Albina Vision / Rose Quarter Redevelopment
 

Finally it looks like the Blazers and Paul Allen are taking some initiative in getting the ball rolling. Granted its the smallest of baby steps and with the housing market in its present condition I would be surprised if the project started within the next five years, but its still progress.

The Portland Trail Blazers pick AEG to manage the Rose Quarter
The choice suggests a move toward corporate naming and a push for development
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
BRENT HUNSBERGER
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The Portland Trail Blazers have chosen entertainment giant AEG as the new manager of the Rose Quarter, a signal the team is serious about redeveloping the area and growing revenue streams for the ballclub.

Los Angeles-based AEG Facilities has signed a five-year deal with the Blazers' Portland Arena Management to replace the current facilities manager, Global Spectrum, starting July 1, Mike Golub, the team's vice president and chief operations officer, said Monday.

Team officials hope the change goes unnoticed by patrons of the quarter's 20,000-seat Rose Garden and 12,000-seat Memorial Coliseum, and even by the 70 full-time and more than 700 part-time employees.

"Our intent is to keep all the staff, part time and full time, and to make this seamless to the visitor," Golub said. He declined to reveal financial terms of the deal.

The move suggests team management is pressing harder to find a corporate naming partner for the Rose Quarter and to redevelop the area to include housing, offices and other entertainment.

Among its many business ventures, AEG sells naming rights for venues. It also owns the Staples Center arena in Los Angeles, where it is developing L.A. Live, a $2.5 billion district of residences, offices, hotel rooms and event venues. Trail Blazers executives have cited L.A. Live as a model for redeveloping the 32-acre Rose Quarter.

AEG, a unit of Denver-based Anschutz Corp., beat out Comcast Corp.'s Global Spectrum, which has managed the Rose Quarter since 2005, when Paul Allen, the team's owner, relinquished the arena in bankruptcy. Allen's Portland Arena Management repurchased the arena in 2007 and extended Global's contract by a year.

Global Spectrum has performed well, industry observers say, boosting the number of events staged at both venues. It electrified aging Memorial Coliseum late last year by landing the Davis Cup international tennis tournament finals.

Global Spectrum also lured next year's men's NCAA basketball tournament and added the Portland LumberJax lacrosse franchise. The Rose Quarter was ranked as one of the busiest complexes for its size by Venues Today, a trade publication, said Mike Scanlon, Global Spectrum's general manager.

"I think it was a very successful 31/2 years," he said.

The Blazers operate the city-owned coliseum and have lost money on it for years. But in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2007, the 48-year-old arena turned a small profit, city and team officials say.

Davis Cup ticket sales should help the aging arena make more money this year, said David Logsdon, the city spectator facilities manager.

Golub said the team picked AEG not because of its financial offer but because of its track record booking concerts, and managing and developing arenas.

AEG ranks as the nation's second-largest concert promoter behind Live Nation. Besides L.A. Live, AEG also is developing O2 World, a 50-acre entertainment complex in Berlin, and The O2 in London, a 28-acre arena-centered development. It owns or manages 12 other venues, including WaMu Theater in Seattle.

AEG also sells venue naming rights, which the Blazers are marketing. Golub said the Blazers will continue to shop the Rose Quarter's naming rights in-house but could use AEG's expertise in the future.

Golub said the team is "midstream" in its efforts to land a naming rights partner. "We're still in discussions with some prospective companies but still a long way to go," he said.

AEG also owns the company that stages Coachella, an outdoor music festival in Indio, Calif., similar to Sasquatch at The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Wash., and Bumbershoot in Seattle. Though neither AEG nor the Blazers have seriously discussed starting a festival in Portland, Golub said, "we think there's a potential to do something like that with AEG."

But Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of Pollstar, a concert trade publication, doubted that prospect, noting Portland's smaller population and competition from existing festivals nearby.

The Trail Blazers-AEG deal links two of the richest men in sports: Allen and AEG owner Philip Anschutz, Nos. 41 and 125, respectively, on Forbes magazine's list of world billionaires.

It also links Vulcan Sports & Entertainment Chief Executive Tod Leiweke with his brother, Timothy, AEG's chief executive and president. Golub said Tod Leiweke was not involved in the decision.

Brent Hunsberger: 503-221-8359; brenthunsberger@ news.oregonian.com www.oregonlive.com/weblogs/atwork


©2008 The Oregonian

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that area really needs to be developed...

as portland grows, it is lacking in entertainment...and specifically nightlife. i travel the world experiencing other cities nightlife for a living and portland per capita might be the worst.

^ I sadly agree about the nightlife. I hesitate to say this, but OKC has a more vibrant (downtown) nightlife than PDX.

Not true...Portland doesn't have a faux main street of clubs. We have neighborhood hangouts. I have my favs. When I go out on a Saturday night, I pick one place and kick it with all my friends that show up on Saturday nights too.

