Bill Naito

William Sumio Naito (September 16, 1925 – May 8, 1996) was an American businessman, civic leader and philanthropist in Portland, Oregon, U.S. He was an enthusiastic advocate for investment in downtown Portland, both private and public, and is widely credited for helping to reverse a decline in the area in the 1970s through acquiring and renovating derelict or aging buildings and encouraging others to invest in downtown and the central city.

In the 1980s and 1990s he was one of Portland's most esteemed business and civic leaders, and holding positions on several volunteer boards, commissions, and advisory committees.

Early life William S. Naito was born in Portland in 1925, to Hide and Fukiye Naito, who had emigrated from Japan in 1912. His parents owned a curio shop in downtown Portland, and young Bill spent much time helping his father at the shop. After graduating from Granite High School, Continuing his education at the University of Chicago, he earned a master's degree in economics in 1951. He met Millicent (Micki) Sonley in Chicago, and they married in 1951. The couple had four children. and one way he publicized the name was by having it painted in large letters on the side of a water tower atop the building Norcrest China occupied, the White Stag building. The name Old Town is now in widespread use for the district at the northeast end of downtown.

Headed by Bill and Sam Naito, Norcrest China Company became even more a property development company than a retailing enterprise, but remained both, with Bill focused on the former and Sam on the latter. In a 1979 article, The Oregonian newspaper wrote that the "former Merchants Hotel in Old Town went from virtually abandoned building to cornerstone of Old Town business district, thanks to vision of Bill and Sam Naito."

One of their highest-profile such investments came in 1975, when they purchased the Olds, Wortman & King building, a six-story former Rhodes department store, occupying a full downtown block, which had closed the year before. They restored the 1910 building and converted it into an indoor shopping arcade for dozens of small stores and restaurants—downtown Portland's first shopping mall

At the same time, Bill Naito worked to convince others of his vision that downtown Portland could become a thriving, attractive place, if given attention and investment. In addition to private property development, he believed that investment in public amenities was also a key part of that equation. He was a strong proponent of building a light rail system in Portland when proposed in the 1970s—the MAX system which opened in 1986 and has expanded since—as well as other public transit investments in downtown, including the Portland Transit Mall, Fareless Square, Portland Vintage Trolley, and the Portland Streetcar. He led a successful effort to plant more than 10,000 trees in the city, He was co-founder and chairman of Artquake, an annual arts festival held in downtown from the 1980s until 1995. (and thereby preserved), which came to fruition in 1987.

Bill and Sam Naito were jointly honored with the "First Citizen" award for 1982 by the Portland Association of Realtors.

Support for streetcars

As early as 1975, Bill Naito concluded that operation of historic streetcars had a significant potential to attract people to downtown Portland, and he headed a drive in 1977 to convince downtown property owners to commit to helping fund the construction of such a line; Portland's last streetcars had been abandoned in the 1950s. Although that idea was soon supplanted by plans for a light rail system, which he also supported, Naito kept alive the idea of running vintage trolley cars on the downtown section of the future MAX light rail. He helped convince city officials to embrace what became Portland Vintage Trolley, which started service in 1991. Bill and Sam Naito went as far as to purchase six old American-style trolley cars being retired in Portugal in the early 1980s with the intention of donating them for restoration for this planned service, and one of those cars was on display next to the Galleria for ten months starting in June 1985 to publicize the plans. However, TriMet decided that buying new faux-vintage trolleys would be more cost-effective than rebuilding the Portuguese cars and allow larger per-car capacity, so the Naito-owned streetcars were not used and eventually were sold to other places, such as Memphis' Main Street Trolley. At the time of its start, Portland Vintage Trolley was one of only a few urban heritage streetcar services in the country, whereas similar operations now exist in more than 15 U.S. cities. Bill Naito was president of the non-profit Portland Vintage Trolley, Inc. from its formation in 1987 until his death in 1996.

Although the modern Portland Streetcar did not come to fruition until five years after Bill Naito's death, it had been working its way through various stages of planning since the 1980s, under the name Central City Trolley or (later) Central City Streetcar, and Bill Naito was one of the proposal's most influential and ardent supporters, serving on the board of the non-profit Portland Streetcar, Inc. (PSI). The line opened in 2001 and has been extended several times since then.

White Stag sign

For many years until 2004, the main offices of Norcrest China were located in the 1907-built White Stag Building, at the intersection of West Burnside Street and what was then Front Avenue, in Portland's Old Town. The building was acquired by Norcrest division H. Naito Properties in 1972. Perched atop the building since 1940 is a large neon-and-incandescent-bulb sign known as the White Stag sign, which the city designated a historic landmark in 1977. Until 2010 it was owned by Ramsay Signs. The leaping stag on the sign is given an illuminated red "nose" each holiday season, a tradition started in 1959, but in 1989 the sign went dark after the building's previous occupants—who had continued paying the sign's electricity bill after moving out in 1973—decided to stop paying for the sign's maintenance. By this time, the sign, which also includes a neon outline in the shape of the state of Oregon, had become a popular local landmark.

As the 1989 holiday season approached, Bill Naito agreed to take over payment of the sign's upkeep, even though the sign continued to advertise White Stag Sportswear, which had no connection with any Norcrest or Naito property. He was described as a "gregarious workaholic" and currently is called the "William S. Naito Leadership Award". The city's Urban Forestry Commission created an annual award in honor of Naito, its founder, entitled the Bill Naito Community Trees Award. It has been given each year since 1997.

In 2007, Reed College renamed a residence hall in memory of Naito. Naito graduated from Reed in 1949 and was elected to the college's board of trustees in 1974. It is located between the Burnside Bridge and Ash Street in the park, at the site (since 2009) of the Portland Saturday Market.

Bill Naito Properties, Inc. After Bill Naito's death, a rift developed between his immediate family and his brother Sam and Sam's family with regard to the management and focus of their company. Sam Naito took full control of the Made in Oregon chain of retail stores, while H. Naito Corporation's real estate holdings went to Bill Naito's heirs, who formed a new real estate management company, Bill Naito Properties, Inc., to manage those assets. Bill Naito's widow, Micki, was named chair of the board of directors of Bill Naito Properties.