Don't go it alone.
That was the message Tuesday from Metro councilors, who expressed concern that Portland Mayor Sam Adams might push for a smaller hotel project or projects near the Oregon Convention Center instead of a headquarters hotel that convention advocates say the center needs.
The headquarters hotel was a key point of conversation at a joint worksession for the Metro Council and the Metro Exposition and Recreation Commission, or MERC. That appointed body oversees the Oregon Convention Center, the Expo Center and the Portland Center for the Performing Arts.
Support for a large headquarters hotel, which would be adjacent to the Oregon Convention Center and would serve as a host to large national conventions that Portland struggles to attract, has ebbed and flowed the past few years, with the opposition citing a potential impact to the rest of Portland's hotel market and concern over a project driven by the public sector (including urban renewal money, government-issued bonds and lodging taxes) but benefiting a private company.
Metro Council President Tom Hughes said Adams has started looking at the idea of renovating smaller hotels near the Oregon Convention Center, including the Inn at the Convention Center and the Red Lion. A headquarters hotel could have 500 rooms in its first phase; Adams is looking at a project about half that size.
"If we do halfway measures, does that get us further or does it foreclose full-term measures later on?" Hughes said.
Adams was unavailable for comment on Wednesday.
Hughes said he'd like to instead take a look at the updated market conditions and fiscal costs and benefits of a potential headquarters hotel project. That was an opinion echoed by several councilors.
"We should bring it back out, look at those numbers a bit and see if the world has changed," said Councilor Rex Burkholder, whose district includes all of the MERC venues. Burkholder said he's optimistic about the potential of the area because of growth in the Lloyd District and next year's opening of the eastside streetcar.
"It's going to boom," he said. "Is it going to boom in a way that benefits our operation?"
Councilors said large hotel projects near convention centers are preferred by the convention industry because of their ability to reserve large blocks of rooms for upcoming conventions. Smaller boutique hotels near the convention center can't do that, Burkholder said.
But the council didn't give a universal full-speed-ahead sign. Metro Councilor Carl Hosticka, who described himself as agnostic on the hotel, was worried about the potential impact a protracted, controversial project could have on Metro. He said he didn't want to see Metro's other projects put at risk by a convention center hotel.
"A counterpoint to that is one vision where Metro's future operations are put at risk if the OCC (Oregon Convention Center) becomes less viable," Burkholder replied.
MERC Commissioner Terry Goldman, a hotel industry executive and CEO of the Washington County Visitors Association, said smaller hotels simply don't want conventions.
"As the economy continues to improve, downtown hotels don't necessarily want the negotiated rates three to four years out that you have to get," he said. "A big hotel is what's going to help."
MERC Chair Elisa Dozono was critical of the idea of doing nothing.
"We're doing everything we can to keep business coming to the convention center," she said. "It's not just an uphill battle. We're sliding back every time we're on an uphill battle."
Update May 23: Metro Council President Tom Hughes submitted a post on the Metro news feed with his thoughts on the convention center hotel discussion. Click here to read Hughes' post.