Aug. 25–Mortenson Construction, the company picked to build a subsidized hotel to serve the Oregon Convention Center, is also proposing a 204-room hotel across the river in downtown Portland.
Documents submitted to city development officials describe a 13-story AC Hotel by Marriott at the corner of Southwest Third Avenue and Taylor street on a vacant quarter block owned by the Portland Development Commission.
In May the PDC solicited offers for the site, laying out a timeline that would culminate in an agreement with a developer this month.
Agency spokesman Shawn Uhlman said that if the sale were to move forward, it would be for the site’s fair-market price and the project would receive no other PDC assistance. The site was recently appraised at $2.5 million.
Marriott International imported the upper-moderate AC Hotels brand from Europe last year in an effort to expand its reach among younger business travelers. It describes the brand as “design-focused” with an “urban spirit.”
AC Hotels typically include a lounge that serves small plates, cocktails, wines and craft beers, and they include a library with “locally relevant” reading materials.
The hotels are usually located in urban centers. Where hotel chains often aim for uniformity between locations, the AC Hotels chain follows a recent trend of seeking to take on a local flavor.
Marriott said earlier in June it plant to open more than 30 AC Hotels over three years in North and South America.
The PDC bought the site in 1999 and demolished the building there, which had most recently housed an adult video store.
Mortenson, a Minneapolis-based general contractor, was tapped by the Metro regional government to build a 600-room Hyatt Regency hotel near the Oregon Convention Center. The $212 million project would be privately owned but backed with $60 million in bonds to be repaid with the hotels’ lodging tax receipts, as well as $18 million in direct local and state subsidies.
Hilton recently proposed a 300-room boutique hotel at Southwest Second Avenue and Jefferson. It would be part of Hilton’s Curio Collection, a group of will four- or five-star hotels each operating under its own distinctive brand.
— Elliot Njus
