Negotiations between Metro and a developer proposing to build a hotel near the Oregon Convention Center are likely to carry into 2014, pushing back the project's timeline by a few months.
Metro is negotiating a development agreement with Minneapolis-based Mortenson Development, which is proposing to build a $197.5 million, 600 room Hyatt hotel just north of the convention center. Hyatt would then buy the hotel from Mortenson.
In exchange for Hyatt holding 500 of the rooms open for potential large conventions, having a union workforce and other conditions, the public would pay $14 million directly toward construction and room taxes on stays at the hotel would pay off construction bonds.
The development agreement, said convention center director Scott Cruickshank, spells out the project's expectations, costs, funding and legal requirements.
"It's kind of every detail of what would be in any public-private real estate venture," he said.
Teri Dresler, director of Metro's visitor venues, said Metro recently submitted its 43-page first offer to Mortenson, with the first substantive discussions scheduled for mid-December.
Meanwhile, representatives of Hyatt are coming on Dec. 12 to tour Portland, talk to representatives from Metro and Travel Portland and get an update on market conditions in the Rose City.
"It's taking us a little longer, as everything else has taken us a little longer," Dresler said. "Sometime in the first quarter of the new year, we'd like to get the development agreement approved."
Any development agreement would have to be approved by the Metro Council. Its last meeting of 2013 is scheduled for Dec. 19.
Meanwhile, the Multnomah County Commission is set to vote next week on whether to formalize changes to a fund that promotes tourism in the region. The Metro Council, Portland City Council and county commission all voted earlier this year to support the changes, but the county's vote puts the changes into county code.
If the county commission passes the agreement, project opponents say they may ask Multnomah County voters for a second opinion. A spokeswoman from the Coalition for Fair Budget Priorities, Paige Richardson, said her group would have three months to collect about 11,000 signatures to refer the proposal to the ballot.
The group is leaning toward a referral, she said.
"The only way the public's going to have any sort of recourse on this is if it gets to the ballot," Richardson said. "The deal remains the same, it's still an enormous public subsidy for Hyatt with all the risk being (borne) by taxpayers."
But Metro officials say their analysts insist the risk to the public is slim.
"Our approach to investing visitor taxes in attracting tourism has paid huge dividends," said Metro Council President Tom Hughes. "Using Hyatt hotel taxes to attract new conventions places no risk on our taxpayers, and creates enormous economic benefits for our community."