Willamette Week: Say Sayonara to Metro's Proposed Convention Center Hotel

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The cancellation of the hotel project comes at an opportune time for Portland Beavers and Timbers owner Merritt Paulson. Paulson wants the City to pay $85 million to renovate PGE Park into a soccer-specific facility for a Major League Soccer expansion team he hopes to buy; and to build a new baseball stadium for the Beavers.

The leading site for a new stadium appears to be property now occupied by the obsolete, under-used city-owned Memorial Coliseum, a few blocks north of the Convention Center.

If the City and PDC can now re-direct the staff time—and money—they have been considering spending on a headquarters hotel, they can far more easily devote resources to Paulson's idea—and to Trail Blazers' owner Paul Allen's complementary desire to enliven the Rose Quarter.

It looks like my dream from three years ago may finally be coming to fruition:

Rose Quarter version 2.0 - it's time for an upgrade

I always said that if we couldn't get MLB, we should just put a nice Memphis-like AAA stadium near downtown, shoot for MLS, high speed rail to Seattle, and perhaps the NHL. Well, who knows if/when high speed rail is coming, and who knows if we'd even want the NHL right now, but certainly the other factors are within reach.

Then in 10-15 years, if/when MLB comes knocking, they can take the $150m from SB5, upgrade the AAA stadium, pay the remaining difference, and - boom - they're good to go.

I really hope the city leaders can pull this off. It would be great for the city to convert PGE, to get MLS, to get a better stadium for PSU football and international soccer exhibitions, to get a real baseball facility in a great location for the Beavers, and to transform the Rose Quarter into a year round destination.... regardless of whether/when MLB comes here, this would be great for the city.

The City Council's task force on this is meeting at 4pm on Tuesday December 9th in Portland City Council Chambers.

They will meet for about 90 minutes, and then meet every 2 weeks.

If you are in support of brining MLS, getting the beavers a new stadium, or both you are free to show up.

Some of us had this dream five years ago when others wanted the USPO location. The majority of the users "here" supported the USPO site. I think only one other user "here" was 100 percent with me in concluding that the Rose Quarter was the only site that made sense from a logical (investing on a location that is stated as our sports/entertainment center) and transportation point of view.

Others just liked the idea of the view of downtown and the North Park Blocks access from the USPO site. I never bought into it (never joined the bandwagon) for one reason: the USPO site was a transportation nightmare.

High Speed Rail and a Trails End Transit Station (unoffical name I called it on this site some time ago) will be the "icing on the cake". I would rather see the Blanchard site be the location for the MLB Stadium but I would be very happy that our tax dollars and the investors that bring us MLB down the road saw this vision and ran with it.

Maybe we have a perfect storm: a New Deal II at a national level to support our hope for a MLB Stadium; a modernized I5 from Vancouver to the South Waterfront; and High Speed Rail from PDX to Seattle (I don't have any faith in the State of Oregon putting any money into created HSR to Eugene. The ODOT and the late adopters have really slowed our progress and we are decades behind WA and CA.)

Maybe this site will pick up in the next few months after the MLS expansion annoucement next year.

Always Hope! Always Dream!

Regards,
BB

Any location close to the Rose Garden is ideal as far as I am concerned. I think the Blanchard/PPS site is probably the best as far as the size of the footprint of an eventual major league stadium goes, but if we can tuck a cozy, intimate stadium into the Memorial Coliseum grounds, I'd support that as well. With I-5, the Max Line, Rose Garden parking, nice views of downtown, I think that is the ideal location. We just need to make sure it isn't Lents.

Anyone planning to attend the meeting tomorrow. I'd love to be there.

The City Council's Task Force was supposed to meet again this past Tuesday. I imagine the snow put a crimp in those plans, but does anyone know for sure? Would that change the schedule of meetings?

Yes, the last meeting was canceled due to weather.

