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Portland planning and design firm Mackenzie has filed for a pre-application conference with the city of Portland on behalf of a developer looking to convert about 110 acres at the Portland Meadows horse racing facility into an industrial park. According to the pre-app documentation, plans call for a building of between 822,000 and 942,000 square feet with two or three smaller buildings all suited for warehousing, distribution and light manufacturing.

A forward-looking concept would target a clean tech industry park focused on sustainable power and smart grid and interrelated smart water and smart transportation, generating competitive returns with products and services that help reduce or eliminate negative ecological impacts and improve the productive and responsible use of natural resources. Components for and assembly of fuel cells and battery storage for commercial, industrial and home use could be among products designed and made.

Clean tech at Portland Meadows would build on the city’s existing commercial and institutional assets and help meet its sustainable economic development goals.

In terms of assets, Portland is home to the Bonneville Power Administration. Along with the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, also headquartered in Portland, BPA has made substantial strides over the past two decades in encouraging deployment of energy efficient and renewable technologies throughout the Northwest.

With 3,200 megawatts of installed capacity, Oregon ranks 10th nationally among states for wind power, and Portland is home to the North American operations of Vestas – the world’s largest maker of wind turbines. Despite a reputation for cloudy days, Portland ranks 16th among U.S. cities in installed photovoltaic solar.

The city is also home to a number of consulting and business service firms that serve the clean tech energy sector, including ICF, Cadmus and Research Into Action. Three major utilities are headquartered in Portland: Portland General Electric, Pacific Power and Northwest Natural Gas. Reformulated natural gas is a major source of hydrogen for fuel cells.

A clean tech energy park would support a more diverse workforce than a conventional light manufacturing and distribution warehouse scheme by mixing engineers and technicians with lesser skill vocations. It’s not the right model for a clean tech energy park in Portland, but jobs at the plant being built by Taiwan’s iPhone assembler Foxconn in Wisconsin are expected to average $53,000 a year. It’s hard to imagine a conventional warehousing business paying as well.

The park would embrace advanced cleaner production best practices in energy and water efficiency, solid waste and hazardous waste recovery and other site operations. On-site material handling would be performed by automated vehicles. Think self-driving forklifts and pallet stackers using geo-navigation and laser sensors. These vehicles are already on the market.

An advisory board composed of professional and technical experts drawn from local business and academia would not only add value from an operations perspective but prove a useful ally for branding the park and attracting tenants.

Forward-looking leaders have already recognized Portland’s potential for establishing itself as a magnet for clean tech energy with the newly inaugurated graduate certificate in energy policy and management at Portland State University. The program brings together study in engineering, administration, planning and economics. Graduates would provide a local source of professional and technical talent to meet the clean tech energy park’s workforce needs.

There’s little public information available on what Mackenzie is discussing with the city. It could be that the proposal is for establishing clean tech energy on the site. It’s difficult to tell based on limited information, although information available suggests a more prosaic distribution warehouse use.

The question at Portland Meadows is not whether the use will be industrial. It’s whether the property can be repositioned to engage the new economy and further empower Portland’s goals by developing a clean tech energy park that meets two of Prosper Portland’s targeted industry cluster goals in sustainability and manufacturing.

The racetrack property is probably the last large tract of land available for industrial use within city limits. Possibly, and even probably, the developer has an end user in hand, since it’s unusual to permit 800,000 square feet of industrial space on speculation. But if the horse hasn’t yet left the gate, it’s time to take a good look at how Portland can continue to build upon the reputation it has established for forward-looking urban development with a clean tech energy park at Portland Meadows.

Matt Slavin in 2018 founded M.I. Slavin to provide consulting in project management, strategic planning, research and communications. Contact him at 503-619-5601 or [email protected].