December 3rd, 2008
Murmurs • Lights! Cameras! News!1 comment
December 3rd, 2008
The Score • Big Dam Fight | The Legislature may end a long-festering dispute affecting one billionaire, a half-million Oregonians and more fish than you can count.0 comments
December 3rd, 2008
Rogue of the Week • TMT Development | Bully in a bar fight.3 comments
December 3rd, 2008
An Old Addition | A manager twice accused of date rape is back at a Southeast bar.0 comments
December 3rd, 2008
Letters to the Editor • Inbox0 comments
December 3rd, 2008
Scrooged! | Doesn’t matter if you’re naughty or nice. Here’s who the economy is causing to get scratched off gift lists. 0 comments
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Hoop Dreams | Can the Blazers really be this good?0 comments
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Uneasy Riders | Ticket to gripe: Trimetdown.com.0 comments
December 3rd, 2008
Cover Story • The Naked And The Dread | The Recession has knocked everything but our socks off.0 comments
December 3rd, 2008
The Weekly Fix • Our Spin On 7 Days of News 0 comments
 IMAGE: ALLISON FORDHAM |
[July 13th, 2005] Seven months after the Portland Development Commission opened a $10 million parking garage in the Pearl District, business isn't exactly booming.
Last November, the PDC unveiled Station Place, a five-floor garage flanked by the Broadway Bridge. The new garage boasts 413 parking spots in the fastest-growing part of the snazzy district.
But just 15 drivers are paying $85 for monthly passes to the garage. The average weekday take at its ticket window in May: $124.90. On weekend days that month, the garage sold an average of five $6 all-day passes.
Meanwhile, other parking sites in the densely developed district are booming. That leads some to say that PDC, which spent about $10 million to build Station Place on land it bought in 1987, put its garage in the wrong place.
"That sounds like a very low...rate," says Bob Ames, who operates several Pearl District parking lots. "Our lot at 12th and Lovejoy [three blocks away] is full."
Officials with PDC and other city agencies counter that Station Place is actually exceeding expectations, even though it's losing about $10,000 a month in operating expenses.
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They argue that the garage-only half-open now-will serve future demand on what's currently the fringe of the tony neighborhood.
"It's just like an office building or an apartment," says PDC's Bruce Allen. "You don't go into the black right away. We projected losses for the first couple of years, and that we'd be in the black for 75 years after that."
At least one neighborhood booster agrees. "I'm not concerned about its performance," says Edith Dorsen, executive director of the Pearl District Business Association. "This is a burgeoning part of the district. We're delighted that Station Place is there."
If Dorsen and city officials are right, it may be fairer to grade Station Place in five years. That would be a good thing-last Thursday afternoon, a few hours before the onslaught of gallery-goers who flock to the Pearl's First Thursday festival, Station Place's ground floor held 33 cars. The other levels were empty.
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