Block 67, better known to longtime Hillsboro residents as that place where Hanks Thriftway used to be, is shaping up to become a mixed use development likely not dissimilar to Orenco. At least, that’s what it sounded like during a city council work session last week.
Economic Development Officer Dan Dias used the half hour session to announce the city has chosen a developer to work on the site: the oddly named, and impossible to Google, Project^.
Hanks Thriftway was closed in 2015; the city bought the lot a year later in order to direct its development. During the working group city officials expressed a desire for the development to connect the main street region of downtown to the medical corridor. Three developers submitted proposals along these lines, and officials decided to work with the Portland-based Project^ on the project.
A a statement about the selection says the city sees this as a high-risk, high-reward choice:
Project^’s response and concept are viewed as a potential higher risk, but also higher reward project. The response uniquely proposes to integrate the Block 67 site development into the existing neighborhood, while also achieving the stated goals for the site and the broader redevelopment of the Downtown Hillsboro area, as expressed in the Downtown Framework Plan and Urban Renewal Plan.
There aren’t a lot of details about the project available to the public yet, and so far only a rough outline of the project has been created in any case. The image shown here is basically a first draft; the final project will be shaped by the city and Project^ in the months to come before shovel hits dirt.
If Project^’s website is anything to go by Hillsboro residents can expect the results to be new urbanist. To quote the company’s website, they offer “a focus on design, environmental systems, stewardship, and placemaking that yields meaningful places for people to thrive.”
What that focus means of the Hank’s Thriftway site remains to be seen: few details were offered at the work session, though a question from Councillor Fred Nachtigal did prompt Dias to say parking will not be a priority for the development: there will be only .75 parking spots for each resident of the development, though again this is all preliminary at this point.
Read more:
- City press release about the announcement
- City page about Block 67, complete with a timeline
- Plans for former Hank’s Thirftway site begin to take shape Geoff Pursinger and Mark Miller/Hillsboro Tribune
- Hillsboro names Dan Dias new economic development officer Staff/Hillsboro Tribune