The pro-MLS editorial in the Oregonian was very annoying to me because they couldn't care less where the Beavers were located. Very stupid and short sighted IMHO. Yeah it doesn't matter a heck of a lot to Paulson (considering how the revenue streams work in AAA, how easy it will be for him to move or sell the Bevos after they go down the drain in Lents, and how the difference is minor compared to the $100m+ opportunity with MLS), but to the city and the taxpayers it will matter, big time.

Thanks, TCL. Kepp me posted if you know of any changes in the meeting schedule, as I'd like to make those confabs as well ... very concerned about any outlay of money toward Lents in regard to future plans for a downtown-area MLB stadium.

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very concerned about any outlay of money toward Lents in regard to future plans for a downtown-area MLB stadium.

Although I do agree with you, I think it's wrong to sell MC or Blanchard on these grounds. You can't sell vapor. The bottom line is that the Beavers will be far better off in the Rose Quarter, whether MLB comes knocking in 10 years or not.

Blair - you, of all people, should know this. The environment in places like Memphis, Oklahoma City, Sacramento, Indianapolis, etc.... are like night and day compared to suburban AAA stadiums like Tucson. A Rose Quarter AAA stadium, especially when combined with the Rose Garden, Convention Center, light rail, street car, etc.... can be a nice anchor to a lively community.

It will be a complete waste of $$$ to toss it out in Lents, a community that is not set up to accomodate it or thrive off of it.

According to Paul Schmidt, the next meeting is on the 6th (not sure what time).

I think they pretty much decided on all of them at 4:00 p.m.

Impressions from seeing all the task force action to date.

Sam Adams and Randy Leonard did find a group bringing different backgrounds and angles to the table. That's fostered robust yet unfocused discussion... until Leonard showed up on Tuesday and brought focus.

Leonard- and Mike Williams' pointed question at Merritt Paulson the first day- suffice for political theater during the process. Mostly, there's a lot of people muddling through numbers, and not always comprehending them... or perhaps refusing to comprehend them without saying why. Parts of this have been maddening to witness.

Dave Logsdon has been clear and concise with the information he's presented for the group. Furthermore, you can hear his tone of voice when he mentions Memorial Coliseum. I think he's tired of the $500K money pit.

The financial arm of the city, OTOH, clearly came to negotiate, not necessarily with the task force. They're rightly scared of overextending their bonding capacity, but their tone towards suggesting some private contribution or backing of bonds was unmistakable. I wonder if they're even factoring in the PDC capacity at MC or elsewhere.

Randy Leonard, besides lightening the load of the task force, also defends turf rather well. A lot of the last meeting was spent with Leonard back and forth with 2-3 of the group members about the city's role and the task force's role in the process, and what the task force shouldn't be setting (the city's agenda, in other words). I can tell Amanda Fritz and Randy are going to get along famously (at the start, Amanda "threw" three pages of suggestions at the group towards demanding a VERY broad view of their charge). One note from Leonard- he mentioned that there were MORE than three sites on the table for the ballpark, and even slipped in a comment about how one site could get done without any taxpayer involvement... a comment that was either not believed or just brushed off by the group and everyone else.

Next week, Tuesday, 4 pm, city council chambers. Too bad they can't use the room in the Portland Building that was used this week- it made for much better viewing.

It's easier to borrow the Talk Timbers version of last night's meeting.

http://www.soccercityusa.com/c....pl?num=1233720447/0

Leonard's winking a score of private funds for a ballpark at MC.

Most positive indeed.

***************************************

I ask a major favor. I'm trying to find the details of the supposed agreement between the city and MAC regarding rights to the stadium land if a sale were to happen. Can someone direct me somewhere on this?

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Originally posted by The Cactus Leaguer:

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very concerned about any outlay of money toward Lents in regard to future plans for a downtown-area MLB stadium.

Although I do agree with you, I think it's wrong to sell MC or Blanchard on these grounds. You can't sell vapor. The bottom line is that the Beavers will be far better off in the Rose Quarter, whether MLB comes knocking in 10 years or not.

