Downtown Portland is on track for one of its most significant groundbreakings since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a positive development for the city, which has struggled with pandemic-related urban malaise.
Choice Hotels of Rockville, Maryland, received demolition permits for the property at at 105 NW Park Ave. in the city’s Pearl District earlier this month, putting it one step closer to breaking ground for the 178-room hotel project that cleared the city’s design commission earlier this year.
Few specifics were available for the project beyond its city filings, which showed Choice intends to build a six-story hotel on the site. The company did not return a call requesting comment.
Choice, a multinational hotelier best known in the United States for its Comfort Inn and Econo Lodge brands, also operates upscale brands Ascend and Cambria.
The company purchased the parcel, which contains two buildings and a parking lot, for $3.9 million in a deal that closed Feb. 7, according to CoStar data.
The project's progress marks a bright spot amid gloomy signs for downtown Portland, where tenant departures have made repeated headlines amid political conflict over issues including homelessness that have collectively amounted to a prolonged hangover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
John Gillem, CoStar’s director of market analytics for Portland, said breaking ground on the project will amount to a significant vote of confidence in the city center.
“Aside from a handful of larger apartment projects, most of which were approved pre-pandemic, this will be one of the largest projects to break ground downtown in recent years,” Gillem said. “It’s very positive to see a developer show this kind of confidence in the city’s core and its tourism outlook.”