(rshsdepot) Portland, OR

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From today's Portland Tribune.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
Transportation Communications Newsletter
 
You may read reader comments on this article at:
_http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=118609911754570000_ 
(http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=118609911754570000)  
 
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PDC seeks to unload station
Site may come with other parcels; public market’s a  possibility
By Jennifer Anderson 
 
For sale: One 111-year-old beautiful train station  in Portland, Oregon, with 
just $40 million in needed repairs. Selling price  negotiable; buyer must 
keep train station intact but may take advantage of  unique redevelopment 
opportunities on surrounding parcels. Contact the Portland  Development Commission if 
interested. 
• • • 
The ad above is fake, but it essentially represents the  thinking behind the 
city’s redevelopment agency, which has owned the historic  train depot for 20 
years and runs it through the city’s Office of Management  & Finance. 
Now, the PDC is looking to unload the station, either to  transfer the 
building to the city for public control or sell it to a private  developer who will 
retain the rail functions. 
“PDC doesn’t want to remain owner of that facility,” said PDC  senior 
development manager Lew Bowers. “While we might be part of the financing  to 
renovate it, we’d want to know whether the city will own it or maybe put it  out for 
(a request for proposal) or see what the private sector would do with  it. 
Nobody’s talking about getting rid of the train station.” 
According to the latest city reports, the 1896 station  requires $10 million 
in immediate fixes, such as roof, gutter and downspout  repairs, and another 
$30 million in deferred maintenance and seismic  upgrades. 
Bowers said his agency has redeveloped and sold off much of  the land around 
the station over the past 10 years, and now wishes to sell it  along with the 
few adjacent parcels of land that could be redeveloped. 
They include the two vacant blocks at Northwest Fifth Avenue  and Hoyt and 
Glisan streets, to the south; the U.S. Department of Homeland  Security offices, 
511 N.W. Broadway, whose representatives have indicated an  intent to move; 
and potentially the nearby Greyhound Station, 550 N.W. Sixth  Ave., which also 
could relocate. 
All that acreage could “really be a unique area within  downtown,” Bowers 
said. “It could be a large institutional use. There isn’t any  site left in the 
downtown area with a historical context to it.” 
Public market has booster
Unless city leaders want to take on the station’s baggage, so  to speak, it 
could remain a white elephant for some time to come, falling into  further 
disrepair. 
“Whether or not the city takes it would definitely depend on  the terms and 
conditions of the contract with PDC,” said Mary Volm, a city  spokeswoman. “It’
s a council decision. That’s the bottom line.” 
One person who’s paying close attention to the fate of the  station is Ron 
Paul, the former restaurateur who’s intent on siting a public  market alongside 
Amtrak at Union Station. 
The question of who will own the building doesn’t faze him.  “The public 
market has anticipated needing to respond to a continuum of  ownerships,” he 
said. “We understand that’s part of the puzzle that awaits us,  and we fully 
anticipate calibrating our strategies.” 
Recently, Paul received the results of the first feasibility  study for the 
market at the station, and he’s buoyed by the possibilities. 
“Yes, there is the opportunity for the public market to  coexist with Amtrak 
in Union Station,” he said, summarizing the city-funded  study by Mahlum 
Architects. “(It’s) not without its challenges. But it also has  tremendous 
opportunities.” 
One of the obvious challenges is physically locating it. The  architectural 
firm came up with one possible scenario: for the market to occupy  the 
cavernous waiting area and corridor along the south side of the main  terminal, 
heading between the terminal and Wilf’s Restaurant & Bar. That  would include a 
reconfiguration of the restaurant and station restrooms. 
The public market also would occupy the baggage area, with  some 
modifications made, as well as just outside the terminal to the northwest  corner of the 
building, extending under the Broadway Bridge ramp. 
In all, that would give about 30,000 to 33,000 square feet of  space to the 
market, which would house about 30 permanent and 10 to 12 temporary  vendors, 
Paul said. 
Renewal area’s set to expire
A bigger, more complex hurdle to Paul’s vision is the  financial picture. 
Most of the funding to restore the building would come from  tax-increment 
financing, leveraged by the Downtown Waterfront Urban Renewal  Area, in which the 
station sits. 
In April, that urban renewal area expires, which means the  city and the PDC 
no longer have the ability to issue debt but may continue to  spend the funds 
leveraged. 
Whether the station is part of any urban renewal area in the  future hinges 
on the work of an advisory committee that is re-examining all of  the 
boundaries in preparation for a larger central city plan. 
By Dec. 1, the committee plans to make its recommended  boundary changes to 
the City Council. At this point, Bowers said, it appears  likely that the 
adjacent River District Urban Renewal Area (west of Northwest  Broadway) will 
extend to include Old Town-Chinatown as well as the Union Station  area, for at 
least two more years. 
Discussions on the fate of the rest of the Downtown  Waterfront Urban Renewal 
Area, which encompasses the retail core, aren’t as  clear. 
“The committee’s going to need to do something in the near  future with that 
facility,” Bowers said of Union Station. “It’s not like we have  the choice 
to do nothing.” 
Once the lines are redrawn, and if the station sits in one of  the urban 
renewal areas, it will be up to the City Council and the PDC to decide  which 
projects benefit from the hundreds of millions of dollars raised, and how  they’re 
prioritized. 
“This is high on Dan’s list of priorities for the river  district,” said 
Brendan Finn, chief of staff to Commissioner Dan Saltzman, an  advocate for the 
public market project who’ll tour Union Station on Monday with  Paul and a 
representative of the architectural firm that conducted the  study. 
Besides tax-increment funds, Finn said, the city also will  look for federal 
funds and any surplus from the city’s general fund for the next  budget cycle. 
Once the overall renovations of the station are funded, it  will take another 
chunk — between $6 million and $8 million — to do the plumbing  and 
electrical work at the station to accommodate the public market tenants. 
Paul is confident his foundation could privately raise the  funds, especially 
given a relationship to a nationally known food icon. He hopes  to name the 
public market after the late James Beard, who was born in Portland  and went on 
to publish numerous cookbooks, host a TV show and open a culinary  school. 
After Beard died in 1985, a foundation was established in his  name in New 
York, and Paul was the first Oregon chef invited to cook there, in  the early 
1990s, he said. 
There will be two opportunities next month to learn more  about the public 
market project. On Sept. 28, the public market will be the  subject of a City 
Club lunch debate, with Paul scheduled to speak along with  Scott Dolich, vice 
president of the Portland Farmers Market’s board of  directors. 
The same evening, Paul’s public market foundation, along with  the James 
Beard Foundation, will host a Taste America event in collaboration  with 22 other 
cities nationwide. 
The Portland event will celebrate both the accomplishments of  Beard and the 
market’s opportunity at Union Station. Preliminary sketches of the  public 
market design will be on display. For details, see  portlandpublicmarket.com. 



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