Sgt. Jerome F. Sears U.S. Army Reserve Center

The Sgt. Jerome F. Sears U.S. Army Reserve Center ("Sears Center") is a facility proposed to serve as a west-side auxiliary emergency operations center for PBEM, among other prospective uses. However, it has never been prepared for that purpose and the building is not accessible to the public at this time. It is included in the NETwiki because PBEM has used (and may again use) the facility for NET training.

Sergeant First Class Jerome F. Sears United States Army Reserve Center
Location:	2731 SW Multnomah Blvd., Multnomah Neighborhood
Construction:	1959 - 1962
Administered by:	Portland Office of Management and Finance
Square footage:	24,120 (on a site of approx. 3.66 acres)
Current primary usage:	Safe Rest Village, storage

Background

The man himself, SFC Jerome F. Sears.

This map was included in the 2013 Sears Master Plan document. Click to enlarge.

The following background is paraphrased from a master plan completed at the behest of the City of Portland.

The U.S. Army Reserve Center is located within the southwest Portland neighborhood of Multnomah. The site and buildings were developed by the U.S. Army Reserve at the end of the 1950s to serve as an operations and mobilization center for the south end of Portland. An almost identical facility was concurrently completed in North Portland, and named the 2nd Lt. Alfred Sharff Army Reserve Center. The South Portland facility was officially renamed the “Sergeant First Class Jerome F. Sears United States Army Reserve Center”. SFC Sears posthumously received the Distinguished Service Cross for acts of extraordinary heroism during the Korean War.

The site contains three principal buildings, along with one small outbuilding. The Reserve Center (constructed 1959) is the initial and principal building on the site, with its main entry facing Multnomah Blvd. This building was subsequently renamed the SFC Jerome F. Sears Hall. The Maintenance Shop (constructed 1959) sits near the north property line and within the fence enclosure. Adjacent to it is a three-sided cinderblock hazardous materials building. The Storage Building (constructed 2000) is located near the west properly line and adjacent to auditorium portion of Sears Hall.

In the mid-2000s, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) decided that activities within the USAR Center could be consolidated elsewhere, and the property was to be surplused. A plan was developed to relocate the Reserve in September 2011, upon completion of a new complex in Clackamas.

In 2006 the Portland Development Commission (now Prosper Portland) put forth a call for proposals for redevelopment of the USAR Center site, opening the investigation of reuse opportunities. In 2008, Portland City Council proposed to convert the site into affordable housing. This use received uneven support from the Multnomah Neighborhood Association, and was ultimately rejected due to a lack of City funding.

In January of 2011, the City decided that the site would be an opportune location for a “westside emergency response center”. This direction was confirmed in May through the adoption by City Council of Resolution No. 36863, which noted Multnomah Neighborhood Association’s approval of this new direction.

In August of 2011, the City submitted an application proposal to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the organization responsible for the surplus process. The application authors were the Portland Bureau of Transportation, the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management, and the Portland Water Bureau. This application was approved by FEMA as noted in a letter dated October 19, 2011, which recommended that the transfer language require the property to be used in perpetuity as an emergency management response facility, or revert back to the Federal government.

Ownership of the property was formally transferred in 2012. In August the City engaged Carlton Hart Architecture to create a Master Plan to determine actions needed to convert the property into an auxiliary emergency operations center.

Reports and communications timeline

• Environmental Condition of Property Report March 2007 Lawhon & Associates, Inc., in conjunction with Fuller, Mossbarger, Scott and May Engineers, Inc., authors

• Sears Army Reserve Center – Preliminary Structural Review for Proposed Essential Facility Use March 19, 2008 ABHT Structural Engineers, author

• ADA Review Email to Robert Kieta December 6, 2011 Danielle Brooks, OMF, author

• Application for Surplus Federal Real Property Public Benefit Conveyance and BRAC Programs for Emergency Management Use August 2011 PBOT, PBEM, PWB, authors

• City of Portland Resolution No. 36863 Adopted by City Council on May 25, 2011 Language prepared by Carmen Merlo, PBEM
• FEMA Approval Letter to Scott McKean, Base Transition Coordinator – Big West Region October 19, 2011 Tyrone Nunnally, Section Chief, Real Property Division, author

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Video: Tour of the Sears Center in 2011

Facility use since 2012

The City has not approved the budget necessary to re-occupy the building and put it into the uses described in the 2013 Master Plan. According to an article in the Portland Tribune, "A contract with MCA Architects to manage the project was signed in June 2016. But in March 2017, the council authorized a new contract to study adding a Portland Fire & Rescue training center to the facility. It would replace a fire bureau training center in the Clinton Triangle in Southeast Portland. That put the rest of the planning on hold until the study is completed." It is unclear what happened after that study was made.

Use as a temporary homeless shelter, 2015

In November 2015, the City of Portland opened up the Jerome F. Sears building as a temporary homeless shelter, operated by Transition Projects. Then mayor Charlie Hales committed to the shelter closing on May 31, 2016. In June 2016, the city asked to remain open for three additional months, however the neighbors demanded the shelter closed. Neighbors have commented that the Sears Center was deeded to the city for use as emergency management use only.

Increase in storage capacity for PBEM programs, 2018

In October 2018, PBEM installed banks of shelves with seismic footpads in the decommissioned commissary to add 6,390 cubic feet of storage for NET and BEECN gear. Specifications:

• Qty. 1 run 48"D X 288"L (6 sections, 72") X 120"T with 4 levels per section with seismic footpads;
• Qty. 4 sections 48"D X 72"W X 120"T with 4 levels per section with seismic footpads.

Police officers in SERT training at the Jerome Sears Facility.

Use for police special ops training, 2019

According to an August 14, 2019 article in the Portland Tribune, use of the Sears Center was opened to PPB as a SERT training facility for a period of several months. PPB built a series of mock residences inside the assembly area. Jeremy got to see their setup, it was pretty rad. 🤘 🤘

Safe Rest Village, May 2022 - present

Portland city government declared that the Sears Center would be the site of a Safe Rest Village in November 2021. Part of the Sears parking lot site into a Safe Rest Village to house homeless persons in May 2022; auxiliary uses by other bureaus continue. The federal government quickly determined that use as a Safe Rest Village violated the terms of the deed. The issue was resolved in the summer of 2023 when Portland City Council approved $3 million to buy out the deed and keep it as a Safe Rest Village. An announcement was made in November 2023 that the City planned to expand the Multnomah Safe Rest Village. Nonetheless, the expansion has met with controversy.

Portland City Council bought out the deed restrictions for the site in the spring of 2024. An official announcement of the Safe Rest Village expansion was made in April 2024, necessitating PBEM's eviction from the site. PBEM's eviction from Sears was completed later that month.

Additional Photos

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  SFC Jerome F. Sears Center

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  Bleachers in the Sears Center assembly area. No, you are not allowed to make out behind them.

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  Typical Sears Center hallway. Looks haunted. Feels haunted too.

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  Typical meeting room at the Sears Center. Those chairs...hm...tacky or mid century chic?

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  Front entrance of the Sears Center.

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  Floor tiles commemorating the most recent revitalization of the facility.

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  Blueprint of the Sears Center first floor.

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  Blueprint of the Sears Center second floor.