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The Crossings

Planning and conservation › Planning library › First transit-oriented development projects › The Crossings

Learn about this mixed-use project located in the heart of Gresham’s Civic Neighborhood.

773 NW 13th Street
Gresham, Ore.
located in the Gresham Regional Center
View aerial photo of the area

The Crossings is a distinct, mixed-use project located in the heart of Gresham’s Civic Neighborhood in the Gresham Regional Center. The design is innovative and creative: the building encompasses an entire block yet appears to be a number of narrow, human-scale buildings that include traditional and modern architectural accents reminiscent of the buildings lining the canals in Amsterdam.

Laying the groundwork

In 1995, the city adopted the Gresham Civic Neighborhood Plan, which called for the 100-plus acre “super block” bounded by Burnside and Division on the north and south, and Eastman Parkway and Wallula Avenue on the east and west to be broken up into a number of smaller blocks that would foster a more pedestrian-friendly environment. The site had been occupied by a plywood plant, lumberyard and a few remaining strawberry fields. But by the mid-90s, the location, just northwest of downtown Gresham and bisected by the MAX line, was an ideal site for higher-density urban infill.

Onward and upward

In 2001 and 2002, with the Civic Neighborhood coming together, Metro’s transit-oriented development program purchased three sites totaling 13 acres surrounding the future Civic Drive MAX station in the district’s core. The Crossings was developed on the 1.9-acre southeastern site.

The Crossings is a public-private partnership between Peak Development, Gresham, Metro and the State of Oregon. Peak is the project’s developer, builder, owner and operator. Metro’s participation included negotiation of a Disposition and Development Agreement to ensure a transit-supportive site plan, higher-density housing and mix of retail uses. A transit-oriented development easement and land value write down were applied to this project to offset cost premiums. Cost premiums are the additional construction costs associated with building higher-density vertically mixed-use building types.

The Crossings video

Read the The Crossings TOD video transcript 19K Adobe Acrobat PDF

Awards

Best Transit-Oriented Design Award from Multi-Housing News (2007)

Tools used

State of Oregon transit-oriented development tax exemption
Metro Transit-Oriented Development Program, transit-oriented development easement and land value write down

For more information on these and other tools, see the Community Investment Toolkit.

Need assistance?

Michael Walter
503-797-1641
michael.walter@oregonmetro.gov

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