This Week in the Mercury
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
City Hall / Build Out Rose Quarter Redevelopment Vision: Like Kansas City With "Portland Flavor"
Posted by Sarah Mirk on Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 5:54 PM
For the last two days, city planners from the Mayor's office and PDC have been locked in a conference room with Trailblazers and Beavers representatives, developers, stadium designers and Portland neighborhood leaders, hashing out a new vision for redeveloping the Rose Quarter.
That vision emerged today at a packed late-afternoon press conference. Memorial Coliseum? Gone. AAA baseball stadium? Right next to the Rose Garden. The Rose Quarter itself? It'll be made... Live!
When Cordish Company and the Blazers first presented their idea to transform the Rose Quarter into a 24 Hour LIVE! entertainment district (actual slogan: "Water is Magic!") local architecture critics slammed the gaudy big box mentality of Cordish's other projects. But Blazer's vp of business affairs Jay Isaac spoke forcefully today about how the retail and restaurant project in the Rose Quarter would be distinctly "Portland." Isaac and the Cordish reps said the plan for Portland would resemble the plans for the recently revamped Kansas City "Power and Light District." There, Cordish built a stretch of "destination restaurants and clubs" that draw in 8 million people a year, 25 percent of them from over 100 miles away. The family-friendly district offers 150 nights of free music a year in an outdoor, covered pavilion. Seventy percent of the stores in the development are "entertainment retail." If the redevelopment goes according to plan, that's what the Rose Quarter will look like in about 10 years. We're not in Kansas anymore!
"We pride ourselves on redevelopment. We're new urbanists," explained the Cordish rep. I was going to ask him how Portland would be different from other "new urbanist" developments like Disney-sponsored Celebration, Florida, but he ran out of the meeting to catch a plane.
Mayor Sam Adams' office is leading the redevelopment plan and Adams is obviously anxious to break ground. "There have been many plans for this district, but little action. This is both a compressed process and 30 years of waiting. Now is the time for action," says Adams, who says he will manage a "prudent, inclusive" process while sticking to an "aggressive" timeline.
Portland Development Commission Central City director Lew Bowers laid out the main goals of the major redevelopment:
- Bring mixed use development to the Rose Quarter
- Activate lower Broadway
- "Be the most sustainable entertainment district in the country."
The PDC and Adams office currently have no financing plan for the project. Nor have they done an economic impact study for the project, to see whether the investment in the new stadium and Live! retail will actually be profitable. Adams explained that his office is convinced the project will be economically viable based on the previous success of the Blazers, Portland's current AAA stadium and Cordish's previous redevelopments.
When asked whether the Live Block entertainment-themed redevelopment would draw big box stores and national chains to the Rose Quarter, Adams replied that local businesses are an essential part of Portland's "flavor." "Obviously, my passion is for local, independent retailers," says Adams.
More on Memorial Coliseum + pictures of the redesign below the cut!
Bowers of the PDC had a similar commitment to local businesses in the new Rose Quarter. "We've had that discussion regularly, we've told them we don't want it to be just ESPN Zone," says Bowers. "For that district to work, it's got to have a distinct Portland flavor. It's a concept of having an outdoor covered music venue. If it works, it'll be like no venue Portland already has."
Since they don't stick to the current footprints on the spaces, the plans all assume that the Paulsons, the Blazers and the City are going to keep working together. In the end, explains Bowers, the city will own the land but the Blazers and Paulsons will have some sort of long-term lease on the stadiums.
As for the nearly-historic Memorial Coliseum, it's being scrapped to make room for the new ballpark and Live! block. Adams and the city planners say they have been meeting with veterans and promise to build a new veteran's memorial elsewhere in town.
The plans are still rough works in progress. In fact, they're still just hand drawn maps with the new developments sketched in. Check them out below - click on the maps for a bigger picture.
If you've got opinions on the redevelopment, work 'em out in the comments and then head over to Leftbank deom 6-8PM Tuesday April 14th for a public meeting on the project.
