Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette Breaks Ground on New Regional Service Center

Portland, OR – October 22, 2008 – Today Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette (PPCW) celebrates the ceremonial groundbreaking of its new Regional Service Center in Portland. The Regional Service Center, located at NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd and Beech Street, will soon be home to all of PPCW’s administrative staff and a new, state-of-the-art health center. Developer Beech Street Partners is preparing to begin construction on the project, expecting to complete the building by late 2009. In addition to housing PPCW’s regional hub, the new building will provide 5,000 square feet of retail space and bring as many as 140 jobs to the neighborhood.

“Our current NE Portland health center has been operating at full capacity seven days a week but still can’t meet the demand for health care services in this area,” said Kathleen Altman, PPCW Vice President of Clinical Services. “By relocating our health center to our new building on MLK, we’ll be able to expand our preventative services and serve thousands more patients in this community each year.”

PPCW saw 60,000 patients at its eleven health centers last year. The majority of PPCW’s patients are low-income, uninsured or underinsured, and rely on providers like Planned Parenthood for basic sexual and reproductive health care.
“There are still more than 70,000 teens and low-income women in Oregon and Southwest Washington that need access to affordable family planning care,” said David Greenberg, PPCW President and CEO. “This building will enable PPCW to continue expanding our services and reach some of these people in need, providing them with essential health care.”

PPCW’s three-story, 40,000 square foot Regional Service Center will unite its entire administrative staff under one roof, who are currently divided between two separate offices in Portland. The additional space and resources provided by the new location will enable PPCW to expand its public affairs and advocacy efforts, grow its community education programs, support centralized systems to improve health center functionality throughout the region, and facilitate growth for future expansion. The existing NE Portland health center, currently on NE 15th Avenue and Fremont Street, will be relocated to the Regional Service Center.

PPCW is proud that its new building will contribute to PDC’s urban renewal efforts to revitalize Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.

“The Portland Development Commission is pleased that Beech Street Properties will be developing such an exciting project on this long-empty lot,” said Joanne Mortensen, PDC Project Coordinator.

“This new building will be extremely energy efficient and is slated for LEED-Gold certification. We’re making every effort to use local materials, reduce waste, and recycle everything possible during construction,” said Carrington Barrs, Senior Project Manager at B&G Builders, the company constructing the new property. “We’re thrilled to be working with such an exceptional construction team and to be able to bring another high-performance, environmentally-friendly and healthy building to Portland.”

PPCW is currently in the midst of a capital campaign to raise $12.5 million to fund this project. For more information on the campaign, visit http://www.letsbuildcampaign.org/.

For more information on PPCW, visit www.ppcw.org.

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Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette (PPCW) is the largest non-profit family planning and reproductive rights organization in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Since 1963, PPCW has successfully carried out its mission of providing, promoting and protecting access to quality reproductive and sexual health care. Each year, 60,000 women, men and teens visit one of PPCW’s eleven health centers. We provide a wide range education programs and health care services, including low-cost contraceptives, emergency contraception, annual gynecological check-ups, breast exams, cervical cancer detection and treatment, testing and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, and pregnancy testing and options counseling. Less than five percent of PPCW’s services are for first term abortion care. For more information, visit www.ppcw.org.