91ÊÓƵ

Ankrom Moisan Architects will not work on the remainder of the $212 million Hyatt Regency hotel project planned near the Oregon Convention Center.

The Portland firm had served as Mortenson Development‘s local design partner on the project, performing urban planning, land use services and other preliminary work. It leaves remaining design work to Minnesota-based ESG Architects.

The news was confirmed in an email Thursday by Ankrom spokeswoman Erin Stutesman.

“Mortenson Construction and Ankrom Moisan decided as a team that having one architecture firm (ESG Architects) lead would streamline the project,” she wrote.

Mortenson has submitted a packet to the Portland Design Commission and anticipates a hearing next month.

“If all goes well we’ll be tying up financing by the end of the year with construction starting in the first quarter of next year,” Tom Lander, Mortenson vice president of development, told the 91ÊÓƵ.

The hotel project has had a rocky development path to this stage. Metro proposed a plan to publicly finance the project and fielded appeals from rival developer Gordon Sondland. Earlier this year Willamette Week the conditions of an unusual legal settlement to move the project forward: Sondland agreed to drop several lawsuits tying up the project in exchange for a parking lot near the convention center.

Mortenson, headquartered in Minneapolis, has had a Portland office for six years. Aside from the Hyatt hotel, it has three projects now in development, including the Marriott AC Hotel in downtown.

Lander disagreed that Ankrom was added to the team to help the project win approval, then jettisoned, saying the firm was brought on to perform preliminary work only – work that’s now complete.

“Their big contribution as the local entity was helping us understand the urban setting of the project and that that was their role,” he said.

Lander provided a list of 16 local companies he said have all worked on the project.