Allen Gains Another 18 Months to Mull Over Rose Quarter Options

PORTLAND-The future of Memorial Coliseum remains on hold until 2003 now as Oregon Arena Corp. was granted another 18 months to come up with specific plans for fulfilling its commitment to turn the Rose Quarter into something special.

The new memorandum of understanding, signed between OAC and the City last week, comes a little short of a decade after 1992 Rose Quarter development agreement with Allen resulted in the Rose Garden Arena, three parking structures and an adjacent office building with ground-floor retail that opened onto a public plaza. It also gave Allen control of several parcels that remain undeveloped, underdeveloped or, in the case of 40-year-old Memorial Coliseum, in dire need of redevelopment.

The time between these two agreements has seen several plans for the area rise and fall along with several retailers who gambled on the partially completed redevelopment of the 37-acre mostly industrial area wedged between a couple of freeways, a river and other major arterials.