PORTLAND, Ore. – A 94-year-old commercial building formerly home to Slabtown bar in the Northwest District will be demolished along with a neighboring single-family home, to make way for a proposed six-story, 153-unit apartment complex.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle contributor
The former Slabtown building at 1033 NW 16th Ave. was built in 1922 and totals 7,916 square feet in size. It sits on a 5,000-square-foot corner lot at the corner of NW 16th Avenue and Marshall Street.
On Aug. 11, 2011 the commercial building and its neighboring 5,000-square-foot parking lot sold to Magar E. Magar for $425,000. Magar is registered at an address in Vancouver, Wash.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle contributor
Two months earlier Magar had purchased a single-family home just to the south of the parking lot for $175,000.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle contributor
That house, built in 1900, totals 3,617 square feet on a 3,763-square-foot lot.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle contributor
Slabtown closed in the fall of 2014 and despite a fundraising campaign to keep the long-time establishment in business, the building has remained vacant since then.
The following July police raided the building and shut down a bike theft operation that had taken up residence inside the building.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle contributor
Then, in December 2015, a fire broke out inside the abandoned building. Investigators were unable to determine the cause of the fire, The Oregonian reported.
Last month the Bureau of Development Services received an early assistance application for development on the Slabtown site. The application describes a six-story, 153-unit studio apartment development that would include the “demo of 2 existing structures on site.”
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle contributor
The applicant was listed as Joshua Scott of Koz Development, registered in Snohomish, Wash. According to its website, Koz Development “designs, develops and constructs micro-housing in urban infill locations and student housing for universities across the country” and stresses that it provides “affordable urban living.”
As a land use review is the first step in new development, there have been no demolition permits yet filed on the site. But the fact that the early assistance intake details the “demo of two existing structures on the site,” and the fact that both the properties holding the Slabtown building and the 116-year-old home are owned by Magar, suggests Slabtown and its neighbor will be torn down for the six-story development.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle contributor
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle contributor