Portland's night scene is misunderstood, maybe underground? or just local.

i mean...the area down in chinatown with dirty, dixie, mcfaddens, ohm, etc...is kind of a mini hub...but all of those clubs are glorified dive bars.

im talking about a mix of true high end ultra lounges...real dance clubs...

and what would really take the nightlife to the next level by pumping money into the business of owning a club in portland...

bottle service.

i think san diego has a great scene in the gaslamp that has a good mix of music formats, upscale and neighborhoody, etc.

Gaslamp is active and fun. But it's also a huge tourist destination, which, at that level anyway, Portland is not.

i think i speak for a lot of people in portland when i say that to me that sounds unbearable.

I would have to agree. 'Ultra-hip' just doesn't sound like Portland culture at all. Granted I have a feeling we will see more of it, but that isn't the Portland that has been.

I won't argue that. but there is no *one* destination district to gather. Weather or not that is good or bad can be left to opinion...which I don't care either way. Regardless of opinion ericb4prez is absolutely right in that there is limited Portland is very unique for American cities & that simply enhances its allure for me.

AEG is huge.....this could be a good thing for future development in that area. If I remember correctly a lot of people on this forum have been concerned about the "lack of anything happening" in the Rose Quarter. If they do anything remotely close to what they are developing @ Staples Center in L.A. the Rose Quarter is in store for some major changes.

it's funny, I was going to post earlier how nauseating it would be having a row of 'clubs' in town, etc etc.

I bit my tongue, but it's fun to see some others say the same thing.


I think this is the last thing that should be a focus for this area. I work here everyday, and it needs some core, some definition.

Maybe a few shops, some apartments or condos, small mixed use stuff.
Just to get something going. There is very little grass and open space either, just pavement everywhere. Very few trees, lots of warehouses instead. Lower Albina/Mississippi is the only thing sort of going on, and that probably barely qualifies as Rose Quarter anyway.

Maybe the "new" spot for the MLB ready stadium is ...
 

... the Blanchard Property (Lents is being talked about now but some of us consider that as a starting point for Paulsen). Maybe having AEG jump starts the Rose Quarter into a 24 hour Entertainment District in the near term. Having a MLB ready stadium makes the Rose Quarter a 365 day Enter. Dist..

Lets all support the Timbers and getting the current "PGE Park" moving to a "soccer/football" only stadium.

Some of us had this conversation years ago at the OSC website. It would be so sweet that some businessmen and women are seeing that a Rose Quarter Enter. District will truly pencil out. One comment I had brought forward was that the Lower Albina District could be redeveloped into a Pub/Dining/Hostel district with narrow alleyways (think Old London or Dublin). This would be very long term since the hazardous material industrial sites need to be worked one at a time.

Hopefully they can plan for an area underneath some of the parking structures, streets, new parks could supply enough space for platforms/ticketing/four lines for High Speed Rail (moving Amtrak to the Eastbank only is a goal of mine too).
This needs to be done in conjunction with the future Blue Line Subway alignment.

This news is just that the management has changed officially, but we can hope that more is to come.:)


eP

I totally agree. Nightlife in Portland is horrible gay and straight. I find the gay bars/scene here boring and depressing...smaller cities that I have visited across the US and Canada have better nightlife than Portland.

i realize that ultra lounges and clubs aren't for everybody...

but portland has all the neighborhood bars, irish pubs, dives, brew pubs it can handle..when it comes to that...portland is over saturated.

but when it comes to upscale...there are few options...if any.

some of the fun places in other cities...like slide in SF or confidential in SD would fit perfectly in portland...there would probably be room for a few places like that.

and it's time to face the facts...portland is becoming a tourist destination...

the word is out on the cuisine...

the population has grown to the point that we've become a true city.

it's time for us to have the amenities that go along with that.

While I don't completely disagree and respect your opinion, I also think people go to a destination to see that 'culture'. Why would we be trying to conform to the other cities cultures, then what is the use of traveling when everything is just like home.

Well I'd think those type places would be here if there was an actual market for them. Portland is different. I think it tends to take care of neighborhood populations before the tunnel and bridge folk. I like that about Portland. Its a very real city without all the social retail programming found in other "hot" spots. We're never going to compete playing the programmed destination game anyway so we should stick to playing up our strengths of urban authenticity.

re: portland as a tourist destination, i haven't seen any this year, but the past few years in the summer i've actually seen tourist guides leading groups around the pearl: a total wtf moment.

well we could have had the insta-nightlife district with the Cordish proposal for Centennial Mills...instead this community picks something organic from Lab...how very Portland of us. If we do get a thriving 'nightlife row', it will be by accident and that will make it all the more real.

Just last Saturday I saw a tour guide with a microphone and speaker leading a large group through the brewery blocks about 10:30 am. It was a total "wtf" moment for me too, but I see tourists all the time. The streetcar is constantly packed with people perusing their walking maps and trying to figure out where they are on the streetcar line.