The Portland Design Commission on Thursday voted unanimously to approve the Navigation Center, a temporary shelter under construction on Northwest Naito Parkway near the Broadway Bridge. The decision upholds a Type II approval of the project by Bureau of Development Services staff, which Pearl District resident Kurt Sorenson appealed on the grounds that the project fails to meet design guidelines.

The Navigation Center would provide short-term shelter, health services and other assistance for individuals experiencing homelessness. The project comes from nonprofit organization Oregon Harbor of Hope, which is leasing the property from Prosper Portland through Dec. 31, 2023.

At a previous appeal hearing on June 27, commissioners decided not to conduct an official vote but were united 5-0 in a straw poll in favor of approval.  At that time, Sorenson vowed to file a lawsuit against the project.

Commissioners last week said they felt the project fits in well with the neighborhood, and its temporary nature means it doesn’t violate any design guidelines.

“I really appreciate this project’s attempt to do really well,” Commission Chairwoman Julie Livingston said. “Thank you very much to the design team.”

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The Portland Design Commission is poised to approve a temporary homeless shelter at the Broadway Bridge, but the appellant said he and other opponents are likely to take the matter to court.

At an appeal hearing Thursday, design commissioners said city design guidelines do not address temporary structures. Nevertheless, commissioners said Oregon Harbor of Hope‘s plan for a Navigation Center in the Pearl District makes efforts toward quality and fitting the surrounding context.

Commissioners did not take a formal vote, but they indicated in a 5-0 straw poll they would approve the Navigation Center. A final vote is scheduled for Aug. 15.

Kurt Sorensen, a Pearl District resident, appealed Bureau of Development Services‘ staff approval of the tent. In a brief interview after the meeting, Sorensen said the commission’s support for the project is to be expected.

“I’m not at all surprised,” he said. “It’s been scripted.”

Sorensen said he will consult with other shelter opponents, but legal action is a distinct possibility. He said he plans to file a lawsuit rather than bring the matter to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals.

“I’m going to take it straight to circuit court,” he said. “I’m not wasting my time.”

The tent comes from Oregon Harbor of Hope, a nonprofit backed by developer Homer Williams. The Navigation Center would provide shelter and referrals to other services. As in other West Coast cities, Portland’s homeless population has exploded in recent years amid rising housing costs and declining federal support for affordable housing.

Commissioners said the structure would serve its purpose. “I think it‘s going to work just fine, and in five years, it’s gone,” said Don Vallaster.

Harbor of Hope’s lease with Prosper Portland, the public agency which owns the Naito Parkway property north of the bridge, is scheduled to terminate Dec. 31, 2023. Harbor of Hope representatives have said the shelter is not expected to be in use past that date.

Chairwoman Julie Livingston said the tent fits appropriately within the neighborhood.

“For a five-year structure, it fits well within the context of Albers Mill and the bridge,” she said. “Everyone wants it to be a five-story brick structure; it’s not.”

Commissioners declined to reopen the public record, saying further testimony wouldn’t change the outcome.

Livingston said the city needs to provide clear guidelines for temporary structures in the future.

“I would imagine that we’re going to see more temporary structures, and more requests for temporary structures,” Livingston said. “It seems like temporary (structures) somehow needs to be addressed in our guidelines.”

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The Portland Design Commission delayed making a decision Thursday on an appeal of a controversial homeless shelter proposed for the Pearl District.

The commission will reconvene on June 27 after considering recent testimony and evidence, commissioners said. The record will remain closed until then, meaning no additional new evidence will be accepted.

The proposal comes from Oregon Harbor of Hope, a nonprofit founded by developer Homer Williams and others to provide homeless services in Portland. The group has already erected a tent on a vacant lot just north of the Broadway Bridge on Northwest Naito Parkway. The structure would host a shelter and services for homeless individuals who would stay for three to four months. Transition Projects would manage the shelter.

Commissioners struggled with the temporary nature of Oregon Harbor of Hope’s Navigation Center, and whether to apply design standards meant for permanent buildings.

Pearl District resident Kurt Sorensen filed an appeal objecting to city staff approval of the structure. He wrote in the appeal that the shelter did not qualify as a “mass shelter” under Portland code and didn’t satisfy other design guidelines such as unifying design elements, and reinforcing the identity of the Pearl District neighborhood and the waterfront area.

