Skip to main content
The disused grain elevator just north of the Steel Bridge, where towering piles of old tires caught fire in 2023, has a new owner: a racial justice fund backed by Phil and Penny Knight.
1803 Fund, run by Rukaiyah Adams, former chief investment officer at the Meyer Memorial Trust, said today that it had recently spent $70 million on seven acres in Albina, including an area it calls the Low End, a swath of land south of the Fremont Bridge and west of Interstate 5.
The fund didn’t break out the price of the grain silo and declined to provide it. Public records showing the transfer of the property, filed last month, give no price.
1803 Fund began operations in 2023 when the Nike co-founder and his wife granted $400 million to invest in North Portland’s Albina, the Black neighborhood that was destroyed by misguided urban renewal and by the construction of Interstate 5.
“These are thousand-year investments,” Adams said in a statement. “We are investing in Albina not as an artifact of the past, but as a promise to the future.”
The 1803 Fund has christened the 3-acres around the grain terminal “Albina Riverside.” It will provide “intentional spaces for creative expression and intellectual activity,” the fund said. “It will be a place where Black children and families can feel safe, move freely and breathe without fear, giving them new perspectives on themselves and their city.”
The fund is named for the year that York, the Black explorer, joined the Lewis & Clark Expedition. York was the enslaved “body servant” to William Clark. After the expedition’s return, he was denied payment and his freedom, according to the National Park Service.
Along with the Low End, which will become a “mixed-use neighborhood centered on culture, creativity and learning,” the two sites will create hundreds of jobs and bring $700 million of “economic impact” to the Portland metro area, the fund said.
Depending on the price, the sale is a possible windfall for Beau Blixseth, the real estate investor who’s Castle Arden 1 LLC bought the silo for $2.9 million in 2021.
Blixseth is the son of Tim Blixseth, the Roseburg timber baron who made a fortune on forest land and used some of it to found the Yellowstone Club, a private ski area near Bozeman, Montana, that counts Bill Gates and Justin Timberlake as members. Tim lost the club in a divorce, and it later went bankrupt. It operates under new management now.
Beau Blixseth’s partner in Castle Arden 1 is Chandos Mahon, a Columbia Business School graduate who owns Castle Tire Recycling, which has a tire-processing plant in North Portland. For a short time, Castle piled shredded tires around the elevator and loaded them on ships bound for Asia, where used rubber burned for fuel.
When he bought the terminal, Blixseth told WW that he planned to rent it to a grain shipper. Wheat prices were rising because of Russia’s assault on Ukraine, and Northwest farmers were sure to benefit, he reasoned at the time.
Shortly after the purchase, Blixseth discovered a hitch: The Union Pacific railroad planned to modify a sharp corner near the terminal to prevent derailments, and the change would preclude rail service to the terminal. Blixseth pivoted, envisioning a riverside apartments, or an attraction like the London Eye Ferris wheel.
In the meantime, Blixseth and Mahon began shipping tires from the site. That came to an end shortly after the three-story pile of tires beside the silo caught fire, sending acrid smoke over the river. Heat at the core of the pile caused it to reignite.
A recent quarterly report for the Sortis Income Fund offers a clue about the price paid by the 1803 Fund. Sortis Income Fund is part of a complex financial conglomerate founded by Portland investor Paul Brenneke. Sortis entities bought local businesses including Bamboo Sushi, Sizzle Pie, Rudy’s Barbershops and the restaurants Ava Gene’s and Tusk. Many of businesses have struggled since the purchases.
In its financial report for the second quarter of this year, Sortis Income claimed a $4.4 million loan to Castle Arden 1 among its assets. The loan paid an annualized yield of 15.03%, Sortis Income said. In the narrative section of the report, Sortis Income said a buyer had failed to close on the grain terminal in mid-July, as expected.
“However, they have since waived all contingencies and posted a $100,000 non-refundable deposit, with a firm closing date of October 14, 2025,” Sortis Income said. “The purchaser is a well-capitalized nonprofit with approximately $400 million in assets and significant existing land holdings in the surrounding neighborhood.”
Sortis Income valued the grain elevator loan at $6.4 million based on a “sale contract.” That suggests that the purchase price was at least $6.4 million and could be higher, depending on how many other investors hold debt or equity and if they are getting paid.
Moreover, Sortis Income said, Castle Arden 1 had was in mediation with an insurer on a $6 million claim and was “cautiously optimistic in a settlement at least in the low seven figures.” In addition to the fires, the elevator was damaged by vandalism.
Neither Sortis Income nor Blixseth returns messages seeking comment.
Local officials lauded the sale to the 1803 Fund.
“Albina is a historical and cultural cornerstone of our city,” Mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement. “This momentous investment brings new life and new opportunity to one of Portland’s most important neighborhoods. It is a powerful example of what’s possible when vision and investment come together. The city has an amazing opportunity to step in to help partner and support this new vision in any way that it can.”
