Developer Jordan Schnitzer was having lunch at a downtown Portland seafood restaurant weeks ago when he ran into Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith.

The conversation turned to the Wapato Jail, and Smith told Schnitzer a public use should be found for the long-vacant county property, Schnitzer recalled. He agreed and began to look into purchasing it himself.

Now Portland developer Marty Kehoe has sold a controlling interest in the Wapato Jail property to Schnitzer’s Harsch Investment Properties.

Schnitzer said he accepted fee title on the limited liability company controlling the property Friday. Kehoe is remaining on board the project as an adviser, Schnitzer said.

Yet, in keeping with the comedy of errors in the Wapato Jail’s history, Kehoe and Schnitzer appear to have differing visions of the property’s future.

Schnitzer said Tuesday he will meet next week with Portland developer Homer Williams, founder of the nonprofit Oregon Harbor of Hope, to discuss using the jail building as a homeless shelter with associated social services.

“If anyone can help figure this out, it’s Homer,” Schnitzer said.

But Kehoe said the property would not be used as a homeless shelter.

“All I can say is that’s not the plan,” he said. “That’s never been the plan.”

It was only last week that Kehoe completed the purchase of the Wapato Jail from Multnomah County for $5 million after he’d submitted an initial $10.8 million offer that tied up the property for months. Schnitzer said he purchased the property from Kehoe for $5 million. The two had arranged a transaction before the sale from the county closed, Schnitzer said.

“We entered into a transaction with him that if he did it, it would basically transfer with us,” Schnitzer said.

Williams was also bidding for the Wapato Jail at the time. He submitted a $7 million purchase offer that county commissioners opted not to entertain.

Now all three developers are involved in deciding Wapato’s future. Williams will have the “first shot” at finding a public use for the property, Schnitzer said.

“He is a brilliant real estate dreamer and developer,” Schnitzer said of Williams, pointing to his experience developing projects in the South Waterfront District and the Pearl District. “Now he is devoting his life, he said, to help the homeless, and I admire that. The first crack is yours.”

Schnitzer left the door open to other uses for the 18.24-acre property zoned for industrial use.

“If we can’t find a public purpose for it, we’ll try to repurpose the building for record storage or other use,” Schnitzer said. “If we can’t find a way to repurpose it, we’ll tear it down.”

Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals rejected a past attempt to use an industrial-zoned property as a mass shelter.

During the time Multnomah County owned the property, county officials – with the notable exception of Smith – were skeptical it could ever be used as a homeless shelter. They cited the jail’s physical layout, operating costs and distance from transportation and service agencies in Portland’s core.

In 2016, the county’s Department of County Assets evaluated the potential use of the Wapato Jail as a homeless shelter. The county report found doing so would have a start-up cost of $950,000 and ongoing costs of $140,000 a month, including the need for five full-time-equivalent staff members.

The report noted it was unknown if the building’s physical systems would perform at full operation.

County Chairwoman Deborah Kafoury did not immediately respond Tuesday to a message seeking comment.

County commissioners “did the best thing in terms of stopping the drain of dollars,” Schnitzer said. The county was paying $300,000 a year in maintenance costs.

Schnitzer said the Wapato Jail purchase is part of his family’s legacy in giving back to Portland.

“All of us, it breaks our heart to see all of these homeless folks,” he said. “It also hurts to see them on doorsteps hurting merchants who need their business to survive.”

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Portland developer Homer Williams has been making a lot of calls lately, lobbying support for what would be a massive public-private effort to shelter the city’s growing homeless population. The $100 million idea unveiled this week would add a full-service shelter campus to a city-owned 14-acre parcel: the former site of the Port of Portland’s Terminal 1 along the west side of the Willamette River.

“To a person, they’ve said yes,” Williams said.

So far, the project draws heavily from San Antonio’s Haven for Hope, right down to the $100 million price tag and the 501(c)3 organization that would operate the shelter.

That arrangement would be crucial, said Williams, who’s working alongside business partner Dike Dame.

“The important thing here is that this is run by the private side,” Williams said. “The state and city are partners; the businesses and foundations are partners. And in the middle is the community. We’re looking at this like we’d look at a development. You’ve just got to break it down into pieces and attack them.”

Homelessness and housing affordability are two issues gripping government and public consciousness in Portland. Mayor Charlie Hales has declared a “housing state of emergency” to seek shelter for the more than 1,000 people who sleep outside in Portland each night.

Williams said he favors an approach attacking the root causes of homelessness through a program run by a comprehensive group of stakeholders.

“A bed and meals doesn’t do it, and for most of these people, even an apartment doesn’t do it,” he said. “I mean, they need a lot of care and a lot of healing to get back into mainstream society.”

The team so far includes Ankrom Moisan Architects, which has been performing schematic designs pro bono.

Williams told the 91��Ƶ he intends to have a plan to put on the desk of Portland’s next mayor, Ted Wheeler, by the first quarter of 2017. The proposal would cost $360,000, covered mostly by business interests, and contain cost estimates and estimated operating budgets. Williams said he’s had discussions with Wheeler, as well as the chairwoman of the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners, Deborah Kafoury.

Williams first spoke about his plans with The Oregonian’s editorial board. The plan would feature beds for 700 people, and transitional housing for an additional 700.

When asked if this project was intended to be a career-capper, Williams, 71, said, “We just kind of stumbled into this, to be honest with you.”

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