91ÊÓƵ

Portland Development Commission officials wanted to search around the world for its next executive director.

But they didn’t need to look far to find him.

Patrick Quinton – a three-year PDC employee who most recently managed the agency’s business and industry division – was sworn in as executive director late last month. He took the reins from Bruce Warner, who announced his retirement late last year after holding the position for five years.

“We discussed a lot of external candidates, but really the first set in this process was coming to the conclusion that we had four or five outstanding candidates already within the organization,” PDC Chairman Scott Andrews said. “We wanted a hire that understood the organization and the culture, and would have the least impact on the day-to-day operations. We think we found him.”

At the PDC, Quinton has contributed significantly in the creation of the city’s Economic Development Strategy and has helped recruit companies like Vestas and ReVolt.

Quinton previously spent eight years with Textron Financial Corp. and eight years with ShoreBank Corp. in a variety of leadership positions. He holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Dartmouth College and a Master of Arts in public policy from the University of Chicago.

The 91ÊÓƵ recently spoke with Quinton about his new role.

91ÊÓƵ: Where were you when you first heard the news? How did you react?

Patrick Quinton: I was told by chair Scott Andrews in his office. I wanted to maintain my professionalism at the moment, but I was excited. It had been a long process, so there was a sense of relief about it. But I was definitely excited and anxious to move forward.

91ÊÓƵ: What’s the perspective you bring to this job? What makes you the right fit for the PDC right now?

Quinton: I think it’s a combination of my private-sector background, which has helped me here in my previous role overseeing our business initiative work with our targeted industries, as well as my finance background. I think both will be helpful as we examine out resource constraints and start to chart a new course forward that may not be as reliant on (tax increment financing) and may need to rely on other sources of revenues and financing to do our work.

91ÊÓƵ: You have a history in financing projects and dealing with mezzanine loans. Will that experience translate well?

Quinton: Yeah, I think that’s a good point. On our project financing we need to try and reinvent ourselves a little bit and align our work a little bit more with where the markets are these days. I think that requires some changes in the ways we structure deals and how we seek leverage for our investments.

91ÊÓƵ: What’s the one thing you need to learn in order to do this job effectively?

Quinton: In my job with ShoreBank in Chicago I spent a lot of time working in the neighborhoods there, but I haven’t had as much work in the neighborhoods here. I think there is some relationship building that needs to take place in our neighborhoods, especially North/Northeast and East Portland. I think it’s a matter of that people don’t know me yet, but I am looking forward to getting to know them. It’s one of my priority actions over the next few months to reach out to different communities around the city and get to know people.

91ÊÓƵ: I know (former executive director) Bruce Warner was brought on to champion that effort. Has he taught you anything about how to make sure the community relations continue?

Quinton: It’s certainly a priority. I think we have people on staff here, including John Jackley, who have made it their work to make sure that our accomplishments transition through to a new executive director. But I think it’s just a matter of making it a priority in our work, and I think it’s about relationships. Bruce and John have built great relationships. I just hope to build upon what they’ve done and maintain those great relationships.

91ÊÓƵ: The PDC is moving in a bit of a new direction. Explain this and how you fit into it.

Quinton: I think I’ve already been playing that role, particularly around the development and adoption of the city’s economic development strategy. That’s become one of the guiding agendas behind our work. I think one of the reasons behind why I was chosen to do this job is because of my history in that and our success in implementing it. I view it as my responsibility to continue to implement that five-year strategy. My job is to heighten that focus even more than the PDC has in the past few years. It’s about job creation, and not just in our targeted industries and not just downtown, but also in the neighborhoods – job creation that benefits all Portland residents.

91ÊÓƵ: What’s one specific area that you believe the PDC needs to improve?

Quinton: I think I’ve mentioned it already. I really think that we have a number of projects that we’ve been working on and because of the realities of the financial markets and the real estate markets, these projects aren’t able to move forward. We need to develop some new models of moving our real estate projects forward. It may be that some of our projects that are in our pipeline aren’t viable anymore and it may be that they need to be restructured in order to find new opportunities. This is an opportunity for us to show some leadership in this field. How do you do redevelopment like the kind we have been doing over the years in a market where private capital is hard to find and demand for new space is soft? We have some work to do, but we can be innovative on that front.

The other thing I would add is the resource constraints that we are facing requires us to be creative. Unlike a lot of public agencies, we can see well out into the future and predict what our financial resources will be. And we know that as urban renewal areas expire, we are going to have to find new sources of revenue. That might be new URAs and it might not. We need to leave this agency on firm financial footing to continue doing this work, and that’s going to require us getting creative about where resources come from.

91ÊÓƵ: If only one project could move forward this year, which one would you like it to be?

Quinton: We’ve been tossing around the idea of creating an entrepreneurial district on the east side. It’s a unique project in that it isn’t fundamentally about real estate development. It’s about creating a district that is an easy home for new entrepreneurs to set up shop. So not only do we remove the barriers for them to set up shop and start their businesses, but people actually begin to view it that way and it becomes a branded district. That way people outside of the region can think of it as a place to start a business. I think the east side is uniquely positioned to do that with the nature of the types of commercial space over there and the type of activity that is already happening. Plus, it just has character and people want to be in a place that is different and unique.

91ÊÓƵ: You’re stepping in at a rough time, with the contract negotiations with the union and the potential layoffs. How have those conversations been going in your first few weeks?

Quinton: There’s obviously anxiety around this and there is no way to avoid that. People are anxious to hear the news, but I think everyone wants the same thing. They want decisions made and they want certainty. I’ve had numerous conversations already with the union leadership and I think everybody is looking for a resolution. I don’t think anyone wants to make this adversarial. They just want to know what’s going to happen. I think I’ve been able to show progress so far since I’ve been here and I hope people know we want to give them that certainty in the near future.

91ÊÓƵ: What’s the future of urban renewal at the PDC?

Quinton: That is a good question. We have to be more diligent and much more thoughtful about explaining the economic benefits of new URAs. I don’t think the public, or the other taxing districts, are going to go along with new URAs that have unspecified benefits. We need to explain in very specific ways why urban renewal makes sense, what the benefits will be to residents and what the impact will be to other taxing jurisdictions. Then we need to make a case and show how it will benefit everybody. If we can’t meet that standard, I don’t think we should be pursuing new URAs.

I think there are a lot of untold stories around urban renewal – not just in Portland, but everywhere – that are real success stories. The Airport Way URA is an incredible success story. We basically started with almost no tax base there and we’ve now created a substantial tax base that flows not just to the city but the county and public schools. We need to demonstrate that we can replicate that model.

The other piece of it is that urban renewal agencies like ours have a mission that’s not just about redevelopment or urban renewal. It’s about economic development and job creation, and those activities need different resources to fund them. Not all of those activities are available for tax increment financing, and we have a limited supply. I think urban renewal agencies need to get smarter about how they’re funded and create a more diverse funding basis. As an agency, if we want to be around 50 years from now I think we need to solve that problem. It can’t just be about how we create new URAs, but how we create a more diversified and long-lasting revenue stream.