Earlier this week, WW reported that the Tri-County Lodging Association notified local leaders it opposes moving forward with the current plans for a “headquarters hotel” politicos have hoped to build adjacent to the Oregon Convention Center for the past 20 years.
The hotel is one of Mayor Sam Adams’ top priorities. But in a May 18 letter (PDF) to Adams, Metro Council President David Bragdon and Multnomah County Commission Chairman Ted Wheeler, the lodging association questioned the underlying financial assumptions put together by the group that would operate the proposed 594-room, $250 million project, the Starwood Hotel group.
Fred Wearn, who is overseeing the hotel project for the city-owned Portland Development Commission, notes that criticism should be balanced by a favorable review given by a subcommittee Adams’ hotel task force gave to the same projections in an April review of Starwood’s numbers.
In an April 6 letter, the subcommitee, which included developer Mark Edlen; Chris Erickson, general manager of the Heathman Hotel; Steve Faulstick, GM of the Portland Double Tree Hotel; and Bashar Wali, executive vice president of Provenance Hotels, concluded the following:
“The current project pro forma is reasonable for the current stage of development and that the information presented to the Subcomittee was not believed to be sufficient to alter the prior findings of the Task Force, which was to continue with the design work to move the project forward to the next milestone.”
(Wali dissented from that view).
Wearn adds that the tri-county lodging association’s board only narrowly voted to oppose the project and that their request for additional stress-testing posited an extraordinarily dire scenario:
“[The] TCLA letter suggests taking numbers reflecting the nadir of one of the worst economic crises in the history of our country and then shocking that with 9/11 effects on the worst market (San Francisco) in the country,” Wearn wrote in a May 21 email.
Metro, Portland City Council and the Multnomah County Commission are scheduled to vote before July 1 whether to spend $12 million to move the project forward to more advanced design drawings and a firm budget.
- Lodging Group Pans Mayor’s HQ Hotel Plan After a l
- Panel Gives Mayor Sam Adams Cautious OK for HQ Hotel At a time
- Metro and Multnomah County: Go Slow on HQ Hotel After May
- Headquarters Hotel Delayed Again In a shoc
- HQ Hotel Project On Life Support As report
Tags: Sam Adams; HQ Hotel
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What does “fucked in the ass by my own local government” mean?
Hotels!
Meanwhile, several thousand people in Portland go hungry. 50,000 or *more* are jobless. many thousands more are underemployed or barely employed. The Oregon Food Bank requests for aid are soaring the past two years. Welfare rolls are swelling like mad. Thousands of condos sit unsold, along with a few million square feet of office space. car sales are down by a third. small business are dropping like flies.
I know: Let’s build a fucking hotel for tourists! That’ll really make a difference in human health and well being!
Don’t worry, be happy PNLW,H. The garden Sam planted with his little golden shovel at City Hall, will soon feed the hungry, and what that doesn’t fix…we’re waiting on the plan he probably sketched out along with his Chief of Staff on the plane ride to and from Belgium, for other good ideas.
When the building trades and the fat cats help him to win office, the Mayor is obligated to build things. Lots of things. Big things.
Whether we need them or not.
Um, excuse me? Why is Fred Wearn advocating for this HQ hotel? That is completely not his role at PDC and yes, is borderline unethical.
The job of PDC employees is to help act as administrators and let the PDC Commission and other appointed decision makers determine the weight, facts and cost/benefits of decisions. Their roles are to present balance reports and assess both the pluses and minuses of any proposed deal.
Instead Wearn is acting as a proponent and stepping into an advocacy role to sway the decision of Council. That’s wrong and both Council and PDC leadership need to tell him to knock it off. It shows that PDC is not acting as rational, balanced and fair decision makers but instead pushing their own agendas through Council for the befit of developers.
Yet another glaring red flag in the Adams administration. PDC is under Adams, through an appointed Commission. Wearn is not in charge of the HQ Hotel, despite what he thinks.
Why is Fred Wearn advocating for this HQ hotel?
An excellent point.
Well, if that taskforce made up of developers and construction unions gave such a favorable assessment, it must be a good deal for taxpayers! Why would they lie?