The Oregon hospitality company becomes the new owner of a former West End home for low-income and disabled seniors.
Oregon hospitality chain McMenamins has purchased a vacant building in downtown Portland that formerly housed low-income seniors.
The Taft Home at 1321 SW Washington St. was sold for $1.5 million, according to county property records that show the 37,000-square foot building was purchased in June by an entity owned by Michael McMenamin, who co-founded the hospitality brand with his brother Brian.
Based in Portland and founded in 1983, McMenamins operates a chain of brewpubs, hotels, theaters and other unique venues, many of which are restored and converted historic properties. McMenamins is also among the state’s largest craft brewers, producing approximately 16,000 barrels per year.
Taft Home in downtown’s West End is located near another McMenamins location, the popular Crystal Ballroom concert venue. On the building’s ground level is the 45-year-old Cassidy’s Restaurant and Bar.
The property last changed hands in 1986, when it sold for $362,000, according to the Portland Business Journal.
Until 2021, the Taft Home housed 70 low-income and disabled seniors. In response to numerous building code violations, state regulators gave the nonprofit that owned the building a list of required fixes that would have cost between $25 and $30 million, according to Willamette Week. The owners instead opted to sell, and residents scattered to care homes and other locations. The building has been vacant since that time.
Eight months after the closure, the newsweekly profiled a former resident who’d been living homeless in a tent across the street from Taft Home.
The four-story onetime hotel was built in 1906 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. WW’s reporting found it was not in a state of structural disrepair at the time it was forced to close. The loss of Taft Home’s 70 beds came amid deepening mental health and housing affordability crises, notably for senior citizens. It was one of only six locations in the Portland area that housed seniors on Medicaid with complex mental, behavioral or physical needs. While some former residents and staffers praised the center for the difficult work it performed, others described a chaotic, dysfunctional environment with open drug and alcohol abuse and a deteriorating building.
In 2021, the state Department of Human Services alleged Taft Home maintained improperly low staff levels and failed to administer medications on schedule and keep the building free of pests and grime. In total, DHS issued the Taft Home nine civil penalties and 21 license citations.
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