In Sunday’s Oregonian (5/23/10), D.K. Row interviews Craig Sweitzer of Urban Works Real Estate, a company Row calls “perhaps the city’s most successful retail brokerage firm.” As part of the lengthly interview, Row asked Sweitzer his views on the Rose Quarter:
“Q: What are your thoughts on the Rose Quarter development process going on right now? What kind of retail or activating presence would work in that area?
A: That’s a complicated situation. I think Paul Allen’s group had an opportunity when they built the Rose Quarter to get things right. But they didn’t get it right. Theirs is a corporate approach to an important part of Portland that doesn’t have long legs. I think whatever happens to the Memorial Coliseum and the Rose Quarter should be an authentic Portland experience versus a national retailer’s perspective on what works.
In my opinion, the plan (a community athletic complex) presented by (developers) Shiels Obletz Johnsen is a good model, because it creates daytime traffic and generators that are critical to growth. It brings people to the area for reasons other than a Blazers game or a concert, reasons other than to drink and see a ballgame. And that gets to the problem overall. We’ve been evaluating success in that area solely in terms of what happens to the Blazers. But business cannot succeed based just on the Blazers’ winning record. It has to succeed when they are winning and losing.”
The full article can be found here: http://bit.ly/cW4CuG