The names of general contractors working on a controversial Planned Parenthood site in Northeast Portland are being kept secret.

Planned Parenthood of the Columbia Willamette, Ankrom Moisan Architects and Walsh Construction — which in May claimed to have been dropped from the abortion clinic project — have failed to return repeated phone calls seeking information.

The Portland city official in charge of the land deal and construction on Martin Luther King Boulevard and Beech Street says she will need to know the names by August to ensure competence, but for now would just as soon not know so that opponents of the building plan cannot find the contractors.

“I have not asked, because I have many people asking me and some of them take the names of the people involved in the project and make a lot of trouble,” says Sara King, who oversees urban renewal in the district for the Portland Development Commission.

The proposed Planned Parenthood facility angers residents who object to having abortions performed in the neighborhood. Many charge Planned Parenthood with a cynical business plan: locating in an African American area because African American women tend to have a higher abortion rate than other U.S. women.

Many Catholic leaders, including Father Nicolaus Marandu and Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers of Immaculate Heart Parish have said that Planned Parenthood would create a culture of promiscuity that would intensify problems in the neighborhood. Archbishop John Vlazny and Auxiliary Bishop Kenneth Steiner have spoken out against the expansion of Planned Parenthood.

Other factors have increased tension.

The proposed center, where surgical and chemical abortions will be performed, is adjacent to a Muslim house of prayer.

The city’s urban renewal agency is being seen as an ally in the project. After a long search for a tenant for the parcel yielded no takers, the Portland Development Commission settled on Planned Parenthood and began helping the organization through the process.

The controversy has brought up the issue of business and morals.

Andrew Beyer, project manager for Walsh, says a firm should not be penalized by the public for constructing a building for something that is legal. Walsh has been the contractor chosen for many city projects.

The architects for the Planned Parenthood building, Ankrom Moisan, appear not to have qualms. It’s Oregon’s largest architecture and interior design office.
One mechanical firm approached by Walsh did turn down work on the Planned Parenthood building.

“Probably the majority of the construction industry would pass on this job. But there are some who won’t,” says Steve Schommer, one of the principals for general contractors Schommer and Sons and a member of St. Therese Parish. “At some price, you will find someone to do anything.”

Schommer and Sons, who have not been asked to work on the Planned Parenthood project, did refuse to work on a building proposed for Portland by pornography king Larry Flynt.

Planned Parenthood of the Columbia Willamette has raised $8 million of the $12.5 million needed for what it calls the Regional Service Center.

In addition to abortions and classes on sexuality, the center will provide offices for people advocating to keep abortion legal. The Planned Parenthood website says the building will help it build up its activist network to 50,000 people.

The Portland building is part of a national push to update Planned Parenthood facilities and increase income for the organization, which has already posted record annual revenue of $1 billion. Large new centers are in place or planned for Denver, Austin, Houston, a Chicago suburb, Worcester, Mass. and Sarasota, Fla.