Historic building may be demolished
With the date still undetermined, an historic downtown condominium may be demolished to make way for a condominium tower and a parking structure.
The city of Portland approved demolition for the Rosefriend Apartments, a 1907 brick structure a few blocks north of Portland State, on Broadway between Colombia and Jefferson streets. The apartment building will be part of a plan to demolish or remove three out of four buildings on that block so that the new condominium, Ladd Tower, can be constructed.
Ladd Tower will be another in a series of condominiums that have sprung up between the North Park Blocks and Portland State. Another condominium will be constructed in the place of the Jasmine Tree, a tiki bar close to PSU within the University District.
The plan for the instillation of the Ladd Tower also includes the Ladd Carriage House, which is on the National Register of Historic Buildings. The city has approved its demolition as well, but the house is instead slated to be moved blocks away to a nearby parking lot, where it will be brought back to rest upon four levels of garage space.
Sitting vacant since July, the Rosefriend Apartments and Ladd Carriage House once held lower-income housing, a floral shop and a daycare.
”Right now the general consensus is that if the Rosefriend Apartments are not torn down, it will end up getting converted to high-end condominiums,” said Brandon Spencer-Hartle, PSU student and president of Portland State’s historic preservation club.
One of the condominium’s developers, John Bartell, the vice president of Opus Carroll Northwest, said that 40 percent of the condominiums have been sold. He said the higher-end condominiums will cost close to or over $1 million, while most will cost between $250,000 to $500,000.
Bartell said the sales of the condominiums will compensate for the cost to build them and that any additional profits will go to the developers.
The demand for condominiums has changed the face of the residential market in the downtown core, Spencer-Hartle said, with many rental apartments getting converted or torn down.
”Portland doesn’t have strong preservation regulations like other cities,” Spencer-Hartle said. The only restrictive rule is that buildings on the National Register must wait 300 days to be demolished once a permit from the city has been given.
”There are ways that the city and state could be getting involved in preservation in this city, but that just doesn’t happen,” Spencer-Hartle said.
He said this project is an improvement over other condominium development projects. He said many of the historical elements of the buildings have been kept in tact.
Susan Suzuki, Debbie Thomas Real Estate sales manager for the Elliot Tower and the Ladd Tower, said she thinks that having residents living in the 201 condos downtown will help the city by bringing up the vibrancy of the downtown area.
”The community always benefits when that many people move into downtown who love to be downtown because they have an investment in owning a piece of it,” Suzuki said.
The First Christian Church of Portland owns the block, and the church’s building is the only structure that is not part of the development plan. It is the oldest church in the city still in its original location.
”I would encourage anyone who feels bad about this process to come spend time in our sanctuary. It is an absolutely beautiful historic structure,” said the church’s pastor, Rex Loy.
Faced with increased operating and maintenance costs for the Rosefriend Apartments and the Ladd Carriage House, Loy said these buildings were becoming a liability.
”We relied on the income from those two buildings to underwrite our budget for years, and it was dwindling drastically. It became clear that we needed to do something if our congregation was to remain a downtown congregation,” Loy said.
Loy said his 500-member congregation also needed more than the 23 existing parking spaces, as well as space for the church’s programs and easier physical accessibility for its disabled and elderly members.
The church made an agreement with the developer, Opus Carroll, to find a way to accommodate the congregation’s changing needs, and will retain ownership of the land.
The appearance of the Ladd Tower is still in the works. The city of Portland has rejected all previous proposals for the tower due to its location on the Park Blocks. The next meeting will be held in early November, when the design commission will review the next round of plans.
Pastor Rex Loy said that monetarily, the deal is essentially a trade, where the only funds the church will receive are the profits from renting one floor of parking when not in use by its members.
