A Portland company renowned for saving and finding new uses for historic buildings has added another notch to its entrepreneurial belt with purchase of the four-story former Taft Hotel.
Through no fault of the McMenamin brothers, their purchase
of the 117-year old building became possible after the sad failure of Portland’s
disjointed systems for managing housing for troubled residents afflicted by
personal tragedies including homelessness, mental disabilities and drug issues.
Until its closure late in 2021 because of management
issues and maintenance problems, the Taft Hotel had provided housing for 70
low-income seniors, many suffering with mental and behavioral issues.
The $1.5 million purchase by the McMenamin brothers amounted
to an interesting business opportunity, since the Taft building at 1337 SW
Washington St. abuts the rear of the company’s popular Crystal Ballroom venue fronting
on W. Burnside. Purchase price for the
37,000 square foot building with 70 housing units and ground-level retail
spaces amounted to no more than a single upscale Portland house.
The building had been owned by Reach Community Development,
a non-profit low-income housing provider.
The Taft had been leased to a for-profit management company that walked
away, citing building maintenance and other complaints.
Mike and Brian McMenamin have built an eating, drinking,
entertainment and lodging empire since 1984, by concentrating heavily on
restoring historic buildings. Besides the Crystal Ballroom, their notable
Portland-area venues include a former elementary building (Kennedy School) a
funeral home (Chapel Pub) and county poor farm (Edgefield Lodge.)
The company speaks little to the press and keeps its plans
tightly held. The obvious opportunity at
the Taft building is renovating into a boutique hotel since it sits close to
the Crystal Ballroom and another McMenamin property, the Crystal Hotel, less
than two blocks away.
While loss of the low-income housing is a blow to Portland’s
fragmented low-income housing community, sale to the McMenamin chain could be an
encouraging sign for downtown Portland, where numerous storefronts and office
units remain vacant stemming from the COVID epidemic and downtown’s problems
with unhoused campers and drug users.
The Taft building, completed in 1907, was designed by
Portland architect Edgar Lazarus, who owned it until his death in 1939. Lazarus also designed the nine-story Electric
Building is best known for the Vista House at Crown Point, which takes advantage
of magnificent views high above the Columbia River highway in eastern Multnomah
County.
The Taft reflects what some historians call the "Chicago school" of architecture, with the tri-partite windows and wide spandrels. The building was known for many years as Hotel Ramapo until changing to the Taft Hotel nameplate in 1955. It because a residential care facility in 1985/86.
While the interior of the Taft building is reported to be in
awful condition, the building has already been retrofitted with earthquake
bracing which rates as a plus for the buyers. That alone, along with the
McMenamins’ reputation for undertaking responsible preservation projects, could
provide the Taft building with many honorable decades ahead.
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Losing the Taft Hotel as residence space for citizens in need is very sad, but without community organs that work toward a consensus of the City and local leaders to keep the actual community somewhat functioning, private concerns will have their way. I recall when the old PDC and Portland City Club would take important roles in nudging powerful interests toward resolution of issues that kept the community in communication, building and functioning. Now all we have is a very experimental government on the horizon.
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