Currently used as office space by the city's Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services Bureau, the No. 7 station is located adjacent the river on the north side of the Hawthorne Bridge. City officials envision adding a second floor to the building in order to have an upscale restaurant upstairs where people can gaze back across the river at Downtown and a café downstairs where people walking the Eastbank Esplanade can make a pit stop for a latte or a fruit smoothie or sit down at street level for soup and a sandwich.

"The synergy of having a restaurant with an incredible view of the city skyline adjacent a public park like the Esplanade is a potential home run," says Lew Bowers, the Portland Development Commission's senior development manager, tells GlobeSt.com. "It would serve as a public attractor, enhancing daytime activity and creating night activity that will help change people's sense of what the east bank is."

Having said all that, Bowers says the restaurant won't be easy or quick to effect. "My guess is the building will require extensive remodeling," says Bowers. "We won't likely be able to change the foot print but it's conceivable we could add a floor; if it were easy we wouldn't be involved."