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 cease the wealthy owner of the Minnesota Vikings from constructing 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 operating with a firm named Argos Scientific to gather air top quality information and identify if they ought to file an “environmental justice complaint” with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Vikings owner Zygmunt Wilf plans to create the tilt-up concrete warehouse at the web page of the massive, 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, Household Depot and other people.

“Argos Scientific produces hugely sensitive air top quality gear and is deploying monitors in the neighborhood,” the coalition mentioned in a press release. “They will be modeling impacts that diesel truck pollution from these varieties of warehouses will bring to a aspect 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-revenue housing improvement named Hidden Oaks Apartments. The freight warehouse would be the most current of numerous in the location. The other people, although, are north of Sandy Boulevard. This one particular would protrude southward into a largely residential neighborhood.

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

Wilf created his fortune in genuine estate just after taking more than his father’s residential constructing organization, Garden Properties. Wilf has owned the Kmart home below different entities given that the 1980s.

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

Neither Garden Household nor Prologis right away returned emails looking for comment.

Portland’s Bureau of Improvement Solutions mentioned its statement from 2022 nonetheless stood:

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