Development News

Portland Housing Committee Recommends $1.25 Million in Federal Stimulus Funds for Avesta's Beckett Green and Marada Adams Park

On August 4, 2009 the Portland Housing Committee voted unanimously in support of allocating $1.25 million in Federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funds toward the development of Beckett Green and Marada Adams Park on the site of the former Marada Adams School in Portland’s East End. With total development costs for the project projected at $11 million, these NSP funds represent a significant portion of the project’s financing which will be comprised of unit sales and various sources of market and sub-market financing.

In 2008, following a two year public visioning process, the City of Portland released a Request For Proposals (RFP) for the redevelopment of the site of the former Marada Adams School. Avesta Housing submitted a proposal to create Beckett Green, a 40 unit ownership housing development, and Marada Adams Park, a new neighborhood park.

The project is currently progressing through a series of neighborhood and city committee meetings. Construction is expected to start in late 2010.

Executive Project Sum mary

Avesta Housing proposes to create Beckett Green, a 40 unit residential development and Marada Adams Park, a new neighborhood park facility. Beckett Green will occupy approximately one acre and Adams Park will occupy about a half acre of the former school site.

The development team is comprised of Avesta Housing, PDT Architects, Bay Realty, Woodard and Curran Engineers, and Community Design Studio. Individual members of the team have extensive experience living and working on Munjoy Hill.

This proposal calls for the demolition of the existing school building based on its quality, condition, and placement. This clean slate approach makes the most efficient use of precious urban land and best allows the new development to complement and enhance the existing neighborhood and satisfy the goals and objectives of the RFP.

Beckett Green is named for its connection to the Marada Adams Park green space and for its role in reestablishing Beckett Street as a view corridor and public way. Marada Adams Park is dedicated to Marada Adams herself and the generations of Portlanders who were a part of the Adams School community.

Beckett Green is comprised of 20 3-bedroom townhouse style units, each stacked over a 1-bedroom unit for a total of 40 housing units. Avesta proposes to make most or all of the units affordable to households of moderate means with incomes in the range of 80 – 120% of Area Median Income. At present, this would target a family of four earning between $57,900 and $86,880 per year. All individually sold units will include deed restrictions to guarantee that units be sold only to a qualified, owner-occupant buyer at an affordable maximum sales price in perpetuity. A number of units may be sold at market rate without income restrictions.

The majority of housing units are intended to be marketed as clustered pairs; a 3-bedroom unit together with the 1 bedroom unit below. In this clustered pair scenario, the owner will be required to occupy one of the two units. The additional unit may be used to house a family member such as an elderly parent or an adult child seeking his or her own place in Portland. Alternatively, the second unit could be used for a home occupation, artist studio, or market rate rental property. In this way, Beckett Green supports the housing needs of a wide variety of people of varying age, income, and circumstance.

Beckett Green’s design is based on the neo-traditional, New Urbanist principle of the private rear ally or “mews”. Beckett Green’s mews will place automobile circulation and parking to the interior of the housing development to deemphasize cars and garages and guarantee that the public streetscape and park provide welcoming architecture and landscaping. All units at Beckett Green will be highly environmentally sustainable and energy efficient, meeting or exceeding the standards of the USGBC’s LEED for Homes and LEED Neighborhood Design programs.

Marada Adams Park is designed to address unmet public recreation, open space, programming, and public art needs of the neighborhood. The park will provide a natural adventure playspace as an alternative to the manufactured play structures already in place around Munjoy Hill. The park also offer natural public open space to facilitate active and passive recreational uses and to provide an intimate outdoor community programming venue.

Marada Adams Park will feature public art components including the re-setting of the existing concrete Adams School mural into a curved seat wall at the center of the playspace and a large, prominent sculptural piece to be commissioned at a later date. A pedestrian esplanade extending and linking the Beckett and Obrion Street sidewalks will connect the park to the neighborhood, provide permeability, and re-establish lost water views.

The redevelopment of the site will cost approximately $11 million. Key sources of funds are expected to include but are not limited to: home sales, Federal NSP funds, Tax Increment Financing granted by the City of Portland, and grants from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston and NeighborWorks® America. The costs of the development include land purchase of $600,000, construction costs of $8.15 million and soft costs of $2.25 million.

The entire development team is committed to a public engagement and dialogue as this development progresses. Great effort has been made to design a project that is consistent with and contributes to the residential character of Munjoy Hill. Further engagement of the public through the planning process will refine this proposal to a development that will contribute greatly to Portland’s livability and environmental and economic sustainability.

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