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The City of Portland announced July 8 that work had begun on a vehicle repair garage it’s renting on Swan Island, marking the beginning of the end for the ramshackle Kerby Garage.
When the Cutter Garage is completed in 2027, the 40 workers who maintain the 2,300 vehicles in the city fleet will relocate to Swan Island from the Kerby Garage on North TK Avenue. As WW has reported, the crew of some of Portland’s most essential workers—mechanics and welders who repair massive 12-wheel dump trucks and excavators—is posted up in Kerby Garage, one of the most decrepit and dangerous buildings in the city (“The Garage that Portland Forgot,” WW, April 10, 2024).
Currently, the century-old Kerby Garage facility suffers from a slew of problems, many related to decades of ignored maintenance requests. Those include building issues that create physical dangers for its workforce. In 2024, the garage had no air conditioning, no smoke alarms, and floors so uneven that mechanics could not jack up vehicles that needed work. Instead, they resorted to climbing under them. The garage’s second story cannot support many large vehicles, for fear they may collapse through the floor and injure workers.
The deferred maintenance on the city-owned property had made renovating the Kerby Garage all but impossible by the time WW reported on the facility’s conditions in 2024. In the months after the story, the former Portland City Council signed a 20-year lease on the Cutter Garage, owned by beverage distribution tycoon Ed Maletis.
In an announcement last week, the city touted the construction project as a “modern, energy efficient” space that will better support its fleet of 2,400 vehicles. The Cutter Garage construction project costs $57.3 million, which the city says is funded by grants, incentives, CityFleet reserves and taxable bond financing. A $14 million Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund grant will also help the city transition its vehicles to electric models, and develop other green infrastructure.
“Updating this city facility is about protecting our workforce, supporting our electric fleet transition, and improving the services Portlanders rely on every day,” Mike Roy, interim director of the Bureau of Fleet & Facilities, said in a statement. “This investment positions the city to maintain its fleet safely and efficiently for years to come.”
