At 70, developer Joe Weston has seen it all in Portland, and done much of it himself. In the 1960s, he noticed that many east-Portland single-family neighborhoods were actually zoned multi-family. So he started buying two or three adjacent homes, which he ripped down and replaced with “Weston specials”: two-story, apartment buildings that resembled cheap motels.
Today, he owns 2,800 units of such apartments. But he is also one of the main developers of the heavily subsidized Pearl District. He just opened one of Portland’s newest condo towers, and he owns many office buildings. Before the crash, his real estate empire was valued at $300 million.
With his focus on dense housing, you would think he would be in the thick of Portland politics. So it was surprising to read a recent letter castigating Portland’s mayor and city commission for being out of touch with the public.
