# University of Portland (UP)

University of Portland (UP) is an Endowment / Foundation based in Portland, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Endowment / Foundation
- **Headquarters:** Portland, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** 5000 N. Willamette Blvd, Portland, OR, United States
- **Founded:** 1901
- **Assets under management:** $315M (Altss estimate)
- **Website:** up.edu
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/school/university-of-portland/

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

Founded in 1901 by the Congregation of Holy Cross, the University of Portland operates as a private Catholic endowment with a concentrated governance structure. Chair of the Board of Regents Thomas D. Arndorfer and Regent Scott Malpass — the former Notre Dame CIO — anchor an investment strategy that borrows deliberately from the larger Holy Cross sister school, pooling considerable endowment assets through Catholic Investment Services. The endowment deploys capital across private equity, venture capital, buyout, distressed debt, mezzanine, and real assets, with a pronounced tilt toward tangible property. Asset-class exposure includes residential development, industrial land, and mixed-use projects, visible through holdings like the Stonebreaker master-planned community in Dacono, Colorado; the Westphalia Town Center in Prince George’s County, Maryland; and Henday Industrial Park in Edmonton, Alberta. The portfolio also carries single-family rental build-to-rent exposure via joint ventures with Rockpoint Group and a $100 million land-financing facility from Fortress Investment Group, while other positions — confirmed through DST structures in Georgia, Texas, and Delaware — indicate a separate-account vehicle approach to gain direct residential and commercial exposure across multiple US states and one Canadian province. With an estimated $315 million in assets, UP participates in the NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments and balances fund-of-funds commitments, direct co-investments, and SPV-level real estate vehicles. In recent years the endowment added a student-run portfolio — UPIA — augmenting the investment office with an on-campus applied-finance lab. The endowment’s structural differentiator lies in its dual identity: it functions simultaneously as a standalone Catholic university allocator and as a co-investor alongside the University of Notre Dame through Catholic Investment Services. That affiliation with the Malpass-era Notre Dame model — combined with direct control over hard assets like the Franz River Campus and scattered residential lots near the Portland campus — gives the University of Portland a hybrid posture that sits between a traditional pooled endowment and an owner-operator real estate platform.

## Sectors

- Real Estate
- Venture Capital
- Education

## People

- Thomas D. Arndorfer — Chair of the Board of Regents

## Questions

### Who runs investment decisions at University of Portland?

Ultimate investment authority rests with the Board of Regents, chaired by Thomas D. Arndorfer. The university’s affiliation with the Congregation of Holy Cross and Catholic Investment Services means that Regent Scott Malpass — former chief investment officer of the University of Notre Dame — exerts significant influence over asset allocation and manager selection.

### How is University of Portland’s endowment related to the University of Notre Dame?

Both are Holy Cross institutions, and the University of Portland channels a material portion of its endowment through Catholic Investment Services (CIS). Scott Malpass, who built Notre Dame’s endowment into one of the largest US university funds, helped create CIS and sits as a UP Regent, aligning UP’s investment practices with the Notre Dame model.

### Does UP participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?

The endowment uses both. It invests in fund-of-funds vehicles, co-investments, and separate-account structures, and it also holds direct real estate positions in master-planned communities and residential lots. The partnership with Rockpoint Group on build-to-rent communities and the Fortress land-financing facility illustrate the fund-commitment-plus-co-investment mix.

## Related profiles

- [Virginia Military Institute](https://altss.com/profile/virginia-military-institute)
- [IBEW Local 124 Pension Trust Fund](https://altss.com/profile/ibew-local-124)

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Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/university-of-portland-up

Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology