Argay Terrace and Parkrose Residents Bring Science to Fight More than Freight Warehouse

Residents of the Argay Terrace and Parkrose neighborhoods are not backing down in their fight to quit the wealthy owner of the Minnesota Vikings from creating a 260,000-square-foot freight warehouse on a piece of home he owns in their East Portland neighborhood.

Residents of the Parkrose Argay Chance Coalition say they are functioning with a firm known as Argos Scientific to gather air high-quality information and figure out if they really should file an “environmental justice complaint” with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Vikings owner Zygmunt Wilf plans to develop the tilt-up concrete warehouse at the web-site of the big, vacant Kmart on Northeast Sandy Boulevard at 122nd Avenue, and lease it to Prologis, a San Francisco-primarily based organization that ships merchandise for Amazon, Dwelling Depot and other people.

“Argos Scientific produces hugely sensitive air high-quality gear and is deploying monitors in the neighborhood,” the coalition stated in a press release. “They will be modeling impacts that diesel truck pollution from these varieties of warehouses will bring to a portion of Portland currently experiencing disproportionate amounts of pollution and targeted traffic.”

Wilf’s parcel of land is across the street from Parkrose Higher College and adjacent to a low-earnings housing improvement known as Hidden Oaks Apartments. The freight warehouse would be the newest of quite a few in the location. The other people, although, are north of Sandy Boulevard. This 1 would protrude southward into a largely residential neighborhood.

The web-site became notorious in August 2021 soon after the Proud Boys gathered for a far-correct festival that turned into a paintball and baseball-bat brawl with anti-fascists.

Wilf produced his fortune in actual estate soon after taking more than his father’s residential creating organization, Garden Residences. Wilf has owned the Kmart home below numerous entities because the 1980s.

“The coalition would really like to see the home owner, Garden Residences, operate with the neighborhood to discover a much better use for the former Kmart ,” coalition member Angela Baker stated in a statement. “Community members have expressed interest in a grocery retailer, more housing, and restaurants, and Parkrose Schools are interested in utilizing the place as a STEM center.”

Neither Garden Dwelling nor Prologis instantly returned emails in search of comment.

Portland’s Bureau of Improvement Solutions stated its statement from 2022 nevertheless stood:

“At this time, a permit application is below assessment by the Bureau of Improvement Solutions and other city bureaus. This application proposes a ‘new tilt-up concrete semi-heated warehouse creating with 1 workplace tenant space’ and ‘associated web-site operate.’”