The Hill Block Project Working Group has approved a memorandum of understanding giving the panel broad authority to shape development on the vacant North Portland parcel.

The agreement, passed Wednesday, gives the 25-member group the task of selecting a developer and choosing a development program on the 1.7-acre block bounded by North Vancouver and Williams avenues and Knott and Russell streets.

The block has sat vacant since the early 1970s, when the Hill Block building and other businesses and residences were condemned and demolished by the city of Portland as part of Emanuel Hospital‘s expansion project. In all, 188 properties were demolished, forever changing the historically African-American neighborhood.

Prosper Portland officials last year discovered a 1980 deed to Emanuel (now part of Legacy Health) that said construction should be concluded by Jan. 1, 1990. Prosper Portland officials last year gave Legacy notice that the agency intended to enforce the deed. That started a round of discussions that resulted in the two sides agreeing to form a working group.

Now the working group faces a tight timeline to make decisions on the property. Members must weigh whether to recommend the property be brought into the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area. Joining the URA could bring a source of funding, but also constraints, working group members said at Wednesday’s meeting.

“I think everyone understands what’s at stake in terms of funding,” said Alisha Moreland-Capuia, a Prosper Portland board member who is serving on the working group.

Any request for urban renewal funding would be made to the North/Northeast Community Development Initiative Advisory Committee, a group set up by Prosper Portland to evaluate spending decisions in the 3,990-acre urban renewal area. The Interstate Corridor URA has $32 million to spend by June 2021.

The eventual development on the Hill Block could involve some mix of office space for Legacy, affordable housing, community and nonprofit space and perhaps other uses. The working group will have to lean on Prosper Portland staff for development expertise because few members of the working group come from industry backgrounds.

The decreasing availability of capital should spur the group to get moving, said Stephen Green, a working group member who represents the Black Investment Consortium for Economic Progress.

“Development financing is getting much more difficult nationally right now,” he said.

Funding for the group itself is also in question. Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office provided $15,000 to get the working group off the ground, but city officials warned not to expect additional funding. One member of the working group asked if Legacy had considered contributing financially to group. Legacy’s representative on the board, Charles Wilhoite, said Legacy had not discussed funding the working group.

Wilhoite did not object when working group members voted to make the health care provider a non-voting member of the board.

“Legacy is here in the spirit of collaboration,” he said.

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