As officials with the 1803 Fund and Black community leaders gathered Tuesday to lay out plans to redevelop Lower Albina, one message rang out: We own it.

Formed in 2023 and backed by a $400 million gift from Nike co-founder Phil Knight, the fund has spent $70 million to purchase two groups of properties in North Portland‘s Albina neighborhood.

Fund leaders laid out plans to transform portions of the neighborhood into a modern “Third Place” — apart from home and work or school — for the Black community to gather.

The properties include grain silos along the Willamette River near the Rose Quarter that will become part of Albina Riverside, a 3-acre site linking Albina to the waterfront. The other major area, known as The Low End, comprises approximately 20 tax lots and more than 7 acres along North Russell Street.

The Low End will have a mix of uses, including housing and spaces for art, culture, business and community initiatives. Plans for Albina Riverside are still being developed.

On Tuesday, the group held a press conference at a former craft brewery, 670 N. Russell St., that it now owns.

“Yes, we are rebuilding Albina,” said Rukaiyah Adams, CEO of the 1803 Fund. “But, really, what we are up to is transforming the region.”

The event functioned as a celebration for Portland’s Black community, and a promise to reinvigorate Albina — a historically Black neighborhood that was subjected to relocations, residential demolitions and racist urban renewal practices in the mid-20th century that made way for major infrastructure including Interstate 5, Veterans Memorial Coliseum and Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.

“We cannot talk about Albina without talking about the pain that we have faced as a community,” said Ed Washington, a longtime resident and former president of the NAACP’s Portland chapter.

While details of the redevelopment were scarce, 1803 Fund officials said it’s critical that Black Portlanders now own much of the neighborhood, and will redevelop it as they wish, without heeding outside expectations about what Albina should or shouldn’t be.

“This is not charity,” Adams said. “This is investment.”

Mayor Keith Wilson sparked an exchange when he thanked the building’s proprietor for allowing the event to be held, apparently not realizing the building was purchased by the 1803 Fund.

“To Mayor Wilson,” Adams said, “we own this building. So, yeah, that’s the thing now.”

Yet a long road lies ahead for Albina boosters. Much of the neighborhood requires environmental remediation. The 1803 Fund released renderings showing landscaped public spaces, but a spokeswoman said it remains to be decided what buildings will be constructed on the properties.

Speakers noted that the announcement came at a precarious moment for Portland. President Trump’s threat to deploy the National Guard in the city’s streets appears to have receded for now, but many stakeholders feel the city still has a target on its back. The Trump administration rescinded funds dedicated to building highway covers over I-5 in Albina.

At the same time, the city’s growth spurt of the “Portlandia” era has stalled, attended by rampant homelessness, widespread commercial real estate vacancies and a general economic malaise.

Adams noted, without naming the president, that the Albina redevelopment comes as Trump builds a “gold ballroom” at the White House.

“This is a very let-them-eat-cake moment,” she said. “We’re about to own the damn cake.”

Wilson and City Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney pledged to support to the plan, saying it could galvanize broader economic development.

“Albina’s renaissance will help fuel Portland’s renaissance,” Wilson said.

The group’s plan “reframes development,” Pirtle-Guiney added.

“It frames it as an act of restoration, an act of renewal,” she said. “This is going to have a transformative impact on our entire community.”