PORTLAND, Ore. – One block south of Southeast Portland’s newly-redeveloped Division Street, a 104-year-old house in the Richmond neighborhood will be demolished and likely replaced with multiple new residences.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
Located at 3106 SE Clinton St., the house was built in 1911. It totals 1,564 square feet in size and sits on a 5,000-square-foot corner lot.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
City and county records list the one-story house as owned by Irvin Rice with no recent sales transactions recorded, suggesting the house has retained the same ownership for many years.
However, Zillow lists a May 29 sale for $250,000 taking place. This is $130,000 less than Zillow’s “Zestimate” of the property’s market value and is nearly $23,000 less than PortlandMaps’ estimate of its real market value.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
While the city and county have not yet recorded this sale, permit records shed light on the new ownership and indicate the property is now owned by a developer.
On June 3 the Bureau of Development Services received an application for demolition of the 103-year-old house. The application lists the owner as Sweet Home Clinton LLC, which is registered to Mark Desbrow in Portland.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
Desbrow is involved 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.
That project has been ongoing since 2011.
Excavation for new construction of Waverly Commons on Southeast Woodward Street. Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
The contractor on the demolition permit for the 1911 Clinton Street home is Ethan Beck Homes Inc. Like Desbrow, Ethan Beck was involved with the Waverly Commons project.
There are no construction permits filed on the property at Southeast 31st Avenue and Clinton Street, but the property’s zoning suggests there could be multiple new units incoming.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
The lot is located within an R2.5 zone, meaning there can be one residential unit per 2,500 square feet of land in future land partitions. Two units could therefore fit onto what is now a 5,000-square-foot parcel while complying with zoning regulations.
The $250,000 sale price paid by Sweet Home Clinton LLC fits into a trend reported on by the Portland Chronicle in several recent articles of developers paying less than, sometimes substantially less than, market value for houses that go on to be demolished.
Buyers looking for homes to live in, meanwhile, have recently been reported on by InvestigateWest, which found they are increasingly unable to purchase homes for much higher than market value, losing out to developers paying cash.
Photo credit: Portland Chronicle
The demolition delay for the 1911 Richmond neighborhood home expires July 8.