The 197,000-square-foot Veterans Memorial Coliseum, in Portland’s Rose Quarter, will soon receive some TLC. The arena will close this summer and again in summer 2025 to allow construction of a variety of improvements.

Portland’s Spectator Venues Program, within the Office of Management and Finance (OMF), oversees the Veterans Memorial Coliseum (VMC), which opened in 1960. The arena hosts a total of approximately 400,000 people at around 100 events annually.

The building has received minor renovations and repairs over the years, but many of the primary systems, equipment and furnishings are original and need attention. The Portland City Council in a resolution in 2011 voiced support for renovating the arena, but no plans progressed.

In 2015, OMF conducted a study of several renovation options for the venue, as well as closure and demolition options. The study confirmed the financial viability of a renovated multipurpose arena with upgraded essential systems, as well as enhancements that would increase the functionality and appeal for a broad range of events, a city staff report states.

The coliseum needs critical deferred maintenance as well as seating bowl modernization, OMF public information officer Carrie Belding said. The work will include improving electrical and plumbing infrastructure, the concourse, and restrooms, as well as replacing the scoreboard and audio system. Plans also call for seismic and safety upgrades. The seating bowl will gain accessible seating areas, as well as premium and group seating areas.

The work will be done in phases, so it does not interfere with Winterhawks hockey games or other events. Construction is scheduled to begin this summer in partnership with venue operator Rip City Management. The building will close in late June and reopen in late September. A second closure is expected in mid-June 2025 through early October 2025. The bulk of the construction will take place during the two closure periods. Some work may be done between events outside of the closures and may continue through 2026; however, no extended closure is planned in 2026.

The project’s architect of record and design and engineering lead is Perkins&Will, led by staff based in Denver. Scott Edwards Architecture is serving as the local architect. The team also includes civil engineer Vega Civil Engineering and structural engineer Madden & Baughman Engineering. Balfour Beatty Construction LLC of Dallas, Texas, is the general contractor.

The design budget, according to the contract, is not to exceed $6.1 million. The construction budget is $53.4 million. OMF does not anticipate costs will exceed these amounts, the department stated in an email.

According to OMF, $53.4 million in taxable bonds were sold in March. The debt service on these bonds is being covered entirely with Visitor Facilities Trust Account resources. This account is dedicated to investments in visitor facilities and the travel and tourism industry. It is governed by an agreement between the city of Portland, Multnomah County and Metro.

The Visitor Facilities Trust Account receives a portion of the transient lodging tax paid on hotel room stays and a portion of the vehicle rental license fee paid on car rentals. Annual debt service on the 20-year bonds is $4.3 million.

Design costs are being paid for with resources from the city’s Spectator Venues and Visitor Activities Fund, which is a dedicated city enterprise fund that receives revenues from ticket fees at Rose Quarter venues and Providence Park, parking revenues from the city-owned Rose Quarter parking garages, as well as an annual allocation from the Visitor Facilities Trust Account.

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A group of business, civic and philanthropic leaders are proposing a long-term plan to remake the Rose Quarter by reintroducing housing, a street grid and open space into the Northeast Portland entertainment district.

Members of an informal group are pushing what they call the “Albina Vision.” The group set out to reimagine the Rose Quarter, assuming only that the Moda Center and Veterans Memorial Coliseum would remain as anchors in the area. Everything else was subject to possible changes.

The group is presenting an early-stage conceptual plan to public officials, business leaders, community groups and media organizations. It imagines a sweeping future vision for the Rose Quarter that better integrates the 90-acre area into surrounding neighborhoods.

Urbanists have long complained that the Rose Quarter functions as an island that’s largely removed from the rest of Portland. On nights when there are no events such as a Portland Trail Blazers or Winterhawks game, or a big-ticket concert, the area can be empty and lifeless.

“It’s severed from the communities around it by infrastructure, and it lacks a 24-hour population,” said Tom Cody, a developer who is part of the Albina Vision group. “There are no people there. It’s basically designed to accept and release large numbers of people for events.”

The capacity for development is potentially among the largest in the Portland-metro area.

“There’s opportunity for 7 million square feet – or more – of new development,” said Hennebery Eddy Architects President Tim Eddy, who is involved in the Albina Vision.

In part, the Albina Vision seeks to mitigate past wrongs. The area now home to the Rose Quarter was once part of Albina, a largely black neighborhood. Several blocks were razed as part of city-led urban renewal efforts. Homes, businesses and churches were destroyed.

