Murmurs: Still on Target for the Galleria?

1. The arrival of big-box retail in downtown Portland encountered another snag last week. Target Corp. has long been eyeing a downtown Portland location, and in October the Daily Journal of Commerce reported that the Minneapolis-based company was finalizing a lease for space on the second and third floors of the Galleria Building at 600 SW 10th Ave. But on Jan. 13, attorneys for a current third-floor tenant, Aspect Education, a subsidiary of Kaplan Inc., filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Portland seeking to prevent what they call the early termination of Aspect’s lease. The building is owned by the Bill Naito Company; its general counsel, Tom Davis, tells WW the dispute, which he described as “sensitive,” is on its way to being settled out of court and that Target’s plans won’t be affected. The tenant’s attorney, Dustin Robert Swanson of Perkins Coie, declined comment.

1. Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott has upheld the eligibility of Metro Council District 5 candidate Helen Ying after an opponent, Michael Durrow, requested a formal investigation of her residency status. Durrow’s Jan. 7 letter to Scott cited a WW story raising questions whether Ying lived in a small Northwest Portland condo purchased in 2010 and located inside District 5, or a large Clackamas County home purchased in the 1990s inside District 1 (“Home Away From Home,” Jan. 4, 2012). Scott interviewed Ying on Jan. 11, and obtained her assurances that she would file her income-tax returns from the District 5 address and receives mail there. In a Jan. 13 letter to Durrow, Scott said he concluded that Ying had properly registered to vote in the district at least one year prior to the date she would take office in 2013 and had therefore “met the requirements to be a candidate for Metro Councilor for District 5.” Which means Ying’s name will appear on the ballot, along with those of Durrow, Terry Parker and Sam Chase.

1. Corrections: Last week’s cover story, “Booze Wars,” incorrectly characterized a wine distribution practice. Currently, once wine is delivered to a store, the store has no other option than to sell it. The wine cannot legally be moved. And Oregon’s rate of alcohol-related driving fatalities is slightly below, not above, the national average. Separately, the promotional text appearing on WW boxes last week, regarding a story about a proposal to tax sugar-added drinks in Multnomah County, was misleading: County officials are not endorsing the signature-gathering campaign to get the proposed measure on the November ballot. Finally, the same story, “Sugar Fee Soda,” misstated the estimated costs of signature-gathering for the campaign; the correct figure is $30,000. WW regrets the errors.

WWeek 2015