PDC to take last comments on fate of Sears armory

By Shasta Kearns Moore

Pamplin Media Group, May 5, 2008, Updated May 5, 2008 (4 Reader comments)

The Portland Development Commission is finally nearing the end of its 1½-year study of the Sears U.S. Army Reserve Corps building on Multnomah Boulevard and is inviting public comment one last time before it forwards the information to the City Council.

David Sheern, the project coordinator, said the PDC will not make a recommendation to either the public or the council as to which of the three proposed uses would be best for the 3.7-acre property. That’s up to the community and the council, and ultimately, to the U.S. Department of Defense, which still owns the property and will decide who will get the property at a free or reduced cost.

The twist is that federal regulations say surplus property, such as the Sears building, 2730 S.W. Multnomah Blvd., should be used for homeless services or housing. That coupled with the city’s 10-year plan to end homelessness should mean that one of the three organizations vying to build low-income housing there – Community Partners for Affordable Housing, the Housing Authority of Portland and Volunteers of America – ought to be a shoo-in.

But that’s not really the case, Sheern said. In cities all over the country, the new thinking about curing homelessness is to provide permanent housing, usually in mixed-income buildings. But the Department of Housing and Urban Development hasn’t caught up and still only provides discounts to transitional housing, which wouldn’t work in that area, Sheern said.

“They really don’t have a framework set up for the type of development we’re proposing,” he said.

A mixed-use building would bring in revenue and, Sheern said, “They would have the natural desire to share in those revenues,” so would likely not give away the property for free.

‘Good bones’ for a school

Though PDC received a six-month extension in December to make a final determination on how much of a discount the low-income projects might receive, “it’s still kind of unclear,” Sheern said.

That means that Westside Christian High School is the applicant in the clearest position to receive the property for free, because it would be an educational use.

The school, which would use the property’s three buildings essentially as they are now, said it would also open the school to community gatherings, as it does now at its Lake Oswego location.

“It has what we consider to be good bones for a school already,” said Steve Wright, a spokesman for the high school.

Wright said the school would also donate the more than $100,000 the school had earmarked for buying property to Home Again, Portland’s faith-based homelessness mentoring program.

The other applicant is a partnership between the Portland Water Bureau, Portland Department of Transportation and the Portland Office of Emergency Management. The government group would use the base in much the same way it is used now – as office space and a place to store equipment.

PDC expects to submit its study to the City Council in late May so it can make its decision before the June 16 deadline.

The council will make a recommendation to the Department of Defense, who will make the final decision sometime before 2011.

Get Involved!

Attend the Thursday, May 8, public comment meeting at 7 p.m. at the Sears USARC at 2730 S.W. Multnomah Blvd. Call 503-823-4103 for more information.