Oregon (other)

[Okstate]

Good to see this is finally happening. They've talked about it for years.

[JordanL]

Huh... alright. Sure. Why not. 99W isn't crowded enough.

[Okstate]

http://djcoregon.com/news/2010/07/02...es-to-proceed/
Casino developers get signatures to proceed
POSTED: Friday, July 2, 2010 at 02:42 PM PT
BY: Nick Bjork
Tags: Bruce Studer, casinos, Matt Rossman, Wood Village
(File photo by Dan Carter/DJC)

Developers have secured the required signatures to get measures on the November ballot that would seek to allow them to renovate the Multnomah Kennel Club into Oregon's first non-tribal casino. (File photo by Dan Carter/DJC)

The developers of the proposed non-tribal casino in Wood Village have turned in the 327,000 signatures needed to get two measures on this year’s ballot.

The taxpaying casino would be in the former Multnomah Kennel Club, located at Southeast 223rd Avenue and Halsey Street.

The development team, with the help of the Portland-based signature gathering company Democracy Resources, gathered 183,000 signatures for a constitutional amendment that would allow a single taxpaying casino in Oregon. They also gathered 144,000 signatures for a statutory measure that establishes the Oregon Lottery as the oversight authority for the casino.

“We gathered all of those signatures in seven weeks,” said Matt Rossman, co-developer on the project with Bruce Studer. “That’s especially amazing considering the amount of rain we’ve had this month.”

Rossman added that the multi-million dollar expansion of the Multnomah Kennel Club would be funded entirely by private money and would receive no tax breaks. The project would create construction jobs, and the finished product would employ over 2,000 people, he said.

Under the current proposal, 25 percent of the gaming revenue would be returned to the public. Of that revenue, 50 percent would go to public education, 30 percent would be split among Oregon’s counties and the remaining 20 percent would go to various local agencies.

The two ballot measures will be voted on in November during the midterm elections.

[Eco_jt]

Casino backers file lawsuit
Portland Business Journal - by Andy Giegerich Business Journal staff writer

The committee seeking to steer a pro-casino measure to Oregon’s November ballot has filed a lawsuit charging that the state’s petition signature-counting methods are invalid.

The Good for Oregon Committee’s suit claims Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown erred by rejecting valid signatures. If so, thousands of valid signatures weren’t counted, according to the suit.

Brown’s department ruled on Tuesday that only one of the two proposed ballot measures related to the casino qualified for the November ballot. Developers want to build a privately owned casino and resort at the former Multnomah Kennel Club. The proposal would include slot machines and table games.

The measure that didn’t qualify would have created an exception to the state’s constitutional ban on casinos. Of the 172,136 signatures collected, Brown’s office deemed 104,629 to be valid, a 60.78 percent validity rate. To reach the ballot, the measure would have required supporters to collect 110,358 valid signatures.

State officials said the signatures included submissions from people who identified themselves as “Satan” and “Moe Szyslak,” the bartender on the TV show “The Simpsons.”

But the pro-casino committee itself evaluated 35,000 of the signatures submitted and found a validity rate far above the number needed to qualify for the ballot, said Matt Rossman, the co-chief petitioner. Brown’s office evaluated a sampling of 8,500 signatures, according to the suit.

“This is about the sanctity of Oregon voters’ signatures,” Rossman said in a statement. “The mistakes by the secretary of state are disenfranchising these Oregon citizens who signed the petitions to allow a vote on Oregon’s first taxable casino as a way to help solve our state’s budget crisis.”

Democracy Resources, a Portland campaign consultant, collected signatures for the pro-casino group.

The casino’s owners would pay 25 percent of their adjusted gross revenue each month to Oregon’s state lottery. The money would go into jobs creation and school funds.

The measure that did qualify for the ballot will allow a vote on siting the facility in Wood Village.

The lawsuit was filed late Wednesday in Marion County Circuit Court.

[MarkDaMan]

Construction on Red Hawk Lodge scheduled to start in Spring in McMinnville

A nearly $20 million lodge addition to McMinnville’s Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum complex on Highway 18 is expected to begin construction this Spring. The nearly 100 room, five story Red Hawk Lodge is tentatively set for its grand opening in the Summer of 2014.

The lodge was approved as a part of a total plan that included the Evergreen Aviation Museum, the Space Museum, IMAX Theater and Wings & Waves Water Park. The building is to blend perfectly with the other buildings with their coordinated signature stone and roof lines.

Plans filed with the city community development department show that the lodge entails a five story atrium with a rather grand fireplace. It will also contain a restaurant and spa. The name Red Hawk Lodge was given in honor of an Oregon Air National Guard squadran according to a Huffman Construction employee, the company expected to build the lodge.

The lodge will be build in the vacant area between the water park and aviation museum. It will cause some of the parking in that area to be moved north of a line of oaks. The new parking lot will displace the flying model airplane field which will be moved farther north yet.

The entire complex was envisioned by Evergreen founder Del Smith.

Plans for an Adventure Park are said to be moving along well which will feature survival and other physically challenging exhibits for the young and not so young. It will include a zip line, suspension bridge, suspended zig-zag pathways as well as more subdued challenges for small children and their families.

Posted by Dave Morgan at 4:45 pm

http://www.newsyamhillcounty.com/archives/2623

[MarkDaMan]

Significant development news in Oregon cities without a SSP: Local Portland "Suburbs" sticky thread.

If you'd like to add a city to our "sticky" list, PM me.

