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Justin Metcalf, president of Wishcamper Development Partners, was at a crossroads in his career when he realized an opportunity to expand and improve the affordable housing stock in Oregon.

The Montana native has worked in housing for his entire career and he and his former business partner grew a small company into a national presence. When his business partner decided to pursue a different direction in 2018, Metcalf re-evaluated what he wanted for his personal and professional life.

鈥淚t was good timing because I had a 1 year old and flying all over the country was very time consuming,鈥� said Metcalf, now the father of two young children and 45 years old.

In 2010 Metcalf had met Portland native Fletcher Ray, who at the time managed the Year 15 Dispositions Team at PNC Real Estate and worked on a team that executed more than 750 limited partner exits from tax credit partnerships with real estate valued at more than $1.6 billion. In 2016, Ray left PNC and started his own development firm in Oregon, of which Metcalf and his prior company were equal partners in.

Metcalf and Ray formed Wishcamper Development Partners in 2018 and focus on developing affordable housing in the Pacific Northwest, with a strong emphasis in Oregon and Montana. Metcalf runs the Missoula office and Ray runs the Portland office, where he oversees the firm鈥檚 debt and equity relationships; accounting, finance and asset management departments; and yield-based acquisitions platform.

鈥淲hen we were deciding where to focus our efforts, we drove the entire state of Oregon over a two-week period touring urban and rural cities and meeting with stakeholders of affordable housing, local officials, and the state housing and finance agency. We wanted to determine how we could help make the biggest impact,鈥� Metcalf said.

He recalls meeting with the director and staff of Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) and being 鈥渟uper impressed鈥� by the way they had transformed the agency, their goals for the future, and the funding that was available statewide to assist in the creation of additional affordable housing units. While Wishcamper Development Partners owned about a dozen properties in Oregon at the time, it hadn鈥檛 done any new construction in the state at that point and OHCS told them that was the biggest need.

鈥淔or a company like ours, we felt like we could help in that endeavor,鈥� Metcalf said. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 want to start competing with local nonprofits for scarce resources, but there seemed to be a gap of developer participants that were focused on building larger projects.鈥�

The company is currently building affordable housing projects in Beaverton, Woodburn, Roseburg and Bend. About 90 percent of its work is in Oregon. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been really rewarding because we鈥檙e working in the two states that we consider our home communities,鈥� Metcalf said.

Throughout his career, Metcalf has worked in communities of color across the country, though he didn鈥檛 feel the culture or race of the community were taken into consideration by most local, state and federal funding programs and mandates. He noted that his first new construction project in Oregon was in Beaverton, and it was his first experience of working with a municipality that had tangible equity and inclusion mandates and goals for construction, lease-up and operations.

鈥淭here are other states that are starting this work, but Oregon is head and shoulders above everybody else,鈥� Metcalf said, adding he joined several BIPOC organizations 鈥� including NAMC-OR 鈥� to listen and learn how his company could help their communities.

鈥淲hen our project hit 30 percent MWESB participation in Bend I was pretty proud of that and still am, but when I met with Nate we talked about BIPOC Return on Investment and I realized how much more we can do,鈥� Metcalf said.