An 11-story, 179-room lifestyle hotel is in the works for a downtown corner that’s currently home to one of Portland’s favorite food cart pods.
Benjamin Graves, the CEO of Minneapolis-based Graves Hospitality has confirmed that his company is teaming up with Marriott to build a Moxy-branded lifestyle hotel at the corner of SW Alder Street and 10th Avenue.
Right now, the lot is home to Food Koma, The Dump Truck, and Nong’s Khao Man Gai, among others.
Graves says that his company had been looking to expand into the Portland market for the last 18 months, before ultimately choosing the parking lot at the corner of Alder and 10th that’s owned by the parking magnates of the Goodman family, which owns several parking lots in the downtown core.
The lot has long been zoned by the city for just such a project.
Construction for hotel projects generally take about 15 months, Graves says, adding that it’s his hope that crews could break ground as early as April 2018.
Graves says the project will go through the design review with city planners in the next two months. He’s hoping the city will sign off on a plan where the hotel’s lobby, which will seat about 130 to 150 people, will double as a bar. The idea, he says, is for guests to check in at the bar, where the concierge-bartender will offer them complimentary drinks after a long flight.
The hotel won’t serve food, but it does plan to incorporate local vendors into the hotel’s operations. Graves says if the city signs off on the design, he hopes to lease out his loading dock to four or five food carts who can tend to the eating needs of the hotel’s guests, as well as people wandering the sidewalks outside the hotel in search of lunch or dinner. Think of it as a small de facto indoor-outdoor food hall.
Nong Poonsukwattana of Nong’s Khao Man Gai says she recently learned of the development and is already shopping for another downtown location.
Stay tuned.
This is actually across the street from the main food cart pod that has far more carts and takes up the entire block. This building is only replacing the few carts in the smaller lot across from the larger one.
It may be a bigger project that that… According to that rendering from the developer, they’re also planning to replace the Streetcar with a Max line…
And what are the food cart pods always replaced by? Projects like this. No one should act like food cart pods are permanent. They’re placeholders.
Are we supposed to know wtf a “lifestyle hotel” is?
@Euphonius: If you don’t already know what a lifestyle hotel is, you probably can’t afford to stay at one. Seriously though… great comment. My sentiments exactly! WTF indeed.
Food carts were always intended to be temporary, not least of which by the very language in the original Portland regulation of food carts back when they started to become a thing. Unbelievable that people are even surprised by this.
Ugh such a capitalist idea, pays no regards to alcoholics in recovery, what a money-hungry way to entice people to drink who would normally not go to the bar or would think of something better to do with their vacation time. We dont need more hotels, anyways, we need more apartments, places to allow the homeless a second chance at living.
Food carts were a stopgap measure for property owners during the recession. No one disputes this. What’s in dispute is the city’s need for the number of hotels currently being built. The business community may say there’s a need, but this is a market where the low season stretches almost seven months out of the year. I’m surprised that the Heathman, Benson and others aren’t screaming bloody murder about having to let rooms go for $80 apiece come January and February.
This also ignores the fact that, for almost the last year, rent prices have been coming down as more buildings come online. There are developers on Belmont who are already nervous that they won’t be able to fill apartments at the rent price they’d estimated. A fairly new building on Chavez is already offering tenants additional amenities for free just to extend their leases. Portland’s about to see several bubbles burst all at once.
So what exactly is wrong with cheaper hotel rooms and cheaper rents, Doug Fer? That’s kind of why most of us have been pushing for building more housing supply to meet the demand.
RE: ” concierge-bartender will offer them complimentary drinks after a long flight.”
1) what perks are there for non boozers?
2) long flights?… did not know all tourists are from Asia, Australia & Europe. Silly to think anyone from USA would visit!
3) sure the business crowd will love free booze to kick off the meetings,
4) what about giving the food cart vendors a real lobby space to cook in???? As you are displacing them, why not help instead of push them out of work?