Clay Tower renamed for Rose Schnitzer

By Paul Haist

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The Clay Tower low-income residential facility, which was sold by Harsch Investments of Portland in December for $30 million to Cedar Sinai Park, the Jewish senior care and living facility in Southwest Portland, was formally renamed Rose Schnitzer Tower at a celebration Jan. 14 at the downtown Portland highrise.

Rose Schnitzer was the mother of Harold A. Schnitzer, the founder of Harsch Investments, which built Clay Tower at Southwest Clay Street and 12th Avenue in 1980 as the first facility of its kind developed in Portland under the Department of Housing and Urban Development Section 8 contract program.

HUD assisted in this and similar projects by securing financing and by agreeing to subsidize rents.

As the HUD contract for Clay Tower neared its expiration, officials of Harsch Investments looked for alternatives for the future. They eventually turned to Cedar Sinai Park where Jim Winkler, a CSP past president and current chair of its Building Committee and Capital Campaign, led efforts to craft a multi-faceted deal that enabled the tower to be preserved as a home for low-income persons.

Harsch Investment founder and Chairman Harold Schnitzer told the community leaders and tower residents who gathered for the celebration that he actually had contemplated transforming the facility into a hotel when the HUD contract expired.

“However, we also had other things in mind,” he said.

His son, Jordan Schnitzer, who today is president and CEO of Harsch Investments, met with Winkler to consider options for the tower.

“We wouldn’t be here today without Jim Winkler,” said the senior Schnitzer.

Before he introduced his father, Jordan Schnitzer read congratulatory letters from Oregon’s two U.S. senators and Congressman Darlene Hooley, a Republican from Oregon’s Fifth Congressional District.

Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden extended his “whole-hearted congratulations to Harsch Investments for making this possible.”

Republican Sen. Gordon Smith called Cedar Sinai Park “one of the most outstanding advocates for seniors.”

Jordan Schnitzer reminisced about his childhood association with the property, which his father acquired when it was the site of the Frank house. Early Schnitzer plans called for building a carwash on the site, he said, but the city rejected that idea.

Eventually, with enabling legislation at the national level, plans evolved to build a low-income housing facility.

“We got the building built and it immediately began to fill a need,” said Harold Schnitzer, who credited former Portland Mayor, Oregon Governor and U.S. Transportation Secretary Neil Goldschmidt for making the project a reality.

“This property would not exist without the push of Neil Goldschmidt,” said Schnitzer.

Portland City Commissioner Erik Sten, who Jordan Schnitzer described as “a tireless advocate for housing,” addressed the celebration.

“This is the project that shows how this should be done,” he said. “It’s what the Schnitzer’s are all about.”

He called Rose Schnitzer Tower “a brick and mortar project with a soul.”

“The people in this building are giving back to the community because of what the Schnitzers have done.”

He added, “The Schnitzer family left a lot of money in this project. They could have walked away with a lot more.”

He called the tower “a treasure that has been saved…and it’s all thanks to the legacy of the Schnitzer family.”

HUD’s Oregon Field Director Roberto Ando read a letter of congratulation from Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongowski.

“I personally thank the Schnitzers,” wrote the governor, who said he was “honored to recognize the project” and who described the Clay/Rose Schnitzer Tower deal as “a hallmark example of affordable low-income housing.”

CSP President David Forman shared the podium with Jim Winkler.

Winkler called the deal that retained the tower as a low-income facility “a new national prototype for seniors to age in place.”

It is an idea, he added, “that builds on the Schnitzer’s idea of compassionate care,” said Winkler.

There are 119 other similar housing facilities in Oregon facing the ends of their contracts in the near future.

It was Forman who announced the name change. In doing so he noted that Rose Schnitzer Manor, an independent living facility on the CSP campus, is “the jewel” of that campus and that renaming Clay Tower also for Rose Schnitzer underscored the landmark innovation achieved by all involved in making it possible.

CSP Chief Executive Officer David Fuks reflected on the role the Schnitzer family has played in Oregon’s Jewish and secular communities.

“It’s astounding to me the number of wonderful things I get to do in this community because of the generosity of this family,” he said. Looking across the podium at Harold, his wife Arlene and their son Jordan Schnitzer, Fuks added, “It is an honor to get to work with the likes of you.”