A strong turnout greeted three candidates seeking to serve as master developer of the Broadway Corridor, a 32-acre site in Northwest Portland with potential for more than 3.8 million square feet of development, on Wednesday.

A public forum hosted by Prosper Portland was held at the Leftbank Annex, drawing local developers, architects, planning professionals, union workers and nonprofit advocates. About 300 people showed up to hear the developers boast of their past projects and commitments to diversity.

Audience members repeatedly asked the developers questions about diversity within their own firms and projects, commitments to communities of color where they build and disability access.

The developers pointed to similar multi-block projects they’d led in the past. In describing their own values, they sometimes lapsed into business jargon.

“The number one product we have is synergy, which is energy in alignment,” said Chad McWhinney, CEO of Denver-based McWhinney.

The forum was an opportunity for the public to meet the developers vying to transform the Broadway Corridor. The area includes the 14-acre U.S. Postal Service site, Union Station and several other publicly owned properties in a broad swath bridging the Pearl District and Old Town Chinatown.

Prosper Portland in early March named three companies as finalists. Besides McWhinney, Related Cos., a New York-based developer represented by its San Francisco office, and Continuum Partners, another Denver-based developer, made the cut.

The three developers have jockeyed to line up local partners. McWhinney is working with Portland hotel group Sage Hospitality, nonprofit housing provider Hake Development and former Portland Development Commission executive Bruce Wood. Local advisers include Beam Development for project entitlements and Mortenson for construction planning. The James Beard Public Market is also on board with McWhinney.

Related California has enlisted Portland commercial real estate heavyweight Melvin Mark and nonprofit housing provider Central City Concern.

Continuum Partners has not publicly announced any local partners. The group pointed to its experience remaking Denver’s Union Station, the Belmar shopping center in suburban Lakewood, Colorado, and a 26-acre university-owned site.

Related California CEO Bill Witte garnered some of the little applause of the night when he said his firm “beat out Donald Trump for the Time Warner Center project in New York.”

Frank Cannon, Continuum Partners’ development director, said Prosper Portland’s “tremendously aspirational” goals may come into conflict with each other and will require careful balancing by the master developer.

“It starts with an open and honest dialogue with the community about your goals and objectives,” he said.

Maurice Rahming, co-owner of O’Neill Construction Group, praised Prosper Portland for bringing the developers in front of the public. He wrote a letter in support of McWhinney’s bid.

“This is refreshing,” he said. “In the past, a lot of this happened in a vacuum and there wasn’t a lot of public vetting.”

Prosper Portland has also done a good job clearly laying out the expectations for diversity, Rahming said.

“As far as the teams, some of them were stronger than others, but they have a good idea of the expectations,” he said.

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