Stressing the importance of the Oregon Convention Center hotel project to the region's economy, Metro Council President Tom Hughes spoke Thursday at an open house about the project.
"We can do gun shows and bridal shows and bring people in from Pasco and Wenatchee, and they turn around and go home and don't spend much money here," Hughes said. "The folks we want to have come to town are the people who come in from Illinois and New Jersey and New York."
Thursday's open house was the latest effort to bolster community support for the project, which is entering its most important month. About 70 people attended the open house, which featured small question-and-answer sessions about the region's attractiveness to visitors, the hotel's financing plan and other topics related to the planned Hyatt. Six Metro Councilors were also on hand.
The Metro Council is scheduled to vote on the Hyatt's financing plan on Aug. 15. That plan, which includes using room taxes from stays at the Hyatt to pay down bonds for the hotel's construction, must also be approved by the Portland City Council and Multnomah County Commission.
The hotel is expected to cost $197 million, with about $14 million in direct subsidies from the state and regional governments. Another $4 million would be loaned by the Portland Development Commission, and $60 million in Metro-issued construction bonds would be repaid by visitors to the Hyatt.
Hughes said the hotel will help attract new conventions, with visitors from out of town who spend an average of $300 a day in Oregon.
"They say wow, we've never been to Oregon before, let's go to the beach while we're here. Let's do wine tasting in Washington County. Let's go to Mount Hood," Hughes said. "We're one of the few cities in the world that has a destination bookstore. That bookstore tells us when we have a convention in town, they know it right away."
Many of the attendees at the open house agreed with Hughes, that the project should be built sooner than later. Nearly all of the 20 comment cards left for Metro staff were filled out by project supporters.
"I'm all in favor of the hotel," wrote Geoff Scowcroft on one of the comment cards. "Will it have any spillover effect on the Rose Quarter, which is a moribund blight right now?"
Amber McCoy, a Portland Trail Blazers fan, said she hoped the project would revive the Rose Quarter.
"I have wondered why the All Star Weekend would not come to Portland," she wrote. "The story I've heard is the NBA won't come here because we do not have enough hotel rooms close enough to the Rose Garden."
One of the open house visitors, Bob Clark, said he opposed the hotel project.
"Other cities chase the same convention dollars, and the public/taxpayer usually gets shorted in the process," Clark wrote on a comment form.
Metro staff has said the bonds to build the project would only be repaid by visitors to the planned Hyatt hotel.
A public hearing on the finance plan is scheduled for the 2 p.m. Aug. 8 Metro Council meeting.