On October 9th, the Prosper Portland Board of Commissioners voted to grant up to $750,000 towards reconstruction of the Portland Mercado after a January 3rd fire destroyed the Barrio Bar and damaged its surrounding building. The presentation that preceded the unanimous vote revealed that crews will reconstruct the bar space to its former configuration and show additions to the structure, creating more outdoor covered space at the ground level with newly accessible rooftop seating.
Portland Mercado pre fire, courtesy Portland Mercado
The nearly $2 million budget blends funds from fundraising, insurance, and now the awarded grant to Hacienda CDC that manages food cart pod unified by Latino culture. Located at 7238 SE Foster Road, this site fulfilled a community dream to develop the first Latino public market in Portland when it opened in April 2015. Organizers built the affordable retail complex on land owned by the City of Portland’s development agency, Prosper Portland. It offered a mix of interior and food cart space to emerging businesses until an early morning fire in January closed the main building’s shops and Commissary Kitchen.
Portland Mercado restoration budget slide from presentation to Prosper Portland Board of Commissioners
The outdoor facilities at Portland Mercado reopened not long after the fire, but the building remained shuttered until crews could repair the damage and reconstruct the weakened structure. Insurance payouts totaling $904,203 have taken time to coordinate. Presenters explained that the insurance compensation policy requires the bar space to be rebuilt to its previous configuration, and that process follows a restoration path that should return the building to its previous state. However, this construction project allows Portland Mercado to tackle expansion projects it planned to build prior to the fire.
Covered outdoor seating is critical to guest comfort at the Portland Mercado. The Pacific Northwest’s dependably rainy weather is exchanged for hot summer days, and diners appreciate cover in both circumstances. Rebuilding efforts will use the extra Prosper Portland grant money to create a larger building that can accommodate more seating outside the bar area. A new outdoor staircase will lead up to the second floor, where a covered rooftop seating area provides more space for guests and a neighborhood view away from ground-level activities.
During the remodel, the building will also receive new paint in an updated color pallet. Once reopened, a new bar vendor will likely take over the space. Barrio Bar’s owner Chris Shimamoto recently took a position at the Publican Beer Room within the Collective Oregon Eateries (CORE) food hall on SE 82nd Avenue. He explained he was not ready to reopen his own space again but was excited to return to bartending at CORE. Portland Mercado operators intend to file building permits this month, with construction starting in the winter. Crews should complete work in mid-2025.
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Starting the week of October 7th, crews working for NW Natural cut through the sidewalk on the west side of SE 76th Avenue at SE Morrison Street to install new gas regulators. The utility company will place the natural gas equipment below ground in protective enclosures consistent with City of Portland requirements.
This work will replace an existing natural gas vault on the north side of SE Morrison Street across SE 76th Avenue from the work site. The older equipment is located in the planting strip between the sidewalk and the curb at the base of a mature tree. The project underway will update the existing gas distribution infrastructure in the area, providing a modern and reliable fuel delivery system.
This work will involve demolishing the sidewalk in select areas and excavating a pit deep enough to contain equipment. Crews will install access ports for maintenance and pour new concrete to restore the sidewalk. Some in-road work may occur as workers connect the new regulators to gas lines and decommission the older equipment. Pedestrians walking in the area should use the east side of SE 76th Avenue until NW Natural completes work. Motorists and cyclists may need to navigate around heavy equipment working in the roadway at times during the project.
Sidewalk markings for a gas regulator painted on the west side of SE 76th Ave in October 2022
Update October 25th, 2024: NW Natural crews staged new gas regulator assemblies next to the open trench along the west side of SE 76th Avenue at SE Morrison Street. The two cement vaults are sitting below street level awaiting placement of the new gas main piping.
Update November 8th, 2024: NW Natural crews installed new gas regulator assemblies into their vaults. Soon they will place the concrete vault lids and reconstruct the surrounding sidewalk.
Update December 16th, 2024: Cement masons have completed sidewalk reconstruction over the new NW Natural gas regulator vaults on the west side of SE 76th Avenue at SE Morrison Street.
