TRADER_JOES_HOLLYWOOD.JPG

Shoppers leave a Trader Joe's at 4121 N.E. Halsey St. in the Hollywood District shortly after the store opened in 2007.

(Joel Davis/The Oregonian/2007)

Trader Joe’s is the mystery grocer that would anchor

.

The urban renewal agency's board voted to authorized the sale of a nearly 2-acre site at Northeast Martin Luther King Boulevard and Alberta Street for $502,160, $2.4 million less than its appraised value of $2.9 million in December.

California-based

would be the buyer and developer and has been in talks with the PDC since at least 2011.

Trader Joe's, a privately held Monrovia, Calif.-based

, has three stores in Portland and more around the metro area. It opened its 400th store earlier this year. A different development team considered a Trader Joe’s on the same site in 2010.

The secrecy leading up to Wednesday’s vote was a condition of Trader Joe’s, said Phillip Brown of Majestic. He planned meet with neighborhood and business groups Wednesday night, shortly after the PDC’s approval.

The PDC says the development wouldn’t pencil out without a bargain on the land and that the Trader Joe’s will address a lack of grocery stores in the area. The site is part of an area the city considers underserved by grocery stores, though there’s a Safeway a half mile to the north and a New Seasons store a mile south.

The $8 million retail development would also include space for four to 10 other businesses and 100 surface parking spaces. Brown said his company would seek a mix of national and local businesses to fill the ancillary retail space.

Neighbors – particularly those who own businesses nearby — told the PDC board that a Trader Joe’s on the parcel would help draw the foot traffic they were promised when the first phase of Vanport Square, a condominium retail and office development, was built in 2008.

“Vanport Square right now is on an island. There’s not a lot of retail around us,” said Adam Milne, the owner of

, which has a location there. “If someone as desirable as Trader Joe’s can’t make this happen, I truly believe this property will be tainted” in the eyes of the development community.

And Trader Joe’s wasn’t interested in any other site in Portland, said Gina Bell, the PDC’s manager for the project. “They were determining whether they were going to put their money in this site or some other state.”

The deal is expected to close by July 1 with construction finished by May 2015.

PDC chairman Scott Andrews said the low asking price for the land would support the development, not Trader Joe’s. But people with ties to the local grocery industry said the city has taken a pass on opportunities to offer support to local grocers.

When

was building a store at nearby North Williams Avenue and Fremont Street — a location considered a food desert by the city - the company applied for assistance from the city but was turned down. Instead, New Seasons paid for nearby traffic and stormwater improvements, said Craig Sweitzer of

, which worked with the grocer to identify sites for new locations.

Meanwhile, he said, Northeast Martin Luther King has struggled as a retail corridor despite significant attention from the PDC while nearby corridors have thrived mainly because of heavy and divided traffic. But the idea that it’s underserved by grocery stores, Sweitzer said, is a stretch, as is the idea that Trader Joe’s is equivalent to a full-service grocery.

“It would be good to see Trader Joe’s get here and open naturally,” Sweitzer said. “There’s definite value in what they’ll bring to that area and the associated retail that can be grown there. It just seems to me that it’s a big give for a national specialty food retailer.”

Lisa Sedlar, the former New Seasons CEO who left in November to start a chain of smaller stores, opened the first Green Zebra Grocery in North Portland’s Kenton neighborhood, just under a mile away from a large Fred Meyer.

She received $57,000 from the PDC toward her $2 million new store, including money for improving an existing storefront and a green initiatives grant. She also bore most of the cost of sidewalk improvements and stormwater plantings.

“I don’t want to appear ungrateful for the money we did get, but it wasn’t $2 million,” she said. “That goes a long way.”

The Northeast Portland site the PDC is preparing to sell would be a great location for a development anchored by a store like hers, she said, but she never knew the location might be available with a $2 million discount.

“I would have liked the opportunity to put a local grocery there like ours, one that cares about the neighborhood and the community,” Sedlar said. “Trader Joe’s doesn’t need money. Small business owners need money.”

The PDC in 2011 asked grocery companies for proposals for stores at the site and other underserved areas, PDC Executive Director Patrick Quinton said. The Majestic Realty proposal came out of that process.

“We feel we scoured the grocery market pretty well for this site,” Quinton said. “This site’s been out there for a time time. It’s hard to believe our development partners weren’t aware of it.”

-- Elliot Njus