• Burnside Bridgehead Workshops
• Burnside Bridgehead Status Update Sheet - March 2009
• Citizen Advisory Committee Charge

The Burnside Bridgehead Project is envisioned as a mixed-use “gateway” project into the Central Eastside. The project site is situated on four city blocks at the base of the Burnside Bridgehead on the east side of the Willamette River. The site is highly visible from Portland's downtown and major transportation corridors with view of Portland's downtown skyline, Convention Center towers and Mt. Hood. It is located within the Central Eastside Urban Renewal Area, one of the city’s eleven urban renewal areas.

The project area totals 176,215 square feet. A redevelopment site of this size is rare in the Central City and offers a unique opportunity to develop a landmark mixed-use project in the Central Eastside area.

     
Boundary shown for the Burnside Bridgehead Redevelopment site.

Additional background materials on the Burnside Bridgehead project are available for review in the Project Library.

In April of 2005 the PDC selected Opus Northwest to develop this site. At that time, Opus’ proposed development program assumed that market rate condominiums would lead the redevelopment and help finance the other project components such as office and retail. Since that time the market for condominiums has significantly declined. Consequently, in February of 2009 PDC and Opus mutually agreed not to extend the Memorandum of Understanding (executed in March of 2006) due to the economy. (Please see Burnside Bridgehead Project History to learn more about this process).

In summer 2008 Beam Development approached PDC and indicated their interest in the project. PDC and Beam entered into a Memorandum of Understanding in February 2009. The MOU outlines a PDC-Beam partnership to further the redevelopment potential of the site.

In October of 2009, PDC kicked off the next phase of the Burnside Bridgehead development with the selection of Will Bruder + Partners as the consultant team for a six-month Framework Plan process. The Framework Plan process supports this goal by taking advantage of the downturn in the market to refine and clarify public goals and objectives for the property and identify key opportunities and constraints on the site. We are also developing a Sustainability Plan, a Construction Cost Reduction Study, and Metrics for how future development proposals on the site could be evaluated against the Framework Plan’s goals and objectives.  

A Public Participation Plan outlines how PDC staff and the selected developer will work with stakeholders and the broader community throughout the development of the project to ensure that public aspirations and concerns are understood and considered by staff, the developer, and the PDC Board in planning and decision making. Specifically, the plan outlines:

• Public participation goals
• Identified stakeholders
• Public participation tools
• Preliminary public participation timeline, roles and responsibilities
• Tools for dissemination of public input
• Tools for evaluation of public participation process

The PDC Board approved the Public Participation Plan and Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) Charge in September 14, 2005. The CAC serves as the public forum for the project.

• Citizen Advisory Committee Membership as of July 2009
• Public Participation Plan Phase II 4-29-09
• Public Participation Plan – 9-14-05
• Citizen Advisory Committee Charge
• Online form to submit public comment

• Geraldene Moyle, e-mail (Project Information)
• Trang Lam, e-mail (Citizen Advisory Committee)

• Market Assessment - Burnside Bridgehead Project, December 2007
• Event Summary - December 5, 2007 Burnside Bridgehead Roundtable Event
• Marketing and Media Strategy Overview - December 2007
• Project History
• 2005-2006 CAC meeting Notes and Agendas