Five filtration systems and 10 stormwater treatment facilities are in the works in Northwest Portland.

The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) infrastructure projects are intended to clean stormwater runoff from the Fremont Bridge, the St. Johns Bridge and elsewhere along U.S. Route 30.

“These new systems will connect into our current stormwater pipes to remove large debris such as trash and pollutants such as metals and oil from the water,” ODOT spokesperson David House stated in an email.

ODOT’s estimated total cost for design and construction is $37 million.

The five filtration systems will be next to the bridges, and the 10 stormwater treatment facilities will be along U.S. 30. All will collect stormwater from roadways and filter it before releasing it to the Willamette River between Sauvie Island and downtown Portland. Most sites are underground and will not be visible from roads and sidewalks, House stated.

“Rain from roads and other hard surfaces picks up trash, metals such as copper and lead, oil and other pollutants,” House stated. “When untreated, these pollutants wash into drains and nearby waterways diminishing water quality and habitat. Each filtration system we build will improve water quality in the Willamette River by removing large debris like trash and smaller pollutants like metals and oil before they reach the river.”

Project sites will include: the St. Johns Bridge, with two underground filtration systems (one beneath North Philadelphia Avenue on the east end and one beneath Northwest Knappton-General Road on the west end); the Fremont Bridge, with an aboveground filtration system at the base on the east end as well as an underground filtration system beneath the landscaping at the base on the west end; near the Willamette Greenway trail; and at the Fremont Bridge west ramps (at 1500 N.W. Raleigh St.), with an underground stormwater treatment system that includes a 12-foot-tall prefabricated control room and an approximately 20-foot-tall storage tank. Also, the underground treatment systems along U.S. 30 will be built in the highway shoulder between Northwest Nicolai Street and Northwest Marina Way.

WSP has produced project design and specifications for ODOT, according to House. That will allow flexibility in specific site solutions, which will be produced by the contractor for required reviews ahead of construction, he stated.

Bidding for a general contractor opened on Monday. ODOT expects to select a contractor by this spring, House stated.

Construction is expected to begin sometime this year and require approximately two years to complete.

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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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With so-called “Old Portland” disappearing, a growing number of developers are looking to keep alive connections to properties’ pasts.

One good example of this type of adaptive re-use is now being carried out in Northwest Portland, where crews are stripping out the interiors of three large warehouses that until early last year housed Cenveo’s Graphic Arts Center, which was built in the mid 1960s.

General contractor R&H Construction is  updating the campus – now named The Hopper – to serve as a hybrid commercial/industrial facility for project partners Winkler Development Corp. and Watamull Properties Corp. LRS Architects carried out the design work.

View a photo gallery below, and be sure to read the full story by clicking this link.

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A Bureau of Environmental Services green street project in Northwest Portland calls for installing stormwater planters designed to filter runoff from nearby industrial areas.

BES staffers are in the early stages of designing the $137,000 Northwest Front Green Street Project, bureau spokesman Linc Mann said. Three stormwater planters will be built on Northwest Front Street near the intersection with Northwest 26th Avenue. The planters will be designed specifically to collect and filter stormwater in an area with lots of sediment, impervious surfaces and surrounding industrial uses, Mann said.

The project will help BES staffers figure out the best methods for installing green streets in industrial areas, which often have space and site constraints, harsh environments for plants and greater maintenance needs, he said. This could include using hardier plants able to survive in a highly paved and trafficked area and a planter structure capable of handling large amounts of sediment.

“This is a pilot project to see how this kind of stuff can be applied in other industrial and commercial areas,” Mann said.

The planters installed on Northwest Front Street are anticipated to filter runoff from a 1.1-acre area and improve the quality of stormwater flowing into the Willamette River.

Design is scheduled to wrap up in February 2015, and construction is set to begin in June 2015.

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Neighbors dislike plans for a Northwest Portland apartment complex with no parking, but the developer says zoning restrictions prevent construction of underground parking.

Property owner Gregg Opsahl applied in September to the Bureau of Development Services for a permit to break ground on a $2.6 million, 19-unit apartment building at 2246 N.W. Pettygrove St.

“We went before the neighborhood association with plans for what we were doing,” he said. “They weren’t happy because we’re not providing any off-street parking.”

The area is zoned for high-density residential, requiring developers to build back from the property line by about 11 feet, Opsahl said.

“With a 6,000-square-foot site like this, the zoning makes it challenging, to say the least, to incorporate subterranean parking,” he said. “With that requirement, we’d have room for a handful of cars, if that.”

If the area were zoned for mixed use, Opsahl said he would be able to build closer to the property line, and below-ground parking might be feasible. He added that he knows of other apartment buildings under construction in the area that have more units and aren’t providing any parking.

Opsahl said the price point of these apartments lends itself to tenants who work nearby and are accustomed to commuting by bike. The building will provide secured bike storage.

