The Future of a Historic City Building Is In Dispute

A longtime city property in North Portland is proving surprisingly desirable. While an auditor’s report described the Historic Kenton Firehouse as a depreciating asset, both a nonprofit and a sitting city commissioner have their eyes on it.

THE PROPERTY: Historic Kenton Firehouse, 8105 N Brandon Ave.

THE HISTORY: Opened in 1913, the Kenton Firehouse served as the first of the city’s fire stations. In 1959, firefighters moved out of the building and the Police Bureau moved in its jumble of recovered stolen property, letting the building fall into disarray. After a community-funded restoration of the building in the 1970s, the city began renting the firehouse out to community groups for events and office space, and to neighborhood associations. In 2000, a nonprofit contractor assumed management and rent collection at the firehouse. The nonprofit dissolved in 2022, leaving the city’s Office of Community & Civic Life as the manager.

In the summer of 2023, Civic Life’s then-interim director, T.J. McHugh, met with leaders of Portland Parks & Recreation and the city’s facilities division, imploring them to take ownership of the building. (Because Civic Life is not a revenue-generating bureau, it does not have the authority to collect rent, the bureau said at the time.)

Both bureaus declined to assume ownership. Parks spokesman Mark Ross says to do so would “require additional resources that are currently not in the budget.”

Last March, Portland City Auditor Simone Rede released a report on the city’s oversight of the Kenton Firehouse alleging that Civic Life had mismanaged it by not collecting rent from a state legislator, Rep. Travis Nelson (D-Portland), who used part of the building for his office. The auditor’s report also found that the nonprofit that managed the building for years never had a formal agreement in place that laid out the city’s expectations of how rent revenues were to be spent by the nonprofit.

On top of management woes, the auditor’s office wrote, the building was a financial albatross.

“The inability to consistently fund the building’s maintenance needs of $30,000 annually and any additional long-term maintenance needs is noted by Civic Life as most likely to result in the collapse of this community space,” auditors wrote. “If this asset were to collapse, the public would not have access to the space that has been used by the community for almost 50 years.”

CONSULTANT’S RECOMMENDATION: Following the spring 2024 audit, the city commissioned a condition report on the firehouse. The contractor, New York-based consultant McKinstry, deemed the building “in poor condition, well past useful service life and/or maintenance/replacement is recommended soon.”

The ongoing maintenance and necessary upgrade costs, McKinstry said, would be around $28,000 annually for 30 years. The consultant wrote that the “heat pump’s geothermal system is creating sinkholes in the yard area.”

WHO WANTS TO BUY IT? Friends of Ours PDX, founded by community activist Terrance Moses, started a petition in late October urging the city to transfer or sell the Kenton Firehouse to the North Portland nonprofit. The petition asks that the city hold off making any sale decisions until the new 12-member City Council takes office in January.

The nonprofit says it wants to retain the space for community groups and events like classes and workshops, and to keep a popular local tool library there.

“Our goal is simple: to request the City Council to transfer the ownership of the Kenton Firehouse to Friends of Ours PDX,” the petition reads. “It’s a lifeline for our community; a central organ that keeps us knitted together, attending to its steady beat. We must now rally to protect this invaluable resource that is currently at risk.”

Moses tells WW he met with interim deputy city administrator Annie Von Burg on Nov. 16 to discuss the firehouse.

“She relayed to me that the city has to sell the building for many reasons because they’re financially cash-strapped and because they don’t have the dollars to maintain it,” Moses says. “She said, ‘I cannot promise you anything, but I’ll keep you in the loop.’”

According to Moses, Von Burg said her team would explore a process by which the city could potentially sell the firehouse to a group of entities, including nonprofits.

Spokeswoman Carrie Belding says the city is looking at a number of options, but no decisions have been made about the Kenton Firehouse’s future. “A variety of options are being considered,” Belding says, “with the intent that the Firehouse remains available for community use.”

One elected official, however, wants the city to hold on to the building.

WHO WANTS TO KEEP IT? City Commissioner Dan Ryan has repeatedly expressed his desire for the city to retain ownership of the firehouse. That’s according to two city employees familiar with the city’s discussions surrounding the building’s future. It’s not entirely clear why Ryan wants the city to hold on to the building, though it has been mentioned as a possible City Council District 2 office—and Ryan won a seat representing that district last month.

Ryan spokeswoman Margaux Weeke says the commissioner “has long supported the Kenton Firehouse’s use as a community space and will continue to advocate for that,” and he “looks forward to discussing its future use with his new colleagues on next year’s City Council.”

Parks met again with Von Burg in late November to discuss ownership of the firehouse, a meeting facilitated and attended by representatives of Ryan’s office.

“No decisions have been made yet,” the parks bureau’s Ross says.