Central City Concern purchased a 0.31-acre lot last month on East Burnside Street across from the Lolo Pass Hotel, which the nonprofit bought earlier this year to transform into a 74-bed treatment facility.
Central City Concern confirmed the purchase of the lot at 1617 E Burnside St.
“It will be used as staff parking and provide a designated outdoor space for client use for CCC’s new 16 x Burnside Recovery Center,” says spokeswoman Laura Recko. “The lot holds additional value to CCC as land-banked commercial mixed use zoned land with future housing or clinical development potential.”
Central City Concern purchased the property, which includes a warehouse and surface parking, for $2.6 million, almost a million less than the $3.5 million market value the Multnomah County Assessor’s Office attached to it. Recko says CCC used “private short-term financing” to purchase the lot “while we pursue long-term funding to build out the site.”
An LLC controlled in part by George Lampus, a local real estate developer and relative of the Maletis beverage distribution family, sold the property to Central City Concern. Property records show that a now-deceased member of the Maletis family, Mary Maletis, owned the property from 2000 to 2014, when she sold it to the LLC that’s controlled by Lampus, her nephew, and three of his cousins.
Lampus said Central City Concern needed the property to serve the new Burnside Recovery Center.
“All they’ve told me is that they need it for parking,” Lampus says. “It has zero off-street parking.”
Central City Concern earlier this year purchased the Lolo Pass Hotel for $15.5 million with funding help from the Oregon Health Authority, Multnomah County and the city of Portland. At the time, Central City Concern said the facility would be operational in November and would aim to serve 200 people a year. Recko says the new opening date is May 2025.