Tag: Legin Apartments

Community, New Residence

Legin Commons Opens with 124 Affordable Homes

On September 10th, the public and private organizations responsible for creating the Legin Commons apartment building at 7755 SE Division Street celebrated its opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Soon, new residents will begin moving into 124 new regulated affordable homes on Portland Community College’s (PCC) Southeast campus, prioritizing families with children and low-income households.

A group of individuals participating in a ribbon-cutting ceremony outside a building, smiling and holding a large golden ribbon.

The new four-story building sits on the site of a former Kaiser Permanente one-story medical clinic built in 1964. PCC acquired the land several years before Kaiser’s closure and demolished the building in 2015, using the land 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 student surveys, 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. As a result, PCC determined that tying housing programs to school affiliation would not alleviate housing insecurity among the student population, so planners opened this housing to all who qualify.

Exhibition poster for Legin Restaurant, highlighting its history and cultural significance in Portland's Jade District.

A previous PCC campus expansion razed the former site of the Legin Restaurant, a beloved Chinese eatery and community hub. Housing developers APANO, Our Just Future, and Edlen & Co. chose to honor the area restaurant by naming the building Legin Commons and incorporating central gathering amenities to match its namesake’s role as a community hub. Located in the Jade District and the Montavilla neighborhood, blocks from SE 82nd Avenue, it offers access to some of Portland’s most active transit lines and walkable destinations. The building also offers secured on-site parking for some residents with dedicated EV charging stalls.

A black gated entrance with a sidewalk leads to a modern building with green and gray exterior. The building has multiple large windows, and there are rectangular concrete pads on the ground.
Security gate leading to resident onsite parking with EV charging stalls to the left

The Portland Housing Bureau awarded this development $3.78 million from the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) to install a solar array and high-efficiency heating and cooling split systems. Other public funding came through a $1.67 million allotment from the voter-approved Metro Affordable Housing Bond and a Metro-awarded $250,000 Transit-Oriented Development grant. Legin Commons residents also enjoy natural cooling from a mature tree canopy on its eastern edge and new greenery planted around the property to help replace the shade once provided by older trees removed during construction.

A rooftop view featuring multiple solar panels and several air conditioning units against a backdrop of trees.
Rooftop mounted mini-split heat pump condenser units and solar array

PCEF Program Manager Sam Baraso explained during the Thursday event that green investments in this building benefit residents and the environment by reducing off-property energy consumption and lowering costs. “We invested in 294 in-unit mini-split heat pumps and 22 common-area mini-split heat pumps, three high-efficiency whole-building ventilation systems, 33 energy recovery ventilators, which means we can bring in fresh air into the building constantly, make sure folks are breathing clean, fresh air and do so in a way that actually uses the outgoing air to cool or warm [incoming air].” On the roof is a 180-kilowatt solar array that further reduces the energy demands of these residences on the grid. Claire Parisa with the nonprofit Enterprise Housing Credit Investments, which provided funding support for this project, highlighted the unique support for environmental construction in Portland. “There’s always a goal to make buildings green, but not necessarily the funding to go with it. And we’re so lucky to have PCEF in the city to make those dreams a reality.”

An outdoor playground with wooden swings and climbing structures, surrounded by colorful blue play equipment and orange safety ground cover, in front of a modern green and gray building.
Outdoor play area and resident courtyard

Lower energy bills and cleaner indoor air are just a few of the key features of this complex. Designers used the natural amenities to create significant outdoor space for residents, including an outdoor play area off a large community room. On-site laundry and bike storage are available on multiple floors. Private meeting rooms throughout the building provide secluded workspace or an area for private conversations away from home. Elevators offer seating in an adjacent lobby on each floor so people with mobility considerations can navigate the property with less impact on their comfort. A ground-floor classroom can also host community meetings or events, as long as it remains open to all residents in the building. APANO will provide resident services, leveraging its headquarters’ proximity to the site to be an integrated partner in the building’s supportive services.

Interior view of a modern meeting room featuring a large TV screen, a whiteboard on a stand, and a wooden table with green chairs.
Ground-floor classroom

For over a decade, APANO has looked for opportunities to increase housing in the district, making good on a community-driven concept for the area. “Our vision for Jade is for it to be Portland’s most transit-rich, most affordable, and most climate-resilient part of town. We have Legion Commons opening today, we have Jade Apartments opening next month, and we’re in pre-development at Canton Grill,” explained Metro Councilor Duncan Hwang, who also works for APANO. “Part of the housing piece is our work around anti-displacement. We have some time right now to really build up these community assets to make sure we can stay in place.”

A woman speaking at a podium outdoors, surrounded by trees and greenery.
Quisha Light, interim director of the Portland Housing Bureau

Quisha Light, interim director of the Portland Housing Bureau, celebrated the addition of these new housing units but noted it is just an early step in a larger effort to meet the community’s needs. “According to the city’s housing needs analysis, Portland must add about 28,000 homes that are affordable to families in that 0 to 60% of AMI (Area Median Income) range by 2045. So we still have a lot of work to do. It’s a big lift, but I have lived here for 20 years now, and I’ve seen Portlanders step up and really accept the big challenges. So I know all of us standing here today can make that happen. Legin Commons makes stability real. With 124 new affordable homes, including 20 deeply affordable homes at 30% AMI, and more than half of all units sized for families, this development reflects the community it serves,” said Light.

