A social services organization has launched a new housing initiative to develop affordable housing alongside its wraparound services for the neighborhood.

Self Enhancement Inc.’s housing initiative, SEI Living, will break ground this summer with two projects: Mississippi Heights and Ruby-Mac Place.

SEI Living builds on SEI’s work co-developing affordable housing projects across Portland. In partnership with Community Development Partners (CDP), SEI co-developed the Alberta Alive affordable housing initiative, which includes five developments along Northeast Alberta Street; most recently the Luther Strong Jr. and Dr. Jackie Strong Empowerment Village.

SEI has been serving Portland for 45 years. Its work started with service to young people and then expanded to wrap-around services from “cradle to career,” said Trent Aldridge, chief executive officer of SEI, adding that the programming has been ongoing for three decades.

“In the last seven to eight years our housing department was one of the most referred parts of our programming,” Aldridge said. “Affordability really just became one of the main things we were working toward.”

Each SEI Living development, starting with Mississippi Heights and Ruby-Mac Place, will include SEI’s own wraparound services in the neighborhood, which include 40 programs and 400 services. These will include case management, after school programs, summer programming, sports, food pantries, educational support, health services and basic needs.

“Our approach here, the end result isn’t stable housing,” Aldridge said. “Getting into a place where you can pay your rent isn’t the end for us.”

SEI’s approach is to get residents stabilized with services such as mental health support, finishing school, job readiness such as working on resumes and supporting students with after school and summer programs.

“We want you to be able to go from stable at 30 percent to much more stable at 60 percent, getting you ready for the Ruby-Mac, which is 80 percent AMI,” Aldridge said. “You would get some support to get a stabilized job but also ready to rent or homeownership opportunities and first-time homebuyer programs.”

SEI Living’s first project, Mississippi Heights, is expected to break ground in a few weeks and be complete by September 2027.

Located at 4424 N. Mississippi Ave. in the historic Albina district in North Portland, the development will provide larger two- and three-bedroom units for families. The five-story, 29,465-square-foot building features 30 one-, two- and three-bedroom units, a community room, offices and support spaces for resident services. The units will be for households making no more than 60 percent of the area’s median income, with about 25 percent of the units dedicated to Permanent Supportive Housing.

The project team includes architect MWA Architects, Vega Civil Engineering, structural engineer VALAR Consulting Engineering of Clackamas, landscape architect Bothwell Landscape Studio, geotech Pali Consulting of West Linn and general contractor Walsh Construction Co.

Mississippi Heights is estimated to cost $24.5 million.

The second project, Ruby-Mac Place, is scheduled to break ground in September and be complete by mid-2028.

Located at 9801 N.E. 13th Ave. in Northeast Portland, the project will create 49 affordable homes designed to help families build stability and generational wealth, according to SEI.

The development will be managed under a community land trust model, with homeowners owning their homes and SEI maintaining ownership of the land over the long term. The development will offer homes for purchase to households earning up to 80 percent of the area median income.

Aldridge said the idea of Ruby-Mac Place is to get people across the threshold to own a home and take the equity built and be able to afford to buy a market-rate home in Portland in the future. SEI will offer services for the neighborhood, such as learning to take care of a home.

The net-zero development will feature a mix of single-family homes, cottages, duplexes and townhomes on a 6.5-acre site. Homes will be built using modular construction and net-zero energy design.

The project team includes architectural partners Propel Studio Architecture and Green Canopy NODE of Seattle, civil engineer and landscape architect Stantec, structural engineer Froelich Engineers, Pali Consulting and general contractor Colas Construction.

Ruby-Mac Place is estimated to cost $22.6 million.

Aldridge said SEI has a pipeline system so there will always be something in predevelopment. The organization plans to do this work in communities where they have roots in the schools and the community.

Up next, SEI plans to close on Garfield Commons at the end of the summer. It will be a 59-unit affordable housing building. In July or August 2027, SEI expects to break ground on the fourth planned project, another affordable housing project for the Gordly Burch House. The house is formerly the childhood family home of Oregon’s first Black woman senator, Avel Louise Gordly. The first floor will honor the Gordly family.

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A 167-unit Northeast Portland apartment building has sold for $30.7 million to a California investment group.

Grant Park Village Quimby, completed in 2018, was purchased by Laurel Property Group of Beverly Hills, California. LPG specializes in managing multifamily properties for family offices and wealthy investors.

The seller was the property’s developer, Capstone Partners, alongside PCCP, a Los Angeles-based real estate investment manager.

