REACH Housing We’ve Developed

Building Homes for a Vibrant Community

REACH develops buildings that provide Portland-area families with safe, attractive, affordable homes, enabling residents to invest in their future.  To date, we have developed 1,398 housing units of affordable, attractive, and quality homes.  In 1982, REACH began revitalization efforts in the neighborhoods of inner southeast Portland by buying and renovating single family homes.  Our portfolio now includes new and renovated plexes, apartment buildings and mixed-use developments located across the City of Portland.  We are committed to ensuring quality, well-maintained housing, and have recently begun an effort towards “greening” our housing portfolio.  The need for affordable housing in the Portland metropolitan region continues to grow.  REACH is committed to addressing as much of this need as possible. 

REACH has developed a wide range of properties including single-family rental homes, high-density apartment towers, affordable row houses for first-time buyers and historic apartment buildings.  Building low-income housing that is both affordable and welcoming is an art and a science.  It’s a journey filled with public meetings, lengthy negotiations, and complex financial transactions.  REACH has a long and successful history of developing affordable homes for some of Portland’s neediest residents.  Partnering with some of Portland’s leading architects and general contractors, REACH builds innovative multi-family projects that reflect neighborhood character and address the needs of the targeted population.  Financing is provided through a combination of hard and soft debt from private and public sources, Low-income Housing Tax Credits, and grant funding.  To view a complete portfolio of REACH’s properties, please visit our Property Management website

Click here for map of all REACH properties (updated April 2011)

A few examples of properties developed by REACH:

New Multi-Family Construction – Patton Park Apartments
After less than a year of construction, Patton Park Apartments opened in February 2009. The Overlook neighborhood in Portland, Oregon now has a new 54-unit building for working families*, and 4,600 square feet of commercial space. In 2006, Tri-Met selected REACH to build a mixed-use transit-oriented development (TOD) one block from the MAX light rail Killingsworth Station. Units include 12 family-sized 3-bedrooms. This development marks a transition for a neighborhood faced with gentrification and in need of commercial activity serving local residents.  Patton Park was developed with grants and loans from the Oregon Housing & Community Services, Portland Development Commission, Bank of America, Enterprise Community Investment, Network for Oregon Affordable Housing, Metro, the Housing Authority of Portland, and The Home Depot Foundation.  TriMet secured the property and provided a discount on the sales price.  For more information, please download the Patton Park Project Overview.

Station Place Tower
“The Pearl Without the Price” is how Station Place Tower is most commonly known.  Built in 2005, Station Place Tower’s large scale and prime location among high-end condominiums allowed REACH to take advantage of innovative systems, local green building expertise and funding from local government sustainability programs. Station Place Tower’s success has inspired interest from all over the world.  The building includes the largest rainwater harvesting and reuse system for a residential building in the City of Portland. This stormwater management system is a model for future public and private projects developed in Portland and throughout the United States. Station Place Tower received the City of Portland’s BEST Award for the Stormwater Management System in 2005.  Click here for more information about Station Place Tower

Acquisition and Preservation Projects
The Admiral Apartments
The Admiral is an historic, 37-unit apartment building place on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.  Located in the heart of the downtown Portland Park Blocks on SW Park and SW Taylor, It’s occupied by low-income seniors and disabled residents. The Admiral’s Section 8 rent subsidy contract was set to expire at the end of 2010 but the owner wished to maintain the affordability by selling the building to an experienced non-profit housing provider with the resources to extend the subsidy and upgrade the building. REACH purchased the building in November 2008 and completed a substantial renovation in 2010.  The building re-opened to residents and and the Admiral remains affordable.  The Portland Development Commission and Oregon Housing and Community Services are providing renovation and permanent financing for the project.  The Lee Bradford Lacey Community Room is dedicated to Lee Lacey, a long-time Portland civic activist who lived in the Admiral for 27 years.  Lee suffered from the debilitating genetic disease epidermolysis bullosa.  Despite the herculean challenges in his life, Lee lived with dignity, grace, and a strong sense of giving back.  In 1992, Lee said, “I try to seek out quality. I try to head toward the light.”  The Admiral won first place in May 2011 by the Daily Journal of Commerce for the Top Projects Awards - Renovations $5.1 - $15M

For more information, please download the Admiral Apartments Project Overview.

Walnut Park Apartments
Located in the heart of northeast Portland in the King neighborhood, Walnut Park is home to many senior citizens living on fixed incomes. The City identified Walnut Park as one of eleven Portland area properties in danger of being sold and losing their affordable rents. In order to preserve and maintain much-needed affordable homes for Northeast seniors, REACH purchased the building and oversaw a major renovation.  The apartments are available to those earning less than 50% of area median family income and features many green innovations such as bioswales, community gardens, and improved indoor air quality.  REACH celebrated the grand re-opening of the building in June 2010.  For more information, please download the Walnut Park Apartments Project Overview.

Scattered Site Development
REACH’s historic beginnings lie with the scattered site properties primarily in inner southeast Portland.  In 1982, the REACH staff and board of Portland’s first community development corporation started raising money to buy and renovate vacant properties in disrepair.  These properties became the beginning of REACH’s permanently affordable homes for working families with low incomes. The majority of these homes were built in the early twentieth century and renovated in the 1980’s and 1990’s by REACH.  REACH has also constructed a handful of new homes on infill lots.  The Before and After photos of 1925 SE Alder St. in the Buckman neighborhood are an example of what inspired residents concerned about housing conditions and neighborhood livability to establish REACH.  This five-unit Victorian property was purchased by REACH in 1984 and underwent major renovations.

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