The 1803 Fund is dedicating $70 million to Albina redevelopment amid a broader period of investment in Portland’s historically Black district. by Taylor Griggs It’s been decades since a series of construction projects transforme d Portland’s historic Albina district, dismantling the thriving enclave that was once the beating heart of the city’s Black community. Now, years of planning to revitalize the inner North and Northeast Portland district are coming to fruition, bringing hope for Albina’s rebirth—even as questions linger over plans to alter the freeway that runs through the neighborhood. The city, private businesses, and local community members have poured their efforts into a massive plan to overhaul the neighborhood, centering the people who were displaced by decades of racist zoning policies. That includes new housing and business developments, a massive freeway project, and education investments through partnerships with Portland Public Schools. Last month, the 1803 Fund—formed in 2023 to support Albina revitalization —announced it would invest $70 million to kick off major development projects in North Portland. One project, dubbed “Albina Riverside,” is planned as a recreational and community space along the Willamette River, at the site of the former Louis Dreyfus Co. grain silos terminal just north of the Steel Bridge. The 1803 Fund is also acquiring property for mixed-use development in a neighborhood known as “The Low End,” located west of I-5 and south of the Fremont Bridge.  “What we are doing is investing here. This is not charity. It's clarity about where we're going,” 1803 Fund CEO Rukaiyah Adams said at a December 2 press conference about both projects. “Our communities have never been short of talent, but we've been short of investment capital at scale, and that is what the 1803 Fund brings.”  The 1803 Fund’s investment announcement comes amid broad enthusiasm for Albina’s future. In September, Albina Vision Trust (AVT)—an organization that launched in 2020 to advocate for and oversee the district’s revitalization efforts—cut the ribbon on Albina One, a 94-unit affordable housing complex located in North Portland just east of the Broadway Bridge. Through Portland’s North/Northeast Preference Policy—which aims to give former residents of the area and their descendants priority when applying to rent homes there— Albina One prioritizes housing for residents who have generational ties to the area, many of whom were displaced during a period of “urban renewal” in the 1960s and '70s.  Previewing Albina's future AVT has been dedicated to facilitating the construction of a cover over I-5 in lower Albina, which would effectively tunnel a stretch of the freeway to reconnect divided surface streets and, ideally, create more land for housing and commercial development. In 2024, the organization helped the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) secure nearly half a billion federal dollars for the freeway cover, as part of the I-5 Rose Quarter expansion. But the money was rescinded by the Trump administration, and ODOT is now in a financial bind that puts the whole project at risk.  Still, AVT has other projects in the works, including a major transformation of the current Portland Public Schools headquarters site located adjacent to Albina One. The city of Portland is still working with the organization to plan for a reconnected Albina district. And the 1803 Fund’s investment announcement makes it clear that Albina’s redevelopment is happening despite the I-5 cover setbacks.  The 1803 Fund’s project renderings depict the Albina Riverside project as a waterfront site with amenities including basketball courts and green space. The fund has invested $5 million in the riverfront site, and plans for the area are still underway. The organization envisions the space as a “gateway to 1803 Fund’s vision, providing a physical and spiritual reconnection to the river,” describing it as “a place where Black children and families can feel safe, move freely and breathe without fear, giving them new perspectives on themselves and their city.”  The 1803 Fund invested $30 million in The Low End district, which is planned as a “vibrant mixed-use district,” cultivating “Black culture and economic opportunity through new forms of industry, entertainment, entrepreneurship, amenities, and housing.”  The organization says it will put the remaining $35 million of the initial $70 million investment toward other Albina properties, to be announced next year. The 1803 Fund’s 2023 launch came with a $400 million pledge from Phil and Penny Knight, though the donors didn’t share detailed plans for their investment.  "The next generation of Black Portland will not inherit my wounds" At the December 2 press conference, Black community leaders and elected officials emphasized the importance of the Albina investments.  “There were many of us who thought we would never get a moment like today,” Ed Washington, a community elder who served as the first Black member of the Metro Council and recently retired from leading diversity and inclusion programs at Portland State University, said. “Today is about an amazing investment, but for me, it’s acknowledgment, it’s restoration. This is a promise that the next generation of Black Portland will not inherit my wounds. They will inherit opportunities we could only imagine.”  Washington and his family moved to the former city of Vanport, Oregon, in the 1940s, shortly before a flood decimated the North Portland community thousands of Black residents called home. Many of the Black residents who lost their homes in the Vanport Flood moved to the Albina district.  Albina became the site of a thriving cultural scene in the 1950s and ‘60s, with jazz clubs boasting musical guests including Louis Armstrong. Bustling, Black-owned businesses lined North Williams Avenue, Albina’s central commercial corridor. The district was also a hub for civil rights organizing in the 1960s and ‘70s, with the NAACP and the Black Panthers both setting up their local chapter headquarters in the neighborhood. By the 1960s, the vast majority of Portland’s Black residents lived in Albina.  Then came the so-called “urban renewal” projects of the mid-century, which targeted the area, destroying homes and physically splitting the district. In the late ‘50s, construction on the Memorial Coliseum—the first building in the Rose Quarter complex—began, destroying hundreds of homes in the process. The construction of I-5 and the Emanuel Hospital expansion followed in the 1960s and ‘70s, both of which furthered the decimation of the Albina area. Many of those whose homes were not destroyed by construction were priced out by gentrification.  Portlander Martae Brown said generations of people in and connected to Albina have “been carrying the weight of decisions they didn’t make.”  “We inherited disinvestment. We inherited displacement. We inherited questions like, ‘Do I belong here? Is there space for me?’ Brown said at the press conference. “The 1803 Fund’s response to those questions is loud and clear: Yes, you belong. Yes, your future will be prosperous.”  It’s not lost on those involved in Albina’s redevelopment that the work being done in the district comes amid a period of relative hardship for Portland as a whole. Adams, whose family has lived in Portland for generations, acknowledged that much has been made about Portland’s “doom loop.” But she indicated she and the 1803 Fund are operating on a different level.  “As the city and state reckon with economic and demographic forecasts that are not good, to say the least, we’re committed to Portland. We’re investing for the very long-term here,” Adams said. “While other people are shit-talking Portland and leaving Portland and moving to Texas, we are here. We'll be here for the long term.”  Brown emphasized that the 1803 Fund is doing more than simply “reimagining Albina.” “It’s reimagining the possibilities for generations to come,” he said. “And for those who are confused, our community is the center. But all of Portland will win because of what we’re doing.” ...read more read less