Paul J. Berg
2007-07-19 13:56:59 UTC
~
From The (Portland) Oregonian - July 19, 2007
Mayor Tom Potter, announcing Ikea's decision to come to Portland two
years ago, said the Swedish furniture giant "shares Portland's values."
In many ways, that's true: The company boasts generous worker benefits
and the store will offer parking for 90 bicycles.
But Wednesday's grand opening at Cascade Station next to Portland
International Airport also represents a failure of one of city and
regional leaders' most cherished values: building MAX light-rail train
lines to new neighborhoods so that people aren't required to drive.
The region's leaders are used to legislating these values, but this
time, the market didn't play along.
"The idea was, let's build an urban village next to the airport in an
industrial core," said Craig Sweitzer, who tried to market Cascade
Station to retailers.
The economy slowed, 9/11 played havoc with retail development,
particularly around airports, and maybe the idea just wasn't right for
the location.
"It was just not feasible," Sweitzer said.
Ikea officials and planners put the best possible spin on the results,
noting that the MAX line to the airport is a success, with more than a
million trips in and out of the terminal last year. And that it was
built without having to raise taxes.
They also insist Ikea will certainly attract more transit riders than a
vacant Cascade Station has drawn since the light-rail service arrived
nearly six years ago.
But a 280,000-square-foot Ikea filled with furniture and housewares in a
sea of parking is not the transit-friendly urban village that planners
envisioned.
In 1997, the city and the Port of Portland gave Bechtel Corp.
development rights to 120 acres of vacant land in exchange for building
the light-rail line. The company kicked in $28.2 million of the $125
million cost.
Bechtel partnered with Trammell-Crow to develop the Cascade Station
property.
The original urban center plan called for more than a million square
feet of office space, 1,200 hotel rooms, 400,000 square feet of retail
space, a cinema with as many as 24 screens and the creation of 10,000
jobs.
At first, the idea of a "train-to-plane" rail line, great freeway access
and the trendy "new urban" cache was a hot selling point. Promotional
brochures showed shoppers strolling park-lined streets.
National retailers lined up to hear about it at the International
Council of Shopping Centers convention in Las Vegas in May 2000,
Sweitzer said.
"At the time, our project was the big up-and-comer in the Northwest," he
said. "Within one year, that line shrank to zero."
What happened?
"The biggest hurdle we had at the time was getting over the size limits
placed on the big-box stores. We couldn't get over 50,000 square feet."
The small size was a crucial piece of the urban village concept, but by
2001, the retail market was changing rapidly, and retailers were
demanding bigger and bigger boxes.
The city later tweaked the cap to 60,000 square feet, but it was still
too small.
"It's hard enough to make a lease with a national retailer, then to be
told it can only be this tall, and this size," Sweitzer said. "It made
it virtually impossible."
A day after the airport MAX line opened, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks stopped Cascade Station in its tracks.
"After 9/11 national retail as a whole kind of came to a stop, and with
that we lost the initial anchor tenants we needed to draw the regional
and local tenants," Sweitzer said. "Add that to the constraints on size,
and it just fell apart from there."
There were other issues. Federal aviation regulations do not allow
housing next to the airport because of noise concerns. The lack of
neighborhoods of customers and employees was a big hurdle, Sweitzer
said.
Planners and officials now agree the Cascade Station vision was probably
doomed from the start.
"I think it was the wrong location," said John Fregonese, who along with
planning pioneer Peter Calthorpe designed the concept's streets and
parks layout.
"Sometimes reality has a different idea," Fregonese said.
He said the lack of housing posed a major problem: "That really killed
off the idea."
In 2005, city leaders conceded defeat and agreed to allow as many as
three far larger stores -- a zoning change that lured Ikea.
"It didn't work out the way it was planned,"
City Commissioner Randy Leonard said. "But when government sets up a
plan for an area, the lesson is, you need to remain flexible so the
economics of what you are planning for makes sense."
Leonard said he thinks the Ikea makes sense for that area.
And Port officials remain upbeat about light rail.
"We believe that declaring the project a failure at this point is
premature and perhaps unwarranted," spokeswoman Martha Richmond said in
an e-mail to The Oregonian. "From our perspective, getting light rail to
the airport was a huge success. It was the first train-to-plane transit
service on the West Coast."
Richmond noted light rail offers a commuting alternative for the 10,000
people who work at the airport. As Cascade Station develops with hotels,
restaurants and shopping options, "even more people will ride Airport
MAX," she said.
Ridership on the line has steadily increased. In 2006, TriMet logged
more than 1 million boardings and deboardings at the airport's MAX
station.
"I think we misunderstood the fundamentals of the site," said Jillian
Detweiler, a TriMet planner who 10 years ago worked for former City
Commissioner Charlie Hales, a strong backer of the Cascade Station deal.
"Light rail was on the books, but no one was working towards making this
happen," Detweiler said.
The bottom line for TriMet: "We got our train."
Joseph Roth, an Ikea spokesman, said the nearby light-rail station will
be a plus for the store. And at least for the rest of this year, the
company will offer a $10 discount on the delivery fee -- typically $55
-- for shoppers who take MAX.
And, Roth said, "Not everybody who shops there will buy a sofa."
-- End of News Article --
Poster's Comment: Is the Cascade Station Project a planning failure?
OR, Was the City of Portland just outwitted by Bechtel and the
Light-Rail Mafia?
