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Adams postpones Coliseum hearing

By: Nathalie Weinstein//March 11, 2010//

Adams postpones Coliseum hearing

Nathalie Weinstein//March 11, 2010//

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Mayor says now is the time to deal with concerns surrounding the city’s operating agreement with Portland Arena Management for .

In a letter to City Council sent this morning, he said the council should postpone today’s hearing on moving forward project proposals for the redevelopment of Memorial Coliseum until those concerns have been addressed.

MARC developer of Shiels Obletz Johnsen last Friday sent a letter to City Council expressing concern that the city’s operating agreement with PAM allows the city to operate the coliseum only as a non-spectator facility, which Obletz says could derail his proposal for 6,500-square-foot stadium within the coliseum.

“I believe this validates why we were so concerned about this issue in the first place,” Obletz said. “The meeting (with Mayor Adams) was a great opportunity for me to explain the critical nature of this issue and for the mayor to understand it’s impossible to develop a business plan without knowing the parameters for operating the facility.”

PAM, a private company that manages buildings within the Rose Quarter, was acquired in 2007 by a subsidiary of Vulcan Inc., which is owned by Trail Blazers president Paul Allen.

The hearing was originally set for 2 p.m. today for the council to vote to allow three development teams, , the and the , to move forward to the RFP process.

Adams yesterday met with all three project teams, and says discussions will continue between the city, PAM and the Memorial Coliseum project teams until a solution is found.



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