Where is the Grant Warehouse you ask? Nowhere. The building formerly known as the Grant Warehouse was demolished over 5 years ago, but once sat on NE MLK just south of NE Freemont. The site is now tentatively slated for development as mixed income housing (see below). The warehouse went through a number of uses in it's day. Before it was condemed it was said to have housed a illegal gold extraction operation. The EPA and City spent considerable time and money cleaning up the site.  But the property has sat vacant and un-redeveloped for years.

Spotted these neighborhood news tidbits on the Eliot and Woodlawn Neighborhood Association sites:

Community Garden Proposal:  Jackie Sandquist-Wrangham reports that there is a vacant lot on the corner of MLK and Morris.  She would like to convert this property to a community garden.  Property Owner Bill Wainwright agrees to carry insurance on the property but is looking for a formal proposal.  The lot has no water.  A water hook-up alone costs $4,000-$8,000.  Fundraising would need to be done.  Jackie attends to garner support for the idea and to see if the neighborhood’s 501 (c)(3) number could be used so donations are tax-deductible.  Jackie’s contact info is jackienige@comcast.net and 503-231-2748. 

More below the cut.

Change is finally getting ready to come to the Rose Quarter, one silo at a time.

“If you know anyone that can help us get rid of a grain elevator, that would be great,” joked Portland Trail Blazers Team President Larry Miller, who is helping spearhead a proposal to develop the Rose Quarter and re-invigorate Memorial Coliseum.

On Nov. 1, Miller and the Blazers were the first major players to ante up with their JumpTown vision — an intersection of sports, music and Portland culture — in hopes of renewing the Rose Quarter as a “vibrant 365-days-a-year district.” Since the launch date to accept public proposals, Mayor Sam Adams and his 32-member Rose Quarter Development Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC) have received vast submissions from the general public ranging from turning the Coliseum into a casino and convention center, a concert hall, a Seattle-like Pike Place, and even a few requests to simply bulldoze the “Glass Palace” sprinkled in.

A first-ever event for the 'Lower Albina' section of the Eliot Neighborhood (aka Widmer Brewing, the White Eagle Saloon, and the commerical clusters along Interstate Avenue under the Fremont Bridge). From email:

It's almost time!
Next Saturday, December 5, from 12:00-8:00 pm, Icon Tattoo presents the first ever Russell Street Holiday Festival!
Come make merry for a good cause! There will be no better place this season to find presents or festive fun!

-Handmade bazaar featuring dozens of local artisans. Jewelry, designer clothes, small label records, letterpress cards, hula hoops, jams, chocolates, prints, and so much more!
-benefit for p:ear with loads of ways to benefit p:ear--cakewalk sponsored by Grand Central and Chef Boysarwee pies; pictures with Santa; silent auction for p:ear (preview it here)

When do you expect to open? 
"About two months ago," said Steve Mason, the owner of Maui's at 3508 N. Williams Ave.  The bright green building is just north of the intersection of North Williams Avenue and Fremont Street. "We hope to be open any day now."

Inside there are two pool tables, a lot of hand tools, a bar ready to hold 15 beers on tap, and three Hawaiian-themed murals on the walls.  

"Maui is my dog," said Mason. Mason says he has been in Portland for the last three years, but he was in the bar business in Hawaii for 25 years. This year, he felt it was time to open his own place in Portland. The name and the look of the interior speaks more to Mason's personal past than to his vision for the business. "There's no tropical drinks or anything. It's just a neighborhood bar."

By Cornelius Swart

The new Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, originally slated to be seven stories with 230,000 square feet of care facilities, will now rise two more stories, climbing to 160 feet and expanding the project to 70,000 square feet at an additional cost of approximately $50 million.

As recently as last March, plans for the building at 2801 N Gantenbein Ave. called for a slightly smaller structure with a budget of $200 million.  

“Once we were deep into the design process we realized that we were using every square inch of this building,” said Bryce Helgerson, vice president for hospital operation. “We needed room for growth and it would be cheapest to do it now.”

The two new stories will be empty “shells,” according to Helgerson, and will accommodate future growth in beds and facilities.

FROM ELIOT NA BLOG ~ Mike Warwick

"By winter Eliot will have new infill housing that is as old as the neighborhood.  Let me explain.
The call came in mid-2007, “Want to move another house?  I have a lot and we can go 50/50.”  The Kinsman house was built in 1908 near NE 7th and Broadway and was recently used as an annex to the Mountain Shop.  It is a large building – and tall.  Unfortunately, the available lot in Eliot was 10 blocks away down tree-lined streets.  So the first order of business was to find out what route had both the width and the fewest trees.  Next we tried to discover what the City’s tree trimming/cutting policy was for house moves.  Six months and a letter to the Mayor later, we finally got a response, “We won’t tell you until you have your building permit.”  Thus began the first of many Catch-22 situations we had to resolve.  Although the City’s building move process is better than is used to be, it is still poorly implemented."

READ THE STORY

By William Crawford

Mike Warwick, land use chair for the Eliot Neighborhood Association, says residents favor streetcar development, but he remains concerned about potential impacts on the neighborhood. 

Last month City Council voted unanimously in favor of the final draft of the Streetcar System Concept Plan, laying out promising corridors for expansion. The decision marks the end of a lengthy process including neighborhood outreach and technical vetting that resulted with eight routes remaining.

One issue, at least, is off the table—the streetcar route is slated to possibly expand up MLK from Broadway to Killingsworth and not via a Vancouver/Williams couplet, as Warwick had feared.