~
From The (Portland) Oregonian - July 19, 2007
Mayor Tom Potter, announcing Ikea's decision to come to Portland two
years ago, said the Swedish furniture giant "shares Portland's values."
In many ways, that's true: The company boasts generous worker benefits
and the store will offer parking for 90 bicycles.
But Wednesday's grand opening at Cascade Station next to Portland
International Airport also represents a failure of one of city and
regional leaders' most cherished values: building MAX light-rail train
lines to new neighborhoods so that people aren't required to drive.
The region's leaders are used to legislating these values, but this
time, the market didn't play along.
"The idea was, let's build an urban village next to the airport in an
industrial core," said Craig Sweitzer, who tried to market Cascade
Station to retailers.
The economy slowed, 9/11 played havoc with retail development,
particularly around airports, and maybe the idea just wasn't right for
the location.
"It was just not feasible," Sweitzer said.
Ikea officials and planners put the best possible spin on the results,
noting that the MAX line to the airport is a success, with more than a
million trips in and out of the terminal last year. And that it was
built without having to raise taxes.
They also insist Ikea will certainly attract more transit riders than a
vacant Cascade Station has drawn since the light-rail service arrived
nearly six years ago.
But a 280,000-square-foot Ikea filled with furniture and housewares in a
sea of parking is not the transit-friendly urban village that planners
envisioned.
In 1997, the city and the Port of Portland gave Bechtel Corp.
development rights to 120 acres of vacant land in exchange for building
the light-rail line. The company kicked in $28.2 million of the $125
million cost.
Bechtel partnered with Trammell-Crow to develop the Cascade Station
property.
The original urban center plan called for more than a million square
feet of office space, 1,200 hotel rooms, 400,000 square feet of retail
space, a cinema with as many as 24 screens and the creation of 10,000
jobs.
At first, the idea of a "train-to-plane" rail line, great freeway access
and the trendy "new urban" cache was a hot selling point. Promotional
brochures showed shoppers strolling park-lined streets.
National retailers lined up to hear about it at the International
Council of Shopping Centers convention in Las Vegas in May 2000,
Sweitzer said.
"At the time, our project was the big up-and-comer in the Northwest," he
said. "Within one year, that line shrank to zero."
What happened?
"The biggest hurdle we had at the time was getting over the size limits
placed on the big-box stores. We couldn't get over 50,000 square feet."
The small size was a crucial piece of the urban village concept, but by
2001, the retail market was changing rapidly, and retailers were
demanding bigger and bigger boxes.
The city later tweaked the cap to 60,000 square feet, but it was still
too small.
"It's hard enough to make a lease with a national retailer, then to be
told it can only be this tall, and this size," Sweitzer said. "It made
it virtually impossible."
A day after the airport MAX line opened, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks stopped Cascade Station in its tracks.
"After 9/11 national retail as a whole kind of came to a stop, and with
that we lost the initial anchor tenants we needed to draw the regional
and local tenants," Sweitzer said. "Add that to the constraints on size,
and it just fell apart from there."
There were other issues. Federal aviation regulations do not allow
housing next to the airport because of noise concerns. The lack of
neighborhoods of customers and employees was a big hurdle, Sweitzer
said.
Planners and officials now agree the Cascade Station vision was probably
doomed from the start.
"I think it was the wrong location," said John Fregonese, who along with
planning pioneer Peter Calthorpe designed the concept's streets and
parks layout.
"Sometimes reality has a different idea," Fregonese said.
He said the lack of housing posed a major problem: "That really killed
off the idea."
In 2005, city leaders conceded defeat and agreed to allow as many as
three far larger stores -- a zoning change that lured Ikea.
"It didn't work out the way it was planned,"
City Commissioner Randy Leonard said. "But when government sets up a
plan for an area, the lesson is, you need to remain flexible so the
economics of what you are planning for makes sense."
Leonard said he thinks the Ikea makes sense for that area.
And Port officials remain upbeat about light rail.
"We believe that declaring the project a failure at this point is
premature and perhaps unwarranted," spokeswoman Martha Richmond said in
an e-mail to The Oregonian. "From our perspective, getting light rail to
the airport was a huge success. It was the first train-to-plane transit
service on the West Coast."
Richmond noted light rail offers a commuting alternative for the 10,000
people who work at the airport. As Cascade Station develops with hotels,
restaurants and shopping options, "even more people will ride Airport
MAX," she said.
Ridership on the line has steadily increased. In 2006, TriMet logged
more than 1 million boardings and deboardings at the airport's MAX
station.
"I think we misunderstood the fundamentals of the site," said Jillian
Detweiler, a TriMet planner who 10 years ago worked for former City
Commissioner Charlie Hales, a strong backer of the Cascade Station deal.
"Light rail was on the books, but no one was working towards making this
happen," Detweiler said.
The bottom line for TriMet: "We got our train."
Joseph Roth, an Ikea spokesman, said the nearby light-rail station will
be a plus for the store. And at least for the rest of this year, the
company will offer a $10 discount on the delivery fee -- typically $55
-- for shoppers who take MAX.
And, Roth said, "Not everybody who shops there will buy a sofa."
-- End of News Article --
Poster's Comment: Is the Cascade Station Project a planning failure?
OR, Was the City of Portland just outwitted by Bechtel and the
Light-Rail Mafia?
~