The Portland City Council on Wednesday unanimously adopted agreements that lay the groundwork for redevelopment of the 32-acre Broadway Corridor in Northwest Portland.

Commissioners approved the community benefits, development and intergovernmental agreements that include guarantees for workforce rules, participation by women-owned, minority-owned or disadvantaged contractors, affordable housing and more.

Mayor Ted Wheeler, in a news release, stated that the vote “advances a once-in-a-generation opportunity to develop the Broadway Corridor in a true partnership between city bureaus, community organizations and private partners, with equity as the driving force of transformation.”

The vote allows developer Continuum Partners of Denver and Prosper Portland to accelerate plans to redevelop the area bridging Old Town Chinatown and the Pearl District with a mix of housing, offices and retail space.

Vivian Satterfield, spokeswoman for the Healthy Communities Coalition, hailed the passage of the community benefits agreement.

“It’s really a historic achievement we’ve made,” she said. “This is the city’s first comprehensive community benefits agreement that goes beyond workforce (rules).”

For example, the Portland Housing Bureau will be required to conduct outreach to prospective Black, Chinese-American, Japanese-American and American Indian tenants – groups with historic ties to the neighborhood.

Among the next steps is to appoint members of the oversight committee that will work to ensure compliance with the terms of the community benefits agreement. Members will be drawn from the Healthy Communities Coalition – an organization of racial justice, community and environmental groups – as well as the developer, Prosper Portland and neighborhood organizations. Prosper Portland’s executive director – currently Kimberly Branam – will be empowered to make final decisions, with appeal avenues to Prosper Portland’s board and City Council.

The agreements will provide broad outlines for how Broadway Corridor development proceeds, Satterfield said.

“We were just able to put up some scaffolding, some ideas, from where we are now,” she said.

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The billion-dollar redevelopment of a 32-acre area in Northwest Portland took a major stride forward this week when the developer, city officials and community activists reached agreement on a development deal and a community benefits agreement.

The sides reached a pair of deals that were approved unanimously by Prosper Portland‘s board of commissioners on Wednesday.

Approval of a disposition and development agreement with Continuum Partners, the Denver-based development adviser, means the Broadway Corridor has already advanced past the point where other projects overseen by Prosper Portland, the city’s redevelopment agency, have stalled.

And a landmark community benefits agreement being forged is no less significant. It guarantees prevailing wages, health care benefits and significant participation by minority-owned contractors in the construction of a new neighborhood bridging Old Town Chinatown and the Pearl District.

The community benefits agreement involved labor and environmental groups organized by the Healthy Communities Coalition, perhaps clearing the way for the project to proceed with minimal friction.

“Continuum Partners has stayed at the table, and the Healthy Communities Coalition (members) have been good partners,” Prosper Portland Executive Director Kimberly Branam said in an interview. “Across the board, we have had excellent partners who have committed to the vision and who have stayed to make sure we could make it a reality.”

The development deal clears the way for Continuum Partners to acquire parcels on the northern end of the Broadway Corridor site as soon as 2024. Those properties have height limits of up to 400 feet.

“We selected Continuum Partners because of their commitment to doing development in an inclusive way, and because of their experience doing major public-private partnerships at scale,” Branam said.

The redeveloped area is expected to be the eventual home of approximately 720 affordable housing units, along with market-rate housing units, office space and retail space. More than $1 billion in private investment is expected. The city of Portland will provide millions of dollars in street and infrastructure improvements.

The Broadway Corridor “is as complex of a project as I can imagine being involved in,” Continuum Partners CEO Mark Falcone said Wednesday during the Prosper Portland board meeting, which was held virtually.

Prosper Portland agreed to credit $290,000 toward the purchase price of certain lots to offset prevailing wage obligations that are imposed upon the developer by the agreements. The agency will also provide up to $1 million per property toward a construction equity fund.

Vivian Satterfield, spokeswoman for the Healthy Communities Coalition, said the group insisted that prevailing wages be paid for work within the Broadway Corridor.

“Prevailing wage is an equity tool for providing good, living-wage jobs here,” she said in an interview. “We held fast to that.”

The community benefits agreement requires “responsible contractors” to provide full family health care to workers. The deal includes an agreement exempting minority-owned and disadvantaged contractors from that requirement if their contracts are valued at less than $1 million.

The agreement also has goals to use 100 percent renewable energy and achieve carbon neutrality. No funding for those goals was identified in the agreements.

“It’s pretty light on the environmental side, which is unfortunate because it’s a critical time for us to be able to do that,” Satterfield said.

The Portland Housing Bureau has committed $14.5 million for development rights within the Broadway Corridor. The bureau will conduct outreach to Black, Japanese-American and Chinese-American groups for affordable housing. All of those groups have had significant populations within the Broadway Corridor area. The outreach commitment comes as city officials are eager to demonstrate that today’s projects are unlike the racist urban renewal projects of the 20th century that destroyed minority neighborhoods in areas such as Albina.

Residential development in the Broadway Corridor will be subject to the city’s inclusionary housing policy, requiring 10 percent of units be made available to renters at 60 percent of area median income or a fee be paid in lieu.

An oversight committee will have five members appointed by the Healthy Communities Coalition and five members by Prosper Portland. The oversight committee will have its own budget of $50,000 per year for 10 years.

The agreements will now go to the City Council for approval. The Broadway Corridor master plan was scheduled to be reviewed by the Portland Design Commission on Thursday.