“A mid-level executive who works at Intel or Nike and needs secured parking for their car might not be interested in these units,” he said.

The five-story structure will feature a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments with hardwood floors and stainless steel appliances. Opsahl said rents will likely range between $2.30 and $2.50 per square foot.

Construction is scheduled to begin late this year and finish in winter 2015.

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Con-way is still working through its plan to develop 16 acres in Northwest Portland, but one project for the area has already been designed by .

A three-story, workforce housing complex is planned for a site at Northwest 20th Avenue and Raleigh Street that presently serves as a parking lot. Slabtown Flats is not part of the master plan, but will be part of the bigger picture, said Lee Shradar, a Holst design staffer.

“It straddles the (Con-way) site,” he said. “(The developers) really see this area building up in time, and this is the first step toward that.”

The apartment complex will essentially be two buildings, with one- and two-bedroom units. The second and third stories will be accessible only via stairs; no elevators are planned.

The Alphabet District has long had a shortage of housing, and most of its complexes are market value or higher; Slabtown Flats will offer moderately priced units.

“This housing is not necessarily high end, so working families can be able to afford this,” Shradar said.

Its design was inspired by the historic brick apartment buildings in the Alphabet District, which often resemble an old hotel or inn. A courtyard will sit in front, and small patios will line the edges.

“We’re trying to do a modern building here, but using a lot of inspiration from the existing type in the neighborhood,” Shradar said. “(There are) a lot of three-story apartment buildings around there, and they do a courtyard scheme.”

Holst designed the complex to be interactive with the streetscape, so it will be able to function with the Con-way site, which will hold hundreds of thousands of square feet of residential, retail and commercial space.

The developer is , which has multiple projects in the works in the area. Construction is expected to start in January 2013 and finish later next year.

“On the Boards” is a weekly feature that spotlights local firms’ best design work. Submissions from architectural and engineering firms are encouraged. Please call 503-802-7240 or email ontheboards@djcOregon.com.

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The music may have stopped, but the sign will live on.

A colorful marquee that once served Music Millennium, one of the city’s most beloved record stores before it closed in 2007, is gaining new life. A renovation is wrapping up to convert the Northwest Portland space and an adjacent one that formerly housed a soap shop, into a restaurant. The marquee will be repurposed as part of the project, said Sue Erickson, who is starting the restaurant with her business partner, Wendy Hessel.

“The fact that it’s an iconic space in Northwest Portland, in a historic building, in a historic space and with that fantastic marquee – it’s just awesome,” she said. “It’s something I’ve always thought of doing.”

Erickson and Hessel have years of experience in the food industry, in a variety of positions such as bartender and manager. The down economy inspired them to start the restaurant, named Fireside, Erickson said.

“There are not a lot of jobs or civil-paying jobs, so I decided, ‘You know what? I’ve always really done this; I’m just going to take it one step further,’ ” she said. “It’s just an industry I’ve always really loved.”

The restaurant will be based on outdoor cooking – barbecue and picnic food, Erickson said. Most of the fare will be cooked over an open fire in a “home-like and cozy” atmosphere, she said.

Erickson had hoped to design restaurants; she received a degree in interior design in 2009. However, A57 Architecture, based in the Pearl District, designed this renovation.

The first construction phase is done. The wall that separated the two spaces was torn down and a lounge and dining area was created. It will hold a bar and two large fireplaces, which will be the focal points of the room, Erickson said. “Natural” wood and metal materials will be used to furnish the interior.

“The feeling of the space will be a warm yet appropriately Northwest space,” said Patricia Gardner, who is designing the project. “It’s basically turning a empty shell into a restaurant.”

The building’s mechanical systems, such as plumbing, are being updated and a kitchen is being added.

Existing windows will be replaced with bifold wood windows. The door to the former record store will be replaced and serve as the restaurant’s entrance. The door to the former soap shop will be removed and a wall will be put in its place.

Overall, the building’s exterior will remain relatively the same, Erickson said – from its ivy-covered walls to the marquee, which will change only slightly.

When the restaurant opens, the building could once again make an impact in Northwest Portland, Erickson said.

“The geographic location of the store is the hub of 23rd (Avenue),” she said. “We aspire to be a comfy neighborhood hangout spot where neighbors can stop in.”

The restaurant is expected to open by the first week of November.

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Earlier this week, I wrote a news brief about how the Fred Meyer on Northwest 20th Place would soon be expanding into a 35,000-square-foot space, formerly used as a Hollywood Video, on West Burnside Street. The project will cost $25 million and will expand the store’s grocery and deli space and add more “home-related” items to the store, according to store officials.

The project is still in the design phase, but we were able to obtain some renderings of it. Check it out, before and after:

More renderings after the jump.

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