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WW has learned that Central City Concern plans to purchase Lolo Pass, the chic hotel and hostel that opened in 2021 on East Burnside Street, and turn it into a 60-bed drug and alcohol treatment facility.
Multnomah County, which is dedicating $6.25 million toward the effort, outlined the plan in a budget request published ahead of a board vote later this week. The city of Portland is contributing $2 million and the Oregon Health Authority is contributing $6 million, according to the county document. Central City Concern, Portland’s largest social services nonprofit, also received a loan from Care Oregon and is using $3 million of its own funds for the purchase.
County documents do not provide the purchase price or the address of the planned facility, although a document filed with the funding request refers to a CCC “hotel purchase” at Southeast 16th Avenue and East Burnside Street.
But the mayor’s office sent out an email to city officials this afternoon saying “CCC was the winning bid on the Lolo Pass Hotel.” When WW asked Ted Wheeler’s spokesman to confirm that the city was contributing money to purchase Lolo Pass, he said, “Yes, $2 million,” but did not respond to further questions.
It’s not clear why the recently built hotel, which opened in 2021 with 87 rooms and a rooftop bar, was put up for sale—or how firm the deal really is.
Lauren Gonzalez, one of the two sisters behind the hotel and the web of limited liability companies that own the building, initially said “nothing was happening” when reached by phone this morning and then did not respond to follow-up questions after WW learned additional details of the purchase. The website for the sisters’ company, L&L Hospitality, subsequently went dark.
It is clear, however, why the county wants it. “The property is close to methadone treatment and other addiction treatment services, has good transit access, and a commercial kitchen making it well suited for conversion,” officials said in their budget request.
The facility is badly needed. CCC’s CEO, Andy Mendenhall, has said that the rise of fentanyl, the powerful street opioid, has increased the need for residential treatment beds. In their budget request, county officials noted that “detox and stabilization centers place only 17% of people needing co-occurring residential treatment into a program upon discharge.”
CCC plans to eventually provide 40 “high-acuity substance use disorder” beds as well as “20 to 30 residential treatment supportive housing units,” the county says.