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Original Post:
Metro plans vote on headquarters hotel
By Jim Redden
The Metro Council will consider early next month whether to take over management of the proposed headquarters hotel across the street from the Oregon Convention Center.
The most recent studies suggest that if the project is going to proceed, it would have to be owned and operated by Metro, and could cost $150 million or more.
The council received a staff briefing on the project Tuesday. At the end of the briefing, Metro staff was directed to prepare a series of recommendations that would authorize the council to take over the project from the Portland Development Commission, which decided it did not have enough money to finance it last year.
“No one on the council has said they either support or oppose the project,” said Ken Ray, Metro’s senior public affairs coordinator. “If the council votes to take over the project, we’ll need to conduct more studies before we can decide how to proceed.”
Before it abandoned the project, the PDC had selected a development team to build a 600-room hotel on two city-owned blocks across from the center, which is at 777 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
They had proposed building a 23-story Westin hotel on the blocks bordered by Northeast Holladay and Oregon streets and Grand Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Publicly owned hotels have been built near other convention centers in Austin, Texas; Denver; and St. Louis.
A headquarters hotel long has been considered necessary to spur private investments in the convention center urban renewal area. Plans already are under way to build a new Portland Streetcar line through it.
Some downtown hotel owners have opposed the project because they fear it would take business away from them. They have argued that if a hotel is built, it should be smaller and privately owned.
jimredden@portlandtribune.com
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/...15514825223300