Joe Weston, a 1950s All Saints and Central Catholic High School graduate and owner of $500 million in real estate, has been honored as First Citizen by the Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors.
His fans cite him as a simple-liver and a generous soul.
Weston, 70, grew up in humble circumstances, the son of a salesman having hard times. Nowdays, his fiscal conservatism is serving him well.
Weston is known for eating cheap and giving away millions. His private foundation, the eighth largest in the state, sends more than $3 million each year to charity.
He was 18 when he bought his first property at Northeast 70th and Glisan, a duplex he afforded from years of delivering papers and serving sodas after class at Central. He has remained heavily invested in apartments on the inner east side, saying that he wants blue collar workers to have decent housing. His 2,500 units go for a little more than $600 per month on average for a one-bedroom.
He told the Oregonian that he aims to create loyal renters, be they young workers or senior citizens.
He also owns commercial space and storage units and is building condos on the expensive west side, too.
Several projects are on hold as the gears of the housing market grind. Weston invited many of his old schoolmates to the First Citizen banquet, as well as the sister who taught him how to spell in fourth grade.
Weston is known for being ahead of his time in real estate. He began placing office buildings that he built closer to the sidewalk, to encourage activity on the sidewalk and to eliminate unsightly parking lots.
He fought for mixed use in buildings, in an effort to avoid the syndrome of neighborhoods emptying by day. In regard to density, he asks where would you rather live — Paris or Houston? — adding that density doesn’t need to be a negative. He has worked in soup kitchens and he flies coach instead of first class.
Weston, a backer of the middle-class, decries the growing gap between wealthy and poor in the United States and says that wealth should not be allowed to accumulate in families over generations, as it tends to do.