Ok, TCL, why would this be? Please explain your reasoning. The city of Oakland, CA had a sports complex much like the one you're talking about, and it has been a bust for the most part.


[QUOTE]A Rose Quarter AAA stadium, especially when combined with the Rose Garden, Convention Center, light rail, street car, etc.... can be a nice anchor to a lively community.[\QUOTE]
And who is going to be building this light rail that you're speaking of? Are there going to be any sufficient funds for it? I know about light rail from different articles from Europe. But there's a couple of big differences between the U.S. and Europe: first, the Europeans have far fewer cars and car manufacturers than the U.S. has (I can see where the automobile manufacturers would view light rail as a imminent threat to their monop..er.. business); second, I can see where the airlines would view light rail as a threat to themselves as well. How does light rail get around those two obstacles? I'm not against light rail (in fact, I'd like to see some light rail connecting Atlanta to Birmingham), but I just see it being too much of a threat to the old established "fat cats" in the transportation industry (automobile and airlines).

Pirate, by "light rail" TCL probably meant the MAX Line, which already runs north from the Rose Garden transit center all the way out to Delta Park and the Expo Center; it is called the Interstate Line (since it runs down the middle of Interstate Ave.) The first stop north is right near the Blanchard site where many of us would like to see a baseball stadium built.

If I'm wrong, I'm sure TCL will straighten me out!

Ohh, ok. That does make sense if TCL was referring to MAX (forgot all about that one. ). Atlanta has light rail also in MARTA. Never rode on it though.

Not sure MARTA is light rail. I think that's more like a heavier commuter rail, like BART... or the just inagurated WES between Beaverton and Wilsonville. Light rail is designed to intermingle with traffic a bit, commuter rail is more isolated.

Light rail between Atlanta and Birmingham would, in technical terms, blow. Not durable enough for longer runs or higher speeds... or heavier loads, most of all. What ya need, son, is more Amtrak service on dedicated tracks. Since ridership shot way up on gas price spikes, I think we have ourselves a winner.

Back towards topic... does anyone have documentation on the MAC/Park issue, or know where to look? Run into dead ends all over google, and even the City Auditor's search function has gone empty on me so far.

-Pirate - yes, I was talking about the existing light rail (MAX). The Rose Quarter is a central point for the Red Line (which runs from Beaverton to the airport), the Blue Line (from Hillsboro to Gresham), the Yellow Line (from downtown to North Portland) and the Green Line (from downtown to Clackamas - already under construction). There is also a streetcar loop being planned which would run adjacent to the Rose Quarter.

-Paul, I'm afraid I don't know much about the agreement between MAC and the city re: PGE Park, sorry. I could Google it but I'd probably just stumble upon the same stuff that you are finding. Maybe you could contact someone from the city to find the document you are looking for?

-The fact that the Paulsons (or someone else - Allen?) is willing to contribute private dollars for the Coliseum site, but not Lents, tells you all you need to know about which way the city should go on this.

The Coliseum site is primed to become a 50-100 year asset to the city, whereas Lents is destined to become a dinosaur within 15-20 years. The year round activity would finally hit the Rose Quarter and would spark a lot of development around there, and would probably save the city money because hoteliers would be more likely to kick in more private dollars towards a convention center hotel.

The one thing that scares me about this is the fact that more urban renewal dollars are available at Lents ($25m versus $5m at MC).

This would be phenomenally stupid and shortsighted for Lents to blow their wad of urban renewal money on a baseball stadium at that location. Lents needs to develop a hub with stores, business, and a community center - NOT A BASEBALL STADIUM which would generate few local jobs and will create parking and traffic headaches for a neighborhood which is not built to accomodate this.

OK, I could go on and on about this but I'll stop now.

Link to Oregonlive.com article (please use the link, thanks)

Portland now looking at Rose Quarter for new baseball stadium
by Mark Larabee, The Oregonian
Tuesday February 10, 2009, 6:04 PM

The Rose Quarter is now in the running for a new minor league baseball stadium.

