As reported over the weekend on WWire, Metro staffers have decided a “headquarters hotel” that tourism boosters want to build next to the Oregon Convention Center, is a non-starter in the current environment.
This morning, Mayor-elect Sam Adams convened government leaders and tourism industry representatives to see if there is any way to keep the project alive. That will be tough, considering neither Metro nor Multnomah County want to put a dime in the project and because economic conditions have worsened dramatically since the City of Portland abandoned its efforts to develop the hotel in 2006.
Today, Adams asked City and Metro finance teams to run the numbers one more time and report back by Friday on whether there’s any way to keep the project moving forward.
Maybe it’s time for Adams to heed advice former Mayor Vera Katz offered her former chief of staff last summer in remarks at City Club — don’t spend every available dollar.
Metro is still scheduled to vote on the issue Dec. 18.
- Still On Life-Support: Metro Punts on HQ Hotel Metro was
- Metro and Multnomah County: Go Slow on HQ Hotel After May
- Panel Gives Mayor Sam Adams Cautious OK for HQ Hotel At a time
- Lodging Group Pans Mayor’s HQ Hotel Plan After a l
- Headquarters Hotel Delayed Again In a shoc
Tags: Follow-up, Meet Your City Council, Sam Adams, Vera Katz
Givemeabreak. I worked for the Portland Development Commission in the mid-80’s and back then they were working in this ‘all-important’ project. I recall staff dedicated to the task of securing a Headquarters Hotel, expending hours ad nauseum to get this project underway.
And with each step of the Convention Center/Rose Quarter development and expansion, the promise of a HQ Hotel was always the carrot on the stick. If we expand, we can get the hotel and finally be competitive with other city’s for convention business, etc.
And here we are nearly 30 years later and there has been basically NO progress with this project! Now this is truly what you would call "your government at work."
perhaps because the taxpayer funded HQ Hotel was a stupid idea, even back then.
I agree, kaminski. Sometimes government inaction is a blessing.