Steven Semes, architecture scholar and professor at University of Notre Dame and Michael Mehaffy, Portland-based sustainability consultant offered this March 17, 2012 editorial in the Oregonian.
Venerable Development will bring a $7 million project to the Salvation Army Industrial Home Building located on Martin Luther King Boulevard and Ash Street.
“Industrial Home is an exciting new project that will offer the Central Eastside additional commercial and creative office options,” said Art DeMuro, project developer and president of Venerable Group, Inc. “This project also will help implement job creation in those industries targeted by the Portland Development Commission.”
The project will include approximately 10,000 sf of ground floor retail/restaurant space with large expanses of storefront glass, multiple sidewalk entries, high ceilings, exposed heavy timber structural elements and an over-sized skylight. The second and third stories will offer 16,000 sf of office space with huge, new operable windows, high ceilings, exposed structure and light well.
“We are looking for tenants of various sizes who value the historic character we offer in our projects,” said Craig Kelly, leasing agent with Venerable Properties, LLC. “Firms will have a great opportunity to locate into a property that has all new systems and a seismic upgrade yet offers creative features including exposed timbers, wood floors and abundant natural light.”
The building appears to be one building from the exterior; however, the south half was constructed in 1893 and was then expanded and remodeled in 1930 by architect Frederick Manson White.
While the 1893 building first had a hay-and-feed use, it was later purchased and used by the Salvation Army as its Industrial Home in 1913. Industrial Homes were more common in major American cities during this time as the Salvation Army was growing and spreading its mission to help the poor. The purpose of the Home was to provide work and shelter for homeless, unemployed men. They would collect, sort and resell recyclable items such as rags and paper and collect, repair and sell second-hand merchandise such as clothes, shoes, furniture and household items.
As was typical for these complexes, Portland’s Industrial Home included a retail thrift store, sorting and repair rooms. The building also contained a dormitory, large washroom, kitchen, dining room and chapel for the workers.
In addition to its significance related to the Salvation Army’s work in Portland, it is notable that this building housed the longest running second-hand shop in the city from 1913 to 2010 and probably also housed Portland’s first organized recycling effort.
See websites: Central Eastside Industrial Council
Preservationists ask city to provide incentives to help pay for seismic upgrades of historic buildingsBy Angela Webber
Red “U” signs are posted on 32 Portland buildings. The “U” stands for “unsafe”; however, the designation isn’t intended to alert tenants or patrons, but rather warn firefighters that they should be particularly careful when fighting fires in these buildings.
For preservation advocates, however, each “U” is a reminder of a problem facing Portland’s historic buildings: unreinforced masonry.
By itself, unreinforced masonry isn’t enough to draw a “U.” But its presence may indicate the age of the building and contribute to other problems. A building could have unprotected wood framing that could be compromised, or a building could have contents that absorb a lot of water and create downward pressure. These buildings need upgrades, preservationists say. And they want the city to help. 
“You won’t be able to preserve these buildings if owners can’t afford to keep them,” said Anne Naito-Campbell, whose family owns a number of historic buildings in the city. She called for creation of an incentive program to “fund renovation of ‘U’ buildings.”
On Friday, the city convened a symposium of historic preservationists and other stakeholders, including Naito-Campbell, to discuss the issues surrounding historic resources in the central city as part of the Central City 2035 Plan. Overwhelmingly, that group asked the city to consider establishing incentive programs for seismic upgrades of historic buildings with unreinforced masonry.
“There’s no question that any public subsidy available to help offset high cost of seismic rehabilitation is an incentive,” Venerable Properties President Art DeMuro said. His company specializes in historic redevelopment, but the economic downturn has created challenges, he said.
DeMuro attributes the success of his company’s previous historic renovations to a seismic loan program through the Portland Development Commission. Venerable Properties upgraded the White Stag Block, the Mason-Ehrman Building in Old Town and the Telegram Building at 11th Avenue and Washington Street – all with help from a low-interest seismic loan from the PDC.
“PDC has gone a different direction in the past five years,” DeMuro said. “The urban renewable money that used to fund these loans is going toward fewer, larger projects that PDC considers ‘catalytic.’
“PDC is not project-driven anymore, as much as job-driven.”
It’s a sign of the economic times, but it’s slowing some historic preservation projects that might otherwise happen, DeMuro said.
One of Venerable Properties’ buildings, at Northwest Fifth Avenue and Flanders Street, could use a lot of work, DeMuro said. The unreinforced masonry building needs a seismic upgrade – and a new roof, an elevator and mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.
“If the building needs $200 per square foot of investment, about $40 of that is seismic,” DeMuro said.
However, if the city were able to provide a subsidy for the seismic portion of the project, that would be an incentive for his company to consider, he said.
“Personally, I would love to see a PDC program,” said architect Fredrick Zal, who performs historic preservation work. Zal said he has reached out to the city and offered his services at a discount for work on historic preservation projects.
“There are a number of buildings that are really beautiful,” Zal said. “Over time, property owners will restore these buildings. I would love to see them do the work, but it’s not cost-effective.”
One of the reasons that such projects could use incentives is that the cost of steel – the primary material used in seismic framing – keeps going up, Zal said.
Another problem is that a seismic upgrade lacks a payoff for the owner – unless the work is able to prevent a building from collapsing in an earthquake, the financial payoff is difficult to quantify.
“You can redo an interior, add finishes, or petition a space such that it lends itself to more occupancy, and you can upgrade mechanical, electrical or plumbing systems – all those things will justify higher rents. Seismic upgrades will certainly make a building safer, but tenants won’t pay higher rents because of that upgrade,” DeMuro said. “It’s a conundrum.”
With the earthquake that devastated Japan still in the public consciousness, Bosco-Milligan Foundation Executive Director Cathy Galbraith told planners at Friday’s seminar that now is the time to ask people to invest in seismic upgrades.
“If we can’t do it now, we’ll never be able to do it,” she said.
Check Daily Journal of Commerce website.
A noted Portland development firm could help recast the former Washington High School into a multi-use site that includes housing.
Portland Public Schools officials will negotiate acquisition agreements with Venerable Development to revamp the site. Portland-based Venerable, led by Art DeMuro, redeveloped downtown’s White Stag Block into a modern-tinged home for the University of Oregon’s Portland campus.
School officials agreed to approve any development plan before moving ahead with a sale of the site, at Southeast 12th Avenue and Stark Street. Venerable won the right to negotiate with the district because its plan met fiscal requirements and expectations of the abandoned school’s neighbors. Formal negotiations are set to begin in early March.
Portland’s Board of Education would need to approve any agreement with Venerable.
The school district merged Washington and Monroe high schools at the site in the late 1970s, then closed Washington-Monroe High in 1981 after enrollment declined. The building hosted special education and other programs through 2004.
The district sold 4.5 acres on the site to the city of Portland for a possible future community center.
District officials have closed 12 schools in the last decade. Some of the sites were leased out and generate roughly $1.6 million in yearly revenue, according to a district release.
Portland schools uses one-time money from property sales to make capital improvements at other school sites.
See websites: Central Eastside Industrial Council | Portland Business Journal