To follow upon our recent posts about the proposed demolition of the Cornelius Hotel (531 SW Park Avenue), TMT Development has gone ahead and applied for the demolition permit. You can now find this information on PortlandMaps.com. This is just the beginning of a process that will likely take several months and is not yet open for public comments. According to City staff, there will be a required “pre-application conference,” regarding the proposed demolition, on July 23rd at 8:30am at the Bureau of Development Services (BDS), 1900 SW 4th Avenue (time/date subject to change). While the public can attend this meeting, no public testimony is taken at such pre-application conferences. Therefore, while it may be good to show TMT that many people are interested in seeing the Cornelius saved, this is not the place to give public testimony. That time will come soon enough, however.
After the pre-application meeting, TMT can then apply for the demolition review. Once that application is determined to be complete (and this could take some time), then the BDS will schedule a public hearing on the matter. In a nutshell, it may not be until sometime this fall that the public has an opportunity to weigh in on the future of the Cornelius Hotel.
Hopefully, this means there is still time to find a solution that leads to the rehabilitation of the Cornelius and its continued presence at SW Park and Alder.