The transaction values the 117,333-square-foot asset at $183,832 per unit, or $262 per square foot.

“Grant Park Village Quimby represents exactly the type of institutional‑quality, transit‑oriented asset that investors are seeking in today’s market,” Joe Nydahl, a CBRE executive vice president, stated in a news release. “The property’s finishes, location fundamentals and the limited future supply pipeline in the Grant Park submarket position it well for long‑term performance.”

Nydahl and Josh McDonald represented both the buyer and the seller in the transaction, with support from Scott Williams and Ryan Jameson of CBRE Debt and Structured Finance.

The building at 1580 N.E. 32nd Ave. is in the Sullivan’s Gulch neighborhood and sits adjacent to its sister property, Grant Park Village Henshaw. The properties are north of Interstate 84 and next to a Fred Meyer store.

The apartments in Grant Park Village Quimby are studios or have one or two bedrooms; they average 554 square feet. The midrise community features modern unit finishes and a range of resident amenities, including a fitness center, a resident lounge, an outdoor courtyard and a pet spa.

The property sale was recorded on April 21, according to Multnomah County records.

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A master plan proposal for redevelopment of the Lloyd Center mall received the Portland Design Commission‘s unanimous approval on Thursday.

The 27.1-acre site, in Northeast Portland, consists of the mall and a Regal Cinemas parking lot. The master plan divides the parcels into 14 areas with approximately 7 million gross square feet of allowed development, buildings as tall as 225 feet, and approximately 6.18 acres of public open spaces and new public rights-of-way.

ZGF Architects designed the master plan for owners Urban Renaissance Group and KKR Real Estate Finance Trust.

The vision of the master plan “transforms an aging mall that is no longer economically sustainable into a vibrant, mixed-use neighborhood with housing, retail, and open space where Portlanders can live, work, and play,” Tom Kilbane, managing director of Urban Renaissance Group’s Portland office, stated in an email.

“Lloyd Center will always hold a special place in the hearts of Portlanders,” he stated, “and now it’s poised to play a leading role in the city’s revitalization.”

Redevelopment will occur in phases. No specific plan for demolition exists yet, but it would likely be full demolition rather than a phased approach, because the mall shares centralized infrastructure for utilities. Because these utilities are fully integrated, it is not feasible to isolate or maintain services for one portion of the property while decommissioning another, according to a letter from the applicant’s attorney.

During the previous Design Commission hearing for the master plan, more than 50 people spoke, many in opposition. They lamented plans to demolish the mall and its indoor ice rink.

Commissioner Tina Bue addressed that public testimony, stating that the demolition aspects are outside of the commission’s purview. But she added that she believes the master plan has great potential in open spaces and neighborhood extensions.

“The community spoke loud and clearly about having a year-round ice rink and the importance of the mall being a third space,” she said. “I believe Portlanders will create something new.”

Commission Vice Chair Joe Swank added, “The Lloyd Center has really been de facto public space — public realm — for 65 years in the city. It really has, I think, a following and an ability to captivate people in that way.”

The small business space and the ice rink now in the Lloyd Center mall are community assets, Swank added. He encouraged stakeholders who are passionate about those spaces to follow the process of the Lloyd-Holladay TIF District with the city and track where funds are being spent.

Public art and facade expressions were not part of the master plan and should be considered as aspects of the development of the 14 individual parcels, Commission Chair Chandra Robinson said.

The master plan was approved by the commission unanimously, with conditions of approval attached. Conditions include proposed open spaces being subject to public access easements and allowing public access, designs of each proposed open space and accessway being evaluated through a type II design review process, and buildings in areas shown to have 50 percent ground floor use meeting city code. Several other conditions related to transportation, environmental service and water service were also added.

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The team preparing to redevelop a vacant Northeast Portland building into a food hall, bar and event space is seeking a construction manager/general contractor for the project.

The Prosper Portland Board of Commissioners on Wednesday voted unanimously to exempt the 910 MLK Building food hall project from the usual low-bid selection process and instead seek a CM-GC. Prosper Portland will issue a competitive request for proposals early next month.

The property, owned by Prosper Portland, is at 910 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., near the northeast corner of the Oregon Convention Center.

In January, the board authorized the inclusion of the food hall in the Lloyd-Holladay Urban Renewal Plan and approved the revised plan for the property. Portland-based Parti Architecture LLC will submit to the city design plans for review next month.

