McMenamins is ready to talk about its new downtown Portland hotel.
The eclectic Northwest hospitality chain said Thursday it will repurpose the former Taft Home low-income residences into a new hotel. Taft Home had closed in 2021 after state officials ordered its operators to undertake a set of fixes, according to reporting in Willamette Week, and the operators chose to close the residence and sell instead.
McMenamins acquired the property at 1321 S.W. Washington St. in 2024 for $1.5 million. The property is near McMenamins’ Crystal Ballroom and Crystal Hotel, occupying a few adjacent blocks the chain refers to as “rock ‘n’ roll row.” The company last year filed for a permit to renovate the former Taft Home’s second through fourth floors but at the time declined to comment on its plans…