UPDATE: As of late Tuesday night, the margin of victory had not changed.

A $185 million bond to finance the renovation of Portland Community College's workforce training facility in the Cully neighborhood and expand the health technology building at its Sylvania campus appears headed for victory.

Measure 26-196, the lone big-ticket item on the Multnomah County ballot, jumped to a 57 percent to 43 percent lead, according to partial returns Tuesday night. The community college's taxing district includes parts of Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, Yamhill and Columbia counties.

Mark Mitsui, PCC's president, said the bond will mean a lot to students, families and the entire community surrounding the workforce center in Northeast Portland in particular. "This provides the resources we need to help pull families out of poverty in the Cully neighborhood," he said.

Mitsui said the metro area faces increasing housing costs and gentrification and PCC has been a pathway to opportunity for families.

"Our community knows that," he said in an interview from an election party at a North Portland McMenamins restaurant. "They want to support that, and they turned out to really help make dreams possible and help students to access greater opportunities through education."

The approval marks the latest ballot box win for PCC, the state's largest post-secondary institution with some 75,000 full- and part-time students at four metro-area campuses and several smaller facilities. Voters similarly passed a $374 million bond in 2008. This year's measure replaces a $144 million bond first approved by voters in 2000.

PCC leaders opted to sit out the May election, as Portland Public Schools was entrenched in controversy and simultaneously seeking a record $790 million construction bond. The measure, to finance various school and safety upgrades, passed overwhelmingly.

PCC's effort was backed by metro-area legislators, local elected officials, and business and nonprofit leaders. The bond also will pay for security improvements at the North Portland Cascades campus and allow for a new child care facility at the Rock Creek campus near Beaverton.

Homeowners won't see an increase in taxing rate, as the bond replaces the expiring 2000 measure. The taxing rate is 40 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value for 16 years. For the owner of a home with an assessed value of $300,000, that amounts to $120 per year.

Mitsui said the college was aware that voter turnout would be a critical issue, with scarce other ballot measures or local races to choose from. "But they showed up," he said of voters.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen