NOVEMBER 2007: COVER
REPAIRING THE HEART
Downtowns are getting a new life
By Robin Doussard
TINY BAKER CITY in far eastern Oregon will unveil its new arts
center in March, a $1.5 million renovation of its 1909 Carnegie
Library. Since the overhaul of the Geiser Grand Hotel in the
mid-1990s ignited a downtown renaissance, Baker City has been a
model for historic revitalization, and it shows no signs of
slowing: 80 of 110 historic downtown structures have been
rehabbed and there are currently eight other renovation
projects worth $1 million under way.
On the other end of the spectrum and state is Portland, which
famously has been undergoing a downtown revitalization since
the 1970s, when it made several early, important moves that
kept its central core from collapsing: a downtown transit mall,
a new waterfront park, creation of the Pioneer Courthouse
Square and the Pioneer Place mall. South Waterfront, the Pearl
and the Brewery Blocks are only a few of the more recent
high-profile projects, along with new transit infrastructure
that is currently ripping up downtown streets. Despite the
recent housing downturn that has cooled an over-built condo
market and an entrenched street population, retail and office
building growth continues.
These two very different but well-known successes stand
alongside other high-profile examples of newly thriving small
historic downtowns such as Hood River, Lake Oswego and
McMinnville. But around the state, many more of Oregon’s
cities are undergoing steady, often quiet revivals. Driven in
part by increasing demand for downtown housing and helped along
by savvy private/public partnerships, local love and
out-of-state interest, dozens of Oregon’s Main Streets
hit in past decades by economic collapse, suburban flight or
malls once again are thriving – and hopeful.
And hopeful, thriving Main Streets mean the hearts of
distressed communities beat again.
“The downtown core is a testimony to how successful a
city is in providing for its citizens,” says Linda Ludwig
of the League of Oregon Cities, a lobby group for the
state’s 242 cities. “A deteriorating downtown core
doesn’t inspire confidence,” Ludwig says. For
instance, she says Albany’s improved downtown had to be
key in landing the $200 million PepsiCo bottling plant that is
set to open next year, bringing 200 jobs with it.
“We look like a construction zone,” says Rick
Rogers, executive director of the Albany Downtown Association.
“The whole downtown is under renovation.” The
change has been recent and fast, sparked by a first-run movie
theater opening only two years ago. Now the second stories of
late 1880s-era buildings are being converted to offices and
lofts, new restaurants have opened, and “it’s
becoming a desirable place to live,” says Rogers.
Pendleton mayor Phil Houk, also the president-elect of the
Oregon Mayors Association, puts it this way: “Communities
that have lost their downtown have lost their
identity.”
To prevent that, Pendleton is focused on renovating facades
and creating second-story access to its downtown buildings; the
city will help with funding for elevators if builders will
rehab their upstairs. It’s a simple idea used by many
downtowns, including The Dalles, Corvallis, Salem and Portland:
Increase foot traffic by promoting living above the retail
ground floor and you’ll encourage businesses to return to
the area.
Pendleton created an urban renewal district three years ago, a
move that Houk says was key for downtown revitalization. Around
the state, that private/public partnership is cited as critical
to getting traction. To help, the state this fall launched its
Main Street Oregon program, part of a national initiative, with
a $500,000 grant fund. The program combines historic
restoration with economic development to help downtown business
districts. A national study estimated that each new downtown
employee spends between $2,500 and $3,500 downtown each year,
and each new downtown resident spends between $7,500 and
$14,000 annually in the downtown.
Eugene found that the private sector cannot do it alone, says
Russ Brink, executive director of Downtown Eugene. Revitalizing
downtown Eugene has been a long process, Brink says.
Classically sapped by malls, suburbanization and a failed
pedestrian mall, the downtown core languished. But now two
private developers have plans that include office, retail,
housing and entertainment components — a private
investment of $180 million. Why now?
“Because the city of Eugene and its urban renewal agency
have control over those properties, and there’s a very
active market for downtown redevelopment locally and
nationwide,” says Brink. Downtowns across the country are
seeing incredible redevelopment. Housing is in demand and
retail follows housing. Brink says the strategy is to make
Eugene’s downtown denser.
DOWNTOWN IS THE HEART of any community and fixing a broken one
is about a sense of place and pride. Several river towns across
the state have recaptured use of their watery beginnings:
Corvallis, Independence and The Dalles all have created new
riverfront parks that snuggle their historic downtowns.
