The Portland Development Commission has started excavation work on what’s known as “Block 75” near the intersection of East Burnside Street and Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, signaling a new predevelopment stage for the commission’s proposed Burnside Bridgehead project.

With no development team in place for the Burnside Bridgehead project – Opus Northwest left the project in February after having pumped about $500,000 into predevelopment – the PDC is now looking to clear the four-block site to attract a new developer and allow for interim uses for the area.

The site clearing represents a new beginning for the three-year-old project. The development commission will start looking for a new development team this winter, said PDC project manager Kia Selley.

Pulling a team together is just the first step, though. Whoever steps in as project developer will likely spend at least 18 months planning, designing and obtaining permits for what’s expected to be a mixed-use project.

The PDC has planned for that timeframe, however, and has pinpointed a number of precursory ideas for the site’s interim uses. Heading the list is a plan to turn one block into a temporary expansion of the Burnside Skatepark. The expanded area could be used for skateboard and mountain bike expositions.

The city also may push to use the site as a staging area for the Burnside/Couch Couplet project. Though Selley is not keen on that idea, she said the PDC’s looking at it for “practical considerations.”

Clackamas-based Dan Obrist Excavation has been handed the job of finishing removal of buildings currently on the Bridgehead site and prepping the area for clearing – work that’s costing the development commission about $50,000.

“We already tore the buildings down, so now we’re pulling up the concrete and the asphalt and pulling out the walls and sloping the banks,” Obrist said.

The work is being performed primarily for environmental reasons, so that nothing comes back to haunt the PDC when the commission begins looking for a new development team.

Ninety percent of the excavated concrete will be recycled, said Obrist, which has led PDC’s Construction and Environmental Services manager, Dave Obern, to liken the undertaking to a “recycling and salvage operation” more than a building demolition project.

Once excavation is complete, the interim site uses will give the development commission more leeway and time to court potential development teams. At the moment, the commission does not want to leap too far forward with a development agenda, fearing continued economic stagnancy will threaten the project, according to Selley.

“Nobody has a crystal ball with the economy,” she said said, “but our plan now is to use the next six to eight months to complete the next series of steps and just find a new development partner, hopefully next year.”