The affordable housing project slated for the southwest corner of Portland Community College’s (PCC) SE campus moved to its next phase of development, with project team members submitting building permits and selecting a name for the 124-unit apartment building. The Legin Apartments’ name honors the landmark Chinese restaurant demolished after closing in 2012 to make way for the PCC campus expansion. Although connected to the educational institution’s campus, the housing operator Our Just Future will independently manage this 110,000-square-foot residential building without any college enrollment requirements.
In 2021, PCC representatives collected feedback from students, faculty, staff, and PCC neighbors about the physical environment at its four campuses. The researchers combined this qualitative input with data on student enrollment, regional demographics, and market trends to create development concepts that accommodate the next 10 to 20 years of the college’s growth. In that exploration, affordable housing ranked high on the priority list for future developments. However, PCC leaders did not want to increase student housing insecurity by linking shelter to enrollment. Instead, they determined increasing affordable housing inventory near college campuses would better serve the community and PCC students.
Our Just Future, formerly Human Solutions, will develop this housing project in partnership with local nonprofit APANO. Bora Architecture & Interiors is leading project design work for this four-story building located at 7755 SE Division Street and conducted community outreach in 2023. Listening to neighbor feedback while adjusting to city and utility company concerns, Bora reshaped the project while retaining the same basic I-shaped footprint as first proposed. To address those concerns, the team requested several exceptions to Campus Institutional 2 zoning standards, allowing the building to sit further back from the sidewalk on its west and north frontages, among other minor adjustments. These changes will enable the builders to retain more of the established trees on the lot and provide a buffer for the one and two-story homes across from the site along SE 77th Avenue and SE Sherman Street.
A neighbor across from the site appealed the Land Use Adjustment approvals, citing his opinion that the project is too tall to integrate into the residential scale neighborhood and that PCC is not within its rights to lease the land for this non-school use. City officials scheduled the appeals hearing for September 3rd. In regards to this appeal, Brian Squillace of Bora noted this project is below the campus’s allowable density, which permits buildings up to eight stories tall on portions of the site. His team worked to strike a compromise between providing efficient land use and integrating with the existing scale of the campus and neighborhood. The design team also oriented the 30-vehicle onsite parking lot on the northern edge to further distance the taller building from the single-story homes across the street.
Bora Architecture & Interiors worked with the development team to design the building with several elements that support residents who may need enhanced amenities to meet their specific needs. The building offers tenants two elevators at either end of the building to ensure people with special mobility needs will have quick access to the upper floors from the parking lot entrance or the main lobby on SE Division Street. Providing two elevators ensures out-of-order equipment will not trap people in their apartments. Squillace explained the design incorporates communal elements to “expand the livability beyond the footprint of the unit.” Most floors offer two studying nooks for a single person to take a private video call or work in solitude. The building also features larger gathering rooms for two to six people, available without reservation or pre-approval. The project architects envision each floor supporting micro-neighborhoods with a diversity of shared spaces where people can socialize.
The designers of this project incorporated features that embody resiliency in a changing climate. The Legin Apartments is an all-electric building, utterly free of combustible fuels. Thanks to a Portland Clean Energy Fund investment, the apartment building will include mini-split heat pumps in each unit for year-round temperature control. Additionally, electricity costs are included in the rent, so people on a tight budget will not need to sacrifice in other areas to stay comfortable. Building management provides complimentary wireless Internet to residents with the option to buy enhanced service for video streaming and gaming. Our Just Future considers online access an essential part of modern living and a roadway to future success. The developers are working to secure funds for a significant solar array on top of the building that would reduce external energy demand by up to 60 percent. Limited battery storage onsite will serve critical loads such as refrigerators for medicines and Wi-Fi access during power outages.
The four floors in this building will support a mix of unit sizes, emphasizing family-sized housing. Legin Apartments will have 33 studio, 28 one-bedroom, 47 two-bedroom, and 16 three-bedroom units. Brian Shelton-Kelley with Our Just Future explained they would reserve apartments for households earning 60% or less of the Area Median Income (AMI). This site will also receive 20 Project-Based rental assistance Vouchers (PBVs) from Home Forward for people making 30% or below the AMI. Residents in the building will have access to many supportive resources not found in market-rate housing. Our Just Future will provide dedicated resident service coordination staff in addition to the building administrative managers and maintenance crew. The resident service coordinators host community-building events and connect residents to community-based resources, including health care or financial assistance. Our Just Future manages just under 900 units across 19 other properties. Nine resident service coordinators oversee those sites, and the new staff hired for Legin Apartments will have an extensive peer network from which to draw support.
Along with ground-floor apartments, the main level of this new building will offer a gated courtyard with play equipment and a variety of community rooms for classes and events. A central laundry room on the main floor is adjacent to the kid’s playroom so caregivers can watch their kids while they’re washing clothes. The building also offers smaller laundry rooms on each floor, so residents do not need to travel far. People living at this site will have access to APANO programming and services. The partner organization’s headquarters are across SE Division Street, just east of this location. They will provide workforce development and home ownership classes. The group may host some of their regular music and yoga classes from down the street in the educational space at the Legin Apartments.
APANO is an Asian and Pacific Islander advocacy organization with nearly three decades of broad community development experience. This PCC building is one of three APANO-affiliated affordable housing projects under development in the area. The group is committed to improving conditions for people in this section of Portland, which has an intertwined history in the city’s Asian American community. The site of the Legin Apartments once held a Kaiser Permanente leased one-story building. PCC acquired the property from the German American Society in May of 2010 and later demolished the building. During that time, the college expanded its campus and purchased the land used for 17 years by Legin Restaurant. The pioneering eastside location was a key gathering place for Asian communities in the city as populations moved east. Opening in 1995, Legin became an established regional anchor point with a large banquet hall to host events moving away from Downtown. When newcomers to 82nd Avenue needed a culturally specific communal location, Legin Restaurant’s iconic pagoda served as a beacon.
In addition to honoring Legin Restaurant’s contribution to Portland through the building’s name, project staff will recognize Minoru Yasui, Oregon’s only Presidential Medal of Freedom awardee. The development team is working with the Minoru Yasui Legacy Project to spotlight his historic challenge of Japanese American internment during WWII and his lifetime defending civil rights by naming a key element in the development after Minoru Yasui. The team will announce the details of this homage later in the construction process as they plan a formal naming ceremony.
Construction crews anticipate breaking ground on the Legin Apartments at the end of 2024 or early 2025. APANO is still developing its final programming plan for the residents, and site operators will formalize more project details closer to completion. Next year, people should anticipate significant construction at the site as crews work to bring more affordable housing to the area.
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