[MarkDaMan]

Cable park plan could make waves in Hood River
POSTED: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at 02:48 PM PT
Daily Journal of Commerce BY: Lindsey O'Brien
Tags: Hood River

http://djcoregon.com/news/2012/06/27...in-hood-river/


Naito Development is working through the permitting of a $15 million project that will include a Hampton Inn & Suites Hotel, a 20,000-square-foot mixed-use building and a 10-acre cable park near downtown Hood River. (Rendering courtesy of Surround Architecture)


The two-story commercial building will include a restaurant and bar with a large deck, office space and a water-sports pro-shop. (Rendering courtesy of Surround Architecture)

The first water-sports “cable park” west of Texas may soon be built in Hood River, according to the Portland-based developers who are hoping to build the $1 million attraction as part of a larger, waterfront development.

Naito Development is working through the permitting of a $15 million project that will include an 88-room Hampton Inn & Suites Hotel and a 20,000-square-foot mixed-use building near downtown Hood River. Within the adjacent lagoon known as Nichols Basin, the plan includes a 10-acre cable park, which is a system of towers, pulleys, and obstacles that creates a course for wake-boarders and water-skiers to zip around the water without being tugged by a boat.

“I really believe in this thing,” developer Will Naito said of the parks, which are most popular in Europe, although a few outposts exist in Florida and Texas. “Once you dig into it, you can see what a fun form of recreation it is.”

Naito says he first heard about cable parks when an anonymous caller asked the developers about the possibility of building one in Nichols Basin. The development firm, comprised of Naito and his father Bob, has owned the 5.27 acres next to the basin since 2006. But the economic downturn and environmental cleanup delayed initial plans.

The market for a hotel in Hood River is strong, according to Bob Naito, who has secured financing for the project through the EB-5 investment visa program. The program rewards foreigners who invest in a job-creating American enterprise by offering them permanent U.S. residency.

“If there’s any place where a hotel should be successful, it’d be Hood River,” he said.

Meanwhile, the younger Naito was exploring the world of cable parks. After watching some videos online, Will found out that the sport was most popular in Germany, so he took a trip to Munich to tour several of the cable parks.

“This will grow the community’s reputation for water sports and recreation,” he said. “It’s going to draw a lot of people to Hood River.”

But the park has raised opposition from some local community members who are concerned that the developments will impact salmon habitats and limit public access to Nichols Basin.

“The idea that you can put basically an amusement park on Hood River’s waterfront, in designated critical habitat for salmon, is ridiculous,” said Brent Foster, an attorney representing a group called Friends of the Hood River Waterfront.

“It’s a crazy use of any city’s prime waterfront,” Foster added.

Permitting for the cable park is just getting under way, according to Hood River planning director Cindy Walbridge, and the project depends on forthcoming decisions from several agencies. The Port of Hood River, which owns the basin, still needs to sign off on the plan, and the state Department of State Lands is currently reviewing the application.

Friends of the Hood River Waterfront plans to oppose the park when it goes before the planning commission later this summer, Foster said.

The group has already appealed the commission’s initial approval of the site plan and conditional use permit related to the hotel and commercial building. In a marathon meeting of the Hood River City Council on Monday, Foster presented 23 objections to the Naito site plan covering a broad range of topics.

Councilors unanimously upheld the approval, although they did strengthen some conditions adopted by the planning commission, including requirements for public access through the property and clarity on flood plain restrictions. Their final determination will be presented July 9.

“We won’t be able to start construction this year,” said Bob Naito, founder of Naito Development. “But we’re confident that in the end we’ll prevail.”

Naito expects construction of the four-story hotel and commercial building, which will include office space, a water-sports retailer, and a restaurant, to begin next spring. Jansen Construction of Oregon City will be the general contractor.

Acknowledging the ongoing opposition from the Friends of the Hood River Waterfront, Naito said they would start construction on the cable park “when we can.”

“For Hood River – the kite boarding, wind surfing, and water sports capital of the world – this will add one more element,” he said.

[edirp]

http://www.oregonlive.com/window-sho..._river_default

[tworivers]

The developer guy associated with this "extremely handsome" project in Sherwood is a real comedian.

http://portlandtribune.com/pt-rss/9-...ment-complexes

[bvpcvm]

Cornelius City Council scheduled to discuss senior affordable housing and library expansion project

[itom 987]

I just created a photo thread on Seaside, Oregon over here: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=229558 Check it out!

[MarkDaMan]

Oregon State gives first glimpse at $50 million Newport expansion
Updated 4:00 PM; Posted 4:00 PM
By Andrew Theen atheen@oregonian.com
The Oregonian/OregonLive

http://www.oregonlive.com/education/...art_river_home

Oregon State University offered its first look at the architectural designs for the school's planned $50 million expansion of its Newport campus.

Plans for the 72,000-square-foot building at OSU's Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport were revealed Wednesday afternoon during a public meeting at the coast. OSU hopes to start construction next spring and open the building by 2019.

The long-planned expansion will occur in a tsunami-inundation zone, but OSU says the building will offer one of the first "vertical evacuation" zones in the country.

Designs show a long ramp stretching from ground level to the top of the center's auditorium, with another ramp rising to the top of the three-story building. According to the university, the building will be 47 feet high and able to accommodate more than 900 people during an emergency.

"This new building will not only meet our programming goals for the Marine Studies Initiative, coastal and oceanic research, and public outreach," said Bob Cowen, director of the Hatfield Marine Science Center, "but it will include added safety options for the Hatfield campus through its vertical evacuation."

...(continues)

[cityscapes]

I didn't see a Hood River thread so...


















The development in Hood River along the riverfront looks very good. It's a mix of breweries and some light industrial and commercial uses. Looks like a new park was built as part of the development with a hotel and office building closer to I-84.

[MarkDaMan]

Had NO idea so much was happening in Hood River. Wow! Thanks for the updates!

[urbanlife]

That all looks like it has come a long way since being out there a couple years ago. Definitely need to make another trip out that way.