A vision to build a thriving neighborhood connected to the Willamette River in historically Black Portland is closer to becoming reality.

The 1803 Fund confirmed Wednesday it has purchased industrial and commercial property just north of the Moda Center in Portland’s Albina neighborhood.

The organization acquired a former manufacturing campus belonging to Streimer Sheet Metal Works, Inc. at North Russell Street and North Albina Avenue, plus 1.5 acres from Widmer Brothers. The parcels are part of plans to transform the area into “The Low End” district. The fund did not disclose the amount paid for the parcels of land.

The purchase builds on the 1803 Fund’s $70 million acquisition last fall of the former grain silos on the east bank of the Willamette River, an area the initiative calls Albina Riverside.

“These properties are part of a neighborhood called the Low End — a name with roots in Albina’s early days, given its proximity to the river’s floodplain,” Rukaiyah Adams, CEO of the 1803 Fund, said in a statement. Adams is also a member of OPB’s Board of Directors.

“Our vision connects Albina Riverside, The Low End, and the surrounding neighborhoods into one thriving district,” Adams said, describing land spanning a couple miles of inner North Portland.

The purchase was expected, but it comes as city leaders are grappling with how to jumpstart Portland’s lackluster economy and as they face a deadline to invest in one of Oregon’s most widely recognized properties: the Moda Center, built three decades ago in North Portland. Leaders agree the city needs more economic activity and housing, and that the basketball arena is at a critical crossroads. But the cash-strapped city is limited in its abilities to meet all those needs.

The 1803 Fund describes its mission as investing in and for Black Portland to advance generational wealth and well-being through purchasing property and through partnerships focused on restoring North Portland’s Albina neighborhood.

The 1803 Fund formed in 2023 when Nike co-founder Phil Knight and spouse Penny Knight gave $400 million to the initiative. The name references the year York, an enslaved man, joined the Lewis and Clark expedition.

In the middle of last century, over 80% of Portland’s Black residents lived in Albina, after being pushed out of other regions of the city through the use of racist housing policies like redlining.

The area became a thriving hub of Black-owned businesses and homes, until racist urban renewal policies pushed families out of Albina to make way for building Interstate 5 and the Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Other projects that forced residents and business owners from the area never came to fruition.

The 1803 Fund’s vision for Albina Riverside and the Low End are in close proximity to the city-owned arena, the Moda Center. The home to Portland’s WNBA and NBA teams has been in the spotlight recently, as Trail Blazers’ billionaire owner Tom Dundon has pushed state, city and county leaders to contribute public money for renovations. Dundon’s unspoken threat is that he could try to move the team to a new city if Portland doesn’t send taxpayer money to upgrade the arena.

The 1803 Fund’s investments are not connected to the Moda Center renovations, and they are not coming from public coffers. But the executive director of a major partner of the 1803 Fund, Winta Yohannes with Albina Vision Trust, recently told a crowd of influential Portlanders the city has a responsibility to maintain the arena.

But maintenance is the bare minimum, she said, and connected potential arena investments to work going on around it – and the people those efforts are meant to help. Yohannes urged leaders to move forward with Moda Center upgrades in a way that respects people living in the area every day, such as by creating stable employment opportunities at the arena.

Yohannes made the remarks at the Portland Metro Chamber’s annual meeting last month, which was held at the Moda Center. Dundon was also in attendance.

“We need to acknowledge the tension of this moment honestly,” Yohannes said. “Many Portlanders look around and see rising costs, persistent inequality, and wealth concentrated in fewer hands while feeling less secure than the generation before them.”

While the Moda Center’s future may be uncertain, partners of the 1803 Fund are already breaking ground and building developments aligned with their goal of restoring inner North and Northeast Portland neighborhoods not far from the arena and the Willamette River.

Last September, Albina Vision Trust opened a 94-apartment building called Albina One. Of those apartments, 75 of them are rented through the city’s preference policy, which prioritizes housing for people with family history in the area.

Meanwhile, a few blocks east of the 1803 Fund’s newest acquisition, construction has started on 20 single-family homes and office and retail space for Black-owned businesses. The block at North Russell and Williams Streets will also house an 85-unit apartment building.

In the 1970s, buildings on that corner were demolished to make way for a hospital expansion that never followed through. In the process, hundreds of Black-owned homes and businesses were destroyed. Nearly a decade ago, the city returned the property to the community, and a nonprofit formed to oversee development of the project. Construction should be complete in 2028.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/07/02/1803-fund-north-portland-albina-purchase-streimer-campus/