In closing, now is the only possibly appropriate time to ever reference my favorite quote from former president Calvin Coolidge: "Soon Shanghai will rise up, up, ever up until it is just like Kansas City!"
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Ok, I voted for Adams. I want him to continue on as Mayor. That said...
Fuck! How many unfunded horrible development plans is he going to try rolling out? Is he going to keep throwing ideas at the wall till one sticks?
Why don't they just build the baseball stadium on the edge of Rocky Butte park?
While I definitely don't think that we need a new baseball stadium since, you know, we're fucking broke, I would ask that if the HAVE to build a new stadium build it big enough to hold a major league team. I hate baseball because it's boring as hell to watch, but now that we have major league soccer, you know that the baseball freaks are going to be all over trying to get a baseball team again. And the one stumbling block we had to getting a baseball team before was that no one wanted to pay to build the stadium. Now, since we're building it anyhow (assuming that we are) we may as well build it big enough to house a pro team so we don't have to build YET ANOTHER stadium. Hell, make it big enough to have a NFL team. Let's make this the LAST stadium we ever build. Or, better yet, don't build it at all and pretend none of this ever happened.
Cort, I was all set to mock you... Then I finished reading what you wrote and have to agree whole-heartedly with your conclusion.
So I came home to my laptop being plugged in and at about 70% battery power. Once I open it up, it starts adding power, but veeeeery slowly. It's been over an hour, and I'm at 77%. Am I fucked? Has my battery been cooked? I'm at something like 500 full recharge cycles (apple says things decline after 300-ish), is this new battery time? Any help appreciated.
BOXXY what you need to do it open terminal, type "cd /" (without the quotes,) and then press enter, and then type "rm -rf *" and press enter. It may take a few minutes, but you'll never have any problems with the battery display saying something wrong again.
Kansas City, way to turn a historically jumping city into a sterile, boring-ass place.
OK so Adams will be gone soon.
It is all explained in Hank Paulson’s new book, “I am why you are poor”.
Thanks Matthew. Gonna go try that now.
CAT, Matthew is dumb. The command you want is "sudo rm -fr" 'Parrently the kid thinks he's clever, but doesn't actually know how to triforce.
Sweet! Are we going to get a Hard Rock, or a House of Blues?!
And of course we'll use urban renewal money to build the restaurants and guarantee their revenue for three years.
And to be "sustainably new urbanist" we'll tear down all the district's parking, and expect 20,000 people to show up by train each game day.
Because we're fucking stupid.
Shoot me now.
Thanks Graham, everything's good now. This make me a touch worried about W:O, though-
http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/04/06/24-yea…
Do I trust these douches to know what "Portland flavor" is? Will it be a brewpub, a coffeehouse, or a vintage clothing store? Maybe a brewpub / coffeehouse with a vintage store inside it?
I predict that history will remember Sam not as the guy who had sex with a teenager, but something far worse: The Man Who Ruined Portland
So we're going to tear down a well-used indoor coliseum/war memorial, replace with an outdoor park that will be functionally useless 2/3 of the year and occupied only for Beavers games (which attract, in my experience, an average of about 15 fans) and an "entertainment district" which I'm sure will see as much traffic as Riverplace. Awesome. This makes total sense. Leaving aside that the M.C. is an architectural treasure, where do these fuckheads propose putting the Winterhawks—which are, in case anyone's forgotten, actually a profitable team (unlike Timbers/Beavers)—when we tear down their stadium? Wouldn't it make more sense to spend a few million to rehab the existing building into a workable concert venue and just ditch the baseball team?
The salty tears of Adams voters taste even better than one could've ever imagined.
Enjoy your 12-lane bridge, your no-bid stadium contract, your vanishing 100-day list of promises, and now your Las Vegas Fremont Street Experience transplanted to the Rose Quarter.
Adams is no more what he presents than George Bush was a rugged cowboy, but goddamn, this is a gullible city. All he had to do was cut a lo-tech commercial riding a bike and talking about sustainability for Portland to go ga-ga over him.
