The Burnside Blog
Scrap The Convention Center Hotel
Metro announced last week that cost estimates for its proposed 597-room hotel at the Oregon Convention Center in NE Portland’s Lloyd District had spiraled by more than 20 percent to $211 million dollars since original projections from September of last year. Of course, the problem of rising costs aren’t only limited to publicly financed projects, but to any project that involves the purchase of concrete and steel, which thanks to a weak dollar and high petrol prices, have gotten to be quite dear. Price notwithstanding, Metro is pressing forward with its plans for a new hotel, and it’s going to be expensive.
Wendy Culverwell wrote a detailed overview of commercial and residential activity in the Lloyd District in today’s Portland Business Journal, noting that developers will press forward with their own projects regardless of the outcome of the hotel. Take prolific Portland Developer Joe Weston who says the construction of his forthcoming 31-story Cosmopolitan Tower is not contingent on whether a hotel is built, but on the overall strength of the real estate market. Weston, it seems, sees in the Lloyd District what Metro does not: an opportunity to build a great neighborhood.
The Lloyd District has long been a district lacking an identity, and a 600-room hotel isn’t going to help that much. While it might indeed help the convention center attract more events, the economic life of a large hotel is measured in the low double digits. Once economically obsolete, it’s going to be expensive to rehab something so large. What the district doesn’t need is another austere empty building (See Memorial Coliseum).
Here’s a better idea:
The Lloyd District is full off mid-century hotels ripe for renovation and underdeveloped lots that could be ideal for new small-scale boutique hotels. Instead of following the herd, cities like Phoenix and Jacksonville with large convention center hotels, why not employ local developers and architecture firms to design and redesign properties that already exist in the Loyd District, creating a lodging district comprised of smaller and more place-driven projects. These would not only house convention goers, but could also be woven into the fabric of the neighborhood.
A recent wave has ushered in a number of smaller boutique hotels, which not only accommodate leisure and business travelers, they seem to have a transformative effect in the neighborhoods wherein they’re located. A few blocks south of the site proposed for the convention center hotel, the Jupiter Hotel almost single-handedly turned a nasty stretch of East Burnside into one of Portland’s hottest neighborhoods. Across the river, the Ace Hotel helped to transform SW Stark Street into one of Portland’s busiest streets. On any given day, there are as many locals at the Ace and Jupiter as out-of-towners. I imagine the recently completed Hotel Modera will have a similar effect on the University District. The Holst-designed restoration of a derelict Days Inn is just steps from the farmers market, on both the MAX and streetcar lines, and will soon boast one of the sleekest restaurants in the city.
What do you think?
By Mike Thelin on Friday, July 11, 2008 at 11:42AM PDT
Very true David. I just hope that whatever happens is what’s best for those of us who live here. The Lloyd District has a lot of special characteristics, including proximity and a few blocks larger than the typical Portland 200 by 200. I’d love to see a true mixed-use neighborhood sprout up. I don’t see the NRA or the GOP choosing PDX for a convention anytime soon.
By BILLB on Friday, July 11, 2008 at 03:02PM PDT
M , right on ! this idea creates a unique ‘place’ to sell to the convention visitors. It creates more and different architecture , instead of one lame ZzzzGF tower , we get a Holst and a Allied and … A whole bunch of cool designs , a bunch of arch. and int. jobs , and a neighborhood of jazz clubs , coffee shops, bookstores , bars [ u know like what we tore down there…]
By Rob on Sunday, July 13, 2008 at 09:05AM PDT
You might interview some convention planners. Convention hotels have many meeting rooms. Event planners get the hotel meeting rooms for free if they book enough hotel room nights, food, and audiovisual services. Some events even convert hotel suites into ad hoc meeting rooms. So a convention hotel drains convention center meeting room and other service revenues. Why was Metro building this again?
By Mikey on Monday, July 14, 2008 at 05:14PM PDT
But the single large hotel isn’t the answer convention planners are looking for, it’s just a side-effect of what they need: Easy planning.
If there was a collection of smaller boutique hotels that shared a booking system that could accommodate the same large groups, then convention planners could use a collection of smaller places in the same way they’d book at a single larger hotel.
As long as the building of this system isn’t some Metro-Fi-like company. ;)
By MarkDaMan on Friday, July 18, 2008 at 10:06PM PDT
As a meeting planner myself, I would never book several small hotels for my conference attendees. I have to check the quality of each hotel as if even one attendee is having a bad stay, I will hear about it. I need assurances that each hotel is ADA compliant, I need to negotiate terms and conditions for things like attrition, free WiFi, hold harmless clauses, force majeure clauses, even parking rates, to name just a few of the many steps it takes me to book a block of rooms.
With all due respect, Mike, I like the way you think, but this isn’t a reality in the business. You would be asking meeting planners to take several additional steps to book a conference, and we simply don’t have the time. The one thing that can beat price is convenience.
I do think if Metro lowered their standards, they could get a 300 room hotel built with little public subsidy. That would be a huge first step, and Metro would then be in a position to negotiate a second phase 300 to 400 room addition, again with lower subsidies, once the market is more proven.
By Mike Thelin on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 11:44AM PDT
Your viewpoint is much appreciated Mark. I’ve never actually talked with a meeting or convention planner about this, and I really don’t know how that business works. I do know a little about the hotel business, but nothing this grand.
I really do like your suggestion for a smaller hotel. If that were to happen, perhaps some hoteliers in the neighborhood would consider redevelopment. You definitely make some great points.
By David McCarthy on Friday, July 11, 2008 at 11:34AM PDT
Folks in the business of locating conventions seem to always follow the herd of one stop shopping: one hotel that will provide the number of rooms necessary for the size of group you are trying to convene. This has always been the argument against the use of downtown hotels accessible by Max. Has any convention center elsewhere had success providing an “accommodation packaging service” so that from the outside you think everyone is staying at one large hotel, but the reality is that of a cluster of smaller hotels/motels scattered throughout the immediate vicinity? Ease of planning and booking would seem to be the challenge for enticing the next gathering of the NRA, DAR or Republican National Convention to Baghdad on the Willamette.