Demolition likely is next for the Northeast Portland building known colloquially as the “airplane factory” now that two failed preservation plans led to a foreclosure auction this month.
Given that starting bids for the three-story building begin
at $225,000, it is apparent that the only value left probably is in the land, not in the
107-year old building.
In 1917 and 19182, the building erected by Oregon Home
Builders Inc. was used to manufacture fabric-shrouded spruce airplane wings for
U.S. military bi-planes used in World War I.
After the war, the industrial building that included a railroad spur off the
Union Pacific main line in Sullivan’s Gulch housed a long list of enterprises.
The last, and longest-lived, was Gordon’s Fireplace Shop
that resided in the building from 1990 to the company’s closure in 2016. Tarlow’s Furniture Co. used the building from
the late 1950s to approximately 1980.
More obscure earlier tenants included the Pacific Phonograph Manufacturing
Co., Art Erickson Furniture Co. and Portland Window Décor.
Gordon’s sold the building in for $2.7 million 2017 to
InterUrban Development, a Seattle firm that concentrates on restoring historic
buildings. InterUrban planned to add
retail storefronts at the ground level and creative office spaces on the two
floors above.
Alas, the COVID pandemic killed that plan, given that “creative”
workers preferred to stay home rather than rent offices. InterUrban then changed its plans to add
housing on the upper floors, instead.
For whatever reasons, InterUrban and Portland building
officials could never agree on renovation details. Meanwhile, vagrants invaded the inside of the
building and graffiti painters took great joy in smothering the exterior with
spray paint. The collapse of the
planning led to the foreclosure order and auction.
The building is zoned mixed-used commercial, which allows
for buildings of up to six or seven stories containing retail, residences,
offices or “low impact” manufacturing. The site’s location next to railroad tracks, a
freeway and busy arterials of NE Broadway and 33rd Avenue could make it
difficult to find successful uses.
The demolition of any historic building is significant for
environmental reasons related to refuse disposal and energy consumption
involved in new materials and construction.
While a new building might add to the quality of the neighborhood, it
also might detract in ways no one expected.
Preservation is never an easy accomplishment. Planning and design and financing are always
potential barriers. Unexpected physical
problems often arise when digging deeply into the bowels of old buildings. In this case, COVID and damages done by hooligans
were either brand new or unusual challenges.
-----Fred Leeson
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It is ironic that a major selling point of the City's approval of the hideous Grant Park Village (aka Grant Park Pillage) across the street was that it borrowed design details of the Gordon's building,, thereby making it compatible with the beighborhood. Hmmm...
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