Multnomah County on Wednesday opened its new $94.1 million Gladys McCoy Health Department Headquarters in Old Town.

The building replaces the Health Department’s current headquarters at 426 S.W. Harvey Milk St. in downtown Portland, which the county board voted to vacate because it was “cramped, inefficient and technically obsolete,” county Chair Deborah Kafoury said. The old building was also vulnerable to collapse in an earthquake.

The new building, at 619 N.W. Sixth Ave., is designed to survive a major quake, though it’s not built to a high enough standard that it could be expected to be in working order in the immediate wake of the disaster.

The new building will house administrative offices, as well as three specialty clinics, a central laboratory and a pharmacy to serve the county’s other clinics scattered throughout the county. Its ground floor includes a command post for use during a public health emergency, such as last week’s water main break that spread potentially contaminated floodwater through a Northeast Portland neighborhood.

The county’s 500 health workers will move into the new building in April.

It sits in a section of Old Town that’s likely to change dramatically in coming years.

It shares a block with Bud Clark Commons, a homeless services and housing center. The block is surrounded on three sides by sites owned by Prosper Portland, the city’s economic development agency. The city agency plans to launch a major redevelopment effort in the area that could also include the adjacent Greyhound bus depot.

-- Elliot Njus

enjus@oregonian.com; 503-294-5034; @enjus

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