The Powell family behind Portland’s independent bookstore chain of the same name has proposed an apartment building on the former site of its technical bookstore. The existing two-story building at 33 NW Park Ave. would be demolished replaced with a seven-story, 60-unit apartment building with ground-floor retail storefronts.
The $7 million project will be presented at a Pearl District neighborhood meeting on Tuesday. The Powell family, which owns the site, is working with LRS Architects and Project Ecological Development.
Through the development firm, they declined to comment until Tuesday’s presentation. The proposal submitted to the city of Portland describes a building with metal-clad upper levels and brick, glass and aluminum on the ground floor. It would include a bicycle parking room and a loading bay facing Northwest Couch Street, but no on-site parking.
Powell’s Technical Books vacated the site in 2010 and moved to a smaller location on Northwest Tenth Avenue across from the flagship bookstore. –Elliot Njus