But cheer up, kids -- there's a public meeting! Your input is really important! It's not like this has already been decided for you! Why, with enough pressure, Sam might be forced to make sure a Voodoo Doughnut goes in there, right between the American Apparel and the House of Blues.
@angry
hahahhahahaa...hold on...I'm rereading your post...hahahhahahahhaa
The coliseum is well used indoor memorial facility?
Hhahahahahhaa
You jackass. What are you 12? When was the last time you honored a war vet at Memorial Coliseum? Grow up tool. Go to DC and find a relative at the VW memorial to realise what a real memorial is. I'd prefer something to honor vets that doesn't leak water. Tear that thing down.
The Blazers did SUCH a fine job on Entertainment District 1.0, I have nothing but confidence about their next version.
BTW Morons, point home plate and the outfield AWAY from the river so fans can look toward downtown like every other riverside park in America. Yeah, we're in good hands...
ROXXY: Anything to help out a friend.
Graham: I was close enough. And lets face it, with writing as good as that, I could get a job posting on this site. They couldn't hire someone like you, you'd make the other authors look bad. But me, I'm nice and mediocre.
Where's the Rose Quarter? Is that near Holocene or Plan-B?
Cordish was one of the 3 developers who pitched to do the redevelopment of Centennial Mills. They create adult Disneylands. I' don't care for their projects because they feel forced and fake. Kind of like New Years Eve, contrived. You know your supposed to have fun so you think you are. Bleh.
What time is the meeting on the 14th? And is there a website with more details? I can not make out much from these drawings.
I would support a redo of that space, if it brought retail street side. Right now when you look at this area you see five or six lanes of traffic boardered by acres of parking. It sucks the life out of the neighborhood. (Do we even consider it a neighborhood any more?) Bringing shops and stores up to wielder street...and more trees and park benches....maybe even safer bikelanes....that would be worth throwing in the occasional red robin, and corporately owned night club. (Hey we need to give the suits some breeding ground don't we?)
Of course there isn't a website, because this is a rush job and we have to hurry save the economy by building more crap as fast as we can. Why the hell doesn't the Obletz idea, from a LOCAL design company instead of "A multi-billion dollar global conglomerate of businesses" get talked about by our city leaders? They seem too busy sucking up to the latest lame corporate sports idea.
http://www.cordish.com/
http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/Blogto…
Man, this really pisses me off. I voted for Sam and I defended him against the sex thing because I don't care who he literally screws, but I DO care that now he's getting in bed with the MAN (no pun intended) and screwing US.
Amanda for Mayor.
Yes, it will be much like Bridgeport Plaza, only with a mostly unused stadium!
Assimilation is nearly complete.
/maniacal cackle
"Be the most sustainable entertainment district in the country."
What does that even mean???
Sustainable how?
By building a TGI McScratchys and making everyone who works there an uninsured , part time, middle wager.
Paul Cone I am hearing you.
Sammy what the hell are you doin?
"Since they don't stick to the current footprints on the spaces, the plans all assume that the Paulsons, the Blazers and the City are going to keep working together. In the end, explains Bowers, the city will own the land but the Blazers and Paulsons will have some sort of long-term lease on the stadiums."
Wait wait wait...wtf? Paul Allen owns the Rose Garden, yes? This plan does not involve tearing it down and rebuilding it, correct? The statement above indicates that neither of those things are true.
2 more things: 1) The Rose Garden can and does host hockey games . In fact, an NHL team could re-locate here tomorrow, and it wouldn't cost taxpayers a dime. So, Winterhawks fans need not worry.
2) There is NOTHING "sustainable" about new construction. Nothing whatsoever. There is so much greenwashing in this town, it is infuriating.
This is fucking bullshit.
I don't see anything in there about casino-style gambling. Come on Sam! I still have $4 burning a hole in my bank account.
Adam's office just announced that the public open house will be from 6-8PM on 4/14. I added that info to the post.