The project scope will include a major renovation of the building’s west side; demolition of structural elements on the east side while retaining portions of the roof and structural framework; and construction of infrastructure to support food carts on the lot’s southeast side.

The CM/GC method allows for a contractor to join the process about halfway through the design phase, said Wendy Wilcox, construction and compliance manager for Prosper Portland.

“Through our work in the community, contractors have told us this is a preferred method as through the RFP, they feel they can be more fairly evaluated, the project pricing is more accurate and they have time to gather the best team by being involved from design,” she said.

The estimated total project cost is $7.5 million, including $6 million for construction. A CM/GC delivery method will likely result in cost savings over a low-bid one, according to a Prosper Portland staff report, because of time savings, value engineering, funding source security, and less risk of change orders. Use of the CM/GC method will increase confidence of the project’s partners that the work will be completed within the scheduled time frame and budget, Wilcox said.

Contractors’ proposals will be evaluated by a panel considering a set of best value criteria, Wilcox said. A CM/GC is expected to be part of the preconstruction contract in April or May, she said. The CM/GC contract is expected to be presented to the board for approval this summer.

Construction is scheduled to start in the fall and finish in summer 2027.

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Multnomah County will soon issue a request for proposals (RFP) from parties interested in partnering in its Walnut Park redevelopment project.

In 2018, the county began evaluating future options for the 74-year-old Walnut Park Complex it owns and operates on 1.7 acres at 5329 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The building houses the Northeast Health Center, a dental clinic, a Meals on Wheels dining center, and the Urban League of Portland‘s Multicultural Senior Center. It is also home to county offices and service centers, including the Department of County Human Services, its Aging, Disability and Veterans Services Division, and a Homeless Services Department shelter, a county press release states.

Four years later, JM Woolley & Associates, Black Investment Consortium for Economic Progress (BICEP), and Cascadia Partners led a redevelopment feasibility study. The conceptual plan included a mix of housing, ground-floor commercial space, office space, community space, and updated and expanded county service space, a Multnomah County staff report states. The intent of the project is to create space to serve the Black community and people of color. The development will be designed and programmed as a community healing and service center, the feasibility report states.

Since the study was completed, the county has explored cost and financing options for the project. A partnership with a developer will help Multnomah County manage the project’s impact on its finances and leverage outside funding.

Multnomah County purchasing manager Brian Smith said staff approached the Board of Commissioners earlier in the development process for approval to look at more options for project delivery and financing.

“I’m very confident that we will be able to – we’re working on the RFP right now – to get a developer on board who will work with us and be able to balance the fiscal responsibility with the equity concerns,” Smith said.

The draft RFP will be released within the next month, and a developer will be selected in the fall.

Starting in October, the chosen development partner will spend the next 12-18 months creating a proposal for redeveloping the Walnut Park Complex. The document will identify the financing plan and incorporate long-term planning and on-site program needs, as well as look at ownership trade-offs or leasing options. The proposal will then be presented to the Board of Commissioners for adoption.

Upon reception of the board’s approval, the project will move into the design phase. The board will receive quarterly written project updates as well as multiple opportunities to weigh in during each phase.

Last week the board unanimously approved an exemption from the design-bid-build delivery method for the project. For this procurement approach, the county will enter a contract with a developer with demonstrated experience in managing complex community-driven projects and an understanding of the historic and current significance of Walnut Park.

A project budget has not been established yet.

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A mixed-use project rising in the Eliot neighborhood, in Northeast Portland, stands out for its commitment to the African-American community.

The Beatrice Morrow, now under construction at the site of the former Grant Warehouse on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard between Cook and Ivy streets, will have 80 affordable housing units as well as commercial and community space. For the residential units, priority will be given to people who either were forced out of the neighborhood because of gentrification or are at risk of being forced out.

“We’re definitely excited about the opportunity for folks who have been displaced or who are at risk of displacement from this neighborhood,” said Travis Phillips, director of housing development for nonprofit Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives. “We’ve certainly gotten a lot of interest from folks who want to live there.”

Gerding Edlen is developing the project, which has a budget of approximately $19.3 million. Costs are being covered with money from a mix of public and private sources. The five-story building is being built by Portland-based general contractor Colas Construction.

Carleton Hart Architecture, another Portland-based firm designed the structure; Leeka Architecture and Planning designed the retail space.

Dark brick cladding is being used for the upper four stories to help the structure blend in with the area’s many older, unreinforced masonry buildings. Also, a large rooftop solar array and similar elements are expected to aid pursuit of a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold rating.

