A nonprofit’s latest affordable housing project is redevelopment of a former motel property in Southwest Portland. Jamii Court will be a 96-unit complex at 10450 S.W. Barbur Blvd., in the West Portland Park neighborhood.

Metro purchased the Portland Value Inn in 2021, and it was leased by Multnomah County as a homeless shelter until mid-2025. The motel was demolished this past fall.

Construction of Jamii Court started in November. Project completion is anticipated in late 2027.

The five-story, 95,833-square-foot building is being developed by Community Partners for Affordable Housing (CPAH). The project team also includes LRS Architects, civil engineer Janet Turner Engineering of Lake Oswego, structural engineer Stonewood Structural Engineers, landscape architect Marianne Zarkin Landscape Architects, and general contractor O’Neill/Walsh Community Builders.

The total project cost is approximately $43.4 million, with most of that covered by Metro and the Portland Housing Bureau.

The building will be on the 1.1-acre property’s south side and face Barbur Boulevard; the parking lot will be on the north side, CPAH spokesperson Cara Jack stated in an email. There will be three interconnected masses: the Barbur‑facing volume, the east–west bar, and the knuckle that links them. The Barbur mass will align with the street, while the bar mass will follow the site’s east–west axis.

“The Barbur façade is intentionally pulled back from the roadway to create a welcoming entry along this civic corridor and to establish a meaningful frontage,” LRS Architects associate principal Calista Fitzgerald stated in an email. “Together, these massing elements create several distinct placemaking spaces across the site: the Barbur‑facing stoop, the north plaza at the connecting knuckle, and the south courtyard, which is tucked between building volumes and protected from Barbur Boulevard traffic.”

The design incorporates three Islamic elements: jali, the qibla, and specific colors.

Jali is traditionally a perforated stone or lattice screen featuring geometric patterns. A triangular motif was applied selectively to key vertical circulation elements that mark entrances and exits, Fitzgerald stated.

Window bays are angled in alignment with the qibla — the direction Muslims face when praying. This subtle orientation adds depth and meaning to the facade while reinforcing cultural resonance, Fitzgerald stated.

Traditional colors of Islam — green, white, blue and gold — will be incorporated throughout the complex. Window bays will be framed with two shades of green, and the graphic pattern on the angled “woof” wall (both a wall and a roof), will be outlined in gold. These colors will also appear in the interior design.

“Blue creates a continuous thread from the waiting area and drive aisle through the plaza, into the lobby, and ultimately to the water feature” in the south courtyard, Fitzgerald stated.

Building materials were selected with a 50‑year building life in mind to minimize long‑term life‑cycle costs while supporting sustainability (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum) and resiliency goals for the project. Exterior materials will include phenolic panels, fiber‑cement siding with a ceramic coating, European-style vinyl windows and aluminum storefront glazing.

Interior materials were selected for sustainability, durability, and reduced maintenance: low‑VOC paints, carpet tile, a walk‑off carpet, and rubber flooring. Gypsum board, including abuse‑resistant panels in corridors and other high‑traffic areas, will help minimize long‑term wall repair needs, Fitzgerald stated.

CPAH partnered with social services organization HAKI to engage the Islamic community in Southwest Portland in development of the project.

“Their input directly influenced the selection of the building name — Jamii Court, with ‘Jamii’ meaning ‘community’ in Swahili,” Fitzgerald stated.

Also, community members’ feedback shaped the designs of the community spaces and influenced the decision to include larger units, ensuring the building will support multigenerational living, Fitzgerald added.

The building will include 25 studios, 24 one-bedroom units, 29 two-bedroom units, nine three-bedroom units, and nine four-bedroom units.

The apartments will be available to households earning a wide range of lower incomes, including 49 units for people earning up to 30 percent of the area median income (AMI), 22 units for up to 40 percent of AMI, 15 units for up to 50 percent of AMI, and 10 units for up to 60 percent of AMI. Also, 39 units will come with rental assistance. CPAH will provide resident services.

Urban League of Portland will provide services — including case management and health care referrals — for occupants of the 15 permanent supportive housing units.

The building will include two community rooms: a larger one with a kitchen connected to an outdoor plaza (south courtyard), and a smaller one with a lending library and computer stations. The outdoor plaza will include grilling equipment, seating and a water feature. There will also be bike parking, dedicated service space, loading spaces, on-site laundry space, a parcel locker, on-site property management, and controlled building access. There will be 32 parking spaces, 17 of which will be ready for electric vehicles.

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O’Neill/Walsh Community Builders was very busy in 2018, and that hasn’t changed in the new year.

The partnership of general contractors Walsh Construction Co. and O’Neill Construction Group specializes in building affordable housing projects in the Portland-metro area, often with public or nonprofit partners. The latest collaboration fitting that bill is under way at 8118 S.E. Division St. There, ROSE Community Development, the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) and Metro are developing a new four-story mixed-use project dubbed Orchards of 82nd.

The 51,700-square-foot building will include 48 affordable housing units with one, two or three bedrooms. The ground floor will house APANO’s new headquarters and community amenities for residents. SERA Architects designed the building to Earth Advantage gold standards.

