Email text about Beaverton development of former theatre property  adjacent to light rail tracks received early in November -- The Round, in the middle of its second or third developer and millions already gone is a lesson in the municipal failure so common in this state.

Intended to be a mixed use Transit Oriented Development alongside MAX light rail, The Round has generated one bust after another. Today half the condos planned for the first few buildings under construction have been canceled (the other half of them are slow to sell) and redesigned to be routine office space.  A new seven story parking structure is coming to accommodate the auto-orientation for which Beaverton and Metro had no "vision," it seems.

Besides the earlier bad public investments and redesign of The Round, the City of Beaverton was forced to buy (from the Enron liquidation) and operate the climate control system for the project. On the hook for $400,000 per year for 20 years plus operating costs, the City of Beaverton is now in the business of heating and cooling private buildings.

This new venture, buying the 4.3 acres Westgate Theatre property to add more dense mixed use activity is startings off real bad. The $2.3 million Beaverton plans on using for this purpose will come from their General Fund contingency account which is usually earmarked for emergencies.  Metro tosses in $2 million (they have no money for planning and other responsibilities) even though their Transit Oriented Development Program has proven to be nothing but a regional money pit -- especially at The Round. Worse yet is the fact that the city has NEVER discussed the Westgate purchase publicly, and the resolution to appropriate the money is on their consent agenda, poised to be approved without discussion.

The City Council meeting is tonight (ED: that would have been circa the 5th of Novermber) at 6:30 but why would anyone bother to attend?   To watch the unstoppable parasite?

                           -- Steve Schopp
 

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