Pretty soon, you're talking real money. About four years ago, the Portland Development Commission paid some $1.2 million to purchase some land at Southwest Third Avenue and Oak Street. Earlier this year, the PDC had the land appraised (apparently by somebody connected with a developer), and surprisingly, that appraisal came up with a negative number for the value of the property. A negative number of around minus $2.7 million.
For a piece of property in the heart of downtown Portland? Even folks living on the outskirts of town are seeing their property values rise each year. Clearly, something smells in this scenario - and we can't blame it all on the dog snoozing in front of the fireplace.
Yet PDC took that number and ran with it, apparently not noticing any odoriferous qualities. They proposed to simply give the property away to a developer in exchange for said developer's promise to build a 26-story condo tower there. Yeah, that's the ticket - Portland really needs another condo tower. Eventually, prevailing breezes carried the odor toward Portland's City Hall, and that's when it got interesting.
Commish "fireman" Randy Leonard decided that it was time to audit the stinkin' mess, while Mayor Tommy Potty crapped his drawers and objected vehemently to any such procedure. Of course, his complaints were largely muffled, due to the fact that he was objecting loudly from the Council's Royal Bathroom, where Tommy stood buck-naked from the waist down as he busily washed his drawers in the Royal Sink. Apparently, his objections were either overruled, or never actually heard at all; in which case we can blame poor bathroom accoustics.
Bottom line (sorry, Tom): independent appraisal placed the value of the property at $1.2 million - or abut what PDC paid for it four years ago. Well, "OOPS"! Looks like everybody needs to go back to the conference room.
"I don't think a high-rise condo tower with affordable housing is viable today with a million-dollar land appraisal," said Robert Hinnen, Trammell Crow's senior managing director in Portland.
