Prosper Portland grant will rebuild the burned Portland Mercado

Published 12:00 am Sunday, October 27, 2024

A few of the food carts parked at the Portland Mercado – on S.E. Foster Road at 72nd Avenue, in the Mt. Scott-Arleta neighborhood – have reopened. However, its commercial kitchen and indoor spaces remain shuttered, after a two-alarm electrical fire ripped through the building back on January 3rd.

On October 9th, Prosper Portland – renamed from being the “Portland Development Commission” – authorized a “Non-Programmatic Grant” to Hacienda Community Development Corporation, for the restoration and improvement of the “Portland Mercado”.

The $750,000 grant is actually issued from the “Lents Town Center Tax Increment Finance District” – and it will help rebuild the charred building that’s on property owned by Prosper Portland, and leased to “Portland Mercado LLC”.

So why does this development in the Mt. Scott-Arleta neighborhood, qualify for a grant from this Lents entity?

It’s because it’s in the district! While most of the western boundary of the “Lents Town Center Tax Increment Finance District” cuts off along 79th and 80th Avenues, the maps do show a one-block-wide sliver that juts northwesterly down along S. E. Foster Road – actually, all the way to Powell Boulevard. So it’s qualified for the grant that it is receiving.

“Because of the damage [in the fire], there’s an opportunity to do some structural reinforcing to add an accessible balcony for customers of the Mercado to enjoy outdoor dining, as well as the additional awnings … to provide some shade in the summertime and some rain coverage in the winter,” wrote Prosper Portland Development Manager Bryan Moore in the grant document.

Now this substantial grant has been approved, and if the permitting goes as expected, construction will begin before the end of the year; and the Portland Mercado should reopen in October of next year.