The Rose Quarter also interrupted East Portland’s street grid. The Albina Vision plans to restore some – but not all – of the grid.

“That grid was previously houses, it was apartment buildings, it was churches, it was commercial space,” Eddy said. “It was a full working, living neighborhood community.”

Apartments are a key piece of the Albina Vision. At present, there’s only one low-income building on the northern periphery of the Rose Quarter.

“So one of the cornerstones of the plan is we bring housing – a lot of housing – and people on the full income spectrum deep into the district, and that will bring a heartbeat to a place that was separated from its people,” Cody said.

The Albina Vision group was started by Rukaiyah Adams, chief investment officer of Meyer Memorial Trust and chairwoman of the Oregon Investment Council, and Jim Francesconi, vice president of public policy at Moda Health, and now includes about a dozen community leaders. Cody and Eddy quickly came on board, as did Zari Santner, a former director of Portland Parks and Recreation. Others include Gregg Kantor, the retired chief executive of NW Natural, and Michael Alexander, retired chief executive of the Urban League of Portland.

“We agreed that there needed to be a comprehensive look at development opportunities in that area,” Santner said.

The group hopes to put an overall plan in place before any large-scale development – such as a corporate campus – comes to the Rose Quarter.

It remains to be seen whether the group can persuade the major players, including city commissioners, the Portland Trail Blazers, Moda Health and others, to buy into their vision. But members said the mayor’s office and the Trail Blazers had given their blessing to investigate a large-scale vision for the Rose Quarter.

Much of the land in the area is owned either by the city of Portland or Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc.

Mayor Ted Wheeler said he’s had conversations with the Albina Vision group.

“I like a lot of elements of that package, including taking advantage of a reconnection in our grid system, and a focus on housing and a focus on rebuilding a community that was really torn asunder through urban development,” he said.

But, Wheeler added, the city is a long way from any formal plans to redevelop the Rose Quarter.

“At this point, we’re not really settling on – we’re way premature to say we’ve settled on any concept or idea around this development site,” he said. “There’s a lot of pre-work that still needs to happen. But I know those players. I have confidence in their vision. I support the premise behind their vision, and I’m glad that they’re engaging this conversation with us and the community at large.”

Trail Blazers spokesman Michael Lewellen said the organization had no comment on the Albina Vision.

“There’s nothing to say at this point,” he said.

Vulcan Inc. did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Albina Vision members are investigating possible governance structures to ensure their plan influences future development there. They’re looking to form a nonprofit governance group modeled after those in other cities, such as New York’s Battery Park City Authority, to oversee and guide development in the district.

The Albina Vision takes more ambitious steps than the city’s North/Northeast Quadrant Plan, which was a precursor to the city’s comprehensive plan that will take effect Jan. 1, 2018.

The Albina Vision envisions bulldozing existing parking garages and then constructing parking underground. The group is also looking into building large “lids” or “caps” – structures that would extend over Interstate Avenue and rail lines between Veterans Memorial Coliseum and the Willamette River. The caps would be covered in park-like open space, reaching the river.

“Nobody had a plan,” Eddy said. “So we created a plan.”

Ethan Seltzer, Portland State University professor emeritus of urban studies and planning, raised questions as to whether undergoing an expensive remake of the Rose Quarter should be a priority for Portland.

“If you really wanted to draw African-American families back into north-northeast Portland, what could you do with that money?” he said, suggesting new schools as one option.

Urban design isn’t the solution to every problem, Seltzer said.

“It all sounds great, but I’d be a little careful of the old saw: If your only tool is a hammer, all your problems look like nails,” he said. “Are we buying into something before there’s been an adequate explanation of the options?”

Reaction to the Albina Vision has been overwhelmingly positive, Santner said.

“We are very, very encouraged by the reception this is getting from various groups,” she said. “People like the idea.”

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Veterans Memorial Coliseum has received a face-lift intended to help the Rose Quarter venue compete for events.

The $5 million, two-year project focused on deferred maintenance needs, Mayor Ted Wheeler said during an event Friday to tout the updates.

The project is a “prelude to further investment” and will help Portland compete for a future NBA All-Star Game, said Amanda Mann, general manager of the Rose Quarter.

It also comes ahead of the PK80-Phil Knight Invitational, a college basketball tournament featuring 16 teams, including Duke, North Carolina, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio State, Gonzaga, Oregon, Portland State and the University of Portland, to the coliseum and the Moda Center on Nov. 23-26.