The project’s budget is $11.5 million. Some of that cost is being covered by grants from Oregon Housing and Community Services, the city of Portland and Metro. Metro bought the property in 2014 and leased an existing furniture store to APANO prior to the new development.

Currently, drywall, interior and exterior finishing, painting and other finishing touches are taking place. A temporary certificate of occupancy is expected to be received within the next 30-60 days, according to Walsh Construction project manager Kent Usher and superintendent Ben Bechdolt.

Cascade Management is handling leasing of the apartments, which will be rented in tiers to households of one to eight persons making no more than 30, 50, 55 or 60 percent of the median family income, respectively.

The project fits within the vision for the Jade District – an initiative spearheaded by APANO to revitalize the 10-square-block area around Southeast 82nd Avenue and Division Street. In 2011, Prosper Portland selected the Jade District as a Neighborhood Prosperity Initiative district. The district, according to its website, “focuses on community development work in the neighborhood.”

Ground was broken on Orchards of 82nd in October 2017. The project was originally known as The Jade, but the APANO board of directors voted late last year to change the name as a nod to the history of the area. It once featured a number of orchards and farms owned by Japanese-American families, but then much of that land was seized and the owners were interned during World War II.

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Portland’s largest single-building affordable housing project in 50 years is rising quickly in Lloyd, where it is sure to stand out.

Designed by Lever Architecture and LRS Architects, the 12-story, 240-unit Grand Avenue Apartments (also known as ) project is owned by Home Forward. Crews broke ground late last year and are expected to finish by October 2019. And as the city continues to suffer a serious housing crunch, the building will provide low-income inner eastside residents with the most new affordable units since the 286-unit Hollywood East building opened in 1969.

Oregon’s tax code led Home Forward to devote the entire project to affordable housing.

“When we first conceptualized this building we thought we would likely develop a mixed-income building, and we could not make it pencil,” Home Forward senior project manager Julie Livingston said. “And the thing about affordable housing units is they do not pay property taxes.”

That, she said, is “a huge benefit to the operations budget.”

The decision to designate all units affordable “in no way changed what the building looks like,” said Jonathan Trutt, director of development and community services for Home Forward. “It didn’t change the interiors at all, but it changed the rents we were going to charge.”

217 units in the building will be reserved for households with incomes at or below 60 percent of median family income, and 23 will be reserved for households with incomes at or below 50 percent of median family income. Of the latter units, 20 will be assigned Section 8 project-based vouchers to assist with rental subsidy for individuals recovering from domestic violence. Service partners include the Multnomah County Domestic and Sexual Violence Coordination Office (DSVCO), the Gateway Center, Raphael House and YWCA.

Plans call for 88 studios, 109 one-bedroom units and 43 two-bedroom units in the building, which is rising on the western half of a block bound by Northeast Grand and Sixth avenues, and Hassalo and Holladay streets. The property has seen three previous development proposals fail – most recently a bid in 2012 to build a 28-story, 321-foot-tall hotel.

The current $74 million project is being funded through a mix of public and private sources – primarily $28.7 million worth of federal low-income housing tax credits. An additional $18 million is coming from bond funding, and $5.1 million more is coming from the city of Portland.

The project is being constructed by O’Neill-Walsh Community Builders, a formal partnership between two general contracting firms. The partnership allows O’Neill, a registered MWESB (minority-owned, woman-owned or emerging small business) contractor, to gain experience on larger projects that also require the general contractor to employ certain percentages of minority and female tradespeople.

“We have a long history of really enriching the pool for both our subcontractors in the city and working with nonprofits to build these kinds of buildings that are desperately needed in the community,” Walsh project manager Meghan Herteg said recently as she looked out over the concrete deck that will become the building’s second floor. There, workers from RDF Concrete, Western Rebar, Aluma and others prepared the deck for further concrete.

It’s a fairly standard concrete post-tensioned structure, Herteg said, with an exterior skin consisting of sheet metal and thin brick sourced from Mutual Materials of Clackamas.

Look beyond the tower’s appearance, however, and it’s clear that the design aims to accommodate pedestrian traffic and draw residents into Lloyd.

Lever Architecture principal Thomas Robinson said his firm is excited to see the final product and how it serves the district.

“We were really interested in creating a great home for residents that leverages connections with the vibrant local economy,” he said. “It has proximity to transit and it’s close to downtown.”

The ground floor will provide convenience for pedestrians. An open-air courtyard, named Jim Smith Garden in honor of Home Forward’s former board chairman, is designed to draw in people from all directions. That central space will connect with the building’s lobby, commercial spaces – including property management offices – and the building’s north and south sides via covered walkways. Along Grand Avenue, the building’s façade will gently curve away from the sidewalk on either side of the entrance to embrace pedestrians and give them more space.

“If you look at the plan, the corners are day-lit, which is really nice,” Robinson said. “I think the units are going to be really great, so we’re excited about how the building combines retail and outdoor space and the connections to transit. The building creates opportunity both for people and for the city.”

A LEED for Homes gold rating will be pursued for the project.

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