“It isn’t the use; it’s the building,” Sorensen said. “If somebody wanted to put a restaurant in that structure, you wouldn’t approve it. You should apply the same standard.”

The Design Commission’s decision could ultimately come down to whether commissioners apply design guidelines to the tent, or make an exception because of its temporary nature.

Harbor of Hope’s lease with Prosper Portland, the public agency which owns the property, is scheduled to terminate Dec. 31, 2023, and the shelter is not expected to be in use past that date, said Tom Kemper, a real estate professional who is acting as project manager and developer’s representative.

That poses a quandary for design guidelines requiring “quality and permanence” that borders on the metaphysical: What does it mean to be permanent?

Chairwoman Julie Livingston tried a novel approach, suggesting the tent could meet quality and permanence standards if the materials are intended to last until the 2023 termination of the deal.

“For a five-year structure, this is a relatively well-designed structure,” she said.

Livingston added that the guidelines do not state what permanence means.

“There is nothing in the guidelines that places a timeline on permanence,” she said.

Commissioner Andrew Clarke pushed back at that line of reasoning, saying he was unwilling to bend guidelines to “fit a narrative.”

“Permanence to me is permanent,” Clarke said. “It’s there for a long time.”

The Design Commission may be the wrong group to decide the Navigation Center’s future, Commissioner Sam Rodriguez said.

“Frankly, I think it should be before City Council,” he said.

The tent did not meet design guidelines and would not be approved without a condition of approval mandating it be temporary, Rodriguez said.

An appeal of the Design Commission’s eventual decision would go to the state Land Use Board of Appeals, meaning the question could be settled in Salem.

Tiffany Sweitzer of Hoyt Street Properties testified against the tent, saying the proposal should be held to the same standards as other developments. Developer Jim Winkler also testified, saying the proposed tent is “simply not good enough.”

Iain MacKenzie, an architect and blogger, was among the supporters to testify. He pointed to precedents for temporary structures in Portland, including at Portland State University and The International School.

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Plans to build a homeless shelter underneath the Broadway Bridge have been appealed to the Portland Design Commission.

A $1.6 million new construction permit for the Navigation Center was previously issued by the city, and a ceremonial ground-breaking event took place last month. Deacon is set to serve as the general contractor. But now the Design Commission will now hear the appeal on April 18. The appeal was filed Feb. 25 by Portland resident Kurt Sorensen and gives three major reasons for challenging the Type II staff approval, which was finalized just four days prior.

Sorensen contends the project: 1, does not meet the definition of a mass shelter or a temporary use and thus is not exempt from review or entitled to expedited permitting; 2, does not properly fall under authority of the city’s housing emergency declaration; and 3, does not comply with relevant city River District design standards.

“Whether characterized as a mass shelter, a temporary shelter, or a short-term shelter,” Sorensen writes in the appeal, “the proposed navigation center does not meet the code definitions and thus should not be approved.”

Oregon Harbor of Hope, a nonprofit, is looking to build the shelter on a vacant 1.17-acre parcel along Northwest Naito Parkway, slightly north of the Broadway Bridge. The 60-foot-by-150-foot, Quonset-style prefabricated structure would have a fabric membrane tent roof.

The Navigation Center, designed by Opsis Architecture, is intended to house up to 100 men for up to 100 days at a time. Plans call for dormitory-style sleeping facilities, food prep and serving areas, office space, toilets, showers and storage space. Staffers at the facility would help temporary residents “navigate” their way to social services such as mental and physical health care, housing placement and job training.

Plans for the shelter have drawn criticism from neighbors. That includes a pending lawsuit filed last year by Portland developer Jim Winkler over an environmental cleanup plan approved by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

“The objection is not to a shelter,” Sorensen wrote. “It is to a project that is an ad hoc mixture of leased or used prefabricated structures cobbled together in a way that does not respect architectural character and land use within the neighborhood.”

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A homeless shelter and services center backed by developer Homer Williams is on track to open in Northwest Portland as soon as June 1, according to city and county officials.

Oregon Harbor of Hope, led by Williams and Don Mazziotti, will pay $3.5 million for construction and capital costs. The nonprofit received a $1.5 million contribution from Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle in April 2018.