The project included:

• renovating the existing center video board and installing new HD video replay screens;
• installing new programmable LED lights in the arena;
• renovating concessions areas for more food and beverage options, and adding a new point-of-sale system for faster transactions;
• fully replacing the roof of the coliseum, pagoda and entry canopy; and
• restoring glulam columns in the lobby to reveal their wood finish.

R&H Construction served as the general contractor for the project.

The coliseum now is used for Portland Winterhawks hockey games and concerts. Wheeler said the venue hosted 430,000 visitors last year and turned an operating profit despite its reputation as a “white elephant.”

“It is in the black and has been for three years,” he said.

The coliseum has been the subject of considerable debate. The building is owned by the city, and has attracted some attention from developers. Preservationists fought back, forming the Friends of Memorial Coliseum and enlisting the National Trust for Historic Preservation in a campaign to save the building.

The City Council in 2015 commissioned from Bora Architects a report that examined various renovation and redevelopment scenarios without offering a recommended path. More recently, a group of community leaders has set forth a framework plan they call Albina Vision. The plan would reintroduce a street grid and housing into the Rose Quarter, while leaving the coliseum and Moda Center in place.

Wheeler said the city is still a long ways away from making any decisions on the Rose Quarter’s future.

“We’re way premature to say we’ve settled on any concept or idea around this development site,” he said. “There’s a lot of pre-work that still needs to happen.”

Veterans Memorial Coliseum was completed in 1960 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The building was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and is regarded as a strong example of International Style architecture. Four concrete pillars hold up the exterior glass box, with a bowl in the center. The design offers wide views from the building.

The coliseum has a notable place in Portland history. Over the years, it has hosted acts including the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Elvis Presley. It was also home to the Portland Trail Blazers until 1995, when the basketball team moved next door to what is now the Moda Center. Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama and other significant public figures have spoken at the coliseum.

Wheeler said his first event at the coliseum came during Alice Cooper’s “Billion Dollar Babies” tour. According to the singer’s website, Cooper played at Veterans Memorial Coliseum on May 24, 1973. Among the songs Cooper performed? “Elected.”

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About 100 people visited Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Thursday to hear an announcement that many had been waiting for: the arena has been named a “national treasure” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The coliseum, financed by an $8 million bond approved by voters, was built in 1960. The city has conducted multiple studies over the past 20 years to seek how to preserve (or replace) the aging building; however, no easy solution has emerged.

City commissioners Amanda Fritz and Nick Fish both pledged city support for renovating the aging, city-owned structure, which in the past was targeted for demolition.

“The longer we wait to make improvements and do upgrades, the harder it will be,” Fritz said at Thursday’s press conference.

The city this summer will take a first step toward arena restoration by replacing the roof, Fish said.

“I’m here today to say we will stand with you to protect this iconic structure,” he said. “Cities that don’t protect historic structures are guilty of ‘civic vandalism,’ but not here in Portland.”

The coliseum is already on the National Register of Historic Places. Fish said the “national treasure” designation does not afford any legal protections.

“Instead, it’s up to us,” he said.

Barbara Pahl, senior vice president of field services for the National Trust, stressed that a coordinated local effort is needed to make sure the building gets the attention it needs. Notably, some of its systems are more than 50 years old and require replacement.

“It will continue to serve Portland as a multipurpose arena, but only if the city and community come together,” she said.

Other than the roof replacement, no next steps were spelled out on Thursday.

After the press conference, Restore Oregon Executive Director Peggy Moretti said the building’s new status will give it recognition and support from the National Trust, but added that its preservation requires a firm commitment from the city and the community.

“It’s a wonderful step, a national platform to bring an extra layer of political clout – and there is an answer here,” she said. “We’ve been spinning our wheels, but now let’s break into gear.”

The city this past fall studied possibilities for the coliseum. Various scenarios were identified, but no money has been allocated.

According to the report, the least expensive option would be to tear down the building at a cost of about $14 million. A second option – making necessary upgrades to the electrical, plumbing, HVAC and envelope systems to keep the coliseum functional – would cost about $35 million. Without the upgrades, the building is at risk of major failure, according to the report.

A third solution proposed in the report would involve major renovations. Five different scenarios would range in cost from $61 million for enhancements including large seats and an outdoor side terrace to $145 million for creation of a movable floor system and the addition of an indoor track.

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