Quote:
Originally Posted by PDX City-State
I'm not opposed in theory to a few blocks of chain restaurants near the Lloyd and Convention Center. The problem is, locals won't support those types of establishments on the nights without events. There are tons of great restaurants in Portland, and chains don't typically do as well here.
I think the best way to revitalize that area is to build an actual neighborhood. There needs to be a catalyst project like the Brewery Blocks.
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Well, I would have to disagree about the chain restaurants not doing well, if only from a few personal experiences.
Last Thanksgiving weekend I was in Portland to see the folks, and on Friday night my cousin drove up from Salem to have dinner with me downtown. We met at Powell's, and then walked over to P.F.Changs in the Brewery Blocks. The place was mobbed, as we expected and as I had experienced on previous visits to that location, and we waited 90 minutes in the bar for a table to open up.
P.F.Changs,
the mass-produced trendy chain restaurant found in every upscale suburban mall in the country. In the middle of the hipper than thou Brewery Blocks in The Pearl. 90 minutes for a table, with a line out the door just to check in with the hostess. Yeah, the locals must avoid chains downtown.
That said, I loved your idea about razing the Memorial Colisseum to replace it with housing. As much as I appreciate MCM architecture, and as perfect a specimen the Colisseum is of that era, it's time probably has come. And I agree that it creates a big wall at the river with the Rose Garden and the Convention Center lined up to the south.
I think the problem with the four restaurants that originally opened at the Rose Garden were that they weren't enough, the draw wasn't strong enough, to pull people in on nights there was no game. There needs to be a development that is bigger, stronger, with more tenants and space for some really big anchor tenants to go in. That way, it's a draw on weekends there is no game, and on nights there is an event in the Rose Garden, the draw is magnetic for all attending. How about a performance venue/dining thing like House of Blues? That place does gangbuster business with locals at Downtown Disney.
http://www.hob.com/venues/clubvenues/anaheim/ It has the big concert space, but then also a popular restaurant and a busy bar. And the Sunday Gospel Brunch is always popular, which fills up the place on Sunday mornings when most restaurants are in sleep mode. Anchors like that would overpower the lulls in attendance between game nights or big events.
Kind of like the Brewery Blocks, which has housing, and then lots of big national chain stores and restaurants like P.F.Changs, West Elm, Diesel, Sur La Table, North Face, Adidas, etc. The shopping/dining at the Brewery Blocks is all hip stuff, but nothing that can't already be found in every fancy suburban mall from Seattle to San Diego. But it works, and is very popular with locals.