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New Portland Business Owner Looks To Residents, Not Developers, For Growth

Tyler Franklin

Dark clouds roll over the downtown skyline as Stephen Pate descends a ladder, tools in hand, from the roof of his crumbling Portland two-story. The storm hits as his feet touch the ground, raindrops re-soaking the shirt he spent the afternoon sweating through.

He quickly shakes my hand and leads me through a patch of unkempt grass to a shipping container on the perimeter of the lot. Then he scrambles to find the right key to get inside.

“I just put this new lock on yesterday,” he says. “It was about time, you know?”

The door swings open, revealing various oddities (skulls, rusted oil cans, a figurine of a pig with wings), stacks of books and instruction manuals, and -- front-and-center -- a sleek, cherry red Moto-Guzzi.

Motorcycles are what Pate is known for. He spends his time restoring some of the world's most valuable bikes for collectors and museums worldwide.

But lately, Pate has turned his attention to a different kind of restoration project.

Earlier this year, Pate began renovating an 1870s storefront in Portland into a dual living space and motorcycle workshop -- all the while acting as a skeptical voice amid renewed interest in the neighborhood.

"The building was built 140 years ago and has not had any significant maintenance -- ever." Pate says. "It was almost beyond saving, but I specialize in huge, irrational restoration projects, so we are perfect for one another."

Pate was living in Clifton when he bought the building from his UPS driver, who was freshly divorced and looking to unload the property. It was originally constructed as a live-above storefront that operated as a general store, a shoe polish manufacturer, a bleach-water distributor and then a welding shop.

When Pate got to it, the building was falling in on itself and cost $15,000, with $5,000 worth of construction materials thrown in -- not the most sound investment, considering the substantial amount of work it still requires. But he fell in love with the history of the property and what he believes is its potential.

This was in 2012, which Pate stresses was before the wave of Portland real-estate speculation and media talks that a neighborhood-wide renaissance was in the making.

For the last several years, Pate has used the building as a warehouse for motorcycle parts and equipment. But earlier this year, he began steadily improving the property himself, and his goal is to make it livable by next year.

“The shotgun house next door -- that’s going to come down, and I’ll fence off those two areas and create a two-story outdoor dining space because I have a killer view of downtown,” Pate says.

Fitting In

Pate is optimistic about the future of his own street in Portland. His building is within walking distance of both the Tim Faulkner Gallery and The Table, two successful businesses that are bringing foot traffic back to the neighborhood. He also has neighbors who are fixing up a property across the street.

But Pate is less certain of the direction the neighborhood as a whole will take.

“It isn’t going to be what developers think it’s going to be -- it’s going to be what the people who are live/working here want it to be,” Pate says.

For that reason, he’s skeptical of developers who are looking to buy up abandoned lots as straight income property. Pate has lived in gentrifying neighborhoods before -- in Chicago and Boston -- and the strategy is familiar to him. And he’s not certain it’s going to work in Portland.

“First of all, none of them are coming down here to live,” Pate says. “There’s of course a lot of long-term residents, but I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about people who have this almost romantic notion of trying to save a building and repurpose it into something and give it a new life, and be there full-time.”

Gill Holland is the principal developer working on the Portland revitalization effort.

(Disclosure: Holland is a member of Louisville Public Media's board of directors.) 

Holland says he shares Pate's vision for the neighborhood.

"I mean, he’s totally right," Holland says. "We need 1,000 small-business owners and residents. There are 1,400 abandoned properties. It’s too big a project for any one developer or even group of developers. It’s got to be an organic, ground-up movement, which I think it what is happening."

And while it can be difficult to measure that progress directly, Pate says he's part of the organic change happening in his neighborhood.

“My attitude is that it is not my place to try and dictate what changes around me or go around making claims of trying to 'save' the neighborhood -- it doesn't need saving,” Pate says. “I'm just focused on improving what I can and being a considerate neighbor.”