OCT. 2, 2009 :NWLP
9/29/09
9:53 AM
Page 2
Labor agency
conducts flu
education
campaign
Planning for headquarters hotel at
Oregon Convention Center shelved
Portland Mayor Sam Adams, Mult-
nomah County Chair Ted Wheeler, and
Metro President David Bragdon re-
leased a joint statement Sept. 18 an-
nouncing that they will shelve planning
for a headquarters hotel at the Oregon
Convention Center.
The statement read: “We have
agreed that now is not the right time to
move forward with pre-development ef-
forts to build a convention center head-
quarters hotel due to the current eco-
nomic climate. Estimates we received
of likely future revenues for the Visitor
Development Initiative are not suffi-
cient to support the project’s pre-devel-
opment costs. The tourism and hospi-
tality industries have been hit hard by
the national economic recession.
“The Portland metropolitan area re-
mains an attractive tourist destination,
an important economic center for the
region and a vibrant hub of the arts and
cultural activities. We acknowledge and
are grateful for the efforts of many indi-
viduals who have worked hard on this
project.
“Job creation and economic devel-
opment remain critical goals for our re-
spective organizations, and we will con-
PAGE 2
tinue to work together in pursuit of
those objectives. The current climate re-
quires a focus on maintaining what we
have, and we will work with partners
and stakeholders to develop new strate-
gies for making the most of our exist-
ing facilities.”
Construction unions and the Oregon
AFL-CIO have long-supported building
a headquarters hotel in Portland, em-
phasizing that it would create jobs and
help spark other development in the
Lloyd District.
In 2005, the Portland Development
Commission appointed a Headquarters
Hotel Evaluation Committee to explore
building a 800-room hotel. By October
2006 it was evident that no developer
would build a hotel of that size without
a large public subsidy.
PDC then asked Metro, the regional
government that operates the conven-
tion center, Multnomah County, and the
City of Portland, to help research the
feasibility of a 600-room publicly-
owned (by Metro), privately operated
(by Starwood/Westin) headquarters ho-
tel. Metro took the lead and in Novem-
ber 2007 hired Garfield Traub and Ash-
forth Pacific to make the evaluation.
The process took longer than expected,
and over the next 22 months the con-
tract was extended four times.
During that time, construction cost
estimates for the hotel were whittled
from $247.5 million to $197.5 million.
More than $600,000 had been spent
on the feasibility research, but Metro
and its partners were now up against a
Sept. 28, 2009, deadline to decide
whether or not to proceed with the next
step — the “pre-development phase.”
This phase, which included architec-
tural and engineering drawings, had a
price tag estimated at $12 million.
Around $9 million of that cost was to
be repaid from lodging and rental car
taxes collected by the county.
On Sept. 18, Adams, Bragdon, and-
Wheeler met and decided to put the pre-
development planning on hold.
Bragdon said he has asked his staff
to present to the full Metro Council
within the next 60 to 90 days an action
plan “to determine a strategic plan for
the region’s convention efforts and the
public facilities that support these ef-
forts.We also need to consider the po-
litical and financial framework for sup-
porting these strategies.”
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
AFT’s Lincoln pursues
potential House vacancy
Eddie Lincoln, president of Portland
Community College Federation of Fac-
ulty and Academic Professionals,
American Federation of Teachers Local
2277, is seeking appointment to the
Oregon House in District 43, after cur-
rent Rep. Chip Shields was appointed
to the Oregon Senate. Shields is filling
the unexpired term of Margaret Carter,
who resigned to take a job with the
state.
Lincoln is employed at PCC at the
Metro Workforce Training Center,
where he helps Portlanders access an
education, improve their work skills,
and compete for family-wage jobs.
He is a former TriMet transit opera-
tor and was formerly a member of
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757.
Labor’s Community Service
Agency, Inc. (LCSA) has initiated a
campaign to educate the labor commu-
nity on the 2009 H1N1 “swine flu” and
seasonal flu viruses.
The agency will promote the use of
flu hotlines such as the toll-free Public
Health Hotline (1-800-978-3040), and
the State of Oregon’s flu resource Web
site (www.flu.oregon. gov or www.
cdc.gov/flu). Resources for vaccines
and immunizations, links to flu clinics,
and informational workplace posters
and materials also will be distributed to
Northwest Oregon Labor Council affil-
iates.
“Influenza, and particularly the
threat of the H1N1 virus, has the po-
tential to cause substantial time loss for
our working men and women,” said
LCSA Executive Director Glenn
Shuck. “Flu season runs from October
through May, so we want to make a
concerted effort to ensure that everyone
is informed and armed as soon as pos-
sible to reduce its impact.”
Shuck can be reached at 503-231-
4962.
OCTOBER 2, 2009