Portland Closer than Ever to Netting Convention Center Hotel

PORTLAND-The executive director of the Portland Development Commission is confident that the only thing now holding back a true convention center hotel in Portland is the economy.

“Is the demand sufficient today? Perhaps not,” Don Mazziotti tells GlobeSt.com. “But I would certainly expect at the end of recession to see the beginning of a convention center hotel facility.”

The PDC owns enough land around the recently expanded Oregon Convention Center to develop an 800-room hotel, says Mazziotti, including the dirt beneath the Inn at the Convention Center, a run-down former Best Western hotel across MLK Boulevard from the Oregon Convention Center that it acquired last year for $5.2 million. Mazziotti says the only reason the PDC hasn’t already put out a request for proposals is the economy.