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The Northwest Evaluation Association, a nonprofit founded nearly 40 years ago, began renting the Everett Building in downtown Portland in December 2010. On Wednesday, the organization 鈥� like some people as they approach 40 鈥� took the plunge and became an owner.

The NWEA bought the seven-story, 108,448-square-foot Everett Building, at 121 N.W. Everett St., from Washington Holdings for $47.5 million. KeyBank financed the purchase through a tax-exempt government bond.

The purchase will let the NWEA build equity as well as reduce its occupancy costs over time. Ownership also will provide the nonprofit greater stability and control over its expenses.

鈥淎s is appropriate for a not-for-profit, we want to be very, very careful and judicious stewards of the resources entrusted to us,鈥� NWEA President and CEO Matt Chapman said.

The Everett Building has a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design gold rating and Sustainability at Work gold certification. The building features four floors of open workspace, extensive conference rooms, and 1,000 linear feet of whiteboards.

The Everett Building’s open floor plan is critical, Chapman said.

鈥淥ne of our organizational values is teamwork,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t’s a lot easier to work as a team if you have personal communications ongoing. The other thing that’s very important to recognize is we have a wide variety of disciplines represented within the organization. Those people need to be able to communicate with each other and we need to cross disciplines. All of that is enhanced and facilitated by an open office environment where people are communicating with each other, in part, because they just see each other walking around.鈥�

One of the Everett Building’s key amenities is its sweeping views of the Willamette River, four bridges and three mountains. The structure has an outdoor balcony, a coffee bar on each floor, a fitness room, a pingpong room, a lunchroom, lockers, bicycle parking and electric vehicle charging stations.

鈥淓ducators need to be treated with respect,鈥� Chapman said. 鈥淭hat’s one of the things this building allows us to do.鈥�

The NWEA also relies on the Everett Building’s location.

鈥淭he location of the building gives us the ability to recruit,鈥� Chapman said. 鈥淏y virtue of being downtown and with the strength of the mass transit system, we’re able to draw potential employees from all of the areas around us, whether it’s from Vancouver, Gresham, Hillsboro, Wilsonville or Tigard. All of those employees, together with the people who live in the city of Portland itself, are available to us with very good transportation to be able to get into the city.鈥�

The NWEA was represented in the transaction by Colliers International Senior Vice President Mike Holzgang, who has worked with Chapman on commercial real estate transactions for more than 28 years, and Colliers Vice President Brad Christiansen. Holzgang and Christiansen helped the NWEA relocate from Lake Oswego in 2010.

When the NWEA made the move, it had 300 employees. Now the organization has 650, including 450 in the Portland area. The Everett Building will allow the NWEA to grow even larger, Chapman said.

鈥淏ecause we use an open environment rather than private offices, it allows us to move things around and make it pretty easy as we add personnel to the building,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e think this will be sufficient space for quite a long time.鈥