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Vertical construction will begin later this week at the Williams & Russell project site, in North Portland. It’s a milestone for the Hill Block development intended to restore a cultural and economic center of the city’s Black community.

Housing will come first. Twenty townhomes with an additional four ground-level units will rise on the north side of the 1.7-acre block bounded by North Williams and Vancouver avenues and Russell and Knott streets 鈥� in the Eliot neighborhood.

Crucially, the townhomes will be offered for purchase to residents selected according to the city’s North/Northeast Preference Policy, administered by the Portland Housing Center. The policy aims to restore justice to residents whose homes were razed as part of the 1960s Emanuel Hospital Urban Renewal Project.

The Portland Housing Bureau will provide down-payment assistance to eligible homebuyers. More than 1,200 people initially applied via the North/Northeast Preference Policy, said Dana Fuller Shephard, executive director of the Portland Housing Center.

鈥淲e have more people than we have units,鈥� Shephard said.

Homeowners will be able to earn equity over time, and if they choose, eventually sell the homes.

鈥淭he homeownership component was something that people really, really wanted to see in the project,鈥� said Bryson Davis, president of Williams & Russell Community Development Corp., the nonprofit group leading the project.

The trade-off between keeping the homes affordable and enabling homeowners to build equity was a keenly debated issue in planning.

鈥淭hat tension was a key component of a lot of our discussions,鈥� Davis said. 鈥淭hrough the hospital expansion, the community lost a lot of wealth. We leaned towards 鈥� and for this project we are doing 鈥� the homeowner gets the benefit of their equity.鈥�

However, project team members said they expect most homeowners at Williams & Russell will hold onto the homes long-term. North/Northeast Portland remains the center of the city’s Black community, but homebuying has become difficult amid prices spiraling upward, said Ta’Neshia Renae, chief operations officer of Williams & Russell CDC.

鈥淩eally, we’re looking at folks that have historical ties to the community and want to be a part of that,鈥� said Anyeley Hallov谩, founder and CEO of Portland-based developer Adre.

A second phase will involve the construction of 85 units of subsidized rental housing in family-size configurations. Finally, a 26,000-square-foot business hub, built from cross-laminated timber, will include a mix of affordable office, retail and collaborative space.

The CDC was also able to acquire from Legacy Health a half-block north of the Hill Block that brings the project site to 2.99 acres. In total, the project is expected to cost $16.4 million.

Each project component was designed after an extensive public engagement process. Homeownership, with backyards and parking spaces, was important to Albina residents, and so was affordable rental housing in multibedroom units. Market-rate development has brought a steady supply of studios and one-bedroom apartments, but few larger units.

鈥淭he market doesn’t naturally produce the larger-sized units,鈥� Hallov谩 said. 鈥淪o, the ability to produce those larger units at an affordable price is definitely a desire for the community.鈥�

Vertical construction can begin only now after an extensive environmental remediation process. Legacy Health, which formerly owned the block, provided $10 million for environmental remediation. The Portland Housing Bureau and Prosper Portland also contributed some funding for remediation.

Crews ended up removing 41,000 tons of dirt from the site, Davis said. When the buildings on the Hill Block were demolished in the 1970s, debris from the demolition was used to fill 12-foot-tall basements.

鈥淎s you can imagine for buildings that were built in the early 1900s, there were elevated levels of heavy metals and all sorts of other contaminants all around the block,鈥� Davis said.

Also, a gas station once occupied the southwest corner of the block. Decades-old fuel tanks had to be unearthed and removed.

鈥淒espite all of that, it went pretty well,鈥� Davis said.

Project team members are keenly aware that the site in the heart of the former city of Albina has sat vacant for decades, and know how important it is for Portland’s Black community to get it right.

鈥淎s a real estate developer and as part of Black community, I knew about the significance of the site to the community, the historical significance, and then also the fact that nothing had transpired on the site for fifty years after it was taken from the community,鈥� Hallov谩 said.

They’ve had plenty of time to think about it: The project team came together in 2021 in response to a request for proposals from the project working group that later transformed into the CDC.

The project is being designed by LEVER Architecture and Hood Design Studio. Colas Construction, Portland’s largest Black-owned contractor, is serving as general contractor.

The project will add housing at a time when state and local leaders say more options are desperately needed. But Williams & Russell means more to its backers than square footage, timber and drywall.

鈥淲hat we’re bringing back is more than just buildings,鈥� Renae said. 鈥淲e’re bringing back people and their descendants. We’re bringing back culture.鈥