The city of Portland and Multnomah County, through the Joint Office of Homeless Services, will contribute more than $1 million to cover operating expenses.

The shelter will be located on a city-owned vacant lot slightly north of the Broadway Bridge along Northwest Naito Parkway. The 1.17-acre property sits opposite the Albers Mill Building.

In addition to 100 beds, the tent-like Navigation Center, as it’s called, will provide services such as individual assessments and recovery plans, mental health treatment and housing services.

Public officials had struggled to find a location for the Navigation Center.

“It’s difficult and expensive to find and invest in good sites close to the right services,” Williams stated in a news release. “We’re grateful for our deepening partnership with the Joint Office, and we’re excited we can keep working to make a difference in hundreds of lives.”

A 120-bed shelter on Southeast Foster Road is also expected to open this summer.

Public officials have struggled to respond to rising homelessness in Portland and other West Coast cities. In 2017, 79 people died in Multnomah County while homeless.

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Plans for Harbor of Hope‘s temporary housing shelter have been submitted to the Portland Bureau of Development Services for Type II land use review.
The proposed “long-term temporary” shelter, dubbed the Navigation Center, would provide short-term living space and services for up to 100 homeless individuals with the goal of transitioning them to more permanent arrangements. Designed by Opsis Architecture, the 9,000 square foot facility would be built on the northern portion of a 1.97-acre parcel owned by Prosper Portland and located underneath the Broadway Bridge’s west end. The shelter would feature an insulated fabric skin and a secure entryway.
Plans were submitted to the BDS on Dec. 19. Written comments will be accepted until 5 p.m. on Jan. 9, 2019.
Developer Homer Williams in 2016 founded Harbor of Hope, which is known for its wide-ranging work on behalf of the homeless and other vulnerable populations. For the Navigation Center, the nonprofit plans to lease the property from Prosper Portland and then build. It has been a focus of Pearl District residents’ attention for over a year now.
A series of public meetings about the project were held earlier in 2018, and despite a lawsuit filed by Portland developer Jim Winkler seeking to stop the project on environmental grounds, plans have pushed forward and now are under review by BDS staff.
Funding for the project will come in part from a $1.5 million personal donation to Harbor of Hope made last year by Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle.

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The Wapato Jail has officially become the property of Portland developer Marty Kehoe.

Kehoe Northwest Properties has closed on the $5 million sale, with the transaction recorded and money transferred, Multnomah County officials said Thursday.

For now, the site will be leased as a warehouse, Kehoe said. However, he plans to eventually demolish the jail. The property encompasses 18.24 acres of land zoned for industrial use.

“The location was really good for a warehouse development, and getting 18 acres together at one time was a real opportunity,” he said.

The sale ends an embarrassing and wasteful chapter for the county, which built the jail. It was completed in 2004, with proceeds from a voter-approved bond backed by the sheriff at the time, Dan Noelle. The jail never opened as the county fell short of operating dollars and crime declined.

“The long saga of Wapato is over,” Deborah Kafoury, chairwoman of the county’s board of commissioners, stated in a news release. “We didn’t need it as a jail. We couldn’t afford to convert it. We couldn’t reach back into the past and recapture the money spent. But we could work with professional real estate managers to sell Wapato and get that property back on the tax rolls to bring vital revenue to serve those in our community who need us most.”

The proceeds from the sale will go toward permanent housing, county officials said.

Kehoe’s purchase proceeded even though some people advocated using the site as a homeless shelter. Developer Homer Williams’ Oregon Harbor of Hope nonprofit submitted a $7 million offer with several contingencies.

But county officials said they had studied using the jail as a homeless shelter, and it simply wouldn’t work. The site was too expensive and too far from social services and transit. Furthermore, Oregon’s land-use board denied a previous attempt to operate a mass shelter in an industrial zone.

The county’s board of commissioners on April 12 voted 4-1 to approve the sale, with Commissioner Loretta Smith dissenting. Taxpayers were getting poor value for the property, she said.

Kehoe used a limited liability company, N. Bybee Lake Court, to complete the transaction.

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The location of a proposed homeless shelter at the west end of the Broadway Bridge has for years been the subject of development plans that did not come to fruition.

