The company has finished demolishing and clearing away what was once a run-down, semi-abandoned church at 2030 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd.

Semi-abandoned? I guess we expect them to hold services 24/7 ...

Good point, Garage Wine. I guess the church was abandoned six days a week.

I wonder where else Gerding is looking....

It's sad to see the infill building in and around my Richmond neighborhood which is within walking distance of Hawthorne. Houses going up on what used to be side yards (less than 40X100 spaces). From a personal level, I can't tell any difference between having lived in the suburbs with "sprawl" and the increasing density within city of Portland limits. They are both very rat race like to me.

Hope Cinemagic which is only a block away doesn't get taken out because it's not up to yuppie-like movie theatre standards.

Hey, it'll even have pigeon-hole parking.

I used to love watching my dad's 1960 Bel-Aire get hoisted up into the old lot downtown.

"And the apartment interiors will be modeled after those designed for the Cyan condominiums, adjacent to the South Park Blocks"

Ha ha! That'd be the condo building known for it's "think small" marketing campaign which is trying to convince buyers that a 500 sq ft condo is a smart green-living play. It takes a lot of green to live green, it seem$.

I used to love watching my dad's 1960 Bel-Aire get hoisted up into the old lot downtown.

Right across from the Woodlark Building, as I remember. My dad's co. car was regularly eaten by that mechanical marvel - but it was always regurgitated unscathed.

Plus ça change ...

This appears to be one of the rare times I disagree with the general sentiments of the commentariat here at Bojack.org.

I'm a 26-year-old soon-to-be-professional (if this bar exam thing works out as intended). I grew up on the East Side and have lived there through law school but will soon be moving from a rental house I share w/ two other students to a smaller place of my own.

Although I'd like to continue to live in SE once I start work, the apartment hunt has been less than stellar so far. It seems like places in SE (near Hawthorne, Belmont or Clinton) are either drastically overpriced or semi-dilapidated flophouses. There aren't a lot of good options in the middle.

To the extent that developments like this one replace "rundown" structures (and taking no position on whether that's really the case here) with more housing, I'm in favor of it. I realize that a Gerding-Edlen development is no one's idea of affordable, but I'd like to think that a larger supply of housing in the area will make prices more competitive and hopefully persuade landlords to invest in improving their facilities.

Realistic prediction or youthful naivete? I guess we'll find out.

John

...semi-abandoned church...

Either half the parishoners left or they all moved to one side.

Semi-idiotic.

The writing appears to be on the wall now. I have a hunch that in 10 years or less, there will be a bunch of these sorts of chinsy PDC-subsidized condos and a Streetcar line if things continue in the Sam the Tram/Randy Leonard direction.

That parking garage sounds seriously cool, though.

cc:

If you haven't already, get a copy of Phil Stanford's "Portland Confidential". Great photo of the pigeon hole parking lot and many other of the sights of old downtown.

Sorry Jack for the off topic.

"Rents up 10-12% as far out as 122nd."

Absolulte BS. There are very desirable apartment building and duplexes in my part of hawthorne that have have not had 10% increases in the past 5 years. In fact a beautiful 1 br duplex near our home rented for 925 the other day. 8 years ago it rented for 795. IMO, rental rates in PDX ARE NOT EVEN KEEPING UP WITH INFLATION.

I live in the general neighborhood, and I've known for a long time that there's a strong demand for rental housing in the area. There's also strong demand for retail space on Hawthorne. So this building seems to address two genuine needs: places to live and places to buy and sell things in an area that's attractive to people and businesses.

I don't know anything about the church that existed at the site, except what I saw from the outside: it was a cheap and ugly structure and was poorly maintained. The razing of the church and its replacement with a new apartment building isn't likely to be a net aesthetic loss, in my view. (And I speak as someone who generally much prefers old buildings to new ones.)

If there's some evidence that the developers of the site somehow cheated the church out of the property, or if in tearing down the church the wider community has been deprived of a valuable social service--then this story gets more complicated. But has anyone suggested that?

From what I see so far, this change on Hawthorne--a street I use daily and am very fond of--promises to be for the better.

Maybe, but it won't be Hawthorne.

I don't see why this is a bad thing. If the 'Pearlrates' take over Hawthorne, the bohemian crow will just migrate to another dilapidated neighborhood and revive it, just like NE Alberta and Mississippi. I agree with John that there is a genuine need for better housing options in the Hawthorne neighborhood. If they are putting it on the main street and not plunking it a block or two off in the middle of a neighborhood of Queen Ann's and Craftsman Bungalows, why is this a bad thing?

"And the apartment interiors will be modeled after those designed for the Cyan condominiums, adjacent to the South Park Blocks"

The Cyan still has a ways to go before it's ready for residents. However, I've been working on it (construction) and it's NOT very impressive. You go Portland, more moronic ideas just keep on coming.

a beautiful 1 br duplex near our home rented for 925 the other day. 8 years ago it rented for 795.

Wow...1 bedroom? My rent in Beaverton for a 3 bedroom, 1500 sq ft townhouse is $725.

but it won't be Hawthorne

And I'm not who I was ten years ago either. :-) Things change, and we have to keep working to make them better.

The church property was actually sold to TWO developers, and the old parking lot is slated to become condos or some such thing. I live a couple of blocks away in the 'hood, and neighbors are very concerned about the impact of these TWO projects, especially with regard to the idea that most folks will take the bus or teleport everywhere. Parking is increasingly a tough issue in close-in SE.

I have to say I will NOT miss the ratty old church facility. And rental units do serve a real need. I fantasize, though, now that there's nothing there, what a park there would look like.

I don't see why this is a bad thing. If the 'Pearlrates' take over Hawthorne, the bohemian crow will just migrate to another dilapidated neighborhood and revive it, just like NE Alberta and Mississippi. I agree with John that there is a genuine need for better housing options in the Hawthorne neighborhood. If they are putting it on the main street and not plunking it a block or two off in the middle of a neighborhood of Queen Ann's and Craftsman Bungalows, why is this a bad thing?

The reason why it's bad, is because as the upper-echelon mucky-mucks move in, you displace the middle and lower-class that were living there, by raising rents and property values out of their reach. They end up moving farther out, lowering the "livibility" of their situation dramatically.

Where they move, then forces out the next caste into even farther-flung areas, and so on down the line until you end up with ghettos and true blight.

See: Gentrification, Redlining, White Flight, etc.

As far as the automated parking thingy, I've seen some of these installed at collision repair shops in the Seattle / Bellevue area for storage. Rather interesting to see them order up the car they just got new bumper skins and fender skirts for, and have it play musical cars for a bit and spit out the Nissan they were looking for.

It's both immaterial and disrespectful to assert that the existing church building merits demolishing, especially based on superficial knowledge and the experience of glancing at it once in a while. But that's an opinion. The DJC's defining it as factually "semi-abandoned" is patently ludicrous. It was a functioning church and congregation for 50 years, then they sold it to G-E and moved away. No abandonment whatsoever. The word is abused mainly to support people's belief that the only story to tell is how new development saves neighborhoods from blight.

The Oregonian:
"As for the Wings of Healing temple, Pastor George McKinnis says the congregation has moved to a small church at Southeast 81st Avenue and Knight Street. The congregation, he says, was taken by surprise when the Wings of Healing organization sold the church."

Anybody want to take a guess at the power consumption of that mega-vending machine? Oops, I keep forgetting, we are supposed to talk all green, but not pay attention when it comes to specifics. Who wants to bet me that the blue collars that operate that juke box will be described as some of the promised new green jobs?

"My rent in Beaverton"
I've never heard of that neighborhood. Is it in NOPO?