RFQ Out for $150M Headquarters Hotel

PORTLAND-The Portland Development Commission this week sent out a request for qualifications to experienced hotel developers interested in developing a privately financed 800-room hotel adjacent to the recently expanded Oregon Convention Center in the city’s Lloyd District.

Responses are due back no later than Oct. 31. From there, the PDC will select the most qualified and request formal proposals, which will be due in April 2004. If a bona fide privately financed proposal is received, negotiations for a disposition and development agreement would occur during the second half of the year, with design occurring during 2005 and construction commencing in the summer of 2006 and wrapping up no later than the fall of 2008.

The preferred site for the hotel is a two-block area bordered by MLK Boulevard, Grand Avenue, Holladay Street and Pacific Street. One of the blocks currently holds the Inn at the Convention Center, a run-down former Best Western the city acquired last year for $5.2 million. The city still must acquire the neighboring site to the south, the former KPDX television studio owned by local real estate investor Barry Menashe.