By M.I. Madison

Mio Gelato, a locally owned Italian café and coffee shop with a space in the Pearl District, has signed a lease to become Irvington Corner's first tenant.

The shop will open in May in an 1,800 square-foot space at 1517 NE Brazee St., in Northeast Portland's Irvington neighborhood.

The Irvington Corner project is a mix of retail and office space being developed by Venerable Properties, which specializes in restoring historic buildings. The company is adding 18-foot windows, a new multi-color stucco façade, custom exterior lights and tweed canvas awnings to the building.

Wooden accordion-style fold doors with glass transoms will open onto the sidewalk as well.

The building had been a market of one kind or another since it was built in 1916, although it was remodeled in the 1950s, said Venerable's marketing assistant, Carolyn Pantier.

"it look very '50s," she explained. "We're trying to make it resemble what it looked like in 1916. It's kind of an Italian Renaissance revival."

Pantier said Venerable spent $750,000 on the remodel, which will be completed next week.

The property will have space for four tenants, although Mio Gelato is the only one that has signed a lease so far.

"This was a major deal because it's essentially a brand-new building," said Bob Lightman, who owns Mio Gelato with Denise Barnes.

The two opened the first Mio Gelato location at 25 NW 11th Ave. in July 2003. The café serves homemade gelato, grilled Panini sandwiches, soups, Illy coffee and Italian hot chocolate.

Lightman said he picked Irvington Corner for the second location because it was near "like-minded businesses" and because it was big enough to accommodate most of the business' production. The Pearl location is about 1,200 square feet.

"Our current location is a great space, but it only has one door and no parking," he said.

Craig Kelly, vice president at Venerable, said the company plans to make a big marketing push when the building opens later this month.

"We're actively seeking other neighborhood services that would be good for both the company and the area, and we feel that Mio Gelato fits the bill very nicely," he said. "Ideally, we'd love to see retailers that can take advantage of the building services we're offering."

That includes a spacious outdoor seating area that Kelly said would be ideal for a restaurant or wine bar.

Dan Galloway Construction is the general contractor on the project, and Emerick Architects is in charge of design work.

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