IHEARTPDX
Aug 4, 2007, 11:09 PM
PDC seeks to unload station
Site may come with other parcels; public market’s a possibility
BY JENNIFER ANDERSON
The Portland Tribune, Aug 3, 2007
For sale: One 111-year-old beautiful train station in Portland, Oregon, with just $40 million in needed repairs. Selling price negotiable; buyer must keep train station intact but may take advantage of unique redevelopment opportunities on surrounding parcels. Contact the Portland Development Commission if interested.
The ad above is fake, but it essentially represents the thinking behind the city’s redevelopment agency, which has owned the historic train depot for 20 years and runs it through the city’s Office of Management & Finance.
Now, the PDC is looking to unload the station, either to transfer the building to the city for public control or sell it to a private developer who will retain the rail functions.
“PDC doesn’t want to remain owner of that facility,” said PDC senior development manager Lew Bowers. “While we might be part of the financing to renovate it, we’d want to know whether the city will own it or maybe put it out for (a request for proposal) or see what the private sector would do with it. Nobody’s talking about getting rid of the train station.”
According to the latest city reports, the 1896 station requires $10 million in immediate fixes, such as roof, gutter and downspout repairs, and another $30 million in deferred maintenance and seismic upgrades.
Bowers said his agency has redeveloped and sold off much of the land around the station over the past 10 years, and now wishes to sell it along with the few adjacent parcels of land that could be redeveloped.
They include the two vacant blocks at Northwest Fifth Avenue and Hoyt and Glisan streets, to the south; the U.S. Department of Homeland Security offices, 511 N.W. Broadway, whose representatives have indicated an intent to move; and potentially the nearby Greyhound Station, 550 N.W. Sixth Ave., which also could relocate.
All that acreage could “really be a unique area within downtown,” Bowers said. “It could be a large institutional use. There isn’t any site left in the downtown area with a historical context to it.”
Public market has booster
Unless city leaders want to take on the station’s baggage, so to speak, it could remain a white elephant for some time to come, falling into further disrepair.
“Whether or not the city takes it would definitely depend on the terms and conditions of the contract with PDC,” said Mary Volm, a city spokeswoman. “It’s a council decision. That’s the bottom line.”
One person who’s paying close attention to the fate of the station is Ron Paul, the former restaurateur who’s intent on siting a public market alongside Amtrak at Union Station.
The question of who will own the building doesn’t faze him. “The public market has anticipated needing to respond to a continuum of ownerships,” he said. “We understand that’s part of the puzzle that awaits us, and we fully anticipate calibrating our strategies.”
Recently, Paul received the results of the first feasibility study for the market at the station, and he’s buoyed by the possibilities.
“Yes, there is the opportunity for the public market to coexist with Amtrak in Union Station,” he said, summarizing the city-funded study by Mahlum Architects. “(It’s) not without its challenges. But it also has tremendous opportunities.”
One of the obvious challenges is physically locating it. The architectural firm came up with one possible scenario: for the market to occupy the cavernous waiting area and corridor along the south side of the main terminal, heading between the terminal and Wilf’s Restaurant & Bar. That would include a reconfiguration of the restaurant and station restrooms.
The public market also would occupy the baggage area, with some modifications made, as well as just outside the terminal to the northwest corner of the building, extending under the Broadway Bridge ramp.
In all, that would give about 30,000 to 33,000 square feet of space to the market, which would house about 30 permanent and 10 to 12 temporary vendors, Paul said.
Renewal area’s set to expire
A bigger, more complex hurdle to Paul’s vision is the financial picture. Most of the funding to restore the building would come from tax-increment financing, leveraged by the Downtown Waterfront Urban Renewal Area, in which the station sits.
In April, that urban renewal area expires, which means the city and the PDC no longer have the ability to issue debt but may continue to spend the funds leveraged.
Whether the station is part of any urban renewal area in the future hinges on the work of an advisory committee that is re-examining all of the boundaries in preparation for a larger central city plan.