Oregon Harbor of Hope proposes to erect in Portland a temporary homeless shelter on the city-owned property at 1053-1201 N.W. Naito Parkway. The so-called “navigation center” would offer shelter for up to 90 days and connect the homeless to nearby social services.

“We do not intend this facility to house people on a long-term basis,” said Don Mazziotti, a board director for Oregon Harbor of Hope, the nonprofit organization led by developer Homer Williams.

The purpose of the center is “not to permanently shelter people but rather navigate to the services that will meet their needs best,” Mazziotti said.

The property has had a history of ambitious development plans that fizzled. The 2-acre parcel is bifurcated by the bridge, and complicated by a bridge easement. Vehicle noise, sight lines and proximity to the waterfront are among the many development obstacles.

The agency purchased the property in 1987 as part of the larger Union Station acquisition. Developers have unsuccessfully sought to build on the property. Most recently, in 2016, the Portland Development Commission (now Prosper Portland) entered into negotiations with The Wolff Company, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Wolff submitted a $9 million offer to build two apartment buildings totaling 340 units.

Wolff’s proposal did not move forward. The sale agreement went through several amendments before Wolff terminated it in June 2017, Prosper Portland spokeswoman Anne Mangan stated in an email message. The company’s development director did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Before Wolff, Winkler Development Corp. proposed to build on the parcel an office and garage project known as One Waterfront Place. The PDC terminated the agreement in 2011, more than a decade after Winkler became involved, when construction still had not begun.

The PDC listed the property with CBRE in June 2015, attracting offers from Wolff and Winkler.

Oregon Harbor of Hope’s push for the downtown navigation center comes after the announcement of a $1.5 million donation from Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle. The timeline for the shelter’s operation depends on city permitting, Mazziotti said. Oregon Harbor of Hope has scheduled pre-application meetings with the Bureau of Development Services and other relevant city bureaus.

“It’s not clear from the code whether this is an outright allowed use,” Mazziotti said.

The city’s emergency housing ordinance could provide some leeway, he said.

Mazziotti said he has also met with representatives of the Pearl District and Old Town-Chinatown neighborhood associations.

The proposed structure would be a “pavilion” – a 9,000-square-foot heavy-mill acrylic membrane cover stretched on an aluminum frame. Similar structures are used for homeless shelters in San Diego and San Francisco. They are also used for a church in Tigard, at Portland International Airport and Intel, Mazziotti said.

The pavilion is fully insulated and can be erected in about six weeks, Mazziotti said.

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Wapato Jail soon will no longer be Multnomah County‘s problem.

On Thursday, county commissioners voted to sell the 18.24-acre property to Kehoe Northwest Properties for $5 million.

The jail, completed in 2004, was never used after voters passed tax restrictions and the county fell short of money to operate it. Crime declined, and the closest the jail came to use as intended was as a set for several film and TV productions.

Developer Marty Kehoe indicated he would at first seek tenants to occupy existing space.

“We are going to lease the property out for the foreseeable future and then make long-term plans for a distribution warehouse facility,” he said. “We don’t have any tenants yet. We will use some of the warehouse for our own business purposes.”

Kehoe said he saw the transaction as a land deal, and looked to comparable land sales to arrive at his final $5 million offer.

“I told (the county) I couldn’t buy it at $10.8 million because we couldn’t repurpose the building,” he said. “Comparable land sales dictated the property was worth about $5 million.”

The jail, a 155,400-square-foot building, will eventually be demolished, Kehoe said.

“It might be three, four, five years out,” he said. “At some point to maximize the property to its full potential, the jail will have to come down.”

Kehoe has until 5 p.m. on April 20 to close the deal. He said Thursday he would “definitely close” on or before the final day.

If completed, the sale will remove an albatross from Multnomah County’s books. For years, the county has struggled to find a use for the facility. Some advocates have pushed for the jail to be used as a homeless shelter with associated services.

But some county officials, and even some advocates for the homeless, said the jail is a poor fit for a shelter. Not only would the jail be difficult to repurpose, but its location is far from social services and offers limited transportation access.

Last week, Portland developer Homer Williams and his nonprofit group, Oregon Harbor of Hope, submitted a late offer on the property for $7 million, contingent on a feasibility study. County officials gave little indication they seriously entertained Williams’ offer.

Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson said it was time to turn the page on the jail rather than continue to entertain other offers and proposals.

“Building Wapato was a mistake,” she said. “But holding onto it any longer would also be a mistake, and that’s why I’m voting yes today.”

The county marketed the property last year via CBRE after paying off more than $100 million in local bonds. The paltry offers illustrated the property’s limited value, Pederson said.

“It’s plain and simple – this building is a jail,” she said. “There’s not much you can do to change that. The value of the property is in the land; it’s not in the jail. It’s actually worth more without the jail on it.”

Commissioner Loretta Smith strenuously objected to the sale, which she described as a “short sale,” and cast the sole vote against it.

“It is such a horrible return on investment,” she said. “The taxpayers deserve a better return.”

Smith said obstacles to use of the jail as a homeless shelter could be overcome, and she urged fellow commissioners to take another look at Williams’ offer. They were not persuaded.

“Wapato was built at a time when our community was scared and angry and thought the solution to the drug problem was a massive jail that is closer to Vancouver than it is to Portland,” Chairwoman Deborah Kafoury said.

The money from the sale, Kafoury said, will be used to support affordable housing and measures to fight homelessness.

“We didn’t have the money to run Wapato then,” she said. “We don’t have it now. And we know other approaches work better.”

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One of Portland’s most prominent developers painted a dark picture Thursday of an entire generation of retiring baby boomers with no savings who will rely on shelters or a nomadic lifestyle in RVs as high costs shut them out of the housing market.

Homer Williams, a partner in Williams & Dame Development, has become in recent years a vocal critic of Portland’s homelessness crisis. City officials, business leaders and ordinary Portland residents must do much more to aid the homeless, Williams said, speaking at a Bisnow panel discussion with other developers and real-estate professionals.

“We’re going to see shelters in every neighborhood,” Williams said. “We’re not going to have a choice.”

Williams founded Oregon Harbor of Hope, a nonprofit organization that works to address homelessness. It now offers services such as mobile laundry to homeless camps.

“We have to recognize this is our problem,” Williams said. “This is everybody’s problem. We have to be willing as neighborhoods or businesses. What I tell people is do something or shut up, because it’s going to take doing something, not talking about it.”

City officials and developers may have to reconsider housing types such as single-room units they have traditionally frowned upon, Williams said.

“We’re going to have to redefine what acceptable housing is,” he said. “Sheltered is a better word.”

Williams’ blunt comments struck an odd tone amid a wider discussion of topics such as prevailing capitalization rates and Portland’s inclusionary housing policies. The panel was hosted by Bisnow at The Nines, a downtown luxury hotel.

Despite some overbuilding in the luxury rental market, the city continues to attract capital, panelists said.

“Portland is still on everybody’s horizon,” said Joe Nydahl, a CBRE broker who focuses on multifamily investments. “National firms that don’t have anything here, they’re still looking to get in.”

Nydahl said he recently sold land for future multifamily development. Portland’s inclusionary housing rules, which require multifamily developers to include rent-restricted affordable units or pay a fee, are not scaring off investors, he said.

“We’re still seeing deals start,” he said.

Mark Desbrow, principal of Green Light Development, said his firm has shifted away from multifamily development since Portland’s inclusionary housing rules took effect on Feb. 1, 2017. “I see the multifamily space as extremely competitive and hard to make a buck,” he said. “So we’re trying to innovate.”

Green Light’s latest project is adaptive reuse of a former three-story apartment building near the Burnside bridgehead. The firm is planning an Icelandic hostel and gastropub.

Since inclusionary housing took effect, apartment projects have popped up on Portland’s periphery, but not in close-in areas.

“There’s not going to be much developed in the core without incentives,” Desbrow said.

Desbrow said he’s seeing more projects with 30-80 units and no parking in Portland neighborhoods. Another multifamily developer has pursued that business model, he added.

“Dennis Sackhoff has been really successful keeping his price point down,” Desbrow said. “I think that’s where we’re headed.”

Jeff Ballaine, vice president of Hunt Mortgage Group in Seattle, said he expects to see more services such as day care offered in apartment complexes.

“Maybe the people who are providing the day care service are getting subsidized rent so they can live near where they work,” he said.

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