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A – This is a tricky question and one I’ve puzzled over for several years. When you look closely at the 8600 SE Stark Street building, you can see it was built in stages.
I haven’t been able to date all the components, but the earliest one is the two-story building at the corner of Stark and 86th Avenue. If you enter the Marketplace here, you are standing in what was the Dehen Knitting Mills company, a manufacturer of knitted clothing. Just imagine this space filled with busy workers and the clattering of knitting and sewing machines.
Delving into the history of the Dehen company, a fascinating story of a German immigrant and his American family unfolded. The story began with Wilhelm Peter Isenberg (1879-1955), later known as William P. Dehen.
He was born in the beautiful southern German city of Trier, where wool textile production dates back to Roman times. Both his paternal and maternal families were engaged in the manufacturing and sale of knitted wool garments. In 1920, Dehen told a reporter for Olympia’s Washington Standard that, as a youth, he had worked in his father’s knit-goods factory and had studied textile technology at Germany’s prestigious Reutlingen University.
He immigrated to the U.S. in 1903 and—again, according to the Standard—brought the first fully automatic knitting machine to the National Knitting Mills in Milwaukee. By 1905, he had Anglicized his first name to William, but he kept his surname until about 1914. Then, perhaps because of building anti-German sentiment on the eve of World War I, he adopted his mother’s family name, Dehen.
According to Dehen’s grandchildren, Liz Artaiz and Mike Dehen, someone encouraged William to seek his fortune on the West Coast. By 1906, he was working for a knitting mill in San Francisco, but shortly after he arrived, it was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire. In 1907, he and his brother Mathias established their own knitting company in southern California. By 1909, he was back in San Francisco working as a superintendent for the Acme Knitting Company.
William Dehen (foreground) working at a knitting machine at an unknown location. Source: TEDX talk by Benjamin Dehen-Artaiz
In San Francisco, William met Celia A. Schmitt (1885-1970), the daughter of a German immigrant born near Trier. Celia helped run the knitting companies they established in Seattle and Portland between 1915 and 1920. The couple had four children: Henry (b. 1910), Rosemary (b. 1912), Alvira (b. 1914), and William (b. 1922). All except Rosemary, who died tragically in a fire in 1915, would work in the Montavilla factory.
1925 Dehen Knitting Mills building at the corner of Stark and 86th. Photo source: Kelli Vinther, Monticello Antique Marketplace owner
According to Dehen family descendants, William and Celia were destitute when they moved to Portland (probably in 1921), so William had to work as a night watchman at Jantzen Knitting Mills. By 1922, they had opened Dehen Knitting Mills on Stark Street, probably in a preexisting building. In 1925, they commissioned a purpose-built, two-story factory at the corner of Stark and 86th Avenue (which is now the northwest end of the Monticello marketplace). The Oregon Daily Journal of May 9, 1925, reported that the new mill had two floors for production and a basement for storing yarn and other knitting supplies. The five employees produced sports sweaters and bathing suits on German knitting machines.
The Dehen family (Celia, William, and Henry, back; Alvira and Bill) standing in front of the 1925 Dehen building at Stark and SE 86th. Photo courtesy of Dehen 1920
The Dehen mill produced a variety of knitted wool garments––sweaters, bathing suits, underwear, dresses, skirts, and jackets––and sold them to wholesale and retail customers. By 1928, the Dehen company had 15 employees.
In 1927, the company acquired a Jacquard circular knitting machine specifically designed for wool bathing suits.
Dehen ad for a worsted sweater coat. Source: The Sunday Oregonian, February 21, 1926
Woolen bathing suits were popular in the 1920s. Photo source: ad in the Roseburg New Review, July 1, 1926
The Dehen business continued to grow. In 1927, they added a one-story building behind the 1925 mill. (This still exists on the south side of the antique mall.) By this time, the Dehen mill had 26 knitting machines and 24 sewing machines to produce sweaters, bathing suits, underwear, dresses, skirts, athletic suits, and shirts.
