By Katie Bain
This week the Portland City Council approved an historic waterfront deal
which will commit up to $23.8 million dollars in public money to redevelop more
than 30 acres of land and property which is currently owned by the well-known
Zidell family.
Good for Portland
What’s fantastic about this deal is that it will grow the waterfront
district by almost 2 million square feet of badly needed commercial,
residential and office space as well as add over $200 million dollars in tax
money to Portland each year
In a recent interview with oregononlive.com, Amanda Fritz, Portland’s
Commissioner said this about the waterfront deal “If we can get it right, it’s going to be a wonderful community to
live, work and play in for 100 years or more. If we don’t, it’ll be a, ‘Huh,
not quite what we thought.'”
Long Time Coming
There’s no denying that Portland’s redevelopment has been “stuck” for the
last 10 years and that’s thanks in large part to the recent economic recession
but, things are starting to turn around for Portland and this waterfront deal
represents the most significant deal we’ve seen in 10 years.
One of the biggest sticklers which has got in the way of this waterfront
deal passing has been the issue of the development of low-rent and or
affordable housing but, thankfully, both the City of Portland and developers
finally came to an agreement and hopefully we will see ground break soon.
Start Date Proposed
With any type of major redevelopment project it seems like the start date
is usually a decade away but, thankfully, we could see construction begin on
this waterfront project as early as 2017 on blocks 1 and 6 while construction
on block 25 is expected to begin by 2025.
Move to Portland Oregon
Now is a great time to move to Portland Oregon. For more information
about current Real Estate prices contact me today by calling (503) 595-8800 or
CLICK HERE.