3700 NE 82nd Avenue: Goodbye Rip City Food Carts Pod?

3700 NE 82nd Avenue in fall 2022. The house behind it would also be part of a new 4-story mixed use development. — 3700 NE 82nd Avenue in fall 2022. Photo credit: Google

There’s a little food cart pod over at 3700 NE 82nd Avenue (the northeast corner of 82nd Avenue and NE Beech) called Rip City Food Carts—I mentioned it back in September 2022 along with a bunch of other Portland food news. Currently, it’s home to the Salt & Pepper Peruvian food cart (there used to be a Mexican food cart there, too, but it left a few months ago). And now it looks like, via an Early Assistance permit listing (set up May 2, 2024), that the pod could go kaput—with a mixed-use building going up in its place.

3700 NE 82nd Avenue History

It was good news for the neighborhood when the sketchy Kings Row Motel at 3700 NE 82nd Avenue was demolished. The lot sat empty for some time—I used to walk by it on my way to Dharma Rain’s little ravine trail. It often had trash dumped near it and it looked pretty bad.

It was good news when the food cart pod started its process of coming into being, the owner cleaning up the property, doing a little landscaping and paving; I like seeing carts in there. However, it has not seemed like a very robust venture, at least not to the standards of a lot of other pods I’ve seen around town.

More on the Permit and Properties Involved

The new development actually would be built on two properties: 3700 NE 82nd Avenue and 8217 NE Beech Street, which is next to the food cart pod. According to Portland Maps, the owner of the property 3700 NE 82nd Avenue is Vikash Narain. Two adjacent properties, 8217 NE Beech and 8225 NE Beech, have single family homes on them and are owned by Vijay and Jaishree Narain.

Here’s the full text of the permit (bolding by me):

“This project proposes (1) new mixed-use structure with at grade parking with approximately 2,257sf ground floor retail and 31 apartment units. A bicycle parking structure is proposed as well. The building would be a 4-stories of Type VA wood construction with appropriate separation between the R-2 and retail below. Stormwater will be managed on site. The project will span over two separate lots.”

Zoning and Progress?

These properties do lie in the Aircraft Landing Overlay Zone (here’s a map), which limits heights of buildings in it due to the proximity to PDX. I had been under the impression that two stories was the limit, but upon reviewing that map and knowing of taller developments in the Zone, I recognize that my assumption may be wrong (likely developers need permission to build higher). FYI, here’s the Portland zoning map.

This building would really be something in this part of Portland. There’s not a ton of new multi-story construction in the area, aside from Dharma Rain—even Columbia Knoll at 82nd and Sandy up the street was built in the 1960s. This mixed-use project could bring some positives as far as housing and retail, though it is a sign of gentrification, which has its own set of problems. And of course, the food cart pod would cease to exist (unless it was incorporated into the design and build).

The architectural firm behind this project is Studio 3 Architecture. I’ll reach out to them to see if they can share any more on this project. And do you know anything? Drop me a line. Update 5/14/24: I heard from my contact at the architectural firm, who responded to my query as thus: “At this stage we are simply exploring options on how to better utilize the site with no definitive answer if anything will go ahead at this time. I should know more in a few months.” I’ll keep you updated.

Updated May 24, 2024.