Mayor Sam Adams faces a difficult decision over whether to build a
new convention center hotel in the Lloyd District. Portland’s
Metro Council was ready to drop its pursuit of the projected $247.5
million hotel last December, but then Mayor-elect Adams asked Metro to
delay a decision until April 2009 while he assembled a task force of
experts to assess the proposal. Blogtown broke the news on Tuesday,
March 24 that Adams’ task force has recommended Adams move forward with
the project, after all.
Quelle surprise. The task force was made up entirely of
hoteliers, developers, union representatives, brokers, finance
professors, lawyers, and bankers—all of whom would naturally lean
toward seeing the hotel get some public financing so any private
backers could save money. Then on Wednesday, March 25, the
Oregonian reported that The Nines hotel downtown will stop
paying back $16.9 million in loans from the Portland Development
Commission (PDC) until 2011, because its developer, Sage Hospitality
Resources, over-projected demand for corporate meetings and
business travel.
The Nines deal was struck under former Mayor Vera Katz, while Adams
was her chief of staff. So for him to even consider using more urban
renewal dollars from PDC to fund another hotel, now, would seem like
the triumph of optimism over experience.
“It’s all about cost versus benefit, and I’ve got to make sure that
it’s really going to achieve the benefits that the promoters have put
forward,” Adams said last week, of the proposed hotel.
With the Breedlove scandal still hanging over his head, Adams
remains under pressure to prove he can achieve—so a new
hotel next to the Oregon Convention Center designed to bring in
international business could boost his credibility.
Adams has already made controversial decisions in an attempt to show
he can still Get Things Done. For example, he’s voted for a costly
Major League Soccer deal and a 12-lane commuter bridge across the Columbia River. At the same time, it emerged last week that
Adams’ office had dropped the ball on a $3 million overrun cost for the
city’s new payroll system. But is now really the best time to take a
gamble on the US economy in the name of showing leadership?
“Portland… affords an ideal window onto the spiral of fear and diminished expectations assailing the economy,” wrote Peter S.
Goodman in a 1,700-word story on the Rose City in the March 26 New
York Times. D’oh! Perhaps Adams needs to hang a brave
leader’s “do not disturb” sign over the hotel project, for
now.
I’ve always tried to be a supporter of the men and women who lead our city; but it’s a really tough order lately. We don’t need another stadium, we need better schools. We don’t need a tram, we need better schools. We do need a new bridge, so I’m behind that one. The deal with the “Made in Oregon” sign: it’s private property, it’s been altered at least twice already by new owners, the city shouldn’t be dictating anything to it’s current owners, and the city shouldn’t even be considering the expense of taking it over. Another frigging hotel? If it’s really necessary, let the developers cover the entire cost of the project. If it’s not necessary (read: capable of making a profit), they won’t pay for it, so why should we?
It isn’t that simple. Some businesses also don’t know if it will be profitable, or they are pitched the idea by the city, or they simply don’t want to risk all their money without some support from the government.
We shouldn’t fear these types of investments. We should fear a Federal style of government where the public supports the bad investments (U.S. automakers, long since digging their own graves,) versus good investments (Federal Highway System, which paid for itself many times over.
We should fear when our city is making large capital expenditures in risky ventures alone, and not infrastructure investments along with those risky investments.
This is one of the most progressive cities in the country. Can we not easily think of better investments than a 12-lane car bridge in a bike heavy city, a soccer stadium where 4,000 fans are rabid, and an expensive hotel in a very convention-weak city?