Development Commission Acquires U-District Eatery

PORTLAND-The Portland Development Commission this week signed off on the purchase of the Jasmine Tree Restaurant near Portland State University. It is the first of three property acquisitions the city’s urban renewal agency is making en route to an eventual $100-million redevelopment of three blocks at the south end of Downtown, in the city’s University District.

In addition to the 6,500-sf restaurant site at 4th Avenue and Harrison Street, for which the PDC will pay $935,411, it also is preparing to spend another $2.2 million to acquire the adjacent Harrison Court Apartments at 5th Avenue and Harrison Street and the Value Inn motel, which sits one block away on Montgomery Street, also between between 4th and 5th avenues. When combined with existing ownership, the acquisitions would give the PDC the better part of three contiguous blocks that it says have the potential to add 850,000 sf of new development–423 housing units, 31,000 sf of retail and 150,000 sf of office–at a combined public and private investment of about $125 million.

The three blocks all neighbor a fourth block that is the current terminus for the city’s streetcar line, which was redeveloped in partnership with PSU and now includes not only the streetcar station but also PSU’s book store, among other things. The Harrison Court Apartments and the Jasmine Tree restaurant are needed to extend the streetcar line, but when combined with the city-owned parking lot covering the rest of the block also would allow for a 14-story “L”-shaped building with two floors of underground parking, 11,000 sf of street-level retail and 13 floors of for-sale housing.