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Re: (rshsdepot) Portland, OR

I don't think governments in this country function as governments anymore; tehy seem more like real estate holding companies or dispersers of dead people's trusts

- -----Original Message-----
>From: I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com
>Sent: Aug 7, 2007 12:10 PM
>To: rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net
>Subject: (rshsdepot) Portland, OR
>
>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)  
> 
>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> 
> 
>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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>
>=================================
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=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org
To Unsubscribe: http://lists.railfan.net/rshsdepot-photo/unsub.html

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