City Secures Operator for 97-Unit Hotel Adjacent Oregon Convention Center

PORTLAND-The City of Portland has secured a new operator for the 97-room hotel located across MLK Boulevard from the Oregon Convention Center. A subsidiary of Wright Hotels Inc., owner of the nearby Holiday Inn on Grand Avenue, will operate the former Best Western property as an independent hotel. Its new name is Inn at Convention Center.

The Portland Development Commission paid Gene Ferryman $5.2 million for the run-down Best Western in July, in part because the land, if combined with other adjacent parcels, could be used for a real convention center hotel, one in excess of 500 rooms. In the meantime, though, because it was run-down and adjacent the convention center, which is undergoing a $90-million expansion, the City wanted to purchase the property in order to give it a facelift.

The PDC’s Michael McElwee tells GlobeSt.com that the City decided to take the hotel independent because Best Western was demanding some pretty hefty improvements if the city wanted to keep the affiliation. “They wanted us to send them $50,000 so they could come in and draft a property improvement plan that would ultimately call for between $600,000 and $800,000 in improvements,” says McElwee. “So we decided it would be better to close the hotel and re-open it as an independent.”