Comments on: Interest rates low, but out of reach /news/2010/08/20/interest-rates-low-but-out-of-reach/ Building and Construction News in Portland, Oregon and the Pacific Northwest Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:02:40 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.6 By: Old Town /news/2010/08/20/interest-rates-low-but-out-of-reach/#comment-37475 Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:02:40 +0000 /?p=58265#comment-37475 I agree with you. And, dumb or smart is a nuance not worth pursuing. Thanks for the responses.

A Perspective

]]> By: Nick Bjork /news/2010/08/20/interest-rates-low-but-out-of-reach/#comment-37357 Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:08:19 +0000 /?p=58265#comment-37357 “The Park West people made a terrible business decision and have been looking for the city and its taxpayers to bail them out of their predicament. Competition that exists in Portland is that for public funding (capital) – capitalism? Whatever happened to free enterprise?”

I totally agree with this statement. It should’t be the city’s fault for letting a poorly timed project fail. That’s capitalism. I love that.

But I still don’t agree that it was dumb money. Moyer could probably fund that tower himself if he wanted to. He got the project going by digging the hole with his own money in an attempt to strum up some excitement. It happened to be poorly timed. I don’t think TMT is dying for cash right now, and they aren’t losing much money keeping this stalled. They aren’t moving forward with the project because it probably isn’t viable right now. Development is definitely a business of risk.

]]> By: Old Town /news/2010/08/20/interest-rates-low-but-out-of-reach/#comment-37356 Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:01:11 +0000 /?p=58265#comment-37356 I would say that starting construction without the necessary financing and without preleasing and without an anchor is the expenditure of dumb money. In this case it was Park West’s own dumb money that financed the start. That hole in ground wasn’t dug for free. The Park West people were used to starting construction and obtaining the financing later.

But, the 2008 downturn in the economy wasn’t a mystery except to some. The Park West people made a terrible business decision and have been looking for the city and its taxpayers to bail them out of their predicament. Competition that exists in Portland is that for public funding (capital) – capitalism? Whatever happened to free enterprise?

A Perspective

]]> By: Nick Bjork /news/2010/08/20/interest-rates-low-but-out-of-reach/#comment-37260 Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:43:37 +0000 /?p=58265#comment-37260 Old Town,

Park Avenue West hasn’t been financed. How is that dumb money?

]]> By: Old Town /news/2010/08/20/interest-rates-low-but-out-of-reach/#comment-37123 Sat, 21 Aug 2010 20:01:49 +0000 /?p=58265#comment-37123 “The project needs to be in an established market, it needs to be about 75 percent preleased and it needs a long-term lease signed by an anchor tenant.” “It used to be that a developer just had to drive his car through the car wash and they were making money,” he said. “They have to work for their money now.”

Isn’t this the way it should be? Did it take a recession to learn this?

“There’s smart money and there’s dumb money … and pre-2008 lots of projects were financed with dumb money.”

Park West comes to mind – dumb money.

A Perspective

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