45 Brown St. | Portland

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cneal

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Found a massing diagram for a proposed apartment/condo building at 45 Brown Street (current site of the "Village Green" parking garage, one of Portland's oldest and rustiest parking structures):

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This 25-foot tall, 300 unit concept is probably not going to be built: the brochure it's from is dated 2019.

In June 2020, the city's Housing Committee heard a TIF request presentation from Presidium, a Texas developer, which was pitching a 278-unit, 9-story project (2 floors of parking plus 7 of housing) for the same site. I get the impression the city council was lukewarm to that TIF request, since Redfern is moving ahead with a similarly-sized project a couple blocks away without any subsidy and without any on-site parking, which aligns with the city's desire to get more transit riders and fewer cars downtown.

Not sure if developers from Texas can wrap their heads around the idea, but it would be great to see Presidium come back with a proposal that scuttles the money-losing parking garage and replaces it with more housing instead...
 
Is the geography of Portland unsuitable for underground parking?
 
RandomWalk said:
Is the geography of Portland unsuitable for underground parking?
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It’s all clay, with the top layer likely polluted. As such, the top layer needs to be disposed in specialty landfills that can accept the contaminated material, the closest of which is in Norridgewock, which is 75 miles away. You’re talking tens of millions of dollars to dispose of it, so it becomes cost-prohibitive relative to overall cost construction and developer ROI expectations in Portland.
 
Even clean clay is a huge hassle for any kind of underground construction - lots of expensive pile driving and retaining walls. Even without that geology, though, Portland's real estate market makes it hard to justify underground parking garages - car storage is a low-rent land use. As this example shows, even above-ground garages require significant taxpayer bailout.

That said, Portland's not *all* clay - near the crest of the peninsula (and likely on this site) there's shallow bedrock, which also makes underground construction difficult. There's a nearby bedrock outcropping in the MECA "park" on the corner of Casco and Shepley, for instance.

With our hillsides, it's become pretty common (with examples at Hobson's Landing, Bay House, Covetrus HQ) for developers to build "underground" parking by leveling a site and installing retaining walls around the uphill edges, then tucking a garage into the former hillside, leaving active uses on the downhill-facing side.
 
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There are a few drawings in the materials for the EDC's next meeting that I don't believe I've seen before. Pretty generic looking. They're proposing 275 apartments in 7 stories over a 2.5 story parking garage. Also noted in the materials is a plan to restore the old entrance to "Keith's Theatre" at 22 Preble Street, though it's not clear to me whether that would be done in this phase or as part of the bigger plan to rehab 477 / 481 Congress.

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Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed. This is pretty bland looking and seems to fit the model of a generic five-over-one on top of a parking garage. This is one of the few parcels in the city already zoned for 200+ feet with immediate access to virtually all METRO and regional transit services...This doesn't seem like they're taking full advantage of that.
 
Cosakita18 said:
Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed. This is pretty bland looking and seems to fit the model of a generic five-over-one on top of a parking garage. This is one of the few parcels in the city already zoned for 200+ feet with immediate access to virtually all METRO and regional transit services...This doesn't seem like they're taking full advantage of that.
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Agreed. And the rooftop would have one of the best views of the city, looking west for sunsets with the White Mountains. Why not put a community space on top?
 
Cosakita18 said:
Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed. This is pretty bland looking and seems to fit the model of a generic five-over-one on top of a parking garage. This is one of the few parcels in the city already zoned for 200+ feet with immediate access to virtually all METRO and regional transit services...This doesn't seem like they're taking full advantage of that.
Click to expand...

You should put that in an email to the EDC!
 
I note that they're asking the EDC for a TIF deal worth $7.2 million - and they're also proposing a 256 stall parking garage, which, at average construction costs, can be expected to cost around $6.4 million to build. They're also expecting tenants who use the parking to pay $175/month for a parking spot, which is significantly more than the $130/month the city charges at the Elm St garage two blocks away.
 
There garage is the only bad looking part of the plan — and a likely reason the residential portion is not taller. With more units, they’d be required to build even more expensive and over-priced parking levels and the project would look even worse.

it’s too bad they couldn’t cut a little deeper into the hillside to bury even the few levels of parking they’re currently required to build (and which will likely be half-empty 90% of the time).
 
GIL said:
There garage is the only bad looking part of the plan — and a likely reason the residential portion is not taller. With more units, they’d be required to build even more expensive and over-priced parking levels and the project would look even worse.
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Others with more knowledge of Portland’s land use code likely can provide greater insight but I believe no off street parking is required by the city for this project. In addition to being zoned B3, I believe a project on this lot would be eligible for the “transit proximate development and uses” categorical vehicular exception.

 
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I watched the recording of the council's housing committee meeting; a couple of councilors expressed skepticism over the parking numbers, and just about every public commenter did as well. Then they went into executive session to provide staff "guidance" on negotiating the TIF deal. Hopefully that guidance will bargain down the parking impacts in exchange for more housing. It'll come up for another housing/economic development committee in February.

One public commenter (Jon Anton, a former councilor) noted that the site is already in the "downtown transit TIF" district, and that the project *could* fund more significantly more METRO bus service if it remains under the current TIF arrangement.
 
I haven't had time to watch the meeting. Was there any comment from either the council or the public regarding the project's overall urban design? There's virtually no engagement with either Brown St. or Cumberland Ave (which is related to the overbuilt parking) and even though these are simple black and white renderings...something about the design just looks....cheap. It's a generic five-over-one on top of a prefab parking garage.
 
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Yes, a couple commenters also criticized the current design's lack of street-level engagement, thanks to the parking garage.
 
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Since these properties are owned by the same developer and are being built as a single multi-stage project....I would second the motion to merge these threads
 
(And since "45 Brown St" and the "Brown St Parking Garage" mentioned in the title of the other thread are literally the same place :) ).
 
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