Indoors, the residential component will feature a mix of studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom units available for rent to families and individuals with incomes between 50 and 60 percent of the area median income.

The ground floor will be dominated by 6,000 square feet of retail space, a large community room and 112 bike parking spaces. A large playground will sit between the back of the structure and the parking lot.

“We have a particularly generous community room,” Phillips said. “The idea behind that being that, really, the community in Northeast Portland has seen a number of the larger gathering spaces go away and there aren’t the same spaces there used to be for folks to gather, so it was a priority for us.”

The building’s name comes from Beatrice Morrow Cannady – a well-known civil rights activist in early 20th century Oregon. Cannady served as editor of the Advocate, Oregon’s largest African-American newspaper. She used the platform to defend the civil rights of the state’s approximately 2,500 African-American citizens after she became owner of the publication in 1930.

The project also is an integral part of Pathway 1000 – PCRI’s initiative to build 1,000 new affordable units in North and Northeast Portland over the next decade. Developed by the group’s executive director, Maxine Fitzpatrick, Pathway 1000 envisions a mix of housing types ranging from large multifamily developments like Beatrice Morrow to a series of single-family row homes planned for completion this summer.

“If you can bring some of the old neighborhood back, they’ll be able to participate in the community as it used to be geographically, a community of color, and they can support the local businesses that are there,” said Bill Hart, founder and principal at Carleton Hart Architecture. “Their typical customers are the ones being moved out.”

Neighborhood residents’ response to the project has been positive, Carleton Hart project architect Martin Segura said.

“The existing site was a former warehouse and an empty lot,” he said. “And the fact we’re bringing back energy to a neglected piece of property has gone a long way.”

Segura added that the interior design conceived by local firm Mia Knox Design features artwork from local African-American artists. Meanwhile, a broad palette of bold colors will render each residential story unique.

PCRI was formed in the 1990s on the heels of a well-publicized scandal that revealed mortgage lenders had set minimum mortgage amounts and effectively redlined a large swath of North and Northeast Portland. In the fallout, banks started lending in formerly redlined areas, kick-starting the long process of gentrification. Today, houses in the immediate vicinity of the Beatrice Morrow are selling for an average of nearly $600,000. The Beatrice Morrow is intended to roll back that reality by at least a small amount.

“Relative to the number of units that are needed, it’s a drop in the bucket,” said Hart, a Portland native. “But I think the fact she (Fitzpatrick) is focused on this Pathway 1000 and the commitment to bring folks back is the driving force that separates this from other projects.”

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A former restaurant in Northeast Portland will soon become a youth learning center.

ChildRoots Center for Young Children announced Wednesday that it has purchased the building that was home to Perry’s on Fremont at 2401 N.E. Fremont St. The child care provider plans to open its seventh location at the site.

The new owner is planning $300,000 in building improvements to convert the 3,700-square-foot building into ChildRoots Fremont, according to spokeswoman Erica Perez. The new layout for the nearly 30-year-old building will include four classrooms for up to 50 children and an outdoor play area. ChildRoots will hire 14 teachers and support staffers to run the new school, Perez said.

“Having grown up in this wonderful neighborhood, I’m so honored and excited to expand our number of schools and open a business here,” ChildRoots Executive Director Christina Unga said. “This neighborhood is near and dear to my heart because, as a child, I played at the nearby playgrounds.”

ChildRoots promotes itself as an environmental-, art- and science-based learning community that provides care for children from ages six weeks to six years.

Perry’s on Fremont was a family-owned restaurant that operated for 41 years before closing its doors in September 2013.

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In one area of upper Northeast Portland, it’s not a walk in the park to find a park to walk in.

“Cully is by a number of measures, one of the most, if not the most, diverse neighborhoods in the whole state and also one of the most park deficient, habitat deficient, low-income neighborhoods in the city,” said Alan Hipolito, a community advocate, a landscape construction contractor and the executive director of Portland-based nonprofit .

Verde is joining a 17-group coalition, , in an effort to turn a 25-acre former gravel mine and landfill site in the Cully neighborhood into a flourishing community space called Thomas Cully Park.

Hipolito said the group recently completed a historical records search and community interview for a human health risk assessment at the site; it’s presently testing the water, land and air quality. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the Oregon Office of Environmental Public Health are paying for that $135,000 assessment, Hipolito said.

Verde also is working with , a natural landscape planning and design firm in Portland, to develop a master plan for the park. Hipolito said development of the entire park will cost between $15 million and $18 million, and that he hopes to finish the first phase in the next two years.

