Nov. 27–A New York-based hotel management firm has purchased a half-block property in downtown Portland with plans to build a 23-story, 300-room hotel.
The site, at 218 S.W. Jefferson, is the former Pendleton Woolen Mills company headquarters purchased by a group of investors earlier this year. Pendleton PDX LLC demolished the existing building to create a shovel-ready lot for a high-rise development.
The investors sold the parcel for $4.5 million to Portland Hotel Ownership LLC in a deal that closed Tuesday, according to Multnomah County records. That company is affiliated with Widewaters Hotels LLC of Syracuse, N.Y.
Widewaters earlier this year showed city development officials plans for a 23-story, 300-room hotel. The proposal would also include 24 apartments and 6,000 square feet of retail. Widewaters didn’t return calls seeking comment.
The hotel would join a handful proposed or in the works in downtown Portland, as well as an advancing plan for a publicly subsidized hotel near the Oregon Convention Center in the Lloyd District.
Portland metro hotels saw revenues jump nearly 15 percent on a per-room basis in 2012, according to brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle’s hospitality industry group. Area occupancy and room rates have have been improving since 2010.
— Elliot Njus
