That must be because we haven't built that Convention Center Hotel...

Not enough hotel rooms. Gotta sell a hotel.

According to the Portland Maps website, the Vintage Plaza property has a market value of $18 million and an assessed value of $10 million.

The Hotel Monaco, according to the same source, has a value of $31 million and $15 million respectively.

I don't know what those figures really mean in the real world.

Monaco was featured a while back in this article because of falling occupancy rates and staff layoffs. Though it's a year and a half old, I doubt that things have improved much.

none: You got it right, that $56 million dollar number is phony or they are buying the old and new Hiltons. One would have to be crazy to spend that kind of money for a hotel in downtown Portland. It isn't just the economy that is responsible for the high vacancy rates in city center hotels. This city's policies regarding making downtown a mecca for the homeless and treating businesses like they are a nuisance is not making it desirable to visit anymore. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Nines and Macy’s fold next year.

John B - For a real world POV, you might be interested to know that most corporations are not interested in sending employees out of town. I used to get 1-2 trips per year. I have been sent out of town 0 times in the last 5 years. That has a huge impact on the hotel business in core urban areas. And a friend from Boston who was a very senior exec until she retired this summer, used to have to travel constantly. In the last two years of her job, that travel also was cut back severely. And her job involved client negotiations. PDX has had homeless, etc. issues for a long time. It's the economy that's really taking the toll.

In addition to the factors LucsAdvo cites, technology has provided tools such as video conferencing that adequately replicate the face-to-face meetings that used to require travel.