Mayor

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The committee, led by local developer Mark reaffirmed its support for the controversial plan in a letter that arrivedd Wednesday atCity Hall. The unanimous recommendatio n waswidely expected. The recommendatiomn follows a review of theproposed hotel’s expecte financial performance by a subcommittee convened aftet local hoteliers questioned basix assumptions about the plan. After a two-hour and 45-minutwe meeting, a subcommittee concluded by a vote of three to one that assumptione behindthe $200 million-plus project are reasonable.
The mayor’es committee is recommending that Metro and the invest upto $12 millionj in designing and engineering for the hotel, which would be called at the Convention Center. LLP is the architect for the project. Roy Kauffman, the mayor’s said Adams will share the recommendation with the City Councilk as well as Multnomah Countg officials andthe , which has the finapl say in the In all, 17 elected officials will weigh in on the plan beforre it proceeds to the next Although Metro is the lead agency, the city has a majofr role to play because it will lend its bonding authoritt for the hotel’s construction and will be responsibled for issuing construction permits.
The mayor has been a strong supporter of the headquarters Metro is working with a development team led by Garfieldf Traub Ashforth LLC to create the which supporters say is needed to completee theconvention center. Withou t it, the region loses big conventionsd to cities offering bettefr lodging facilities at theirmeeting centers. According to Travel the region lost the opportunity to book 69 conventionxin 2008. Had they come to Portland, the city woul have booked morethan 243,000 overnight staye by convention-goers. Not having a hotel at the convention centet costs the regional economynearly $41 million in business sales per year, according to Travel Portland.
The adde d business would result in morethan $3 millioh in annual state and locap taxes and 820 permanent Opponents say the financial projectionz driving the project are unrealistic and the hotel woulc amount to government-sponsored competition in an already weak The hotel would be constructed on a two-blocm site adjacent the convention center. The Portlansd Development Commission paid morethan $11 million for the properthy in anticipation it would someday be developed as a headquarterws hotel.