Oregon Tradeswomen Inc., founded 30 years ago, is finally getting its own training facility.

The nonprofit group, known primarily for training and advocating for women in the building industry, in mid-January will move into a remodeled building in Gresham’s Rockwood neighborhood.

Central Bethany Construction, a division of project developer Central Bethany Development, is carrying out tenant improvement work at an 8,000-square-foot space on Southeast 187th Avenue, near the intersection with Stark Street. YBA Architects carried out design work for the project.

“It’s been a personal goal of mine, and an agency goal, to do this and we’re really excited,” OTI Executive Director Kelly Kupcak said. “We serve more and more women who are living in poverty and are coming to our program for answers. So it’s a critical opportunity for us to shift the way we do business and the way we reinvest back into our community and region.”

Crews broke ground on the OTI project in June, around the same time workers began tackling Rockwood Rising nearby; that mixed-use project also is being developed by Central Bethany Development.

OTI has inked a five-year lease for the new space, which will have a large shop, meeting rooms, staff space, and locker rooms for students. The group will not only have a better place to train women in pre-apprenticeships, but also space to host public workshops and other events while partnering with the cities of Gresham and Portland and other entities.

“We’re really looking forward to those things,” Kupcak said. “But the other piece that is really important to us is that we will be able to train our women at night and on weekends, which is huge for the women who are working toward new careers.”

OTI has encountered serious challenges in bringing women with day jobs into pre-apprenticeship training, Kupcak said. The new facility will help immensely, she added.

The group also will focus more on working with people simply looking for work or an opportunity.

“We are serving folks who are houseless, and we didn’t used to do this before,” Kupcak said. “Over the last two years we’ve made a lot of change about intentionality and about removing barriers for our clients; we wanted a welcoming physical space for the public and for tradeswomen.”

Kupcak praised the efforts of Central Bethany Development General Managing Partner Roy Kim and his firm.

“They really wanted a workforce development partner in there, and they’ve been incredible to work with,” she said. “Everyone’s talking about Rockwood being poor; we all know that. But it’s also the most diverse neighborhood in the region, and there is a young population, so there are huge opportunities there.”

Demolition was carried out at the site some time ago, Central Bethany Construction Superintendent Steve Wahle said, but real tenant improvement work began last month. The building was once part of a former Fred Meyer store that closed over 15 years ago, he said.

“We took it down to the studs, took out all the ceiling – and we had a lot of rot, so we did repairs there,” Wahle said. “Then we had a floor plan from our architect, and that’s what we have going here now.”

A large roll-up door separates the entrance from a large classroom on one side and staff space on the other. The building’s north end holds the shop and training area. Currently, drywall is being installed in preparation for painting and finishes.

“This warehouse side is a big space,” Wahle said. “We’re just waiting for the Sheetrock to get done and the finishes to start. It’s a little rough still, but it’s a big thing for them and for the city, the area of Rockwood; it’s all transforming right now.”

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The ongoing redevelopment of Gresham’s Rockwood neighborhood is continuing apace, including the recent completion of a new LifeWorks NW clinic.

This three-story clinic, at 18417 S.E. Oak St., near the Rockwood Rising mixed-use development, is replacing former facilities in Rockwood and Gresham. Central Bethany Development, the project’s developer, served as its own general contractor. Carleton Hart Architecture designed the project.

Staff in the new building will provide mental health and addiction treatment. LifeWorks NW, which has operated for nearly 60 years, needed something quite a bit different than a typical commercial structure.

“With this program it’s really important to have that point of control – that single main entry with really strong controls,” Carleton Hart Architecture principal Brian Carleton said. “So, the entry could only really be at one end or the other, and the rest of the building becomes this rabbit warren of offices and meeting spaces and therapy spaces.”

One of the building’s biggest challenges is the southern location of the entrance. This faces away from a nearby MAX light-rail station to the north, from which many clinic patients and staffers will likely approach.

“How do you design the building where you’ve got the open and inviting end, but you can’t turn your back on the other street?” Carleton said. “We don’t want people to enter that end of the building, but we want to guide them and make them feel welcome as they’re coming off the MAX.”

This was accomplished by adding concrete benches and other furniture items on a back patio. In addition, a landscaped and lit path running the length of the building provides an easy route to the entrance.

Inside, the three floors serve distinctly separate purposes. The ground floor features the main lobby and a pharmacy, as well as a host of exam rooms and group meeting rooms. The second floor is dedicated to clinical services, and the third story is home to LifeWorks NW staff and information technology systems.

On the top floor, the layout was made as open as possible, Carleton Hart project architect Devin Follingstad said. Because structural steel columns bear loads, this also allows for relatively simple tenant improvements or partitions.

Also on the third floor, an employee break room is equipped with a small kitchen. Even here, the space is set up for flexibility.

“The break room is wired for future cubes if they need it,” Follingstad said. “The break room may even go away and become offices.”

Designers also convinced LifeWorks NW to include an outdoor patio on the third floor, Follingstad added.

The building – three stories of wood framing atop a slab-on-grade foundation – was relatively simple to construct, Central Bethany Development superintendent Jeff Oberst said. The difficulties, he added, were tied to materials and labor.

“We have the same woes everyone else right now has in this market,” he said. “The labor woes are terrible, so it definitely had an impact.”

Ongoing major school construction has contributed to the problem, Oberst added.

“The trades were impacted by that, and the rest of us have to compensate based on the schedules of the schools,” he said.

The new clinic’s exterior cladding includes masonry, fiber cement panels and metal panels. The project team experienced difficulties with its original supplier of bricks, Oberst said.

“After it was two and a half months late, we had to go find new brick in California,” he said.

Ground was broken a year ago, and a temporary certificate of occupancy was expected to be issued last week. A punch list of items should be addressed this month, before the arrival of staff.

LifeWorks NW contracts out some of its services, so in the new building, Wallace Medical Concern will offer primary care services and Genoa Healthcare will provide pharmacy service.

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