-square-foot, 65-foot-tall building with 20 on-site parking spaces to the north. The conceptual plans for both buildings include a mix of residential units and retail space.

A pre-application conference will be held on Jan. 31.

Earlier this year, the Portland Development Commission was considering the lot as an option for the proposed Green Innovation Park. Prior to that, a plan for condominiums fell through, according to Kaiser Group’s co-founder Ben Kaiser.

The developers of the North Portland New Seasons are also thinking about building more residential units on the south side of the lot where the market is to be built. And developer Jack Menashe, whose 84-unit, mixed-use building is nearing completion on the north corner of Fremont Street and Williams Avenue, has also proposed another, similar project just a few blocks away.

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Like many developers these days, those working on the Prescott Apartments have encountered twists and turns in their search for financing. But construction of the $26 million, 155-unit mixed-use building may finally begin in March, and contribute to a boom in North Portland.

In 2008, Prescott Partners, a development entity affiliated with , purchased the lot on the corner of North Interstate Avenue and Skidmore Street. After holding the property through the worst of the economic downturn, the Woodinville, Wash.-based group has come up with a new financing plan, so that ground can be broken by early spring.

However, the construction timeline hinges on approval of a Department of Housing and Urban Development loan guarantee, expected to be issued this week. And while 31 units are planned to be affordable housing, changes to Portland’s tax abatement programs could impact that number.

“We are in the final throes of a complicated and time-consuming process,” said Brendan Lawrence, development manager at Prescott Partners. “We battled through the downturn (and) could’ve been ready to go in ’09, but there were no financing sources then or in 2010. We’ve been working on this for quite some time.”

Financing struggles didn’t impact the original design, however. The C-shaped building will offer 9,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space and underground parking for 111 vehicles. The Prescott will be six stories on its tallest side, facing Interstate Avenue.

“Going north, our building has a nice leading edge as you’re approaching it; it’s designed to fit in with your light-rail experience in that corridor,” said Allen Tsai, project manager at .

The apartments will be built near the Prescott Street station that serves TriMet’s MAX yellow line.

“The other side of the building has a more residential character,” Tsai said. “Not only does it get shorter, but the massing is more conducive for the residential portion of the neighborhood.”

The street-level apartments will feature porches and planters, and the building will include an exercise room as well as a courtyard with bocce ball and pickle ball courts. Lawrence hopes that the amenities offered at the Prescott will complement other new apartment buildings in the neighborhood, such as Killingsworth Station and The Albert.

“There seems to be enough job growth and population growth in the Portland market to justify all of these projects,” Lawrence said. “We are pretty excited about the North Portland neighborhood – there’s quite a bit of opportunity there. We can attract downtown professionals who don’t want to pay the rates for downtown apartments, and will have only a 10-minute commute downtown.”

Whether the Prescott will offer some units at income-adjusted, affordable housing rates will depend on a review of tax abatement programs being conducted by the city and Multnomah County.

Prescott Partners applied for transit-oriented development tax abatements, which require that part of the project be affordable housing. If approved, the Prescott would be exempt from taxes on the property improvements for 10 years. But Multnomah County has not yet extended its authorization of the program, which Lawrence said is “unfortunate.”

“If you remove a component of the tax credit, affordable rents would in effect create a negative valuation on the project,” he said.

County officials are expected to vote on extensions of the transit-oriented development program and other tax exemption programs in March or April, according to Marissa Madrigal, chief of staff for Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen.

“In these tough budgetary times, all governments are looking at everything they’re doing, and by having these abatements we’re foregoing revenues that could otherwise be used for services,” Madrigal said. “But I think with the long-term nature of the (transit-oriented development) program, there’s a good case to be made that we should continue.”

A few blocks east of the Prescott, Sierra Construction and another of its development entities own a nearly three-acre site known as the Bakery Blocks. Last week, New Seasons Market announced plans to open its 13th store on the north portion of the vacant site. The 30,000-square-foot store will be built by Sierra Construction. R&H Construction, which has a long-standing partnership with New Seasons, will complete the interior.

Lisa Sedlar, president and CEO of New Seasons, estimates that the project will cost between $5 million and $7 million.

Plans for the south side of the lot are still preliminary, although Lawrence said that New Seasons’ investment could make another mixed-use, residential project a likely candidate.

“The Prescott is less than two miles away so we’ll have to look at our overall portfolio to see what the market can support for the south block,” he said. “But an anchor like New Seasons is an important component in helping us revitalize that site and rejuvenate the area.”

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Fans of can relax. The venerable restaurant is staying put.

Some time ago the property was acquired by the Vancouver-based C.E. John Properties, and there was some uncertainty as to what exactly was going on with the place. Was it going to be moved? Redeveloped? Closed?

When I contacted Besaw’s, the host who spoke to me on the phone only said, “As far as I know, we’re here for another four years.”

Yesterday, though, I heard from Tom DiChiara, the vice president of development at C.E. John. He went into a bit more detail.

