PHOENIX — A bond-financed hotel near Portland, Oregon's convention center that had faced years of legal challenges appears on track to open in late 2019.
The 600-room hotel, a partnership between Metro, the Portland-area regional government that operates the convention center, Mortenson Development, and Hyatt, has been the subject of dispute since a 2013 petition by a group of rival hotel owners to refer the project to the ballot for a popular vote.
A lawsuit challenging whether the county commissioners could legally allocate hotel taxes to debt service for the project without a popular vote by the public was settled in January, and the project, expected to cost more than $200 million, is now full steam ahead, according to officials.
"It's in the design review phase," said Metro spokesperson Stephanie Soden. "We expect that to take several months. We expect to break ground next May."
The hotel will be located directly north of the Oregon Convention Center in the Lloyd District neighborhood.
The financing involves some $60 million in revenue bonds backed by the hotel room taxes, with another $18 million in loans and grants coming from the city, state, and Metro. The remaining costs are to be funded with investments from Hyatt, its development partners, and other private investments. Metro has said the hotel would attract five to ten more conventions every year, boosting tourism spending and creating jobs.
The hotel has been debated for more than 20 years, and the Hyatt Corp. won the rights to it in 2012, beating out Sheraton. Metro has also said that Portland's convention center underperforms despite an estimated $516 million added to the regional economy each year, in part because conference organizers have difficulty making hotel arrangements near the facility. An independent analysis of the project projected that it would eventually generate $5.6 million in new state tax revenues and $4.7 million in new local tax revenues annually.
The litigation holding up the project, which the Oregon Supreme Court had agreed to review, is permanently settled under the terms of the agreement between metro and the coalition that had been opposing the project. Under the agreement, Metro will transfer ownership of a parking lot near the Oregon Convention Center to Aspen Lodging Group, which was part of the coalition.
The hotel is slated to open in Fall 2019.
