Skip to main content
An Old Town-Chinatown lot that long sat empty, on the corner of West Burnside Street and Northwest 4th Avenue, will get a festive new occupant this holiday season: a Christmas tree vendor.
The hotel across the way from the lot, The Hoxton, has joined forces with Prosper Portland and the Old Town Community Association to bring Cronen Tree Lots to the busy corner, beginning the day after Thanksgiving.
Cronen is a family-operated business that may already be familiar to fans of fresh-cut firs on the eastside. It also runs two other seasonal stands at the Moreland Farmers Market and in the Woodstock neighborhood, selling three varieties of trees from Serres Nursery in Oregon City.
The new location—one of the only Christmas tree lots scheduled to open in downtown Portland—will be situated on what some may recall was the former location of the Right 2 Dream Too homeless community.
Prosper Portland purchased the quarter-block next to the iconic Chinatown Gateway in 2017 once the encampment relocated to property near the Rose Quarter.
Though poised for development as a mixed-use project, the construction is on pause, due to the pandemic.
Growing tired of the view of the deserted parcel, The Hoxton’s general manager, Tessa Peterson, approached Prosper Portland about launching some sort of temporary event. The Christmas tree lot will mark the beginning of a planned series of gatherings on the lot, which will stretch into next year.
“Because I hated looking at an empty space,” Tessa Peterson tells WW, “I’ve been hounding Prosper to turn it into a park or a food cart lot. It will be Christmas in winter, then a pop-up park next spring and summer.”
In addition to trees, the Old Town lot will sell locally made garland and wreaths. Customers who purchase their holiday greenery from that location can walk across the street and pop into Little Rita, The Hoxton’s lobby-level cafe, for a complimentary cup of Roseline coffee.
The Cronen Tree lot is scheduled to be open seven days a week, through Dec. 23. Tree hunters are encouraged to bring warm clothes and socks for donations, which The Hoxton will collect on behalf of Blanchet House, a neighborhood social services organization.
Anyone ready to turn this year’s holiday up to 11, should head straight on up to The Hoxton’s rooftop. Beginning Nov. 26, the hotel plans to transform its breezy Mexican bar Tope into “Holidaze,” described by the property as a “psychedelic celebration of the winter solstice.”