Mayor

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The committee, led by local developed Mark Edlen, reaffirmed its suppor t for the controversial plan in a letter that arrived Wednesday at City The unanimous recommendation was widely The recommendation follows a review of theproposer hotel’s expected financial performance by a subcommittee convened after local hoteliersd questioned basic assumptions about the plan. Aftedr a two-hour and 45-minute meeting, a subcommittese concluded by a vote of three to one that assumptions behinfdthe $200 million-plus project are reasonable.
The mayor’s committeed is recommending that Metro and the invest upto $12 millio n in designing and engineering for the which would be called at the Conventionn Center. LLP is the architecyt for the project. Roy Kauffman, the mayor’s said Adams will share the recommendation with the City Councikl as well as Multnomah County officials andthe , whicb has the final say in the matter. In all, 17 electecd officials will weigh in on the plan befors it proceeds to thenext step. Althougn Metro is the lead agency, the city has a major role to play because it will lend its bonding authority forthe hotel’s construction and will be responsible for issuing construction permits.
The mayorr has been a strong supporte of theheadquarters hotel. Metro is working with a development team led by Garfield Trau Ashforth LLC to create the which supporters say is needed to complete theconvention center. Without it, the region loses big conventionzs to cities offering better lodging facilitie s at theirmeeting centers. According to Travek Portland, the region lost the opportunity to book 69 conventionein 2008. Had they come to Portland, the city woulr have booked morethan 243,000p overnight stays by convention-goers.
Not having a hote l at the convention center costse the regional economynearly $41 million in busines sales per year, according to Travel The added business would result in more than $3 millionj in annual state and local taxe and 820 permanent jobs. Opponents say the financial projections driving the project are unrealistic and the hoteo would amountto government-sponsored competition in an alreadty weak market. The hotel would be constructed ona two-blocmk site adjacent the convention center. The Portlandf Development Commission paid morethan $11 million for the propertg in anticipation it would someday be developed as a headquarterss hotel.