Portland city officials met this week with Portland Beavers baseball team owner Merritt Paulson and Trailblazer managers to discuss the idea. The city would need a new baseball stadium if Major League Soccer awards a new franchise here this year.

The Blazers wouldn't own the baseball stadium, the city would. But a Triple A ballpark might complement the basketball team's home turf at the Rose Garden and other development that the Blazers have planned to bring more people to the district.

"The arena has been successful in terms of the number of events that it has and the attendance it has," said J.E. Isaac, the Blazers' senior vice president for business affairs. "But the part that didn't happen was the development that we thought would follow."

Paulson, who owns the Beavers and the Portland Timbers soccer team, is angling for one of two Major League Soccer expansion teams, which will begin playing in 2011. He has agreed to pay $40 million for the franchise.

Major League Soccer requires stadiums with a soccer-specific design and has said a new Portland soccer franchise cannot share space with the Beavers. The city owns PGE Park on the edge of downtown, where both teams now play, and would renovate it for soccer.

Paulson floated a plan last summer to use $85 million in city-backed bonds to upgrade PGE Park for soccer and build a new baseball stadium in Lents, a Southeast Portland neighborhood. Preliminary cost estimates are $35 million to $40 million for the PGE Park renovation; $45 million for a news stadium in Lents or $ 47 million to $50 million for a baseball stadium in the Rose Quarter.

Lents is still on the table, said Commissioner Randy Leonard, who is helping negotiate the deal with Paulson. But Leonard said the Rose Quarter might draw bigger crowds to both baseball games and concerts and wouldn't have the parking and noise restrictions associated with Lents.

Paulson said today there's no deal on either site, though both are "operationally sustainable."

"This is all dialogue," he said. "Obviously the Rose Quarter is as central as it gets. It's got parking and ingress and egress all worked out. Lents has its strong points as well."

For more on the story, read tomorrow's Oregonian.

-- Mark Larabee: marklarabee@news.oregonian.com

^That sounds like a dream come true. Imagine a minor league mark that is MLB upgradeable right where the Coliseum is at Having the City skyline popping up over the outfield with the steel bridge right there would be

Get it done!

Actually, the view of downtown from that location isn't that pleasant. The street grid is centered so that one sees down the streets and not the buildings. (hard to explain, just go look at it). Also, that rank looking elevator grain is in the way. Much better views of the city skyline from directly across the river at the East Bank Esplanade.

The view I am talking about is the one you can see from inside the coliseum. When you look out the glass windows you still have a great view of downtown. I like the view from there, it is different and not one people see regularly.

That's a great point Jon, and something that I hope they consider (the views from all vantage points) when designing the new facility).

One of my favorite things about Safeco is taking a break in the middle of the game and sitting out on the massive west side upper deck concourse which overlooks Puget Sound. You could have the same thing or better with the Memorial Coliseum site.

What's funny about this- this thread started with the notion that the convention center hotel was sacked. It's still not off the table, which places severely limited bond capacity for the current URD at the coliseum. There's rumors in amongst us (especially people close to Merritt Paulson) that they would chip in private funds if the ballpark sites at MC.

My friends at talktimbers.com (OK, me too) were entirely apoplectic tonight with a bit of a triple whammy- (1) Army regular/graduate John Strong starting a nightly radio gig next week, (2) 95.5 announcing they will carry Timbers road games this season, and especially (3) Paulson reiterating a pledge that the Paulson family will personally guarantee the bonds. Tonight, it feels like a commitment that just awaits official approvals from the city council and MLS.

With 95.5 on board, it wouldn't surprise me if Paul Allen was more involved with the effort at the MC site than is currently being talked about publicly.

I just stumbled on some information on the Arena District in Columbus, and it made me think of you Paul. They have an NHL arena, a new AAA stadium, a convention center, and an outdoor auditorium for concerts and such, all within walking distance and using shared infrastructure. Could be similar to what we see in the RQ someday.