1927 addition to the Dehen Knitting Mill. Photo source: The Sunday Oregonian, January 1, 1928
After the stock-market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Depression, the Dehen company fell on challenging times. Customers were unable to pay for products. The bank foreclosed. But the business would continue. According to William’s son Bill, his father and a few friends liberated some knitting machines and yarn. With these supplies, the family continued to produce knit goods in the basement of their new home in Portland’s Goose Hollow neighborhood. They sold them in a storefront at 730 SW 10th Avenue (now the Galleria building). At one point, they even had to sell their goods door-to-door in Gresham, sometimes trading for food.
Despite the lean Depression years, the business survived and ultimately thrived. William and Celia lived to see the company turn around and succeed. Today, Jim Artaiz, husband of Dehen’s granddaughter Liz, runs the Dehen 1920 in Portland, producing high-quality knit goods. For more on the company’s history, you can watch the Portland TEDX talk by Benjamin Dehen-Artaiz, great-grandson of William Dehen, on YouTube. You can also see the current line of knit products on the Dehen 1920 website. Additionally, you can visit their retail store at 1040 NE 44th Avenue to see some of their knit goods and even see the current mill with its knitting and sewing machines.
So, what happened to the Dehen Mill Building? When the Dehens left in 1934, the Coast Printing Company (later the Coast Salesbook Company) moved in. This company was purchased in 1968 by Ennis Business Forms, a national corporation. In 1999, Kelli Vinther purchased the building and transformed it into the Monticello Antique Marketplace. At some point during these decades, the owners built additions to the Dehen Knitting Mill to create the antique mall and Monti’s restaurant complex that is the Montavilla institution of today.
This is part of a new segment at Montavilla News called Montavilla History Questions Answered. If you have questions about Montavilla’s past that you’d like answered, local historian Patricia Sanders will investigate your question. Please email your questions to history@montavilla.net and we may feature it alongside Patricia Sanders’ research in a future post on this page.
On Saturday, October 5th, invited speakers, project staff, and cycling enthusiast gathered at the Gateway Green Park to celebrate the full reopening of the outdoor recreation area for bikes. The southern portion of the hilly and wooded park situated between two freeways was closed for years as crews constructed a second track for the MAX Red Line expansion. The restoration of this Portland Parks & Recreation facility was one of the final steps in the light rail service enhancement project called A Better Red, and today’s ribbon cutting marked that milestone.
Linda Robinson and Ted Gilbert (center) with others cutting ribbon
In early April, construction crews began working on the southern portion of the off-road cycling and outdoor recreation area. The newly completed TriMet transit bridge and track placement required significant earth-moving work, creating the opportunity to completely rebuild this section of the park while adding a universally accessible entrance that should attract new park users. Now, people can cross a bridge adjacent to MAX tracks that take visitors to the park’s high point right from the Gateway Transit Center. While parkgoers could always use the Interstate-205 Multiuse Path to access the park’s center and north entrances, this new southern approach is more direct and separates bike commuter traffic from park users.
Bridge leading from Gateway Transit Center to the Gateway Green Park’s southern enterance
Wilde foliage and newly planted trees in the southern section will take several years to approach the natural maturity seen in other areas of the park. However, this section of the track still offers mountain bike riders the winding gravel-based paths that make this a popular destination. Pedestrians will also enjoy Gateway Green Park, which has several benches and natural scenery. Despite wooded views, visitors are always aware of Interstate-84 and I-205 traffic surrounding the park. This land was once just unused space leftover from freeway construction, explained Ted Gilbert from Friends of Gateway Green. Efforts to transform this area into something other than scenery for motorists began in 2005. Gilbert and Linda Robinson, among many other community members, worked for years to create this park, securing funding and support. This ceremony commemorates the completion of the park’s third phase of development and delivers on its founders’ goals for this public resource.
