For Jeana Woolley, the opportunity to empower the Black community in Northeast Portland and make it stronger and more economically viable is personal. The longtime community activist and business owner has worked for more than 45 years on a variety of economic development initiatives and projects intended to benefit Northeast Portland, its residents and its business owners.
In 1997, Woolley developed Allen Fremont Plaza, the first affordable housing project ever sponsored by a Black organization in Oregon. She was a founding board member of community development organizations such as Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives Inc. and Albina Community Bank (now Beneficial Bank) that continue to serve the Black and BIPOC communities today.
She started her consulting and real estate development business in 1991 and has since worked on a variety of multidisciplined consulting teams to implement plans, programs and projects centered around community revitalization, affordable housing development, business development, workforce development and transportation development for various public agencies.
Among the projects Woolley has developed is Vanport Square, a commercial condo development that provided minority- and women-owned small businesses with an opportunity to own their business spaces instead of renting from a landlord. Woolley and her co-development partner, Ray Leary, used Tax Increment and New Market Tax Credit financing to structure affordable mortgage financing that allowed the small business owners to purchase their units in this development.
Woolley, a member of the Mayor’s Council of Economic Advisors, also specializes in public outreach and facilitation services to ensure the participation and inclusion of feedback of diverse and underrepresented communities in large public projects, so the final policy and program implementation is done in ways that are responsive to the economic and cultural needs of those impacted.
She worked on Metro’s Regional Construction Workforce Market Study that assessed the region’s construction workforce supply and demand outlook, and provided recommendations on how local governments can more effectively invest public resources to enhance the development of career opportunities for minorities and women in the construction trades.
She worked on nearly all of the feasibility studies in the early 1990s about how to develop and revitalize major corridors in Northeast Portland, including Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. She consulted with TriMet and the city of Portland on the MAX Yellow Line as well.
More recently, Woolley provided public outreach and facilitation services in the North/Northeast community for ODOT’s I-5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project during the public involvement and environmental assessment phases of the project.
She currently is leading a development feasibility study for Multnomah County’s Walnut Park Health Services Center, which has included a phase of extensive public outreach and engagement process with a wide variety of Northeast community stakeholders to solicit feedback on the types of spaces and amenities they would like to see included in any potential redevelopment of the county’s site.
Woolley was inspired to start her own business after working 12-hour days as director of operations for Pacific Development Inc., a real estate subsidiary of PacifiCorp, where she was responsible for the asset management of a $100 million portfolio of commercial real estate properties. This included 90 blocks of property in the Lloyd District, which she describes as being “at the doorstep of the Black community” in the late 1980s.
The juggling act of launching and running her own business at the same time she became a single mom wasn’t easy, but Woolley has been able to accomplish the main goals she had when she started. “I love being able to follow my own vision and get paid to do work I have a passion for that makes a difference in my community.”
She advises other aspiring entrepreneurs to be willing and able to bear the risk of not receiving a paycheck for a while. “When you get work do it well, build your reputation job by job, brick by brick – don’t try to grow so fast that you can’t do the work you have well.”
Woolley also recommends that small businesses develop a network of people they can call on when they have questions about how to do things or need help. “Never be afraid of not knowing something or be too proud to ask for help. Be willing to learn from those who’ve already done what you’re trying to do,” she said.
Woolley called NAMC-OR “a great forum where small contracting and services businesses can come together, learn from each other’s trials and errors, and get their needs supported.” She added that the organization fosters important relationships and networking among members, which is critical to securing leads and having access to new business opportunities.
