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The regional government Metro has been noodling for the past decade over what to do with the Expo Center.
It’s not a simple decision. The 53-acre property at 2060 N Marine Drive includes 330,000 square feet of exhibition space spread across five aging halls—three of them are more than a century old—and 1 million square feet of paved parking. The buildings host more than 100 events a year but don’t generate anything like the cash Metro needs for deferred maintenance.
The agency successfully headed off the city of Portland’s proposal to turn Expo into a giant homeless camp (“Long-Term Parking,” WW, Nov. 10, 2021). But three considerations complicate modernization of the property: It sits on land near the Columbia River long home to Indigenous tribes; it served as an internment center for Japanese Americans during World War II; and it is adjacent to Vanport, a predominantly Black city destroyed by a flood in 1948. Metro has said that any redevelopment of the property must be one that, in the words of Metro Council President Lynn Peterson, “honors the history and the people of our region.”
Peterson has also been clear that the Expo Center, perhaps best known for hosting hot rod and gun shows, “was built on a 20th century business model and it wasn’t serving 21st century needs.”
Last fall, Metro asked developers what they’d do with the property. On Feb. 28, it announced the most-favored proposal, from Los Angeles-based ASM Global, for a multiuse sports facility. (Although parts of ASM’s proposal are in the recommendation the Metro council considered, the council will now focus more broadly on a sports facility concept with no commitment to ASM or any other group.)
Paul Slyman, Metro’s general manager of major projects, says after a half-dozen screening committees reviewed the submissions and provided input, ASM’s proposal best fit the charge of having the “highest and best use, that brings about financial sustainability.” Metro will now conduct a feasibility study to see if there’s a market for the ideas underlying ASM’s concept.
WW obtained the eight proposals Metro considered. Here’s how ASM’s idea—and its financial backing—compared with the others.
ASM Global, Los Angeles
What it would do: Take over, fix up and operate the Expo Center with an aim toward “youth sports, recreational, cultural, historical, and entertainment offerings.”
Key sentence: “ASM Global is owned by AEG, the world’s leading sport and live entertainment company.”
The Hemp Collaborative, Portland
What it would do: Process hemp for industrial uses and provide education and business incubation services.
Key sentence: “For over two years we have collaborated with various stakeholders around a common vision of using industrial hemp as a mechanism to advance innovative climate action, social justice, and low-carbon industries.”
Oregon Black Pioneers, Salem
What it would do: Use a portion of the property to develop a 10,000- to 15,000-square-foot museum.
Key sentence: “The Oregon Black Heritage Museum would be established for the education, research, collection, interpretation, and honoring of Oregon’s Black history.”
Reuse Collective, Portland
What it would do: Combine the efforts of the electronics recycler Free Geek, the ReBuilding Center, the Community Cycling Center and other nonprofit recyclers in one location.
Key sentence: “We propose…the nation’s first Community Reuse Center—a one-stop hub for income-qualified individuals and families to access free reclaimed, refurbished, and repaired items.”
Specht-Colas Partnership, Portland
What it would do: Create “an intentional equitable redevelopment that promotes well-being and improves the mobility and quality of life for our community, especially those communities harmed by a shameful history on the EXPO site.”
Key sentence: “We understand this site is deeply intertwined in the intersectional oppression, and we are committed to utilizing equity tools to reposition the community from the margins to the center.”
Storyteller, Portland
What it would do: Think a Hollywood studio with a social justice component.
Key sentence: Expo “will become an area for offices, incubators, training, collaboration, projects, and sound stages that will attract local and out-of-town productions, start-up ventures, and for-hire work.”
Trammell Crow Company, Dallas
What it would do: Knock down a couple of the halls and build “up to 794,000 square feet of Class A industrial buildings.”
Key sentence: “Since 2007, TCC has developed 72.4 million square feet of industrial logistics facilities.”
Vanport Mosaic, Portland
What it would do: Develop “a permanent interpretive center that focuses on the history of forced displacements on this site, Indigenous Communities, the Japanese American Community and the Vanport Community.”
Key sentence: “We are compelled by the need to preserve and remember the histories of this site, while also moving our communities into a future of active flourishing that repairs for those past harms.”