April 15, 2005
Beam And Opus Down To The Wire?
You May Think Otherwise, But There Is No 'Preliminary Agreement'
If you got all your news through The Portland Mercury you'd think that the selection of a developer for the Burnside Bridgehead project was a done deal, since they reported this week that the recommendation of the evaluation committee instead was some sort of outright "preliminary agreement to award Beam with the development".
In the event you were fooled by their report, a look at today's newspapers would remind you that the selection process is by no means over, as both The Oregonian and Portland Tribune offer reports from last night's Portland Development Commission meeting (the one we were unable to attend).
Over in The Oregonian, they report that Beam and Opus appear to be tied at this point, at least according to PDC Commissioner Janice Wilson. And the Portland Tribune fleshes out some of the questions raised by members of the Commission at last night's meeting.
Now, to be sure, we have no idea (not having been at the meeting) whether these reports are an artifact of press reports trying to find the tension in the story in order to have an angle to play, or if there really is some sort of tie between Beam and Opus at this stage of the game. It's also possible that the Commission simply was doing its job by playing devil's advocate on some remaining issues with the Beam proposal and the evaluation committee's recommendation.
Either way, it's still a fair cry from the Mercury reporting to its readers that the committee's recommendation was some sort of "preliminary agreement" simply requiring some the dotting and crossing of some final letters.
Whatever the case, the final decision will be made at PDC's meeting on April 27, to be held not at OMSI where the recent public hearings have been held, but at PDC's headquarters at 222 NW 5th Avenue in downtown Portland.
Comments (2)
Sir Willups Brightlymore on 15 Apr 2005
That is interesting indeed. The Beam proposal, though a neighborhood favorite, would cost more in subsidies and would add a ton more office space to the area -- without first proving a need for it. I had wondered myself about the "letters of intent" issue -- and the Trib quotes someone as saying they are non-enforceable.
Even if the Bridgehead could fill all its office space, that would undoubtedly mean other buildings in the downtown area would lose tenants, barring some sort of business growth miracle in downtown Portland.
Interesting...I'm agnostic on the actual decision, just as long as public funds are spent wisely. Beam seems like a bit of a risk, but perhaps its a risk worth taking.
What's ironic to me is that someone like Jack Bog would support Beam even though it's going to cost more of his precious taxpayer dollars...
The One True b!X on 15 Apr 2005
The asinine part of this sudden bit about the letters of intent from Commission Wilson, however, is that it isn't news, isn't some sort of new revelation.
They are letters of intent, nothing more, and no one (other than a misinformed reader here) has ever argued otherwise.
Nonetheless, the fact that so many such letters of intent/interest exist, and the fact that they don't exist that way for the other proposals isn't something that can simply be dismissed.