NEWS

7-29-01, The Tennessean

PORTLAND, ORE., POLISHES ITS GULCH INTO PEARL

By RICHARD LAWSON
Staff Writer

PORTLAND, Ore. — On a chilly, drizzly afternoon, crowds of people mill around Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Despite the weather, there is energy. Some are waiting to catch a bus or one of the city's light commuter trains that regularly pass next to the square. Others are tourists checking out the sights. Still others are shoppers on their way to the next store.

The square is surrounded by office buildings, hotels, restaurants and shopping that features Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue department stores.
This is the heart of a vibrant downtown that city leaders have fostered for a decade or more through intensely planned redevelopment efforts that focused on ensuring dense urban growth.

About 2,350 miles away, those who share a similar dream for Nashville's core have taken notice.

Advocates of urban development in Nashville and elsewhere point to cities such as Portland as guides for their efforts. Through a Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce inter-city visit five years ago, city and business leaders grabbed a first-hand look.

''Portland is a really well-done city,'' said Metro Planning Director Rick Bernhardt, who praised the city's public transportation system. ''They have focused on building a city that is highly livable.''

He said some of what Portland has done is transferable to Nashville and some isn't.

The Nashville Urban Venture singles out the Pearl District, one of Portland's hottest redevelopment areas, as an example of its plans for the railroad gulch at the western edge of Nashville's downtown.

Sitting in Portland's River District, an urban renewal area, the Pearl District is a 20-block stretch of old rail yards and warehouses along the Willamette River that bisects the city. Redevelopment includes new construction and renovation of existing buildings that are filled with offices, cafés and condominiums.
The district's growth is being fueled by a $56 million streetcar system that began operation last weekend. Streetcar lines run a loop through downtown that starts in the district.

Rich Ford, a Portland real estate broker and developer, estimated that about $300 million has been invested in the area during the past dozen years.
With Portland in mind, Nashville's gulch developer is creating a master plan to guide development of commercial and residential development in a 30-acre area, an effort that is expected to take 10 years and a $400 million investment. The venture already controls 22 acres and is attempting to acquire the remaining property.

As in Nashville, public-private partnerships have steered Portland's redevelopment. The Portland Development Commission, similar to the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency in Nashville, bought property near the Pearl District in the 1980s to initiate revitalization. It has invested $100 million.

Portland developers credit the city's redevelopment success to an attitude about planning and design that focuses on urban growth.

''It's all about good planning,'' said Robert Ball, who is converting a 90-year-old Pearl District warehouse into loft condominiums. ''This has worked for a lot of years because of a lot of planning.''

Striking similarities
The Portland and Nashville areas are similar. They are close in population — Portland has 529,212 compared with Nashville/Davidson County's 570,000. Greater Portland, however, has about 600,000 more people than the 1.2 million in the Nashville metropolitan area.

Both have rivers cutting through them. Downtown boundaries for both cities include interstate loops. Both have streets named Broadway that serve as main thoroughfares. Portland has a West End neighborhood district, just as Nashville has West End Avenue.

Each city has a Union Station, and that is where the cities diverge.
Nashville hasn't had passenger train service since 1979, and the former train depot is now a hotel. Portland Development Commission bought the city's Union Station in 1987 along with 30 acres, kept passenger service and anchored redevelopment around it.

''We made a commitment to restore Union Station and keep Amtrak here,'' said Bruce Allen, the commission's development manager.
The station, built in 1896, is billed as the country's oldest continuously operating train depot. In the last fiscal year, 426,992 passengers got on and off the train in Portland, according to Amtrak spokesman Kevin Johnson.
A developer had built condominiums along the waterfront near the train depot in the 1980s before revitalization took hold.

''They were a pioneering effort,'' the commission's Allen said.
Redevelopment began in earnest in 1994 with a plan similar in scope to the concept being created by Nashville's railroad gulch developers.
All of the residential development in the Pearl District has first-floor retail, Allen said. But visitors walking through the area won't see chain retail stores.
''We've intentionally avoided national chains,'' Ford said.

Prospering Pearl
Portland's Pearl District started developing first with artists who were looking for cheap space. Commercial development followed.

