Mover Mike

Today’s Oregonian features a proposed Oregon Sustainability Center to be built on the Portland State University campus.

It’s a good looking building, however financing is still uncertain.

Backers are seeking $40 million in state money, plus $17 million from the city and $5 million from federal grants, tax credits and private donations. The Legislature will vote on funding in February and the Portland City Council in spring.

The article by Beth Slovic states that “…construction would run $434 a square foot, almost 50 percent more than downtown Portland’s most expensive new high-rise — the First & Main building at the foot of the Hawthorne Bridge, completed in 2010 and would push office rents as high as $40.25 a square foot, about 50 percent higher than downtown’s Class A average now.”

Here’s the kicker for me: Project leaders are counting on four nonprofits to move in. …they would pay $31.75 a square foot, compared with typical nonprofit rents of about $20. If they backed out or couldn’t pay, taxpayers would be on the hook for about $200,000 a year.

As a taxpayer, I’m tired of being stuck with these kind of bills that I don’t get to vote yea or nay on. Almost all of the funding depends on the taxpayer. No developer in his right mind would build a building that is so uneconomic. It just wouldn’t pencil out.

In September Henry C. Kunowski, an architectural historian, called the proposed building a “bleeding-edge folly.” Governments like to deliver these kind of projects, including ethanol production and solar power, that can”t stand on there own financially and lead to misallocation of resources. China has taken it one step further by building whole cities that are unoccupied. Bah! Stop giving politicians money!

Tags: Business, Oregon Politics //
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