Groundbreaking Celebration for Macdonald Center's new Service Hub and Affordable Housing

Macdonald Center will host a private groundbreaking ceremony on September 8 to commemorate the start of construction on an expanded service hub for the Center’s outreach and support services for low-income individuals and 42 units of affordable housing for the Old Town community in a new seven-story structure.

The project to replace the 106-year old West Hotel became possible when the organization’s founders and developers placed a right-of-first-refusal on the property adjacent to Macdonald Center’s existing service center and 54-bed assisted living residence. This one action, twenty years ago, protected the site for future development that would benefit the vulnerable and forgotten poor that Macdonald Center serves in Old Town.

The support of the community, the city, the county and the state during a very difficult economic climate, combined with Macdonald Center’s loyal donors over the past twenty years, provided the resources and energy to make this project a reality. The generous support of Maybelle Clark Macdonald, whom the Center is named after, and the fiscal responsibility of the Center’s board of directors created the conditions and the foundation for this major construction project.  Then, in August 2010, Macdonald Center was named as one of two organizations in the tri-county area to receive the maximum allowable award of Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits through Oregon Housing and Community Services, generating more than $8 million in project development funding. 

 LRS Architects and Howard S. Wright are leading the design and construction teams for what will become safe and secure housing for the working poor.  Demolition of the existing structure at 127 NW 6^th Avenue has been completed and the new building will be finished by November 2012.  The studio apartments will provide affordable housing for low-wage workers earning up to 60% of area median income. The combination of affordable housing and expanded social services will provide a unique “continuum of care” to the neighborhood.

The capital campaign to raise the remaining funds for the project – Building a More Connected Community – has also achieved a major milestone with more than $11 million raised for the construction costs and a program investment fund.  The campaign goal is to raise $12 million by fall 2012. Major contributors to date include Meyer Memorial Trust, The Collins Foundation and a bequest from Maybelle Clark Macdonald.  Two new grants will be announced at the ceremony: $100,000 from Ann & Bill Swindells Charitable Trust and a $235,000 challenge grant from the HEDCO Foundation.

Speakers at the ceremony will include:  Jeff Yandle, Macdonald Center Board President; Father Richard Berg, Macdonald Center founder and former executive director;  Margaret Van Vliet, Director, Portland Housing Bureau; Multnomah County Commissioner Deborah Kafoury; and Peter Burger, Macdonald Center Board Member and Capital Campaign Chair.