SE 57th and Division

This .32 acre site on the corner of 57th and Division, across from Atkinson Elementary school, was a service station between approximately 1928 and 1987. It was then operated as the Drive Thru Wake Up coffee shop.

In 2005, the site was seized by the U.S. Marshalls Service because it was being used for illegal drug trafficking. The U.S. Marshalls Service transferred title to the site to Southeast Neighborhood Uplift Program, Inc. (SEUL) in 2006.

In April 2005, leaders from the neighborhood worked with a team of graduate students at Portland State University's Master of Urban and Regional Planning program to organize and facilitate a design charette and develop an analysis of the site and a resource directory.  During the charette, the community worked directly with architects and landscape architects to articulate their priorities in a design concept. Their final document can be found here.

Environmental Services conducted a Phase II environmental site assessment on the property and found contaminants in the soil related to petroleum. Environmental consultants working with the Portland Brownfield Program prepared an Analysis of Brownfield Cleanup Alternatives (ABCA) to outline potential approaches for cleaning up the property in preparation for redevelopment.

After the ABCA was complete, neighborhood leaders, primarily Paul Leistner, worked with the Portland Brownfield Program and the State of Oregon Economic and Community Development Department to secure grant resources for environmental cleanup. Underground Storage Tanks and contaminated soil were removed in the summer of 2008.

The community is now in the process of restoring the former gas station building and beginning site landscaping.