Several vendors were onsite with loaner bikes and other transportation information as part of both the celebration and the Take Your Kid Mountain Biking Day, presented by NW Trail Alliance. Gateway Green Park is open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and features a Portland Loo restroom, bike trail, pump tracks, and skills areas. Access to the park is easier than ever when entering from the Gateway Transit Center on NE 99th Avenue.
A group of 43 residents of the North Tabor neighborhood signed their names in opposition to the 2020 zoning change that has ushered in several apartment projects without off-street parking. The group feels the street parking congestion will create unsafe conditions for pedestrians and cyclists using the east/west greenway running through the neighborhood. Representatives of the neighbors addressed the Portland City Council on September 25th, and the North Tabor Neighborhood Association Board penned an open letter to city officials. The letter called for a pause of development in the North Tabor neighborhood and to prioritize their listed safety concerns. However, during a July 10th Public Meeting, resident comments about the 32-unit apartment building in question surfaced concerns other than vehicle storage. Additionally, curbside parking space is not yet at capacity in the area.
The existing three houses to be demolished looking southeast from NE 57th Ave and Flanders St
Kent Family Holdings plans to demolish three 100-year-old homes and one modern accessory dwelling unit (ADU) along NE 57th Avenue to construct an apartment complex offering 32 one-bedroom units split between two buildings. The three-story structures share a central courtyard area. The apartment complex features a ground-floor common room, leasing office, secure bike storage area, and trash room. People will access eight units from the main level, with the northern four having doors opening onto NE Flanders Street. Residents will access the upper 24 units by two courtyard stairwells attached to the southern structure. The buildings have dual walkway bridges linking each building’s open-air hallways on the second and third floors. All apartments have washers and dryers in the unit.
The Kent Family Trust began purchasing homes on this block in 2018, with the 1904-built corner home at 332 NE 57th Avenue. In 2020, they bought 320 NE 57th Avenue, which was nearly 100 years old but included a 2015-era detached ADU in the back. By 2021, they owned the 1910-built single-family home at 312 NE 57th Avenue. Then, in August 2023, the property owners requested an Early Assistance meeting with the city seeking guidance on a proposal to demolish three existing structures and build a 28-unit apartment building. The initial design included a courtyard, community room, and a tuck under parking lot.
Ground floor sitemap from Land Use 24-040947 Adjustment request
A year after consulting with the city, Kent Family Holdings submitted building permit applications for a development with four more units than first proposed and no onsite parking. This change to forgo on-property parking aligns with Portland’s goals to maximize housing in increased-density zoned areas with access to transit, bikeways, and resources within walkable range of people’s homes. However, some area residents rallied around a shared concern over street parking conditions. City staff upsized the zoning in this section of Portland to Residential Multi-Dwelling 1 (RM1) several years ago. This classification allows for low-scale multi-dwelling development up to three stories tall but smaller in scale than the Commercial Mixed Use 2 (CM2) zoning to the north and south of the property on NE Glisan and E Burnside Streets. The housing density recently built in response to the nearby CM2 zoned areas lacks onsite parking and has added hundreds of apartment units within a mile radius of the site. Residents have observed more vehicles parked on side streets as buildings fill with new tenants. The neighborhood group opposed to continued apartment development between the CM2 zones says that rapid growth in housing density has impacted livability and safety through constrained on-street parking. They expressed concern over their narrow streets and fear that cars will hurt non-motorists in this densely parked environment.
Portland Maps image showing site outlined in red on a zoning map
Parking issues often surround new housing developments when they deliver density at any size. Infill development will sometimes remove garages and driveways in favor of adding more residences to a lot, requiring street parking to meet residents’ needs. Recent changes to Oregon and Portland rules around zoning have removed many of the onsite parking requirements for housing and allowed multiunit construction on almost every residential property. As legislators intended, these changes have sparked new homes built in yards of existing houses. It has also incentivized the demolition of smaller structures to make way for new multiunit housing that uses more of the available land. Governments have limited ability to build new housing and rely on zoning code changes to convince private investment to create more inventory where planners feel the environment can support it. In Oregon, where regulations limit urban growth, cities must accommodate population growth through redevelopment instead of wider expansion. A prolonged housing shortage in Portland and constrained expansion have led to these zoning updates at a speed greater than some residents feel comfortable with.
