Trading Spaces

[September 17th, 2003] In the ongoing battle over Portland's parking lots, the Goodman family has adopted a policy of "if you can't beat 'em, own 'em."

For nearly two decades, a downtown business association ran the city-owned Smart Park garages in concert with the Goodman family's City Center Parking. Then, in May, a joint venture between Star Park, a Goodman rival, and three minority chambers of commerce grabbed the city contract to manage the garages. (See "Space Wars,"WW, June 4, 2003.)

Now, WW has learned, the city is considering a deal that would swap one of those garages for property co-owned by the Goodmans.

The proposal is being pushed by the Portland Development Commission, a public urban-renewal agency overseen by a mayor-appointed board. PDC has proposed that the 794-spot Smart Park garage at Southwest 10th Avenue and Yamhill Street be exchanged for a surface parking lot owned by the Goodman and Schnitzer families at Southwest 10th and Alder and the so-called Zell block, owned by the Singer and Zell families, located just west of Nordstrom.

Although former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt and developer Tom Moyer have pushed for an extended green-belt that would include the Zell block, the city wants the land for other reasons. PDC director Don Mazziotti says his agency wants to generate new office and retail space in the mid-Park Blocks and the West End area, which have struggled economically.

Mazziotti declined to comment on specifics of the proposed deal, but according to Northwest Portland retail czar Richard Singer, talks are serious enough for the parties to have sought appraisals for the three parcels. "I think it would be close to an even-money exchange," says Singer, whose family would gain control of the retail space at the 10th and Yamhill garage, which he says is currently underutilized.

Rick Williams, a parking consultant who ran the Smart Park system for several years, says trading away the city's best-performing garage without having