The Pearl District has a reputation as a wealthy enclave in Northwest Portland, but the development of a seventh affordable apartment complex in the neighborhood highlights what residents call a rampant misperception.

Nearly a quarter of housing in the Pearl is affordable, with condominiums and market rate apartments interspersed with six low-income buildings: Pearl Court Apartments, Station Place Tower, Lovejoy Station, Sitka Apartments, Ramona Apartments and Richard L. Harris Building.

As Portland's newest and fastest growing neighborhood -- home to 1,110 residents in 2000 and 6,000 in 2010 -- the Pearl's median income is around $32,000, compared to the city's $50,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. More than 22 percent of Pearl residents qualify for low-income housing.

"Just because buildings are new doesn't mean everyone is rich," says Patricia Gardner, chair of the Pearl District Neighborhood Association's planning committee since 2000. "Some of the earliest buildings in the neighborhood were low-income."

Now BRIDGE Housing, a California-based nonprofit developer, owner and manager of affordable housing, is entering the Pearl's affordable housing market with Abigail Apartments, its first building in the Pacific Northwest. The Abigail will be at Northwest 13th Avenue and Raleigh Street, near the Ramona building, a new condo building, and The Fields Park.

Market-rate pricing varies, but apartments are roughly $1,200 monthly for a typical one-bedroom. A subsidized apartment, studio to three-bedroom, can be anywhere from $390 to $1,950.

"The Pearl quietly defies stereotypes," said Portland State University student Kate Washington, who studied the neighborhood as part of her Bachelor of Science in sociology.

Her demographic study found the biggest problem facing the Pearl's low-income residents is a lack of affordable shopping for groceries and other needs. Otherwise, Washington found, residents are working toward making the Pearl a cradle-to-grave neighborhood able to sustain a range of demographics, creating lifelong residents like many in the Northwest District.

When the planning committee hears a proposal for affordable housing, questions revolve around adequate bike storage space, mixed-use options and number of bedrooms rather than the potential effect on surrounding property values or impact on demographics.

"It's not altruistic; we believe an urban existence should fit everyone," Gardner says. "Maybe because we've always had affordable buildings, they've never been an issue."

Cynthia Parker, CEO of BRIDGE Housing, says her organization saw a need for family housing -- multi-bedroom apartments -- in the Pearl.

Many of the 142 affordable and market-rate units in the six-story Abigail building will be three bedrooms. Right now there are very few apartments that large in the Pearl, Gardner says.

And, Parker says, the Abigail will offer community programs that complement those across the street at the Ramona, a prize development for the neighborhood and home to its only community center, Zimmerman Community Center.

The Pearl District Neighborhood Association's development code provides incentives for developments that incorporate such programs.

According to its initial proposal submitted in December, the Abigail plans to have daycare, a garden area, and public and private courtyards. It will also have a multi-story sky bridge connecting its two buildings, with views of the Fremont Bridge.

The elegant design, with a formal submission to the Portland Design Commission planned for mid-summer, is typical for the Pearl's affordable buildings, Gardner says.

She likes to take people to an area with a concentration of affordable buildings and ask them to identify low-income versus condominium.

"You can't tell," she says.

-- Sara Hottman