GlobeSt.com UPDATE: PDC Decides on Burnside Bridgehead Protest Procedure

PORTLAND, OR-The Portland Development Commission has released its revised process for deciding the protest of its choice of developers for the planned $200-million mixed-use redevelopment of five blocks at the east end of the Burnside Bridge. The urban renewal agency’s board of commissioners will decide the protest at its regular meeting June 22 following a special meeting on June 20 where all sides, including the public, will have an opportunity to speak on the issue.In early May , Brad Malsin’s Beam Development filed a protest to the PDC’s selection of Opus Northwest and local development partner Bruce Wood as the developers of the so-called Burnside Bridgehead project. That is when the PDC discovered that when it changed the RFP early on in the process to make the PDC board of commissioners the final decision maker instead of the PDC’s executive director, it forgot to make the same change to the protest process outlined in the document.A week or so later, when according to the RFP a determination of merit was due, the PDC revealed the problem and said it would be creating and distributing a new process, which it released Wednesday afternoon.The first deadline in the revised process is June 9, when Beam Development is required to deliver any additional information with regard to its protest in writing to the PDC staff. On June 16, the PDC will issue a written report analyzing the protest and any additional information submitted by any of the teams prior to the June 20 special meeting.Meantime, at the behest of Mayor Tom Potter, Wood and Malsin were supposed to have discussed working on the project together. There is no word yet if those discussions took place and, if so, if they were fruitful. Neither Wood nor Malsin could be reached for comment.The Burnside Bridgehead land covers a five-block area between Northeast Second Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Burnside and Northeast Everett streets. Opus’ $200-million, 1.3-million-sf proposal calls for 527 housing units, 120,050 sf of retail, 87,820 sf of light manufacturing space and 23,447 sf of office space. The housing units include 392 for-sale units and 135 affordable apartments. Beam’s $245-million, 1.7-million-sf proposal calls for 267 housing units, 217,000 sf of office, 169,800 sf of light manufacturing space and 120,340 sf of retail. The PDC’s selection of Opus Northwest as the developer for the Burnside Bridgehead redevelopment went against the recommendation of the evaluation committee that studied each of the proposals. Commissioners cited Opus’ financial strength, experience in large projects and its request for the smallest subsidy as reasons for its selection. In its protest, Beam alleges that PDC commissioners “failed to fully disclose” pre-existing relationships with members of the proposing teams and their subcontractors until late in the process, relationships Beam alleges “improperly favored” Opus Northwest. The protest also alleges “improper communications” between the PDC and Opus, and; that the PDC changed the evaluation criteria and selection process mid-stream, violated Oregon’s public meeting laws, and failed to provide a written explanation for its decision.