Mattel plant might fall to development

Kevin Harden - 01/08/04

One of the Mattel/Viewmaster plant buildings could be demolished to make room for expansion of Cascade Plaza. The plant has been vacant since May 2001.

JAIME VALDEZ / The Times

Cascade Plaza expansion would redevelop the controversial site

The old Mattel/Viewmaster plant on Southwest Hall Boulevard could be torn down to make room for a large expansion of the Cascade Plaza shopping center.

Harsch Investment Properties Inc. of Portland has approached the city with a proposal to redevelop the controversial site into new shops and storage units. The proposal includes demolition of the vacant manufacturing plant and construction on about 6.71 acres that are the focus of a $3.45 million, 30-year state environmental cleanup.

Representatives of Harsch Investments were scheduled to meet this week with city planners to discuss the proposal that includes adding 87,000 square feet of new retail space to Cascade Plaza and building a two-story 48,000-square-foot storage building at the north end of the property.

CSCB Architects of Portland, which is designing the project, submitted the proposal in mid-December. In addition to the new retail buildings, the company expects to add 337 new parking spaces to the shopping center’s 560-space lot.

There is no estimate of the project’s cost.

Harsch Investment Properties representatives will discuss the proposal Jan. 15 with the Greenway Neighborhood Association Committee. The company has not yet applied for a permit to build the project. All discussions are in the preliminary stages prior to development.

Company representative Mary Ann Kolen said Harsch Investments was “exploring options” to expand Cascade Plaza, but had not yet acquired all the property necessary for the project. The company also was “looking at the possibility” of buying the Mattel/Viewmaster site, but also had not purchased the land, she said.

Other company representatives declined to discuss the proposed project.

Hall Street Associates of Seattle owns the Viewmaster plant site. It has been vacant since May 2001.

Cascade Plaza is a 148,954-square-foot shopping center on Southwest Cascade Avenue across Highway 217 from Washington Square. Its large stores are Burlington Coat Factory, David’s Bridal, Linens ’n Things and a Powell’s Books.

Harsch Investment Properties has owned the shopping center for about five years. The Portland company also owns more than 100 properties in six western states. Its portfolio includes 15 million square feet of office, industrial and retail development and 2,500 units of multifamily housing.

According to a preliminary site plan, construction of the new Cascade Plaza retail space would be stretched north from the existing buildings and curve around an enlarged parking lot where the Viewmaster plant now sits.

Nearly all of the old plant would have to be demolished under the proposal. Part of one building would be preserved for parking near the new storage facility.

Demolition of the Viewmaster plant probably would not pose an environmental problem, even though the site’s groundwater has been contaminated for decades with the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), said Bruce A. Gilles, project manager for the state Department of Environmental Quality.

“We always envisioned the site being redeveloped at some point,” Gilles said.

DEQ and Mattel have worked for several years to clean up the TCE contaminated water under the site. The state and nine property owners, including Harsch Investment Properties, reached an agreement in October 2002 that created the $3.45 million, 30-year cleanup plan.

Under the plan, anyone who owns the plant site assumes the responsibility for the cleanup. It also forbids the new owners from drilling a new well or using the groundwater, something that isn’t likely in the new development, Gilles said.

TCE, a colorless liquid used for decades to degrease industrial equipment, seeped for years into the groundwater around the plant. Thousands of employees who worked at the plant making Viewmaster viewers — first for GAF then for Tyco and Mattel — drank water contaminated with the solvent from 1952 until 1980.

Tests of the water supply near the site in March 1998 found TCE levels hundreds of times higher than thought safe for humans.

Exposure to high concentrations of TCE can cause cancers and other illnesses.

State health officials are working with former Viewmaster employees to study the effects of the exposure. Mattel, which has owned the site since 1997, maintains a one-person office in Tigard to provide information and limited medical testing for former plant employees.

Former Viewmaster employees also have formed the group Victims of TCE Exposure, or VOTE, to press for more and better medical treatment and testing. The group also has hinted at a possible lawsuit against the plant’s owners because of the exposure.

Dan Nottage, general manager of Mattel Portland, the last official employee of the plant, said he felt a sentimental attachment to the buildings, but would rather see the area be redeveloped.

“This is probably the best thing for the landlord to do with the site,” said Nottage, who worked at the Viewmaster plant from 1978 to 2001. “It’s not much good as it is for most uses.

“Personally, I’d be happy to see it developed into something that could be useful. I would miss it from a work history relationship. But actually, I would be very happy to see it put to a more beneficial use.”

Harsch Investment Properties also would not need DEQ permission to redevelop the property, he said. The company would have to manage some petroleum contamination under one of the buildings, but that could be accomplished without disrupting much of the project, Gilles said.

“In circumstances like this, it’s not uncommon for the parties redeveloping contaminated properties to talk with us about what to do,” he said.