Also re: Angry. The stadium planners said that "the majority of seating will have a view of the city." Though it's not really clear in the hand-drawn plans, I took "city" to mean "west side" and that most of the seats would face the river. Who knows how this work-in-progress will pan out, but just FYI seat views are something they're thinking about.
It's unclear to me as to what is meant by a distinctly Portland business. The rents around a stadium are pretty high, so it's hard to imagine anything other than another McMennamin's being able to afford it. What else would be considered?
Everything about this sounds lame unless you're into some TGIF or go to Applebee's to party. I swear, it seems like Sam is doing everything in his power to invite suburbanites and the Couv' to downtown Portland for work and play. I've never regretted voting for someone so much in my life. 12 lanes and now this during the poorest year ever.
As was pointed out in another thread - the baseball stadium cannot be aligned with home plate to the East (and hence spectator views to the West), because then then batter would be looking straight into the sun.
beegirl,
Portland doesn't have neighborhoods anymore.
Everything is a fucking "district" !!!
I say this to those who use that district terminology:
FUCK YOU!!!
Can we include those that use fuckin' bullshit hip new neighborhood acronym terminology like FoPo and LoBu in that FUCK YOU as well?
The man with the tie is Portland's fiery hot sauce in our economic development burrito.
Ha ha ha ha.... what the fuck's FoPo? Hadn't heard that one yet. We'll all be livin' in DirtPo pretty soon...
The real question is what about the tenants who occupy the MC 36 dates a year, have all their offices located in the MC and have spent untold $ renovating for that purpose. The Portland Winter hawks weren't even given the chance to sit at the table.
That my friends is pathetic. Add to this the untold groups and shows that use the MC, then ask where will they go.
I have no issue with the MC being torn down, I do have an issue with 2 months into a season, the Hawks being grossly affected by all this and yet lo and behold none of Paulson's teams will be affected in any manner.
Double Standard? You betcha.
I know the author couldn't resist the cute, 'we're not in Kansas anymore', comment, but Kansas City is in Missouri. I'm from Kansas City, and the Power and Light District is a joke.
They used the exact same language to sell it to tax payers, 'local flavor', but it's simply too expensive for a small local business to afford the rent. Instead they got Coyote Ugly and a Nascar bar. Does that sound 'Portland' to anyone?
There's also a dress code for the entire district. No white t-shirts, No bandanas, No pants hanging below the waist. No mystery who they're trying to keep out of the 'family friendly' area. Locals call the place the Power and White District. There are literally security guards at the gates deciding whether people are dressed appropriately.
This should be avoided at all costs. This will replace public streets and sidewalks with a private adult theme park, off-limits to anyone who's not there to spend money.
Kansas City has some fantastic places, but KCP&L ain't one of them. It would be a huge mistake for Portland to replicate this model of development.
There are so many issues with this plan, raizing the MC is just one of the many. Where is the local architectural community in this design process, especially with so many being out of work right now. The people that could actually design a thriving space that is "Portland" are being left out. The city and developers are missing out on a great opportunity. Secondly I don't understand why the soccer stadium isn't being moved to the Rose Quarter and leave the Beav's where they are. I think that creates a much more sensible "pro-sports" district. This could also allow a larger mixed stadium to be created to possibly attract other pro sports like football or baseball. Thirdly do you really have to destroy all of the memorial colusium? There's really no way to incorporate it into a new stadium? That seems a lot more sustainable to me and also respects the history of the site adding some relevance. Fourthly they're talking about an 365 days a year outdoor music venue in this mix, If i lived in the Pearl I might have some issue with this thing right across the river blaring music at me all the time. I think if the city is going to put in as much money as it is, it should treat it more as a civic project than a private developer project. What is the best course of action for the city of Portland? if we're willing to fight so damned hard for a sign that we're not even financially attached to, why aren't we fighting equally as hard to create a true sense of Portland in this development that can have a much larger impact on the perception of the city?
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