The Albina Vision Trust has a wide-ranging plan for restoring the historically Black Portland neighborhood that urban renewal decimated. To understand the scale of the devastation, consider there are “only three legacy structures” within the 94 acres the nonprofit is working to build back, says Albina Vision Trust's JT Flowers.
One major hurdle: The Trump administration rescinded a $450 million federal grant to cap I-5 at the Rose Quarter, but the group is still moving ahead. Here’s an excerpt of Flowers’ updates on Albina Vision Trust’s projects:
Where might that money come from now?
“We remain optimistic about the long-term future of federal funding. This project, given its national visibility, will be a renewed priority of any Democrat-controlled Congress or White House. The challenge for us is gonna be actually keeping the state at the table long enough to give us the runway to bring that federal funding back.”
Your group plans to find property for Portland Public Schools to move out of its headquarters. What’s the timeline for that swap?
“The way more exciting project is the PPS redevelopment. Highway covers — that's eight acres of land, right? The PPS development, that's ten and a half acres. We're talking about 3,000-plus people who will be moving back in the next six to 10 years.
“ We expect to be able to identify and hopefully secure a site by the end of this calendar year. We expect by about mid-2027 to be able to get a demolition crew in there to knock that thing on down. And then the fun work begins, right? The reconstruction of an entire neighborhood.”
The lay of the land. (ODOT)
You have opened your first building in the last few weeks. What's happening with the Albina One development?
“That’s really a pivotal moment for us: 94 families will be stepping back into the space that they were pushed out of, and they'll be stepping into a building that is absolutely stunning; 55 of [the apartments] are two- and three-bedroom units. We mean it when we say this is a family-oriented affordable housing development — and their views [are] of the downtown skyline, of the bridges, of the river, of the entire city of Portland.”
