Change is finally getting ready to come to the Rose Quarter, one silo at a time.

“If you know anyone that can help us get rid of a grain elevator, that would be great,” joked Portland Trail Blazers Team President Larry Miller, who is helping spearhead a proposal to develop the Rose Quarter and re-invigorate Memorial Coliseum.

On Nov. 1, Miller and the Blazers were the first major players to ante up with their JumpTown vision — an intersection of sports, music and Portland culture — in hopes of renewing the Rose Quarter as a “vibrant 365-days-a-year district.” Since the launch date to accept public proposals, Mayor Sam Adams and his 32-member Rose Quarter Development Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC) have received vast submissions from the general public ranging from turning the Coliseum into a casino and convention center, a concert hall, a Seattle-like Pike Place, and even a few requests to simply bulldoze the “Glass Palace” sprinkled in.

That’s one idea. It’s just not that popular around Blazers headquarters at One Center Court. Instead, JumpTown — with its North Portland jazz roots — is being portrayed as “Portland’s Rec Room,” complete with a possible “one-of-a kind Nike interactive center,” local retail businesses, restaurants, a row of brew pubs, an open-air music venue, eventual housing and perhaps a 225-room hotel. 

Yet for Miller, the project must connect with the community first.

“The key for me and from our perspective is that it resonates with the people of Portland,” Miller said. “At the end of the day, that’s what it really comes down to. That’s what is going to make it succeed or not succeed.”

While imagining JumpTown sounds good on paper, the initiative has its share of skeptics and competing ideas for re-purposing the Coliseum (which is owned by the city and operated by the Blazers). Some public opinion suggests the redevelopment is a waste of taxpayer money in Portland’s ongoing struggle to properly manage urban renewal. 

Even City Commissioner Randy Leonard considers himself among the cynics.

“I’m hoping to get it beyond a concept and see dollars committed and dollars invested, and that’s really where I’ve been a little skeptical of it. I’m a person that likes to see things done, not just focusing on talking about doing it,” Leonard recently told the Sentinel. “It seems there has been a lot of discussion on what people think ought to happen, but less about committing real resources to make it happen. I’m a little skeptical.”

In the past, Leonard has also been an advocate of eliminating the Coliseum and building a new baseball stadium for the Triple-A Portland Beavers in its place. But with Mayor Sam Adams deciding to seek another location for the stadium in early 2009, and Beavers’ owner Merritt Paulson unable to move his franchise to suburban Beaverton, Vancouver, Wash., mayor-elect Tim Leavitt is now trying to woo ownership to Vancouver, so far with little success. 

In an email interview request, an official with the Beavers said Paulson wasn’t taking interviews on the matter at this time and Vancouver mayor-elect Leavitt was unavailable for comment. However, his predecessor — lame duck Mayor Royce Pollard — said repeatedly there are no funds for the Beavers in Vancouver. 

“We have no money,” Pollard asserted in a phone interview with The Sentinel.

“We’d love to have a baseball team in Vancouver. We have no money. And if we find extra money for a baseball team, we should be spending it on police and fire and roads, not on a baseball team. Who knows what the mayor-elect will do. But he only has one vote. The city of Vancouver, you need four votes to do anything. I don’t anticipate there being four votes for a baseball team when we are struggling with finances.”

With the Portland Beavers essentially homeless, Miller and the Blazers continue to move forward with an assist from the Baltimore-based Cordish Companies, a real estate development and entertainment operating company. 

Conversations between the two parties began in spring 2007. An active partnership bloomed a year later. Cordish includes 28 properties specializing in “entertainment and mixed-use, gaming and lodging, sports-anchored developments, retail, office and residential,” like Ball Park Village in St. Louis, Philly Live in Philadelphia, and Kansas City’s KC Power & Light District, which reportedly brought 5,000 new jobs to the area.

“So far, they’ve been successful with every one of these projects — all are focused on the area and city they are in. They want it to connect with the community,” Miller explained of Cordish, who will provide considerable private resources for the operation and construction of JumpTown.

The SAC recently extended its deadline to accept proposal applications until January 8, 2010. So until then, the Blazers are busy speaking with neighborhood associations in North and Northeast Portland in a series of meetings to educate and address any concerns — financial or otherwise — about the JumpTown proposal.

Eliot, King and Irvington Neighborhood Associations and the Lloyd Community Association have all received JumpTown presentations. 

“We’re all pretty supportive of anything that activates that area,” said Mike Warwick, 60, an energy engineer who lives in Northeast Portland and is chair of the Eliot Neighborhood Association.

“Let’s say it’s cautiously [accepted]. I think what people want to see down there isn’t realistic. If you look at all the alternatives, [JumpTown] certainly makes more sense.”

In the coming weeks, visits with the Humboldt Neighborhood Association and the Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs are also scheduled.

Central City Concern project underway 

Construction is already taking place around the Rose Quarter with one Portland nonprofit leading the way. Central City Concern began renovating the former Ramada Inn in the Lloyd District in late April, which will provide low-income housing for those recovering from homelessness, as well as alcohol and drug addiction. 

Construction should be completed by early next March. Both the city and the Portland Trail Blazers fully support the project after some early unease by the Blazers.

“I don’t think it’s a concern of the neighborhood. It’s a concern of the Blazers,” City Commissioner Randy Leonard told the Sentinel. “I don’t think it’s a concern that has merit. These are people that are trying to improve their lives and are in the program to turn their lives around. We talked about it and I don’t think [the Blazers] had the concerns they used to.” 

A spokesperson for the Blazers said they’ve worked through their initial concerns and wish CCC all the best.

“Our work is focused on creating a vibrant Rose Quarter that serves as a gathering place for Portland,” the spokesperson said.

“We wish our neighbors much success with this enhancement of an important portion of lower Broadway.”