In 1906, public transportation in Portland’s Hollywood neighborhood started with the Rose City Line streetcar running down Sandy Boulevard. More than 100 years later, MAX trains, buses, cars and bikes crisscross the area. As the neighborhood has grown, more public transit options and more housing have become available. Now, construction is underway for the hollywoodHUB, a 12-story building with 222 affordable housing units at 4110 NE Halsey St. with immediate access to the Hollywood Transit Station and, thus, the greater community.
Several entities, including BRIDGE Housing, the Portland Housing Bureau, or PHB, KeyBank, Metro, Holst Architecture, and TriMet, collaborated on this project.
hollywoodHUB and the transit station
The hollywoodHUB’s groundbreaking took place on Jan. 17. Representatives from BRIDGE, PHB, TriMet, Metro and others delivered remarks.
Mary Nolan, the director of Metro Council District 5, praised the project’s convenient location.
“Metro was involved with planning with the transit-oriented development plan and financing,” Nolan said. “TriMet can open up the entire region without a car with access to the transit system. We are showing the region how we can develop and meet affordable housing needs within the footprint the region already occupies, using the infrastructure we have created. Voter-approved housing bonds made this possible.”
Transportation is at the heart of the Hollywood neighborhood. When residents walk out the doors of the hollywoodHUB apartments, they will be just minutes from transportation to downtown, the airport, and other places by bus, the MAX, bike and pedestrian routes. TriMet will replace the MAX power substation, installed in 1986, and upgrade lighting, signs and public spaces, according to a section on its website dedicated to the project. Safely lit pathways and access to buses and the MAX will also benefit the surrounding neighborhoods. A new ramp and set of stairs will cross Northeast Halsey Street to the public hollywoodHUB plaza, replacing the temporary pathway that currently leads to the I-84 pedestrian bridge and Hollywood MAX Station.
BRIDGE started construction on the apartment building this winter, with an expected duration of about two years, according to TriMet. Construction of the plaza, walkway and new bus stop on Northeast Halsey Street is scheduled to take place in the first half of 2027.
“Transit-oriented development is a concept as old as mass transportation itself: create new buildings and infrastructure around transit,” reads the TriMet website. “Today, this typically means development that includes a mix of uses — as well as a mix of housing affordability. These projects maximize density while creating walkable neighborhoods near transit, relieving congestion by reducing car dependence and increasing the supply of affordable housing and community resources accessible by transit.”
The hollywoodHUB is near grocery stores, medical facilities, schools and parks. Inside the building, residents will have access to community rooms, an indoor play area, a teen lounge and culturally specific services provided by ImpactNW.
Of the 222 units, 151 will be for residents with income at or below 60% of the Area Median Income, or AMI, and 71 will be reserved for residents at or below 30% AMI. Rental assistance vouchers will make 55 of the units available to residents with very low or no income, according to Metro’s project summary. The summary also notes that the homes will be “affirmatively marketed” to families and communities of color, “especially Latine, Black, Asian American and Native American households who have been priced out of” the area.
BRIDGE contracted with O’Neill-Walsh Community Builders, or OWCB, which is 49% minority-owned, to construct the project. OWCB aims to increase diversity in their workforce and subcontractors, increasing the capacity of diverse businesses, according to its website. TriMet is also contributing efforts to address equity in who benefits from the project, through its Department of Transit, Equity, Inclusion and Community Affairs’ Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program.
In 2024, Holst Architecture earned the Portland Design Commission’s Design Excellence Award for the hollywoodHUB, the architecture firm’s fourth time winning Project of the Year.
Funding for the hollywoodHUB
The combined funding for the hollywoodHUB reflects the urgent need for affordable housing felt by many in the community.
Metro and PHB provided most of the $151 million development, making it the PHB’s largest affordable housing project funded by PHB. The voter-approved Metro affordable housing bond leveraged $10.3 million and a Metro transit-oriented development grant amounted to $500,000, according to a Metro press release.
