Ristretto Roasters opening café in former Oregonian

 October 5, 2015
Ristretto Roasters opening café in
former Oregonian headquarters
By Michael Russell | The Oregonian/OregonLive
A Portland coffee roaster plans to open a cafe in the former
headquarters of The Oregonian, owner Din Johnson says.
Ristretto Roasters will take up part of the ground floor of the
historic building, 1320 S.W. Broadway, according to owner Din
Johnson. The cafe will be the Portland roaster's fourth.
Seattle's Urban Renaissance Group, in a partnership with New York
investment firm Clarion Partners, bought The Oregonian building for
$14.5 million last September, promising an extensive renovation.
According to Johnson, the new cafe will feature a horseshoe bar, big
windows on Southwest Broadway and addition seating in the office
building's lobby, where the tall ceilings have already been restored. A
restaurant is planned for the space kitty-corner to Higgins.
The building, designed by noted Portland architect Pietro Belluschi,
was The Oregonian's home from 1948 until 2014, when the
newspaper moved to its current riverfront location.
As The Oregonian's Elliot Njus reported last year, the original
building featured "a grand lobby to greet customers ... large spaces to
house printing presses — later moved to a printing facility near what's
now Providence Park — and a television studio."
Over time, many of those open spaces were subdivided into smaller
offices.
"It's amazing when you see what it looks like without the drop
ceilings," Johnson says. "It's like, man, The Oregonian could have
been in such a nice place."
The cafe is more-or-less designed, Johnson says, though with
permitting still ongoing, it's too early to pinpoint an opening date.
The Oregonian's former headquarters at 1320 S.W. Broadway in Portland will be
renovated for use as open floor plan office space. Urban Renaissance Group of Seattle
and Clarion Partners of New York bought the building last fall for $14.2 million.
A Seattle real-estate firm has bought The Oregonian's longtime headquarters in
downtown Portland and plans a multimillion-dollar remodel. Shown is a rendering of the
building's Broadway facade after a planned renovation.
A Seattle real-estate firm has bought The Oregonian's longtime headquarters in
downtown Portland and plans a multimillion-dollar remodel. Shown is a rendering of the
building's lobby after the planned renovation.
A Seattle real-estate firm has bought The Oregonian's longtime headquarters in
downtown Portland and plans a multimillion-dollar remodel. Shown is a rendering of a
planned fourth-floor lounge. (Allied Works Architecture)
A Seattle real-estate firm has bought The Oregonian's longtime headquarters in
downtown Portland and plans a multimillion-dollar remodel. This image shows the
interior layout of the building after the planned renovation. (Allied Works Architecture)
A Seattle real-estate firm has bought The Oregonian's longtime headquarters in
downtown Portland and plans a multimillion-dollar remodel. This image shows the
building's interior layout when it opened in 1948.
A Seattle real-estate firm has bought The Oregonian's longtime headquarters in
downtown Portland and plans a multimillion-dollar remodel. The building is shown here
earlier this year. (Dave Killen/The Oregonian)