“We have no immediate plans to make any changes,” DiChiara wrote in an email. “In the future, if we decide to redevelop portions of the site, the historic Besaw’s restaurant will remain at its corner location as it has for many decades. It will be an anchor to any redevelopment that may occur around it. We value its historical contribution to the north end, and it was a significant reason we acquired the overall property. Besaw’s will remain an operating restaurant for decades to come.”

This is great news for any kind of local history buff or preservation enthusiast. Besaw’s, after all, , and with an open date of 1903, it’s one of the oldest operating dining establishments in the city. Only Huber’s, Jakes, and Kelly’s Olympian (yes, the biker bar — , believe it or not) are older.

The decision to keep Besaw’s a part of Northwest Portland shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows the area. In an interview with the 91��Ƶ back in August, DiChiara called Northwest Portland a “great” place to live.

“It’s where I lived for a while when I first moved to town,” DiChara said. “I think the active streets and the walkable neighborhood and the streetcar – all of those factor into it.”

He went on to add: “I think we’re always focused on the close-in neighborhoods where ‘there’ is already there. You know, where the retail is always thriving and people want to live (and) where we can infill and build housing where it’s desired.”

The historic Besaw’s is definitely a “there,” and most certainly contributes to the neighborhood life of the district. Any further development on Northwest Savier will go hand-in-hand with the old restaurant, not roughshod over it.

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North Portland residents are bucking two apartment developments – one under construction and one in early planning – that are raising the community’s skyline.

The Albert, a mixed-use building going up near the corner of North Williams Avenue and Fremont Street, is now one of the neighborhood’s tallest structures – at 53 feet, 4 inches. That project bothered some residents, and now the same development team is planning to add a similar building just four blocks north, between Skidmore and Mason streets.

The tentative plan is to construct a four-story, 76,866-square-foot building with 84 residential units, ground-floor retail space and on-site parking for 66 vehicles. The vacant lot, owned by the , abuts the backyards of several homeowners. The building would be significantly taller than the homes on the other side of the lot, and some homeowners are becoming anxious about the proposal.

“It’s invading my privacy and that of the other homeowners,” said Howard Johnson, who said he has lived in his home on Northeast Cleveland Avenue for nearly 40 years. “If they would keep it at about the same height as our houses, I would love that. But whoever lives on the upper floors will be looking right down into my backyard.”

The developer of both projects, Jack Menashe, says the Albert and the other tentatively called the Rachel will fill a void of workforce housing in the city’s core. Eighteen apartments in the Albert – nine one-bedroom units, six two-bedroom units and three studios – will be reserved for people who make 60 percent of the median family income or less. The breakdown of the units in the second project has not been worked out yet, Menashe said.

“We like the potential of the North Williams corridor, and are cautiously optimistic about the reception of the Albert upon completion,” he said via email. “Portland desperately needs affordable rental housing.”

The Rachel would be similar to the Albert, according to Trish Nixon of , the firm that worked on both plans. The modern design features ground-floor, glass storefronts facing North Williams Avenue to reflect the “warehousey” feel of the neighborhood, according to Chris Peterson, also of LRS.

But Menashe acknowledged that the infill is upsetting neighboring residents.

“I had an interaction with one neighbor who lives behind, who approached me when we were on site one day,” Menashe said. “He asked me about the plan for the property and I told him. ‘That sucks’ was all he said. Change is never easy.”

Joy Eberhardt is another Northeast Cleveland Avenue resident concerned about the building’s elevation and the influx of potentially more than 100 new neighbors.

“My initial reaction is concern for my garden,” she said, noting that the four-story building would block some of the direct sunlight her yard receives. Eberhardt has lived on the block for approximately 18 months.

But size, financing and layout details for the building are still preliminary, Menashe said, and the development team plans to engage the community once it finishes the pre-application process.

The design will be up for Type II design review on Jan. 3, 2012, including a request to modify a standard relating to loading vehicles.

Some of the residents expressed mixed feelings about new developments in the neighborhood based on deeper concerns about the ongoing shift in demographics. They welcome higher-density infill, but also see a gentrification trend.

“I’m curious about some of the bigger picture ideas,” Eberhardt said. “I like the diversity of this neighborhood, but things are changing. Portland is very mono-cultural.”

Earlier this year, tension surrounding changes in the North Williams corridor, historically a black community, came to a head when a project to widen the street’s bicycle lane was proposed. Some residents said outreach to the area’s black community was inadequate, so Portland Bureau of Transportation officials slowed their project in order to incorporate a more diverse group of representatives.

PBOT has since added new people to the North Williams Traffic Safety Operations Project committee. The community forums related to the bike lanes, which have drawn interest from hundreds of Portlanders, are expected to culminate in a recommendation to PBOT in March.

But the public process for the proposed apartment complex doesn’t inspire as much confidence from some residents.

“It’s something that keeps you up at night thinking, ‘Well, what am I going to do and how will this be handled?’ ” Johnson said, referring to the Rachel proposal. “But you don’t really know until it’s there.”

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