FEATURE ARTICLES Memo Calendar Memo Pad Business Memos Loaves & Fishes Letters Home
New Life-Eastminster: wave of future?
Cleary’s celebrates 11 years in Menlo Park
Gateway Transit Center redevelopment plan unveiled
Commander brings 30 years of police service to East precinct
122nd Avenue Study meeting revisits old issues... again
Redesign of 102nd Avenue gets public
input
First nominations arrive for Mid-county Memo Community Awards

About the MEMO
MEMO Archives
MEMO Advertising
MEMO Country (Map)
MEMO Web Neighbors
MEMO Staff

© 2005 Mid-county MEMO
Terms & Conditions
Gateway Transit Center redevelopment plan unveiled

LEE PERLMAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO

The Oregon Clinic and the Gerding/Edlen Development Company are continuing work on their plans for the redevelopment of the Gateway Transit Center, which may eventually include a 230-room hotel and a high “point tower” office building. At a design advisory meeting before the Portland Design Commission, company representatives presented plans for a four-phase redevelopment of the 5.4-acre property.

Phase One will consist of a three-story, 680-space parking garage on the north end of the site, and a three-story, 100,000-square-foot medical office building, with 12,000 square feet of ground floor retail space, on a parcel in the center of the center recently purchased by the Portland Development Commission; the south end of the center, with 267 surface parking places, will remain for now.

In Phase II, the developers will add two more levels of parking to the garage, and one level of medical offices, plus either three floors of commercial offices or six floors of housing to the medical building, raising it to a height of somewhere between 119 and 140 feet.

Phase III will include the hotel with an entrance directly onto the TriMet MAX light rail station, and point tower - a tall, thin building - containing offices and market rate housing.

Phase IV will be the completion of a proposed new light rail line to Clackamas County, and the addition of one more level to the parking garage, raising to a height of 75 feet. TriMet’s Phil Selenger told the commission, “Since we developed the Blue Line (the first MAX light rail line from Gresham to downtown Portland), TriMet has had its eye on transit-oriented development on this site.” There are 838 spaces on the site today, “and they are in high demand,” he said.

Developer Ted Gilbert, who owns a 1.5-acre parcel across the street from the center, praised the plans.

“The Opportunity Gateway Advisory Committee has been talking about this (redevelopment of the transit center) for six years,” he said. “You’re here to talk about the first building, but, like me, you’re itching to talk about the master plan,” which at full build out will encompass up to 800,000 square feet. “We wanted something that would take people into the district, an urban plaza.” He liked the idea of “using MAX as the entryway for a signature, one-of-a-kind hotel.” Not only could it be “a beacon for the city” in its own right, but also is directly across from Gilbert’s own eight-acre site (where he hopes to build up to 1.5 million square feet), and PacWest’s 32-acres, including Fred Meyer. This is appropriate for an area that Metro envisioned as being “a second downtown.”

Bev Bookin, representing Providence Health Systems, said earlier concerns had been met. The new building will block direct views of the Providence clinic from the MAX platform, she said, but this could be dealt with through signage. Overall, she said, “We welcome our new neighbor.”

Likewise the commission, which had been highly critical of the project when presented the month before, said it had made great progress. Together with both Gilbert and Bookin, they questioned whether a planned retail space on the east side could be viable in the short run, given the lack of activity in the area.

Commission member Andrew Jansky was the most critical. “I feel like I’m being seduced by a sexy master plan,” he said. The first phase consists of “a low office building and a lower garage that could fit in Lake Oswego.” He asked, “What assurances do we have that future development will conform to the plan?” He was told any changes would have to go through a review process.

Another member, Tim Eddy, said, “In general, the master plan works pretty well, and the phasing makes sense.”

Duke Shepard, chairman of the Opportunity Gateway advisory committee, praised the plan and assured Jansky, “There’s public oversight and, I assure you, we’re not going away.”
Memo Calendar | Memo Pad | Business Memos | Loaves & Fishes | Letters | About the MEMO
MEMO Advertising | MEMO Archives | MEMO Web Neighbors | MEMO Staff | Home