Falcone credited Mayor Ted Wheeler and Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty for intervening in the negotiations.

They “stepped in at a very key moment and really helped to get that element of the project over the hump,” Falcone said. It wasn’t clear if he was referring to the development agreement or the community benefits agreement.

The Broadway Corridor will be a key part of the city, Prosper Portland board member Peter Platt said.

“It’s exciting to be a part of this project because it will certainly outlive any of our tenure on the commission,” he said. “Being part of setting a foundation for what is sure to be a signature development for the city, and certainly the agency, is fun.”

Platt has visited and appreciated Continuum Partners’ redevelopment of Denver’s Union Station area, he said.

“It’s fun to imagine something like that come to our city as well,” he said.

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A coalition of local advocates and the development adviser for the massive Broadway Corridor redevelopment have reached an impasse on negotiations for a community benefits agreement, and the coalition has asked Mayor Ted Wheeler to step in.

Negotiations have stretched on for months with development adviser Continuum Partners of Denver. Several disagreements remain, including whether construction workers on the project should have health care benefits.

“We want to be able to define what a responsible contractor is,” said Vivian Satterfield, spokeswoman for the Healthy Communities Coalition, a group that has been designated to represent local interests for labor and social justice. “Part of that is offering health care, and Continuum disagrees.”

Wheeler took part in negotiations early on. Now he’s being asked to return to the table as the massive redevelopment project hangs in the balance.

“Ultimately, I believe the responsibility is in the mayor’s office for this,” Satterfield said. “We are signaling that we may be at an impasse in this process. We want City Council to take notice and hear us that we will not participate in this process unless it is racially just.”

The impasse was by the Northwest Labor Press. Prosper Portland has been working to facilitate the negotiations between the Healthy Communities Coalition and Continuum Partners.

The coalition’s membership is comprised of multiple community advocacy organizations and labor groups, including the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, IBEW Local 48, Operating Engineers Local 701 and SEIU locals 49 and 503.

In addition to the community benefits agreement, which would set targets for minority participation, wage standards and benefits, Prosper Portland and Continuum Partners are also negotiating a disposition and development agreement and a master plan for the 32-acre property.

“We’re committed to getting it all done, and for us that means what does a win look like for each of the parties and how can we negotiate an agreement that works,” said Prosper Portland Executive Director Kimberly Branam.

Wheeler has not indicated whether he would intervene in the negotiations, although those involved said they believe Wheeler will come to the table. Asked directly whether Wheeler would re-engage in the process, spokesman Tim Becker issued a statement saying that Wheeler “is committed to the Broadway Corridor Project, and is working to find ways to see it through to completion.”

Wheeler has weighed in on large development projects before, including Zidell Yards. The South Waterfront mixed-use plan fell apart in 2018 after the city and the Zidell family could not agree on how much each side would pay for public infrastructure.

The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed the Broadway Corridor negotiations. On March 3, shortly before public shutdowns began, the two parties held a marathon negotiation at Prosper Portland’s office in Old Town Chinatown.

“We literally had breakfast, lunch and dinner there,” Satterfield said. “We were able to reach tentative agreement on so many provisions on the (CBA) term sheet.”

The pandemic “really shifted a lot of things at every level,” Satterfield said. “As a result of that … we all extended each other a lot of understanding and little bit of empathy.”

For the Healthy Communities Coalition, the CBA is an opportunity to help right past wrongs. In past large-scale redevelopments, Prosper Portland (under its former moniker of Portland Development Commission) displaced historical neighborhoods of color.

“This project has to be racially just because of the history of this site,” Satterfield said.

Old Town Chinatown has historically had significant Chinese-American, Japanese-American and Black populations.

In negotiating the CBA, the coalition is looking toward precedents set by other large redevelopments that had CBAs, including the Oakland, California, Army Base redevelopment and the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The coalition and Prosper Portland are working with a number of consultants, including Cecliia Estolano of California-based Estolano Advisors.

“CBAs are a thing,” Satterfield said. “There are some sideboards to what defines what a CBA is and what it’s not.”

Satterfield acknowledged the coalition has a “contentious relationship” with Continuum. The development adviser was selected in April 2018, in large part due to its commitment to inclusion.

Satterfield participated on the community committee that led to Continuum’s selection. “I specifically remember (Continuum CEO) Mark Falcone saying, “We are comfortable executing a community benefits agreement, of course,’” Satterfield said. “We were confident we had a partner who was there.”

Continuum has balked at some provisions demanded by the coalition, including health care coverage for construction workers. In a written statement, Falcone stated that the developer has “struck an appropriate balance.”

“Our unwavering commitment to have all construction jobs on the project pay at prevailing wage and the additional agreements we have reached with the (Service Employees International Union) for wages on janitorial and security are a substantial shift in the private development market for Portland,” Falcone stated.

Continuum is receiving a monthly retainer from Prosper Portland as the negotiations drag on.  “They continue to be active in all of the negotiations,” Branam said.

Meanwhile, all sides acknowledge the economic downturn spurred by COVID-19 has changed the development calculus. Still, the opportunity to redevelop a large swath of close-in Portland is seen as an enticing job for any developer.

“The opportunity to build an entire new neighborhood on prime real estate in downtown Portland is still going to be attractive to the development industry,” Satterfield said. “It would be a shame if they walked away. But regardless of who the developer is, this is the way that massive development happens in the future. There will be a community benefits agreement. There will be community outreach. We’re not going back to where we were. “

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