It now is brimming with residential development through new construction and renovated warehouses that will bring about 3,000 units, a portion of which are affordable housing units intended to bring a mix of income levels.

''We'll do about 25% of them,'' Homer Williams, a lead developer in the area, said of all the residential units. He has been building on 40 acres of former rail yards.

Overall, Nashville is a more affordable area than Portland. The median home price in the Nashville area is $130,000 compared with Portland's $168,000, according to the latest figures from the National Association of Home Builders. Nashville's median income of $60,700 tops Portland's $55,900.

Nashville's share of affordable homes for the median income is about twice that of Portland, according to the association.

Williams is working on an affordable-housing project that targets senior citizens. The 180-unit building is being designed by Frank Gehry, a famed modern architect known for the wildly futuristic Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Williams' project also would include a Montessori school on the first floor.

''We've got the little people and the old people,'' Williams said.
Prices for condominiums in the Pearl District run $200-$300 a square foot. Prices like that in Nashville are typically found only in Belle Meade.

''It's not a cheap form of housing,'' Ford said.

Allen said residential real estate in the Pearl District is the priciest in Oregon.
''Of course, that won't last forever,'' he said.

Ball's $33 million conversion of warehouse space into lofts is indicative of the district's real estate market. The smallest loft condominium, at 630 square feet, is priced at $130,000. The largest one, 2,900 square feet, lists for $790,000.

After last weekend's festival celebrating the opening of the new streetcar system, Ball said he has sales pending for 32 of the 164 lofts. The new streetcar system has a stop outside the building, which is scheduled for completion in August 2002.

''It was like a tornado in our office,'' he said of the opening weekend of the streetcars.

Ideal infrastructure
Portland pushes development into the urban areas through strict planning that encourages density. The city has an urban growth circle that encourages density in the center city, prevents sprawl and preserves green space and farming.

To build or renovate in Portland's redevelopment areas, developers must adhere to strict guidelines and pass an arduous review.

''It's probably the most public-participatory city I've ever been in,'' Allen said, adding that it is common for design approval to take six months or more.
''It's rigorous. … It's expensive,'' he said. ''But the product is a better city.''

Nashville has neighborhoods in historic and conservation districts that require homeowners to follow design guidelines. In the past few years, urban design overlays have been introduced in areas such as Hillsboro Village.

Parking requirements for residential development mark a major difference in design requirements between Portland and Nashville.

The gulch developers must factor in a certain number of parking spaces. Portland doesn't require any parking for residential buildings in the city center, primarily to encourage use of the city's public transportation.

The bus system is widely used. Drivers unfamiliar with downtown Portland may find themselves in traffic lanes devoted solely to the buses, or driving on the tracks behind one of the light commuter trains, which is allowed.

Redevelopment tends to be focused around the public transportation system, especially in the River District, which includes Pearl.

''Without us getting the infrastructure, none of this would have happened,'' Allen said of the redevelopment around the Pearl District.

Joe Barker, chief partner in Nashville Urban Venture, said he and his partners are planning a transportation component in the gulch.

''We think that is an absolutely key element,'' he said. His group is working with the city and the office of U.S. Rep. Bob Clement, D-Nashville, on a plan for an inter-modal structure near the tracks that can accommodate light rail, buses and parking.

Portland is even tough on itself. In the Pearl District, for example, the city is pouring new sidewalks for the second time. The first sidewalk finishes didn't adhere to what the city sought, so it fired the contractor and hired a new one to replace the sidewalks.

''They are very particular about what the sidewalks look like,'' Ball said.
Portland's urban developers take the stringent planning and design guidelines in stride, though they admit that such requirements drive up land and development costs.

''People complain about it,'' Ford said. ''But generally it is good.''
For developers who focus on urban renewal areas, it isn't about just making money, said Keith Witcosky, a project manager for the Portland Development Commission.

''There's a real commitment to community,'' he said.

Developer Williams added, ''Portland works. Everybody's heart is in the right place.''

Richard Lawson can be reached at 259-8282 or at rlawson@tennessean.com.

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