PORTLAND, Ore. – More than a century after it was constructed on Southeast Clinton Street, a single-family home has been demolished by a developer who previously completed a large multifamily housing development a block away on Southeast Division Street.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
The Richmond neighborhood house, located at 3106 SE Clinton St. and reported on by the Portland Chronicle in June, was built in 1911 and sat on a 5,000-square-foot lot. The house itself totaled 1,564 square feet in size.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
On May 29 the house was sold from Irvin Rice to Sweet Home Clinton LLC for $250,000. This is about $130,00 less than Zillow’s estimate of the property’s real market value. The home was never listed by a real estate company for sale and no signs ever appeared in front of the property advertising a potential sale for residential living.
Instead, the house sold to Sweet Home Clinton LLC, registered to developer Mark Desbrow at an address in the Pearl District.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
On June 3 the Bureau of Development Services received an application for demolition of the 104-year-old house. The permit was issued July 24.
On July 29 the house was demolished. The contractor on the demolition was Ethan Beck Homes Inc., who has been involved in other Desbrow-led developments.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
While there are no construction permits under review, the 5,000-square-foot property is located within an R2.5 zone and there are also two underlying lots of record on the property, suggesting multiple units could be constructed.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
However, a permit related to the demolition states that the “excavated basement” is “to be reused for (the) new house,” and as the foundation of the demolished house spans across the underlying lot line it seems likely there will be a single replacement home constructed on the site.
Desbrow is also affiliated with the Waverly Commons project that saw the demolition of what was formerly the Waverly Children’s Home for a subdivision on a block between Southeast Woodward and Brooklyn streets. Desbrow is listed as the owner of a house constructed as part of that subdivision.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
In addition to the subdivision on Southeast Woodward Street, Desbrow is also responsible for Green Light Development LLC, which was a co-developer in the D Street Village development on Southeast Division Street, a block north of the demolished house on Southeast Clinton Street.
Answering for the D Street Village development, Desbrow told the Daily Journal of Commerce that “what we like the idea of is we’re creating spaces in the project that foster community, and I’m not just saying that as a token statement.”
“D Street Village” comprises several buildings along Southeast Division Street. Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
Current listings for D Street Village show studio apartments listed at between $1,350 and $1,500 per month.
As of Wednesday all that remained standing of the 1911 home on Southeast Clinton Street was the chimney and garage.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle