Community members defended the importance of the current Lloyd Center and its iconic year-round ice rink at a public hearing Thursday for a plan to demolish the mall.

The master plan submitted to the city by owners Urban Renaissance Group and KKR Real Estate centers around park space and walking paths through blocks of housing and businesses. The City of Portland’s Design Commission heard public testimony on the plan Thursday. Absent in the master plan is a year-round ice skating rink, which has existed in some iteration at the Lloyd Center since the mall opened in 1960.

City of Portland staffers are recommending that the Design Commission approve the design from Urban Renaissance Group and their partners in the Lloyd development project. Thursday’s hearing is one of two that are likely to take place before the Design Commission votes on whether the plan can move forward.

“Lloyd Center, like our neighbors OMSI and Lower Albina, will be a big part of the revitalization of our city,” Thomas Kilbane, Urban Renaissance Group managing director of the project, told the commission during Thursday’s hearing. “Our plan delivers thousands of new housing units, affordable and market rate, when and where they’re needed most. Our plan creates active retail storefronts and vibrant community gathering places, all within walking distance of public transit.”

Developers across the country are working out what to do with once-thriving malls that are now losing anchor stores and experiencing increasingly fewer shoppers. Major stores were already closing up shop at the Lloyd Center when COVID-19 hit in 2020. The pandemic kept shoppers home and acted as a catalyst to close the remaining department stores. The mall was in foreclosure when KKR Real Estate and Urban Renaissance Group took over.

In recent years, the Lloyd Center has turned into a hub for small, independent and local retailers. The ice skating rink still draws people of all ages and abilities on a daily basis, boosting interest in keeping year-round access to a rink.

“But today the Lloyd Center, while uniquely Portland in so many ways, is no longer economically sustainable,” Kilbane said.

Dozens of public comments were submitted ahead of the public hearing. The majority of comments opposed the demolition of the current Lloyd Center building and ice rink and included notes from those who visit or do business at the mall daily.

Around another 50 people signed up to give testimony during the virtual public hearing. Again, most opposed the demolition. They described a Lloyd Center that already acts as a gathering space, sparking community connections and providing a place for indoor recreation.

During public testimony, co-founder of Portland Zine Meetup Charlie Manzano told commissioners that around 30 members of their group meet weekly at the mall. Manzano opposes the master plan and fears the loss of a free, accessible, climate-controlled indoor space for community meet-ups.

“There’s one thing I’ve noticed over this past year we’ve been meeting here in the Lloyd is that it’s more than a mall,” Manzano said. “It’s a multicultural, vibrant space bursting with opportunity.”

Manzano said the communities that have grown out of the Lloyd Center make Portland the attractive, artistic and unique city people want to visit.

Kye Grant has been producing art projects that encourage public participation in the mall since 2023. Grant is also part of a campaign to stop the demolition called Save Lloyd.

“This place provides a social and cultural glue for our city that we are gravely taking for granted by considering demolishing it,” Grant told the commission. “Lloyd has a personality, a soul and a beating heart. There’s no other place in the city, or maybe even the world, that brings people together under one roof like Lloyd does.”

Grant points to the clubs and organizations that meet at the mall or have offices there, plus the art galleries and programs for kids. They also noted the numerous resources for trans folks and people of color.

Carmen Thompson brought up concerns around leaving people of color out of the design and construction process.

“Anytime I hear urban renewal as a Black woman from Portland, I think of the Albina area through Emanuel Hospital and the Coliseum — we do not have a great history of that,” Thompson said, referencing racist policies used last century to displace Black families and businesses. “I’m not sure if the developers are aware of that history, but a lot of this design and how it’s implemented does not always take into account the historic Black community in the area.”

Urban Renaissance Group has said the current iteration of the mall will close by the end of the year.

The Design Commission is still accepting public comments on the master plan at least through February 13. The plan could get another public hearing. The developers and owners have an opportunity to respond to concerns before the commission votes on whether the plan can move forward.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/02/06/lloyd-center-developers-plan-portland-ice-rink/