The Portland Housing Bond provided another $21.5 million for the project, and the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund kicked in another $8 million. Additionally, BRIDGE partnered with KeyBank to raise another $71.5 million for the project, and both the Energy Trust of Oregon and Portland Clean Energy Fund made financial contributions.
On Jan. 17, Portland housing authority Home Forward’s executive director Ivory Mathews spoke at the groundbreaking to celebrate collaboration and partnerships.
“Addressing homelessness requires bold action,” Mathews said.
Another partner, Oregon Housing and Community Services, or OHCS, is Oregon’s housing finance agency. It supports affordable housing opportunities for Oregonians with low and moderate incomes. Natasha Detweiler-Daby, director of the affordable rental housing division at OHCS, also spoke at the groundbreaking.
“Having a place where the state is able to support such passion and locally driven priorities, leveraging all of your resources that you’ve been able to generate and the public has invested in to create an opportunity like this to support the project is something we are incredibly proud of,” Detweiler-Darby said. “Overall, when we’re seeing these projects, it represents hope. It represents the ‘why’ we try so hard and work so hard and why it is so important to listen to the community when we do that work. So many folks over time have supported this project.”
Hollywood neighborhood history
In the early 1900s, Portland’s Hollywood neighborhood had dirt roads and just a few houses, according to the Hollywood Booster’s Business Association. In 1912, with more families moving in and a growing community, a horse-drawn fire company was established, becoming motorized in 1920. In 1918 Paulsen’s Pharmacy opened with an old-fashioned soda fountain and remained open for 103 years, closing in 2021.
The neighborhood is named for the Hollywood Theatre, which was built in 1926 and is still a popular venue for new and old movies. The building’s design, with its Moorish-style colorful ceramic features and tiled roof, set the tone for the neighborhood. Fred Meyer opened a store nearby in 1931.
In the mid-1930s, streetcars met their decline while automobiles took over the roads. The Streetcar Era ended while local municipal improvements included freeways, highways, bridges and parking.
World War II brought shipbuilders, factory workers and dock workers to Northeast Portland during the 1940s. The population continued to boom into the 1960s.
In 1986, the Hollywood Transit Center opened with the original 15-mile MAX line between Gresham and Downtown Portland. This was an alternative to building the controversial Mt. Hood Freeway and a way to address the need for connections between places without destroying homes and businesses, according to TriMet.
Combining transportation with land use became essential to many Portland neighborhoods. In 1995, Metro adopted the Region 2040 Growth Concept to allow for increased density along light rail corridors and to contain encroachment into neighborhoods and farmland, according to the Library section of the Metro website.
Tragedy in 2017
In 2017, a tragedy occurred on a MAX train approaching the Hollywood Transit Center. On May 26, a man harassed a teenager wearing a hijab and her friend, based on their race and religion. Three riders stood up to the man, verbally defending the girls. The attacker stabbed and killed Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche and Ricky Best, seriously injuring Micah David-Cole Fletcher.
An outpouring of love and support followed this incident, with artwork covering the transit center. Thousands of supporters memorialized the victims with chalk art, flowers and spontaneous messages. Artist Sarah Farahat and her team created a large mural entitled “We Choose Love” to honor the lives lost.
The hollywoodHUB design will incorporate images and messages from the mural along the pathway to the MAX station as a permanent tribute.
Farahat shared her thoughts about the mural and the project going forward with Street Roots via email.
“I had the honor of co-creating the ‘We Choose Love’ mural in 2018,” Farahat said. “Over the years it was up, it became a meeting place for the community to grieve and build. While I was sad to see it go, I am happy to see affordable housing go up in its place. I hope that Portlanders continue to create safer public spaces for people of color and that the new station remodel supports all transit users, while also creating space to remember the victims and targets of the 2017 Max Attacks.”
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This article appears in February 5, 2025.