The Sidewalk Ballet: The Pearl District’s Priceless Attribute

The Pearl District is at the cusp of Portland’s urban renaissance.  It has the city’s highest walkscore, and the benefit of being able to stroll to a range of stores is priceless.  In the past year real estate values have increased 11 percent and, at $500 per square foot, real estate in the Pearl District is priced 18 percent higher than the downtown, the city’s second priciest venue.  Recently a townhome in the Depot Warehouse on 11th Avenue sold for $2.5 million, which marks a 833 percent increase in worth since the historic building was restored in 2000.

The Pearl’s transformation from an abandoned rail yard bordered by decrepit warehouses into the harbinger of the urban future is well documented.  A recent PBS feature named it one of “Ten Towns that Changed America.”  But it is important to remember, that the Pearl District’s success was not foreordained. 

In 1996 when the city council adopted the blueprint for the Pearl District, The River District Design Guidelines, office vacancy rates in mixed-use developments were twice as high as those in auto-oriented single use projects.  In fact, a decade before the American Institute of Architects had proposed building an office park on the land north of Johnson Avenue.  Until the Brewery Blocks were developed and streetcar network opened in the early 2000s, the Pearl District was viewed with skepticism.  Since then, its infusion of business and urbanism became the harbinger of a new trend.   Today the national office vacancy rate is 50 percent lower in mixed-use developments than auto-oriented single use projects. 

Since 2006, the Pearl District has attracted over a 100 office based firms, a healthy 5 percent increase per year.  Retail, however, has not been as lucrative.  The number of firms shrank by 1.7 percent per year, although 500 new jobs were added.  Retail has grown leaner in the post-recession economy, as retailers attempt to do more in smaller spaces.

With the rise of internet shopping, providing the proper mix retail in a mixed-use development is a subtle art. Trying to plan for retail, as one expert puts it, “is like determining the social life of an adolescent.” https://www.planning.org/events/nationalconferenceactivity/9002142/ The plan for Block 20, a 20-story 360,000 square foot building set to overlook Fields Park, epitomizes the angst in the retail market.  Only 2,000 square feet are devoted to retail, 25 percent of the ground floor, and none of it fronts the park.  The developer is hesitant to commit more space because the adjacent building, the Parker, has no retail, and a continuum of storefronts is a key to success.  At the same time, stated policy is to “target retail uses along specific corridors, such as NW 11 Avenue.”

Park Frontage of Block 20 Building

After its review of Block 20, the Pearl District Neighborhood Association (PDNA) Planning Committee encouraged the developer to provide additional retail space. The “sidewalk ballet," as Jane Jacobs called the vibrant pedestrian experience, is key to retail and neighborhood life.  This attribute defines the Pearl District, according to results from a survey of the Pearl District Business Association and the PDNA Planning Committee. Both groups also recognize that synergizing the use of public space and private property has procured, a respondent wrote, “the lively ground floor activity that creates a very desirable ‘urban village’ feel.” Civic enterprise has defined the Pearl District, and marshaling this force is essential to solving the current retail conundrum.

On the sidewalk ballet see: https://didacticdiscourse.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/quote-a-classic-the-sidewalk-ballet-by-jane-jacobs/