Development Team Revealed

Jul 23, 2021

Portland Business Journal

Adding to the tally is the Williams and Russell Project, situated on 1.7 acres within an area where city and Portland Development Commission officials forced the displacement of more than 120 African American families in the 1970s to ease the expansion of the Emanuel Hospital campus, today called Legacy Health. The history of racist planning decisions in Portland was laid bare in a city-issued report from almost two years ago. The contemporary Williams and Russell Project is described as “a collaborative effort between the community-based Williams & Russell Project Working Group (PWG), Prosper Portland, Portland Housing Bureau, Legacy Health and the City of Portland.” The PDC is now Prosper Portland.

Legacy Health, which owns the property, is ready to grant it to the working group or another entity designated by the working group, which is creating a nonprofit called the Williams and Russell Community Development Corporation. That nonprofit “will accept the property and negotiate with the selected team the specifics of the site development,” an announcement publicized on Thursday noted.

For now, the working group has chosen a Black-led development team, according to the announcement. Those on the team are Adre, Lever Architecture, Colas Construction, Hood Design Studio, Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives and Community Development Partners.

This marks one of the first projects taken on by Anyeley Hallová’s Adre development firm after she left another developer in town called Project^.

“It is an incredible privilege to be the chosen development team to advocate for and realize the dreams of Portland’s African American community for the Williams and Russell project, and to lay down a foundation where the community can rebuild and set down roots once again,” Hallová said in a statement.