By Dec. 1, the committee plans to make its recommended boundary changes to the City Council. At this point, Bowers said, it appears likely that the adjacent River District Urban Renewal Area (west of Northwest Broadway) will extend to include Old Town-Chinatown as well as the Union Station area, for at least two more years.
Discussions on the fate of the rest of the Downtown Waterfront Urban Renewal Area, which encompasses the retail core, aren’t as clear.
“The committee’s going to need to do something in the near future with that facility,” Bowers said of Union Station. “It’s not like we have the choice to do nothing.”
Once the lines are redrawn, and if the station sits in one of the urban renewal areas, it will be up to the City Council and the PDC to decide which projects benefit from the hundreds of millions of dollars raised, and how they’re prioritized.
“This is high on Dan’s list of priorities for the river district,” said Brendan Finn, chief of staff to Commissioner Dan Saltzman, an advocate for the public market project who’ll tour Union Station on Monday with Paul and a representative of the architectural firm that conducted the study.
Besides tax-increment funds, Finn said, the city also will look for federal funds and any surplus from the city’s general fund for the next budget cycle.
Once the overall renovations of the station are funded, it will take another chunk — between $6 million and $8 million — to do the plumbing and electrical work at the station to accommodate the public market tenants.
Paul is confident his foundation could privately raise the funds, especially given a relationship to a nationally known food icon. He hopes to name the public market after the late James Beard, who was born in Portland and went on to publish numerous cookbooks, host a TV show and open a culinary school.
After Beard died in 1985, a foundation was established in his name in New York, and Paul was the first Oregon chef invited to cook there, in the early 1990s, he said.
There will be two opportunities next month to learn more about the public market project. On Sept. 28, the public market will be the subject of a City Club lunch debate, with Paul scheduled to speak along with Scott Dolich, vice president of the Portland Farmers Market’s board of directors.
The same evening, Paul’s public market foundation, along with the James Beard Foundation, will host a Taste America event in collaboration with 22 other cities nationwide.
The Portland event will celebrate both the accomplishments of Beard and the market’s opportunity at Union Station. Preliminary sketches of the public market design will be on display. For details, see portlandpublicmarket.com.
Site may come with other parcels; public market’s a possibility
BY JENNIFER ANDERSON
The Portland Tribune, Aug 3, 2007
For sale: One 111-year-old beautiful train station in Portland, Oregon, with just $40 million in needed repairs. Selling price negotiable; buyer must keep train station intact but may take advantage of unique redevelopment opportunities on surrounding parcels. Contact the Portland Development Commission if interested.
The ad above is fake, but it essentially represents the thinking behind the city’s redevelopment agency, which has owned the historic train depot for 20 years and runs it through the city’s Office of Management & Finance.
Now, the PDC is looking to unload the station, either to transfer the building to the city for public control or sell it to a private developer who will retain the rail functions.
“PDC doesn’t want to remain owner of that facility,” said PDC senior development manager Lew Bowers. “While we might be part of the financing to renovate it, we’d want to know whether the city will own it or maybe put it out for (a request for proposal) or see what the private sector would do with it. Nobody’s talking about getting rid of the train station.”
According to the latest city reports, the 1896 station requires $10 million in immediate fixes, such as roof, gutter and downspout repairs, and another $30 million in deferred maintenance and seismic upgrades.
Bowers said his agency has redeveloped and sold off much of the land around the station over the past 10 years, and now wishes to sell it along with the few adjacent parcels of land that could be redeveloped.
They include the two vacant blocks at Northwest Fifth Avenue and Hoyt and Glisan streets, to the south; the U.S. Department of Homeland Security offices, 511 N.W. Broadway, whose representatives have indicated an intent to move; and potentially the nearby Greyhound Station, 550 N.W. Sixth Ave., which also could relocate.
All that acreage could “really be a unique area within downtown,” Bowers said. “It could be a large institutional use. There isn’t any site left in the downtown area with a historical context to it.”
Public market has booster
Unless city leaders want to take on the station’s baggage, so to speak, it could remain a white elephant for some time to come, falling into further disrepair.
“Whether or not the city takes it would definitely depend on the terms and conditions of the contract with PDC,” said Mary Volm, a city spokeswoman. “It’s a council decision. That’s the bottom line.”
One person who’s paying close attention to the fate of the station is Ron Paul, the former restaurateur who’s intent on siting a public market alongside Amtrak at Union Station.
The question of who will own the building doesn’t faze him. “The public market has anticipated needing to respond to a continuum of ownerships,” he said. “We understand that’s part of the puzzle that awaits us, and we fully anticipate calibrating our strategies.”
Recently, Paul received the results of the first feasibility study for the market at the station, and he’s buoyed by the possibilities.
“Yes, there is the opportunity for the public market to coexist with Amtrak in Union Station,” he said, summarizing the city-funded study by Mahlum Architects. “(It’s) not without its challenges. But it also has tremendous opportunities.”
One of the obvious challenges is physically locating it. The architectural firm came up with one possible scenario: for the market to occupy the cavernous waiting area and corridor along the south side of the main terminal, heading between the terminal and Wilf’s Restaurant & Bar. That would include a reconfiguration of the restaurant and station restrooms.
The public market also would occupy the baggage area, with some modifications made, as well as just outside the terminal to the northwest corner of the building, extending under the Broadway Bridge ramp.
In all, that would give about 30,000 to 33,000 square feet of space to the market, which would house about 30 permanent and 10 to 12 temporary vendors, Paul said.
Renewal area’s set to expire
A bigger, more complex hurdle to Paul’s vision is the financial picture. Most of the funding to restore the building would come from tax-increment financing, leveraged by the Downtown Waterfront Urban Renewal Area, in which the station sits.
In April, that urban renewal area expires, which means the city and the PDC no longer have the ability to issue debt but may continue to spend the funds leveraged.
Whether the station is part of any urban renewal area in the future hinges on the work of an advisory committee that is re-examining all of the boundaries in preparation for a larger central city plan.
By Dec. 1, the committee plans to make its recommended boundary changes to the City Council. At this point, Bowers said, it appears likely that the adjacent River District Urban Renewal Area (west of Northwest Broadway) will extend to include Old Town-Chinatown as well as the Union Station area, for at least two more years.
Discussions on the fate of the rest of the Downtown Waterfront Urban Renewal Area, which encompasses the retail core, aren’t as clear.
“The committee’s going to need to do something in the near future with that facility,” Bowers said of Union Station. “It’s not like we have the choice to do nothing.”
Once the lines are redrawn, and if the station sits in one of the urban renewal areas, it will be up to the City Council and the PDC to decide which projects benefit from the hundreds of millions of dollars raised, and how they’re prioritized.
“This is high on Dan’s list of priorities for the river district,” said Brendan Finn, chief of staff to Commissioner Dan Saltzman, an advocate for the public market project who’ll tour Union Station on Monday with Paul and a representative of the architectural firm that conducted the study.
Besides tax-increment funds, Finn said, the city also will look for federal funds and any surplus from the city’s general fund for the next budget cycle.
Once the overall renovations of the station are funded, it will take another chunk — between $6 million and $8 million — to do the plumbing and electrical work at the station to accommodate the public market tenants.
Paul is confident his foundation could privately raise the funds, especially given a relationship to a nationally known food icon. He hopes to name the public market after the late James Beard, who was born in Portland and went on to publish numerous cookbooks, host a TV show and open a culinary school.
After Beard died in 1985, a foundation was established in his name in New York, and Paul was the first Oregon chef invited to cook there, in the early 1990s, he said.
There will be two opportunities next month to learn more about the public market project. On Sept. 28, the public market will be the subject of a City Club lunch debate, with Paul scheduled to speak along with Scott Dolich, vice president of the Portland Farmers Market’s board of directors.
The same evening, Paul’s public market foundation, along with the James Beard Foundation, will host a Taste America event in collaboration with 22 other cities nationwide.
The Portland event will celebrate both the accomplishments of Beard and the market’s opportunity at Union Station. Preliminary sketches of the public market design will be on display. For details, see portlandpublicmarket.com.