In short:  PDC has decided to postpone a decision on the Coliseum and move forward with the Rose Quarter Development Strategy work so that the final program and design of the Coliseum can be more fully integrated into the broader district development.

PDC also announced the following meetings:

July 12 – 5:30 – 9:00pm  - Bright Lights – Gerding Theater – “An opportunity for the community to have an early look at the Trail Blazer’s proposal (i.e., “JumpTown”) for the Rose Quarter District Development Strategy, and provide input that will then be considered by the SAC in their review of the plan at subsequent SAC meetings outlined below.

July 27 – 5:00 – 7:00pm – SAC meeting 14 (RQ Process Kickoff) -PDC Offices

Aug 10 – TBD (1/2 day) - SAC meeting 15 (RQ workshop) – PDC Offices

Sep 14 – 5:00 – 7:00pm = SAC meeting 16 (RQ plan review) – PDC Offices

On July 2nd, PDC sent the an email to the three teams still in the process stating:

“As you are aware, the City and PDC are preparing a response and recommendation based on the individual meetings held with the teams over the past weeks. The document will clearly outline our feedback to each of the concept teams based on what we know at this point.  We will be disseminating this to you shortly, and will schedule to meet and discuss in detail what we believe are the most appropriate next steps given the RFP is not proceeding as previously anticipated.”

See:  http://bit.ly/8YTUpL

Thank you for your continued commitment to the future of the Memorial Coliseum and revitalization of the Rose Quarter.

Over the last three weeks, I have been working alongside PDC and City staff to foster collaboration between the three Coliseum concept teams-VMAAC, MARC and Trail Blazers / Winterhawks. As I’ve said throughout this process, my philosophy is that a collaborative proposal that adopts the strongest aspects of each concept will enhance the overall community benefit and financial viability of the Coliseum, while respecting the Veterans Memorial and the building’s architectural integrity.

At my request, Portland Development Commission (PDC) Board Chair Scott Andrews and PDC Board Commissioner Charles Wilhoite have engaged in this process to provide their recommendation on next steps. In addition to their work on the PDC Board, they each have a wealth of experience in finance, real estate and development. They met with each team to identify commonalities and strengths, and have recommended a path which will be outlined for you in the coming weeks in a detailed synopsis of the meetings and key decision points. Based on their feedback-plus input from many of you and staff- it is my belief that it is best to suspend the Coliseum RFP process at this time and commence the Rose Quarter Development Strategy discussion. My City Council colleagues have been made aware that the Request for Proposal process, which they authorized through Council action in April, has been suspended with the opportunity to reissue it as needed.

We began this effort knowing that it needed to start with the Coliseum and understood that it would be an iterative process to ensure that the Coliseum and new surrounding development complemented one another. Now is the time to begin that iterative discussion. We know our possible choices for the Coliseum will inform the Rose Quarter discussion and detailing the future of the larger district will better guide our decision on the Coliseum.

Rose Quarter Development Strategy work will create a starting point from which more detailed development plans can be created for the MC, with the goal of moving towards implementation within the timeline of the Oregon Convention Center Urban Renewal Area’s remaining life. This planning effort will launch on July 12, 2010 from 5:30-9:00 pm at the Gerding Theater as a special edition of Portland Monthly’s “Bright Lights: Discussions on the City” and will feature Portland Monthly editor Randy Gragg as the event host. This public event will focus on the community’s desires for new development at the Rose Quarter, beyond the walls of the Memorial Coliseum.

City and PDC staff will continue to ensure that representatives of the three Coliseum concept teams remain engaged in the Rose Quarter process. Teams will also be encouraged to creatively address integrating those community-supported aspects of their program into the Rose Quarter District Development Strategy. Over the next week, staff will be working on the details of the “Bright Lights” event and welcome your input.

Following the Bright Lights event, the RQSAC will receive a Rose Quarter District 101 session at the July 27th SAC meeting followed by RQSAC workshops in August to examine initial plans and provide specific feedback as well as a public open house intended to engage the broader community in the development of the Rose Quarter.

Thank you again for continued work on this important forward-looking, community effort. I look forward to seeing all of you at the July 12th event at the Gerding Theater in Portland’s Pearl District.

Sam Adams

Mayor, City of Portland

5/15/10 – D.K. Row,  Oregonian – http://bit.ly/bjAUc2

Dear Members of the Rose Quarter Stakeholder Advisory Committee,

Throughout this extensive planning process, our focus has been on transparency and flexibility. One of the many benefits yielded from this commitment to transparency and flexibility has been the fostering of both competition and collaboration among concept proposers.

Both SAC members and City commissioners have expressed a desire to see collaboration among ideas and concepts, and I’m proud that the process we’ve been following has allowed for this kind of innovation.

In the past few days, all three of the finalist teams (Trail Blazers, MARC and VMAAC) have informed me that they have begun conversations about collaborating on a potential joint RFP response. All three teams have identified commonalities amongst their concepts and want to explore the benefits of working together.