A woman speaking at a podium outdoors, with a smiling woman seated beside her in front of a backdrop of trees.
Katy Ho Interim President PCC and Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane

Speakers at the ceremony noted the importance of creating high-quality affordable housing in an area that has historically supported generations of the city’s minority populations. “This stretch in the Jade District and the 82nd Avenue corridor in particular has long been home to one of our most diverse communities in the city. Immigrant families, refugees, students, working people who bring so much to Portland,” said Portland Councilor for District 3, Tiffany Koyama Lane. “This is a place where we can hear more than 140 languages spoken, where we can find our culturally specific food and markets that reflect our beautiful diversity. This neighborhood was built by people. The character comes from families who have been here for generations, and also from folks who crossed oceans and borders to get here.”

A man and a woman share a warm moment at a podium during an outdoor event, while another woman sitting nearby smiles and claps in appreciation.
Metro Councilor Duncan Hwang, Lynn Fuchigami Parks, and Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane

Koyama Lane explained how preserving communities through anti-displacement and naming is a significant step for a city whose past leaders excluded many non-white voices. In 2024, Sameer Kanalwe and Koyama Lane became the first two Asian Americans ever elected to Portland City Council. Beyond naming the building after a community gathering space, residents will use the Minoru Yasui community room. “Legin Restaurant was more than just a great restaurant. It was a center of community life, and today, Legin Commons carries that spirit forward as a place where people can gather, connect, celebrate, and build community. This is especially meaningful that the community room bears the name of Minoru Yasui,” said Lynn Fuchigami Parks, Executive Director Emeritus of the Japanese American Museum of Oregon. “The night of March 28th in 1942, Minoru, who was only a 26-year-old attorney at the time, walked the streets of downtown Portland to deliberately violate the military curfew imposed on people of Japanese ancestry. He did so to challenge the constitutionality of that order. That’s the order that led to the unjust incarceration of over 120,000 men, women, and children, the majority of whom were American citizens.” The plaque that will be in the community room touches on Yasui’s story and adds to the sense of place created in the building.

Modern seating area featuring wooden benches and acoustic panels, with pendant lighting, in a well-lit space.
Modern kitchen with light wood cabinetry, stainless steel appliances, and a long countertop, accompanied by green stools and a large TV in a communal space.
Decorative cookies with designs on a table, featuring 'Legin Commons' labels, alongside a small vase of pink flowers.
A modern interior space featuring a wooden slatted wall, a bench, and an elevator door with sleek metallic accents. The corridor extends in the background with soft lighting.
A bright, empty room featuring two windows with black roller shades, a ceiling light, and an air conditioning unit, showcasing wooden flooring and white walls.
Modern kitchen view with a stainless steel sink, wooden cabinets, and a window showcasing natural light.
A small modern meeting room featuring a round wooden table surrounded by three blue chairs, with a dark blue accent wall and a large window.
Modern office space featuring two orange upholstered chairs, a small wooden table, and large windows, with bright overhead lighting.
A view through a large window showcasing a laundry room with white washers and dryers arranged inside.
Modern hallway with blue accent wall, two windows letting in natural light, a brown leather bench, and a round coffee table.
Modern bathroom featuring a shower-tub combo, a toilet, and a double vanity with a large mirror, accented by wood cabinetry.
Modern kitchen featuring stainless steel appliances, wooden cabinetry, and a clean countertop.
Interior view of a laundry room featuring stacked washing machines and dryers, a countertop with a sink, and a large window showing greenery outside.
A view of a long hallway with numbered doors on either side, lit by ceiling lights. An overhead EXIT sign is visible at the end of the corridor.
Interior view of a room with wooden walls and a large window overlooking a landscaped area. There are bike racks positioned on the floor.
A speaker stands at a podium outdoors, addressing an audience amid green trees and sunlight, while a woman seated beside him listens attentively.
PCEF Program Manager Sam Baraso

Residents will start moving into Legin Commons soon, with the 30% AMI units mostly committed to people. Many 60% AMI-priced units are still available for qualifying renters. Those homes are restricted to households whose annual income does not exceed $53,940 for one person, $61,620 for two, and upward based on the number of residents. Homes restricted to 60% of AMI earners are currently rented at near-market rates. Still, this new building offers far more amenities than other multifamily buildings in the area, and the protected rental rate can help provide housing stability when market rates rise faster than median income. Consequently, the building should fill to capacity slowly, allowing a gradual influx of new neighbors to the residential area around the new apartment building.

Jacob Loeb Avatar

Article and Photos by

Jacob Loeb

Promotion: Montavilla News is supported by contributions from businesses like Otter Wax, a neighborhood producer of small-batch specialty goods handcrafted in Portland. Using only natural ingredients, they make modern care products that are steeped in tradition. We thank them for their support.

Construction

Legin Commons Apartment Building Readies for Construction

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.

Article and photos by

Jacob Loeb

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.

Community, Construction, New Residence

PCC Legin Apartments on Division

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.

Site map courtesy of Bora Architecture & Interiors

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.

Rendering from SE 77th Ave courtesy of Bora Architecture & Interiors

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.

Graphic courtesy of Bora Architecture & Interiors

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.

Renderings courtesy of Bora Architecture & Interiors

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.

By

Jacob Loeb

Promotion: Help keep independent news accessible to the community. Montavilla News has a Patreon account or you can pay for a full year directly online. We invite those who can contribute to this local news source to consider becoming paid subscriber or sponsor. We will always remain free to read regardless of subscription.