Real Estate Developer Randy Rapaport Is a Last-Minute Entry into a Crowded Mayor’s Race

The east-side developer joins 16 other candidates challenging incumbent Mayor Ted Wheeler.

Randy Rapaport. (Justin Tyler Norton)
By Nigel Jaquiss

Today, the final day to file for the May 19 primary, saw little activity at the city elections office.

One notable exception: the entry of Southeast Portland real estate developer Randy Rapaport into the mayor's race.

Rapaport, 59, developed the Belmont Street Lofts and the Clinton Condominiums, among other projects. More recently, as WW reported last year, he battled with the city's Bureau of Development Services over the Pegasus Project, an artists' collective and food cart pod he developed in Montavilla. (Rapaport says that dispute has been resolved and that BDS waived penalties.)

Related: Developer Randy Rapaport Has an Unusual Bone to Pick With City Hall: He Says It's Failed to Keep Portland Weird.

Today, Rapaport decided he will join 16 other candidates who have already filed to challenge incumbent Mayor Ted Wheeler.

"I feel a kind of agency for this office because fresh and creative solutions are needed to better address homelessness, affordable housing, livability, and governance," Rapaport said in a statement.

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