“There are parks built on top of landfills all over the country all the time over the past 10 to 20 years, because in a lot of cities … landfills are some of the only close-in, open space that they have,” he said. “So they’ve got to find a way to reuse them, and parks are a pretty recognized reuse of landfills now.”

The city is going to need parks like the one planned in Cully if it is going to meet its long-term goals for green spaces.

According to Portland Parks and Recreation’s 2009 progress report for , approximately 75 percent of Portland residents are within easy reach (one-half mile) of a park. For the bureau to reach its goal of 100 percent in the next eight years, 46 new parks are needed, the report stated.

According to Hipolito, approximately 13,000 people live in the Cully neighborhood. One park – roughly four acres – exists within Cully’s four and a half square miles.

The progress report also estimated that 29 future parks could be paid for through the city’s system development charge acquisition program. For the Cully park, at least for now, development is requiring a lot of fundraising.

Hipolito said construction of the first phase will cost between $2.5 million and $3.5 million. Approximately $1.5 million has been raised, with another $300,000 in in-kind donations, and $500,000 potentially on the horizon. He said that in May the coalition plans to initiate a Friends of Cully Park fundraising effort to raise the balance.

One small piece of the project that is progressing is development of a 30,000-square-foot community garden. Hipolito said the garden will not sit on the actual landfill, so it’s clear to move forward.

Portland-based landscape architecture firm is working with students at Harvey Scott School to design the garden. Principal landscape architect Jason King said it’s an effort to help instill a sense of ownership.

“We’ve been facilitating the process through to kind of guide (the students) in the right path but really not be too heavy-handed about designing it for them – letting them be the ultimate authors of the garden,” King said.

King said the trial-and-error process of deciding where to place planters, faucets, tables and other amenities has resonated well with the students. He said they are starting to ask bigger-picture design questions, like how an entrance will work in conjunction with the larger park, and whether raised planter beds should be made more accessible for elderly populations.

“They’re starting to make that next layer of connections,” he said.

King said that only about $45,000 is available for garden development, so his company is donating its time to the project.

“I think the idea that you can actually create some usable spaces with landfill space … particularly in the Cully neighborhood, it’s a great opportunity because there is such a deficit of usable green space in that neighborhood that it just makes a lot of sense in that way,” he said.

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One imposing building on Northeast Sandy Boulevard in Portland has a massive sign with the words “For lease.” Below that sign is a smaller one with the words “Your Company Name Could Be On This Sign.”

The Sandy Plaza building, at 1785 N.E. Sandy Blvd., could include that signage perk for the right tenant. The 30,525-square-foot building has 17,619 square feet of space for lease.

The art deco building was built in 1947 and housed an insurance company before The Salvation Army purchased it in 1969, according to Jan Carr, divisional property director for the Cascade Division of The Salvation Army. The big sign, in fact, formerly bore The Salvation Army’s name. The building was used as the nonprofit’s regional headquarters. A sanctuary on the first floor was used for its religious functions.

“I liked the character that it had,” Carr said. “It’s just a neat, old building.”

But by 2008 it needed costly repairs, so The Salvation Army sold it to Weston Development Co. and moved to another building in Happy Valley. Weston Development leased most of the Sandy Plaza building out to office tenants. The sanctuary space was leased to Triangle Productions, a theater group.

More space is available. The minimum divisible space is 1,000 square feet, and the maximum contiguous space is 9,093 square feet. The space is for lease for $15 per square foot, per year.

For details on leasing space in the Sandy Plaza building, contact the commercial leasing department at American Property Management at 503-281-7779 or info@apmportland.com.

Block by Block is a weekly look at commercial real estate around Portland. Send suggestions for properties to BlockxBlock@djcOregon.com.

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has begun construction of a new 5,112-square-foot shell building in Northeast Portland. The building is located at 1450 N.E. 122^nd Ave.

Dale Emanuel, public relations representative for Goodwill, said the building will house three retail tenants but said she was unable to name the tenants. The building is slated to open in April or May. The contractor on the project is LCG Pence Construction.

“The building is an investment in Goodwill’s future with a positive cash flow,” wrote Peter Collins, director of operations for Goodwill of Columbia, in an email.

In addition to the new building, Goodwill is also opening two new stores next year.

On Feb. 9, the organization will reopen a 17,180-square-foot retail store near Beaverton’s Griffith Park, which it closed for remodel in 2009. Emanuel said the organization was also set to open another Scappoose location in April or May.

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