NE 57th Ave and Flanders St looking south to apartments on E Burnside
Personal vehicle storage is often the first conflict experienced in rising density as it is a tangible concern for people to focus on. Navigating Portland without a car is more accessible than many places in the country. Still, it is not without challenges, and having access to a vehicle helps people secure better employment opportunities away from transit lines and facilitates the multistop trips families with young children of ten make. However, parking alone is not the only concern people have with redevelopment, and street parking in many Eastside neighborhoods is not at capacity. Some of the NE 57th and Flanders project’s online Public Meeting participants expressed other concerns besides parking. Some attendees said they preferred row housing because that would have created “family-sized” housing similar to what is already there. Another meeting attendee expressed his opinion that the renters of these apartments would not be members of the community, only living there for a few years and moving on. The national average for apartment turnover among renters is around two years, according to some estimates, but that varies by city and does not account for people who relocate within the same neighborhood. Also, community contribution is not definable by the duration of residency.
The group attending the meeting challenged the profit motive of the developer who is building a market-rate complex. The development team acknowledged the motive and noted that for-profit projects create the majority of new housing in Portland and are the primary builders of improved sidewalk infrastructure. The lack of an adequate sidewalk network was one of the community’s safety concerns. The builders also explained that this project will meet Portland’s Inclusionary Housing requirements with a percentage of units reserved as affordable to people earning below 80% or 60% of the Median family income (MFI). The city bases the number of units reserved on the income cap percentage a developer selects. A developer reserves 20% of units at 80% MFI or 10% of units at 60% MFI.
NE 57th Ave and Flanders St looking north to apartments on NE Glisan St
Although recent neighborhood efforts have targeted this 32-unit apartment project, they acknowledge this is just one of many developments contributing to their angst. The combined number of units constructed and planned in their area has some people in this neighborhood feeling like they are facing an undue burden as the city addresses the housing crisis. The neighbors hope to change the zoning to its previous level or, as one meeting participant put it, pay him a million dollars to move elsewhere. Many other Portland residents share his sentiment as they see property values rise and neighborhoods change, creating more redevelopment opportunities as they sell. The zoning changes in Portland do not force people to redevelop their property. However, their neighbors can and often do for the financial benefit it brings. Zoning can reduce the conflict between adjacent property owners who have different objectives for their properties, but planners do not intend zoning to be static; changes will happen as demand in the city calls for new density. The real estate market and property owners decide how fast the neighborhood redevelops to meet the new zoning standards.
NE Glisan St at 56th Ave with several newer multiunit developments
Frustration over changing parking conditions is understandable, particularly when people can no longer reliably park in front of their homes and have to walk a block or more. People often own cars and need to park them on the street if that is their only option. However, congested parking on streets is not necessarily unsafe. Narrow roads encourage drivers to travel slower, reducing the dangers for people walking and biking in the area. Some commuters cut through smaller streets to save time when heavy traffic jams primary routes. However, narrow and crowded side streets are less appealing to them because the slower speeds needed to navigate car-lined streets negate the value of the shortcut. Reducing through traffic in an area can increase safety.
This tension between residents and land use changes is a product of the transitional times cities face. Population growth demands new housing, and environmental goals have depreciated the value personal vehicles bring to society. Additionally, alternative transportation does not meet enough travel needs for all Portlanders, making cars a continued part of people’s lives. It is unknown if the North Tabor neighborhood’s call for a pause to development will find support in City Hall. Many of the concerns expressed have not occurred yet. As the zoning stands, builders in this area have permission to create the residential density officials are asking for as city leaders try to stabilize rising rents through rightsized housing inventory.
Article and photos by
Jacob Loeb
Main article rendering from Land Use 24-040947 Adjustment request documents
Neighborhood news site focused on buildings and changing businesses
