The unmistakable aroma
This story about the City of Portland's epically failed real estate deal downtown at Third and Oak deserves a little additional perspective. When the Portland Development Commission overpaid for the property in 2002, it was under the leadership of close Goldschmidt crony Don Mazziotti (currently leading Beaverton into a rat hole). When it gave the property away for free to Trammell Crow, another Goldschmidt buddy (and fellow pedophile), Matt Hennessee, had just stepped down as PDC chairman. Trammell Crow had been in on the airport light rail scam, and in on the SoWhat scam, both Goldschmidt specials. Gee, do you think maybe the Neilster had a hand in the Third and Oak mess? Just a theory.
| Posted at 9:47 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (4)
The deal was a huge stinker right out of the gate. The PDC compounded the entire fiasco by tearing down the parking structure before all the details and comitments were locked in. Now the taxpayers are footing the parking bill for some of the wealthiest lawyers in the city. If there is one single person left at the PDC who caused this mess they should be terminated immediately.
Posted by Usual Kevin | March 21, 2013 10:23 AM
"But the Trammell Crow deal collapsed in 2007 under the weight of uncertainty in the housing market and a dispute whether the building project would pay union wages." Ah, yes. Mr. Crow himself wouldn't have stopped the deal based on the union wages, but then Trammell hadn't been in charge of his company at the time. He'd pretty much retired to focus on improving Dallas's arts district (yeah, I know, it sounds like an oxymoron, but you'd be surprised). Then and now, Trammell Crow was run by Trammell's son Harlan, a man both uncommonly stupid and arrogant, and this sort of move from him is par for the course.
Now, to be fair, I don't blame Trammell Crow for dropping out of the deal due to the housing market falling apart. I'm also not surprised that the city of Portland bent over repeatedly to make the deal happen: my hometown horse thieves have perfected blatant lying to a level that would have made Richard Nixon sick to his stomach. However, Harlan Crow and most of his buddies in the Dallas real estate industry would set kittens afire in public before making any concessions that might pay workers a remotely decent wage, and I'll bet $10 that he personally killed the deal rather than have to make any concessions to any union whatsoever.
Posted by Texas Triffid Ranch | March 21, 2013 11:06 AM
Two hundred and ninety three years... that's actually kind of impressive. Longer than the United States has existed thus far.
SO glad I moved out. I recommend small towns where the politicians are less ambitious, and don't have the credit lines necessary to spend their way farther into the future than the Republic is old.
In the WW article, you can see a "Downtown Denizen" climbing over the fence into the lot. No, it's not me... I only cook up there at night.
Posted by Downtown Denizen | March 21, 2013 3:07 PM
Anything to do with the PDC past, present or future, is by definition always a crooked messed up deal, and the tax payers always get the bill.
Posted by Portland Native | March 22, 2013 8:29 AM