PORTLAND, Ore. – An 86-year-old brick building home to a longtime funeral home sits on land proposed to be redeveloped into a six-story apartment building with nearly 200 residential units, likely requiring removal of the 1930 structure.
Located at 20 NE 14th Ave. in the Kerns neighborhood of Northeast Portland, the building was constructed in 1930. It sits on a block bordered by Northeast Sandy Boulevard, 14th Avenue, Burnside Street, 15th Avenue and Couch Street.
Update to clarify that demolition of the building is not yet certain as the development proposal is in its earliest stages. The early assistance application reads as though the new building would be located on the part of the property that the existing building is built on, but it is too early to say with certainty.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle contributor
It is the only building on the block, and the other lots totaling 14,000 square feet provide parking for the funeral home.
There are no recent sales of any of the properties on record. The entire block lists SCI Oregon Funeral Services Inc. as the property owner, registered at an address in Houston, Texas. SCI, or Service Corporation International, is the largest provider of death care services in the country.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle contributor
The 1930 building is home to Caldwell’s, Hennessey, Goetsch & McGee Funeral Home, the latest name in a long funeral home history.
According to the business’s website, the funeral home was founded in 1929 as the Holman and Lutz Colonial Mortuary. It was later purchased in the 1940s and renamed to Caldwell’s Colonial Mortuary and later to Caldwell’s Colonial Chapel. It entered its current name incarnation after a sale in 2005.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle contributor
The funeral home’s website also indicates that “the colonial architecture and luxuriously landscaped grounds have made us a Portland landmark for over eighty years. The interior of the funeral home features three grandfather clocks, beautiful antique furniture and a sweeping circular staircase, giving it a restful home-like setting.”
On April 22 the Bureau of Development Services received an early assistance application for new development at the address of the funeral home. The application describes a six-story mixed-use building with 190 residential units and 100 parking spaces, as well as retail space on the ground floor.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle contributor
The applicant was listed as Christine Nagamine of Encore Architects, registered in Seattle, Wash.
While the application intake does not make mention of the 1930 building, the property described in the development application covers the west side of the block, which would likely signal a future removal of the 86-year-old building.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle contributor
The property is in a commercial zone, meaning a demolition permit could be applied for and issued on the same day. It is also located in a design overlay zone, which “promotes the conservation, enhancement, and continued vitality of areas of the City with special scenic, architectural, or cultural value,” according to the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle contributor
This 190-unit development would be the latest in a string of new apartment buildings in the area, and would be:
–One block away from a five-story complex;
-One block east of an Urban Development Group apartment building on the former site of Old Wives’ Tales restaurant;
-Two blocks east of a proposed Urban Development Group development at Southeast 12th and Sandy Boulevard
Photo credit: Bing Maps