This new construction at 1027 Seventh Ave. S.E. caught my eye on a bike ride Sunday.
Here’s another example of how builders are creating new housing in the middle of Albany by making use of existing lots. In this case, a new duplex is taking the place of a small tumbledown house destroyed by fire in 2019.
The address is 1027 Seventh Ave. S.E. A one-story bungalow had stood there since about 1900. Then, on the evening of Aug. 18, 2019, the little place was destroyed by fire.
The blackened ruin surrounded by debris stood there for for nearly two years while the city code enforcement program worked with the owner on getting the lot cleaned up. In June 2021 the city issued a permit to raze the structure and remove the wreckage.
Last spring, in May 2022, Sly Toran, the president of a drywall company in Gervais, bought the lot for $125,000. And in August, he took out a city permit to build a duplex totaling 2,562 square feet.
Each half of the new structure has three bedrooms and three baths, plus a garage.
The permit valued the project at about $428,000. City permit fees including systems development charges were $15,912, according to the permit. (Why systems development fees, since there was a house there before? Maybe because now there will be two dwellings instead of one.)
Something else of note: Northwest Natural took out a permit to install gas service in the duplex. Unlike some other places in Oregon, Albany to its credit has not made noises about trying to deprive people of this efficient form of energy for cooking and heat. (hh)
This was what the address looked like in January 2020.
This really improves the neighborhood; great.