The northeast corner of Fourth Avenue and Calapooia Street looked like this on the afternoon of Feb. 20, 2026.
For the last eight years or so, my bike rides through Albany have occasionally taken me past the corner of Fourth Avenue and Calapooia Street to check on a long-running story. Now the story has reached its end.
Albany home builders Mark and Tina Siegner have successfully completed construction of two three-story multipurpose buildings on the northeast corner property they bought in February 2018.
When I went by the place on Friday, various kinds of salons and a barbershop were operating in the commercial suites on the ground floor. At least one of the eight upstairs apartments also seemed to be occupied.
Reports about this development have appeared here almost every year since 2018. The most recent one, in January 2025, contained this summary of what had been a controversial undertaking when it began:
“In the making since 2018 and located in the Monteith Historic District, the project generated opposition among advocates of historic preservation because it replaces three historic but severely dilapidated houses. Before they were eventually demolished, the city had condemned the houses as dangerous and uninhabitable.”
Getting this project under way and completed took longer than the Siegners had no doubt hoped. As far as I know, they did it without state housing aid or other subsidies. No community development grants. No city urban development loans. Once, when I stopped by a year or two ago, there was Mark Siegner on the site with a framing hammer in his hand.
I think the neighborhood has reason to be pleased with the result. (hh)
The sign suggests that space in the new complex was still available for rent on Friday, Feb. 20.
A barbershop is one of several commercial tenants on the ground floor of Calapooia Commons.
And this is what the corner looked like in April 2018, the year before these three dilapidated houses were razed.
KUDOS to Albany home builders Mark and Tina Siegner for their well designed plans and the outcome!
Beautiful! Thanks for the update.
Congratulations to Mark and Tina!!!!! Hasso, thanks for the pictural differences, everyone should just look at the before and the after about a dozen times and remember the people who stood in the way of this happening, their lies, deceit, their “Oh the old stuff can be saved, if you were not so awful and greedy….” those rotten boards, sills, rafters are not rotten……
Sometimes old stuff is just junk, and deserves to be replaced with something amazing.
The Siegners have a long history of taking eye sores and turning it into a better place. To the nay sayers…………….. I TOLD YOU SO..:) Neener Neener Neener.
It looks fantastic! Would love to see more projects like this!
Thank you for the update Hasso. Those look very nice. I’ll have to drive by and take a look.
Congratulations to Mark and Tina. Their patience and determination has paid off in a great way. They went through so much to get this beautiful project done. To those who fought so hard to stop this project, I hope you see that with the right developers, an ugly duckling can become a beautiful swan.
More like swan dive. If you don’t upkeep any home it will end up like those homes. All the
people that think Albany homes should be left to rot and then torn down need to volunteer their homes to the wave of UGLY destruction.