Troutdale plans to cut a road through its outlet mall to create
a gateway to the Sandy River.
Salem has a tremendous opportunity opening up around its
riverfront with Boise Cascade exiting the downtown core and
freeing 13 acres of riverfront property. The city’s
vision for the area is to increase pedestrian usage and
connections throughout the downtown area.
Being the capital presents unique challenges with overlapping
state and local needs. But suddenly, it’s all coming
together. “It’s like a perfect storm,” says
Rick Scott, Salem’s urban development director. Scott
says Salem used to be an example of what not to do, but now it’s an
example of what to do. The Salem Conference Center, opened in
2005, was a 35-year-old vision that’s now turning a
profit. The city has invested $8.5 million in restoring 27
historic buildings and there has been a $26 million
public/private investment in the core to date. Scott estimates
that over the next few years there will be 275 condos,
apartments and townhomes built downtown.
The key to success? “You have to have the political will
and alignment,” says Scott, “and a development
community interested in taking some risks.”
It also helps to have a strong identity, and some downtowns
are focusing on arts and culture as their niche.
Hillsboro had to grapple with how to keep an older downtown
vital after it had started to slide. The city decided that the
arts were the answer (part of a larger strategy to attract the
creative class, according to John Southgate, the city’s
economic development manager) and formed the Downtown Hillsboro
Renaissance Project, which includes a cultural arts center, a
regional theater and a visual arts facility. After creating an
artist relocation program in 2000, 45 artists have moved into
the area. Another top priority is building the residential base
of downtown.
Gresham, too, sees the arts as vital to a healthy downtown.
Its $16 million Center for the Arts, still in the feasibility
stage, is sited on a two-acre parcel in the historic core
donated by the Fourier-Larson family. The design includes two
buildings connected by a large community plaza, which is
envisioned as Gresham’s public gathering place.
Like many small towns, Springfield was timber-dependent and
suffered from that collapse. But now, “We are slowly
changing into a culture center,” says Dan Egan, executive
director of Springfield’s chamber of commerce.
Egan says that for 27 years there were no new buildings
downtown and it lost its place as a commercial hub to malls at
the outskirts. Then the economy picked up in the 1990s (Sony
came to town in 1995), and now there is $25 million in new
construction going on. Key is a $3.2 million community theater
and a new mass transit station. Voters will decide on
establishing an urban renewal district this fall.
“We were on the verge of being a ghost town,” says
Egan. “Now we have momentum. An urban renewal district
will be one of the things that says the city is serious.
We’re almost at the tipping point.” Many city
officials statewide cite urban renewal districts, enterprise
zones and historic designations as key tools in creating the
public/private partnerships that they see as so vital to
downtown revitalization.
ASTORIA KNOWS SOMETHING about tipping points. Astoria’s
history is as deep as its Columbia River channels. The first
permanent U.S. settlement on the Pacific Coast, named for John
Jacob Astor and rebuilt after two devastating fires, it has
suffered the collapse of timber and its storied fish canneries.
Through the early 1990s, “when the sun went down,
downtown was a scary place to be,” says Paul Benoit,
Astoria’s city manager.
Eventually, the city got rid of the three notorious bars that
blighted downtown, which began a complete turnaround, says
Benoit. The city focused on its assets, starting like many of
its brethren with its river. Now there’s a riverwalk
along the face of the downtown with five miles of paved trails
and three parks.
Then the $6 million renovation of the 1925 Liberty Theater,
launched in 2000, helped spark Astoria’s revitalization.
It soon was followed by the renovation of the 1924 Hotel
Elliot. The downtown took off.
“Optimism was born,” Benoit says.
But plans for three new mixed-use developments on the
waterfront with a total of 120 residential units has led to
local angst about what Astoria could become, which has led to a
riverfront visioning project.
“There are towns that get so successful they become
something different … a tourist destination,” says
Benoit. “Astoria’s never been too fancy.
There’s a real desire that we understand what the essence
of the community is.”
With this kind of success inevitably comes some angst about
losing identity. You see it in the “Keep Portland
Weird” bumper stickers and expressed in smaller towns
from Baker City to Hood River to Astoria. Despite that, few
seem to see the downtown momentum slowing.
“There’s a saying,” says Eugene’s Russ
Brink. “Downtown is never done.”
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