O’Neill/Walsh Community Builders was very busy in 2018, and that hasn’t changed in the new year.

The partnership of general contractors Walsh Construction Co. and O’Neill Construction Group specializes in building affordable housing projects in the Portland-metro area, often with public or nonprofit partners. The latest collaboration fitting that bill is under way at 8118 S.E. Division St. There, ROSE Community Development, the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) and Metro are developing a new four-story mixed-use project dubbed Orchards of 82nd.

The 51,700-square-foot building will include 48 affordable housing units with one, two or three bedrooms. The ground floor will house APANO’s new headquarters and community amenities for residents. SERA Architects designed the building to Earth Advantage gold standards.

The project’s budget is $11.5 million. Some of that cost is being covered by grants from Oregon Housing and Community Services, the city of Portland and Metro. Metro bought the property in 2014 and leased an existing furniture store to APANO prior to the new development.

Currently, drywall, interior and exterior finishing, painting and other finishing touches are taking place. A temporary certificate of occupancy is expected to be received within the next 30-60 days, according to Walsh Construction project manager Kent Usher and superintendent Ben Bechdolt.

Cascade Management is handling leasing of the apartments, which will be rented in tiers to households of one to eight persons making no more than 30, 50, 55 or 60 percent of the median family income, respectively.

The project fits within the vision for the Jade District – an initiative spearheaded by APANO to revitalize the 10-square-block area around Southeast 82nd Avenue and Division Street. In 2011, Prosper Portland selected the Jade District as a Neighborhood Prosperity Initiative district. The district, according to its website, “focuses on community development work in the neighborhood.�

Ground was broken on Orchards of 82nd in October 2017. The project was originally known as The Jade, but the APANO board of directors voted late last year to change the name as a nod to the history of the area. It once featured a number of orchards and farms owned by Japanese-American families, but then much of that land was seized and the owners were interned during World War II.

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