PORTLAND, Ore. – A 101-year-old building along a historic streetcar line will be demolished by a Happy Valley-based developer despite the structure being listed by the city as architecturally significant.
Located at 8722 SE Yamhill St. in the Montavilla neighborhood, the two-story building was constructed in 1915 and sits on an 8,100-square-foot lot.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle contributor
The building appears on the city’s 1984 historic resources inventory, which lists its architecture as the “Streetcar Era Commercial” style. It indicates the building was originally used as retail and an apartment house, similar to what is now called “mixed use.”
The building was included due to its architectural significance, the inventory says, noting the “projecting cornices below roof line and between first and second floors” and that the entrance is “recessed in glass-filled retail base with multi-light transom.”
Image from Historic Resource Inventory listing
A 1943 map of the trolley system in Portland, posted on Vintage Portland several years back, shows this building is located on the block where the old Mt. Tabor streetcar line ended.
Map courtesy of Vintage Portland
The property was listed for sale for $350,000 in December, a price that dropped to $317,500 and then $280,000 in the following few months.
On March 15 the property sold to development company DK Homes LLC for $254,000.
Two weeks later the development company, registered to Damir Karin and listing a principal place of business in Happy Valley, applied for demolition of the 101-year-old building. The applicant was listed as Nestor Ngo.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle contributor
There are no new permits indicating what will replace the structure. It is zoned R2.5, meaning there can be one residence per 2,500 square feet of land in new land divisions, suggesting three new units could be built on the 8,100-square-foot property.
In the real estate ad, the seller highlighted the property’s “development potential!” and noted that “sellers say potential of up to three homes.”
The listing also advised visitors that the building is “currently duplex style with upstairs and downstairs tenants,” asking that visitors “do not disturb tenants.”
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle contributor
The inventory also notes that in several subsequent additions, the original siding has been “covered by asbestos shingles.”
Because it’s a residential structure in a residential zone, the demolition permit was subject to the 35-day delay, which will likely expire on May 4.