Crews with LMC Construction are preparing the future site of the Legin Commons apartment building on the southwest corner of Portland Community College’s (PCC) Southeast campus. The four-story building will offer 124 affordable housing units, including 63 family-sized apartments and 20 deeply affordable units reserved for people earning 30 percent or less of Portland’s Area Median Income (AMI). Workers on site will soon depave the former parking lot and clear many trees in preparation for principal construction.
In 1964, Kaiser Permanente built a one-story medical clinic on the property and operated there until 2014. PCC acquired the land several years before Kaiser’s closure and demolished the building in 2015. Since then, it has served the educational institution as an auxiliary parking lot with a large grassy spot where the building once stood. PCC had always planned to repurpose the space for more effective uses than parking. In 2021, College leadership worked to develop a twenty-year facilities plan for the educational institution’s properties. During that evaluation, PCC determined that portions of the school grounds should support low-income affordable housing. Instead of student-only dormitories, they opted to focus on attainable housing open to the community. From internal surveys of students, PCC staff learned that housing insecurity is a significant concern. They also observed that students often spread their education out over many years with inconsistent enrollment. Consequentially, PCC determined that tying housing programs to school affiliation would not help alleviate the housing insecurities among the student population.
Over the last two years, this housing project progressed with Our Just Future as the Sponsor and Developer. APANO and Edlen & Co. serve as development partners in the Bora Architecture & Interiors designed project. APANO, which has its offices a few blocks east of the site, will be the Service Provider at Legin Commons.
Our Just Future provided tree planting site map
Landscapers will surround the 110,000-square-foot building with trees and other plantings. However, many of the existing mature trees are either in the way of the future development or suffering from age and showing signs of a fungal infection. The project arborists will preserve a healthy mature tree on the corner of SE Division Street and SE 77th Avenue and three other trees mid-block on SE 77th Avenue. A net-style orange safety fence protects the remaining trees, including eight small street trees planted between the curb and sidewalk on SE Sherman Street. During community engagement, neighbors asked that project planners maximize onsite parking for residents, lessening the impact on street parking. They needed to remove and replace seven older trees with seven new plantings closer to the property line to accommodate that community request. The apartment will offer 32 parking stalls at the north end of the building and place ten new trees between parking spaces. It will take years before the tree canopy matures. However, the replacement tree selection emphasizes native, hardy, and drought-tolerant species to better fill in this parcel over the coming decades. Brian Shelton-Kelley, with Our Just Future, explained the city-approved landscaping design will eventually provide significant urban tree canopy thanks to a building footprint scaled back to adequately utilize the site’s housing density but not maximize it at the expense of green space.
Protected mature tree on the corner of SE Division St and SE 77 Ave
Mature trees along SE Sherman St slated for removal indicated by the white X mark
Towards the later part of the project, crews will replace some curb-tight sidewalk segments with walkways buffered by tree-planted furnishing zone strips. The developer received Portland’s approval to retain some curb-tight sidewalks on SE 77th Avenue, allowing the preservation of the three mature trees whose roots have grown up to the pavement’s edge. Unsuccessful challenges to the city-approved adjustments by some neighbors delayed groundbreaking and increased development costs. However, Shelton-Kelley explained that the project is back on track with all the necessary approvals to begin work on this new affordable housing. People should expect to see heavy equipment onsite early in 2025 to regrade the land and provide trenches for utilities, making way for a year of construction at this site.
Update January 2nd, 2025: Some neighbors opposing the tree removal and placement of the housing project have created a website expressing their concerns and presenting an alternative design of their creation at savethegreenspaceat77th.org (Montavilla News has not checked or validated any claims made on the linked site).
Update January 6th, 2025: Arborists with Wind Thin Tree Service began cutting down the trees slated for removal. Crews operating a stump grinder are following the crane and bucket team chipping down the visible stumps.
On September 7th, the Belmont Library at 1038 SE Cesar Estrada Chavez Boulevard closes for renovations that will more than double its size with a two-story addition to the original 1924 brick building. Demolition crews will remove portions of the building added in previous updates, clearing the way for the modern amenities seen at other voter-approved library expansions. Starting August 31st, patrons will only receive at-door service from library staff as they prepare the space for construction.
Draft renderings of Belmont Library courtesy of Bora Architecture and Interiors
Belmont Library is one of several options for Montavilla residents. Despite its modest 5,420-square-foot capacity, this branch is one of the busiest locations in the entire Multnomah County Library system. During the closure, people can visit a temporary branch at 3557 SE Hawthorne Boulevard starting Monday, September 9th. Limited services at this storefront will include holds-pick-up, Lucky Day items, all-hours book returns, and free wireless printing. Patrons can also use the recently refreshed Gregory Heights Library at 7921 NE Sandy Boulevard or the new two-story Holgate Library at 7905 SE Holgate Boulevard.
Draft renderings of Belmont Library courtesy of Bora Architecture and Interiors
Crews will create dedicated areas during the Belmont Library remodel that offer more to do than read, similar to what staff revealed last month at the Holgate Library. Children and their caregivers will find an ample interior educational play space with books, games, and other age-appropriate learning tools. Community groups will gain flexible meeting spaces with updated technology and internet throughout the facility. A teen area will provide space for homework and creative expression with access to modern technology. As with other recent library investments, new community-reflecting art will adorn the expanded building.
Draft renderings of Belmont Library courtesy of Bora Architecture and Interiors
Bora Architecture and Interiors led the design efforts for this $28 million project that will deliver an approximately 15,000-square-foot modern library. People should expect a year of construction starting next month. The builder anticipates the Belmont Library will reopen around spring 2026.
Update: A previous version of this article said the Belmont Library would reopen in late 2025 or early 2026. That timeline was updated to spring 2026.
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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.
Google Maps image of the Legin Restaurant from 2012
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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On November 15th, Bora Architecture & Interiors will host an online meeting regarding the construction of affordable housing on the southwest corner of Portland Community College’s Montavilla campus. This project at 7705 SE Division Street will create 124 apartments contained in a four-story “H” shaped building. The development has space for 33 off-street parking stalls to the north of the building.
Our Just Future, formerly Human Solutions, will develop this housing project in partnership with APANO and Edlen & Co. Preliminary plans show the building massed towards SE Division Street with a green buffer zone along SE 77th Avenue. Apartments should range in size from studio units to three-bedroom family residences. All units are designated affordable and open to people outside the PCC student body.
In 2021, Portland Community College (PCC) applied to the City of Portland for Early Assistance on this housing project. PCC acquired the property from the German American Society in May 2010. Kaiser Permanente maintained a lease for the one-story building on the site until 2014. Midway through 2015, PCC began the process of demolishing the building and adding vehicle stalls to the existing parking lot. The area currently serves as auxiliary parking for the college and extended green space for the campus.
Tonight’s meeting will allow community members to learn more about the project and ask questions. People can attend the Zoom meeting via a computer or smartphone and by calling in with a standard phone. The one-hour gathering starts at 6 p.m. Connection details are at the Montavilla Neighborhood Association website.
