After Macy's, what's next?

Influential downtown business group wants delay in new urban renewal projects

By Jim Redden

LocalNewsDaily.com, Oct 26, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (11 Reader comments)

The grand opening of the downtown Macy’s story Friday was love-fest between city officials and business boosters.

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Macy’s Northwest President Robert “R.B.” Harrison thanked the Mayor’s Office, the Portland Development Commission, the Historical Preservation Commission, the Portland Business Alliance and the Downtown Retail Council for working together on the project.

Mayor Tom Potter said it could not have happened without the PDC, the city’s urban renewal agency.

“We can’t make this happen by ourselves, but the PDC can work with private businesses to develop a package of incentives to make such a project possible,” he said.

Representatives of the Portland Business Alliance have repeatedly praised the renovation of Meier & Frank’s Square over the years as a model public-private partnership.

The $140 million project – which includes the Macy’s store – could not have happened without $13.9 million in loans from the Portland Development Commission.

But now the PBA does not want the PDC to help fund any new downtown projects – at least not for the next five years. Speaking before a committee representing the City Council, the PDC board of directors and the Planning Bureau last week, organization representatives argued that two urban renewal areas that include much of downtown be allowed to expire next year without generating any more investment funds.

“These areas are supposed to have a limited life,” PBA member Owen Blank told the Urban Renewal Advisory Group three days before the Macy’s opening.

The PBA position is not as contrary as it appears at first glance, however. The organization – which represents many downtown business owners – does not believe that no more urban renewal funds should ever be spent downtown.

“We believe that urban renewal is vital to maintaining a healthy and vibrant downtown,” PBA member Karen Williams told the group last Tuesday.

In fact, as the PBA explains it, the sooner the two urban renewals areas are allowed to expire, the sooner one or more new areas can be created to fund downtown redevelopment projects. State laws governing urban renewal prohibit new areas from including former areas that are still paying off urban renewal bonds. Once the bonds are retired, however, some or all of the former areas can be included in new ones.

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