Prosper Portland focuses its investments on healthy, connected neighborhoods with transportation options, as well as on economic growth and central city vibrancy – all based on public plans and public input.

Our investments in parking garages are made with the long term in mind and are anchored to community-driven strategies and shared public goals for economic growth. As with all Prosper Portland projects, all such investments aim to achieve community priorities, including broad economic benefit, community vibrancy and sustainability, and are developed to align with publicly driven plans such as the Central City 2035, Climate Action,  and various urban renewal area plans.  Our business equity goals for construction, promoting the use of minority contractors, are also key elements of any investment in parking infrastructure.

Funds directed toward garage projects complement other agency investments and do not take the place of the city’s significant investment in affordable housing which is the purview of the Portland Housing Bureau, and to which we have contributed more than $100 million over the past five years.

According to the City’s projections, “by 2035, we expect to have 122,000 more households, 135,000 more jobs, and 1.2 million more daily trips. To maintain Portland’s quality of life, we must find ways to grow gracefully. That means finding new ways to manage parking and its effects on air quality, traffic congestion, housing and real estate development, equity, and economic vitality.”

As we grow, the City does not anticipate eliminating parking but rather reducing vehicle travel and parking spaces per capita and promoting desired compact development and people’s use of non-auto travel choices through various policies and investments.

Public and Partner Input

  • Central City 2035, the Climate Action Plan, and urban renewal area plans provide public guidance to Prosper Portland’s investments in parking, which in alignment with those plans focus on creating vibrant neighborhoods where 80 percent of residents can easily walk or bicycle to meet all basic daily, non-work needs and have safe pedestrian or bicycle access to transit.
  • A May 25, 2016, letter from the Lloyd Enhanced Services District and Go Lloyd (the district’s transportation demand management organization) stated strong support for the Convention Center Hotel (CCH) garage: “a parking garage is an essential element of the successful development of a Convention Center Hotel,” based on its functional link to the Hotel together with current and future parking capacity needs of the district.
  • Prior to initiating plans for a hotel parking garage, Prosper Portland and project partners confirmed that the existing parking supply at the Oregon Convention Center was required for Convention Center visitors and could not support hotel visitor needs.
  • Proposed district parking in both Old Town/Chinatown and Central Eastside would either support historic buildings and/or focus on redevelopment of surface lots that currently serve the businesses within the areas to preserve parking for those businesses.

Community Vibrancy

  • While the CCH garage is next to light rail, it also includes a 19,000 SF TriMet transit police precinct, which will enhance safety and security in the vicinity of the Hotel, the adjacent transit center, and the transit system.
  • Developing the CCH garage in concert with the hotel provides the opportunity for enhanced urban design in the Lloyd District along NE Holladay Street and improved connection between the Oregon Convention Center and the Rose Quarter area.
  • The 10th & Yamhill garage renovation is anchored to the Downtown Retail Strategy, which encourages short-term, affordable parking for shoppers to sustain a vibrant downtown core and provide a centralized parking location for shoppers to avoid idling while seeking on-street parking.

Sustainability

  • While a parking garage is a requirement of the CCH project, the Convention Center Hotel will require less on-site parking than a typical hotel of the same size due to its proximity to transit lines. The proposed ratio of hotel-related parking stalls/room of approximately 0.6 is lower than other convention center-related hotels in peer cities (between 0.7 and 0.9 stalls/room in Seattle, Denver, and Minneapolis), acknowledging the transportation alternatives available to hotel patrons. Limiting the number of vehicle parking spaces is in general alignment with the Climate Action Plan.
  • The CCH garage is being developed to meet Parksmart Gold certification, the highest level of the world’s only certification program that defines, measures and recognizes high-performing, sustainable garages.  The ground floor will have 114 spaces for bike parking and at least eight EV charging stations as well as discounts for EV parking, all of which align with the Climate Action Plan’s call for support of non-car transportation options and reduced carbon emissions.
  • Prosper Portland’s investment in 10th & Yamhill is in renovation of the garage and in support of long term tenanting of the ground floor retail – current retailers are challenged by some of the garage’s design elements and significant need for upgrades to the building’s outdated venting and mechanical systems.

Economic Benefit

  • The garage is a requirement for the Convention Center Hotel development, which has been a top priority of the Oregon Convention Center plan and regional and Lloyd District stakeholders for decades.  The CCH has long been called for to help the region’s economy, maximize the Oregon Convention Center’s capacity, increase its vitality, and add significant event and tourism activity to the city and the region.
  • The CCH garage will be refinanced upon completion of construction and all refinancing resources and/or land sales related to air rights or other property rights would be available to the Oregon Convention Center URA within the five-year forecast.  Prosper Portland will be able to use the income from the garage to further economic goals that benefit all Portland residents.
  • The CCH garage is being designed and constructed to support future commercial development.  A 100,000 SF office building on top of the garage (which accounted for a portion of the overall increased project cost) would be consistent with and will implement the Central City 2035 Plan,  increase density and activity along the existing MAX light rail line, and increase property tax revenues to the taxing jurisdictions.
  • Prosper Portland’s involvement with the tenanting strategy for the 10th & Yamhill garage includes a commitment to minority tenants and prioritizes small local businesses in alignment with our Strategic Plan.  We are partnering closely with PBOT on this approach.To minimize construction impact, existing tenants received 18 months’ notice of the garage redevelopment.  Tenants have been working with the Portland Business Alliance and Prosper Portland to identify new retail sites during construction or on a more permanent basis.
    • Tenants will be invited to re-apply for the ground floor space opportunities; we are working with small business providers to identify potential new tenants who are interested in relocating or growing in the downtown retail core.