As you know, we issued the RFP on April 16, and at the request of the teams, extended the RFP response deadline to allow time for the teams to discuss potentially collaborating.

We will ask teams to communicate their intent to the Portland Development Commission no later than Monday, May 10, 2010.

In the meantime, staff continues to work on updating the base case, which will serve as the point of comparison for evaluating RFP submittals.

I look forward to moving the process forward and discussing this latest development at our meeting on Tuesday, May 11. In the meantime, if you have questions, please contact Kevin Brake with the PDC at brakeK@pdc.us.

Thanks for your ongoing service and commitment to Portland.

Sincerely,

Sam Adams
Mayor, City of Portland
Chair, Rose Quarter SAC

Response from marcpdx.org:

The MARC team has committed to Mayor Adams that they will work in the spirit of cooperation to explore areas of common interest between the MARC, Blazers/Winterhawks and VMAAC teams between now and May 7th.  At the same time, the MARC team recognizes that significant hurdles exist relative to melding the potentially competing interests, ideas, skill sets, levels of expertise involved in the three proposals. In addition, the MARC team has significant concerns with the RFP and has not yet had the opportunity to communicate these to PDC.  Depending on the outcome of the discussions with the other teams, and PDC’s response to the concerns with the RFP, the MARC team will decide what direction it will head prior to the deadline established by PDC and the Mayor.

–4/15/10 – kgw.com video is here:  http://bit.ly/9A5LmB

See:  http://bit.ly/cmneqt http://bit.ly/bhcfcQ http://bit.ly/bVs2Zv

“A plan that would include a competition-level, 200-meter indoor track as part of a Memorial Coliseum redevelopment was one of three to get a go-ahead from the Portland City Council on Wednesday. Advocates for each plan now are expected to come up with a more detailed proposal.”

4/15/10 – Ken Goe, OregonLive.com.  See:  http://bit.ly/bcVAse

The opportunity for the MARC proposal to be a viable re-use option for Memorial Coliseum hangs in the balance.  Despite on-going and recent efforts by the MARC Team to call attention to the inequities in the current selection process, the City Council is poised on April 14th to approve the next step in the process– the issuance of a Request for Proposal (RFP).  Unfortunately, recent developments have not enhanced the chances of the MARC being considered in a fair, public process.

Despite efforts of Portland Mayor Sam Adams, Portland Arena Management (PAM), which is controlled by the Blazer organization, has refused to agree to a modification of their exclusive operating rights to the Memorial Coliseum in advance of a competitive selection process to select a proposal to revitalize Memorial Coliseum—a competition that they are part of.  Without major changes to the Blazers operating rights, it is unlikely that any viable plan for the Coliseum– other than the Blazers’ own plan– can succeed.

The current operating agreement between the City and PAM allows the City to cancel the agreement, but would not allow anyone else to use this public building for spectator purposes.  Our plan is particularly impacted because we propose to use net income from spectator events to help offset the operating costs of the proposed public recreation uses.  Without the ability to conduct spectator events, the economic viability of our plan is at severe risk.

The Blazers are effectively holding a valuable public building and veteran’s memorial hostage.  Larry Miller, President of Portland Arena Management (PAM) and the Blazers made this abundantly clear in a March 16^th letter to Mayor Sam Adams (PAM Letter 3.16.10):

“PAM is open to discussing changes to the Memorial Coliseum operating agreement if such discussions prove necessary. PAM reserves the right to decide in its sole discretion whether it will agree to any such changes.”

Essentially, what the Blazers have said is: ‘let’s have a competition, then we will decide, “in our sole discretion”, who wins’.  How fair is this?

Miller also stated in his recent letter that:

“The current agreement is also very important to our business model, so any changes to the agreement will need to add significant benefits to PAM.  At present, it is difficult to envision changes to the agreement that would fully protect interests vital to PAM”.

While the Blazers say the Coliseum is important to their business model, they have consistently said they lose money on Coliseum operations.  It would seem that their business model is based on making sure the Rose Garden gets the most lucrative events at the cost of marginalizing the Coliseum.  While this may be in the Blazers’ interest, it is clearly not in the public interest.

A copy of our most recent letter to the Mayor’s Stakeholder Advisory Committee is here:  Letter to SAC 03.23.10

The bottom line is that the City is asking the MARC team to engage in an expensive, complex and risky selection process, the outcome of which is controlled by the Blazers.  We believe that the Council should put an end the current process and find a better way to select the best plan for Memorial Coliseum, including, first and foremost, modification of the Blazers’ exclusive and obstructionist operating rights to the Coliseum.

There are two ways you can help convince the Council to change the current process:

1) Testify before the City Council on April 14th.  The basic message should be:  ”The MARC is great project and deserves a fair shot.  The current process is not fair.”  If you are interested in testifying, please let us know via an email to info@marcpdx.org.

2) Send an email or letter to the members of the City Council.  Email and mailing addresses are available on the “Support” tab of this website.

Thank you for your continuing interest in and support of the MARC proposal.

Oregonlive coverage here:  http://bit.ly/bdexbb