Grocery games at Grant Park Village

Grant Park Village (photo by Fred Leeson)

BY FRED LEESON

If the new Grant Park Village proves to be a smash hit on Broadway, we can call it “Car Wars.” Should it prove to be a little less slam/bang, then a title like “Food Fight” will do.

The food fight and the accompanying car wars began November 12, when the New Seasons grocery chain opened a 34,500-square foot store in first floor of the four-story, 600-foot long “village” nearing completion at the busy intersection of Northeast 33rd Avenue and Broadway.

The $60 million project, built by Capstone Partners LLC, fills a sloping, long-vacant site that housed the Albina Fuel Company and a couple smaller businesses that formerly nestled between Broadway, Interstate 84 and Northeast 32nd Avenue. Now, the first phase of the long, narrow “village” will comprise 211 apartments and about 47,000 square feet of retail space, sitting on a concrete pedestal covering 269 parking spaces.

Finding a new use for the Albina Fuel site took more than a decade. An earlier proposal calling for condominiums died in the recession. The elaborate planning process for the village eventually won grudging approval from the nearby Grant Park and Sullivan’s Gulch neighborhoods, though the neighbors continued to express concerns about traffic problems.

Indeed, automobile flow may be daunting. Most motorists hoping to park under the New Seasons will have to turn from Broadway to one block on 32nd, and then turn briefly on to Northeast Weidler to enter the covered parking. Some drivers may be tempted, instead, to walk a couple hundred feet from the nearby Fred Meyer Hollywood parking lot, but we’ll get to that issue in a moment.

To accommodate vehicular turns on and off Broadway, the city has installed a new signal at 32nd.  It will be the fourth signalized intersection between 28th and 33rd, with lights now at 33rd, 32nd, 30th and 28th. City traffic engineers originally were reluctant to add the new signal, but Capstone evidently provided evidence to change their minds. It remains to be seen how reality of the traffic flow fits with the gauntlet of lights.

Grant Park village was designed by LRS Architects of Portland, with assistance from Seattle’s Runberg Architecture Group. The designers took cues from nearby industrial-style buildings – notably the Gordon’s Fireplace building just across 33rd Avenue, and a former large factory that is now houses storage units near I-84 and Northeast 28th Avenue.

Grant Park Village (photo by Fred Leeson)

The first phase of the village consists of three buildings of similar size and appearance sitting on the concrete pedestal. One might hope that someday the three could be more differentiated visually with a more vibrant color scheme. But not to worry; paint is comparatively cheap. Long-range plans could see the addition of more housing units in two buildings at the rear of the five-acre site. The first phase includes a pleasant gathering space for residents on the backside of the three buildings and a walking path that someday could become part of a longer pedestrian/bicycle route in the freeway gulch.

The agreement by New Seasons to take the primary retail space puts three major food stores within a few hundred feet of one another. Fred Meyer Hollywood is almost check-to-jowl to the southwest, and QFC (also part of the Kroger/Fred Meyer empire) is just a couple short blocks to the north. It must be frustrating for Portland neighborhoods that cannot land a major food retailer to see three so close; no doubt demographics – closely studied by the big food chains – are to blame.

Fred Meyer Inc. is not taking the new competition lightly. Top officials have been meeting with Hollywood employees, and some of the employees tried – unsuccessfully, in some cases – to scout out the new competitor before it opened. No doubt concerned by potential abuse of its own parking, Fred Meyer Inc. has contracted with a parking patrol company to monitor Meyer’s eastern lot closest to New Seasons. Signs have been posted telling customers that they may park for no more than two hours, during which time they are not supposed to leave the Fred Meyer premises. The penalty is a $39 fine.

If Fred Meyer himself were still alive, it is probable that he would fight New Seasons with all the competitive aggression he could muster. And that likely would be in the form of price wars. Meyer, who cut his retailing teeth in the old public markets along Southwest Yamhill Street in the 1920s and 30s, once told an associate, “If I walk down Yamhill Street and my competitors aren’t saying, ‘There goes Fred Meyer, that son of a bitch,’ my prices aren’t hot enough.”

In a much bigger, fancier way, perhaps Grant Park Village is the start of a new Yamhill Street.

Fred Leeson is a Portland journalist and author of “My-Te-Fine Merchant: Fred Meyer’s Retail Revolution.”

 

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Comments

[Dave]

I checked out the project last weekend and I was not that impressed. Let's start with the outside. The materials look cheap. If you are just going to paint a building, then at least make the colors vibrant and interesting. This looks drab and boring. It does feel a lot more urban in the area and bringing additional residents and retail to the area will help it feel much different.

The parking situation was interesting. Looked like most people were parking underground and not in the lot on the same level as New Seasons. Lots of empty spots there yet underground was full. Perhaps some signage will resolve that or people will figure it out.

Spent some time at Mudbay, one of the new stores. Every single customer walked in through the back door from the parking area. There was no foot traffic from Broadway. It's a nice attempt to create a shopping area but a lot more needs to happen to the area for that to become pedestrian friendly.

Having said that, the New Seasons was packed and I expect for this store to become one of their top stores. Fred Meyer may suffer a bit. It will pick up some business from the new residents but NSM will cherry pick some high-spending customers. It's possible QFC will suffer a lot more though.

All in all. A good project but it could have been better.

[Lucas Gray]

This development is comprised of some of the ugliest buildings in Portland. It is a shame how little thought or creativity was put into the design. The materials and colors are bland, and the ground floor retail appears dark and dreary. There was very little attention put into the design of the street front or improving the pedestrian experience along Broadway. This is a huge fail for the developer, the design team and a terrible addition to the neighborhood.

It is projects like this that make me think we should have design review for the entire city.

[Karen Stein]

Could not agree more, Lucas. The development is a hulking set of structures that are too tall for the corridor and create a claustrophobic, dark gauntlet along Broadway. I far preferred the open feel of the unused lot before this was built, and I think that the architects could have made an effort to retain that feeling of openness and light. Instead, they did the opposite. And the design of the buildings, and the signage, brings to mind a medical center or offices rather than a pleasing place to live and shop. The interior of the New Seasons also feels as if it has no relationship to its location. There are few windows that provide shoppers with a sense of place. And why did the developers and Trimet not add a Max stop at 33rd, given the number of residents, neighbors and shoppers who will be traveling to and from the complex? It's definitely disappointing.

[Jo Price]

I was so hopeful for this development. It is a huge lot with so much potential. Instead the gray exterior and really boring materials all around are so disappointing. I bet a lot of that commercial space right on the corner of 33rd will remain unfilled. The view of it from the freeway overpass at the south is even more disappointing. There is not one redeeming color or design element. Double thumbs down.

[Dave]

Just a curious observation. Why didn't the developer add a lane of street parking next to the building? Yes, it would have cut into their property but that might have helped activate the streetfront.

[maccoinnich]

Sadly, this project did go through the Design Review process.