An article published Friday in the Portland Business Journal makes short reference to some very interesting news about the Burnside Bridgehead project site.
The four acre site (at the northwest corner of the intersection of Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. and E. Burnside) was initially planned to be a gateway to the Central Eastside. However, the $260 million project fell through last year and is still on hold.
Now, Portland Business Journal reports that the owner of the property, the Portland Development Commission (PDC), has entered into an agreement with Beam Development to create an interim plan for the site. Here’s a snip from the PBJ artice:
In the short-term, the site will be put to temporary use as a parking lot and bicycle motocross park while the PDC and Beam work out development plans and wait for the economy to revive enough to launch construction.
According to PBJ reporter Wendy Culverwell, the track would be done in conjunction with the Portland Parks and Recreation Bureau. The facility would likely be what is known as a “pump track”, where BMX riders roll through small, rolling jumps, step-ups, and berms. The location is just a block from the Burnside Bridge skatepark.
I have a call into Kia Selley at the PDC (she’s their Burnside Bridgehead project manager) for more information. I’ll update this story once I hear from her.