Big Box Retailers May Fill Memorial Coliseum

PORTLAND-Billionaire Paul Allen’s Oregon Arena Corp., owner of the Rose Garden Arena and the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers, is painting a $90-million picture for budget-crunched city officials in an effort to gain control of Memorial Coliseum.

The picture–envision the steel-and-glass box adjacent the Rose Garden Arena filled with a Target, a Home Depot and lots of parking, all stacked on different levels–is the private use alternative to three public uses proposed for the 43-year-old building. The $90 million is what Oregon Arena Corp says the city would reap over 30 years from taxes and rent if it signs off on the $40-million project. OAC presented the idea to the City Council this week with would-be development partner Gerding/Edlen Development Co., mastermind of the successful Brewery Blocks Redevelopment in Northwest Portland. Also designed into the project are an adjacent, 15,000-sf public learning center and a 250-seat amphitheater that the duo would develop with a portion of that $90 million.

According to the 1992 development agreement that created the Rose Quarter as it stands today, Oregon Arena Corp. has the right of first refusal to develop all of the city-owned property within the 37-acre Rose Quarter. Those rights include: the space above the city’s two parking garages on the north side of Memorial Coliseum; a half-acre parcel west of the garage structures; another half-acre parcel on the south side of the Coliseum; and the Coliseum itself. Allen also owns the former Red Lion Coliseum Hotel property on the nearby Willamette riverfront; the hotel has been demolished en route to redevelopment.