After several weeks of meetings, ideation and planning, Portland City Council approved a resolution today that calls for the city to pursue the development of two Broadway-capable theaters downtown — one on PSU’s site as part of our Performing Arts and Culture Center proposal, and one on the current site of Keller Auditorium.
In other words, after more than a year of dedicated effort, a PSU plan to serve the city and our future students with a world-class cultural destination on our campus is moving forward to the planning stage. It’s exciting to see one of the most consequential projects for arts and culture take shape. We've always known Portland can do big things and now we get to help make it happen!
This is a significant milestone and a huge accomplishment for our project team who worked so hard to bring this into focus including Eric Noll from our Government Relations team, Jason Franklin and Donald Forsythe from Finance and Administration and PSU Foundation President Sarah Schwarz.
With a unanimous vote, City Commissioners approved a resolution that directs city staff to develop two venues that can host and attract Broadway productions. The resolution calls for a market feasibility analysis, a Letter of Intent with PSU to work on a plan to develop our site, the creation of a project steering committee to oversee financial planning, construction management, and overall coordination of the proposed strategy, and a traffic study to explore the idea of closing third avenue in front of the Keller.
Under direction of City Council and the Mayor’s office, PSU has been engaged in discussions with the Halprin Landscape Conservancy, City Administrators, Metro and local arts organizations since mid-August. This win-win solution emerged from that work.
From the outset, the Mayor directed the planning team to come up with a unified plan for both the Keller and PSU sites that would avoid negative economic and arts-community impacts, including interruption of the commercially important Broadway shows, of a venue closure without an alternative in place. With this plan, both sites will be developed as Broadway-capable venues in sequence, with the PSU site developed first. When the PSU site opens, the Keller site will begin its redevelopment.
This collaborative “One Project” vision encompasses both ends of the Halprin Sequence and promises an exciting arts, culture, entertainment and education district for downtown Portland.
Today’s vote signals the immense respect and appreciation that our City has for Portland State as an innovative partner and developer. What today’s vote doesn’t do is change PSU’s anticipated financial commitment. The approved resolution charges its Deputy City Administrator to create a project team of technical experts to include Portland State University. This team will be charged with developing a detailed financial plan, providing input into the initial phases of the project, and directing a comprehensive philanthropic strategy.
It’s important to note that the financial obligation for both Broadway-capable theaters would remain with the city. The university would focus on raising public and private support for PSU-owned academic spaces, including a smaller community theater, as well as support for PSU programs that would make use of those spaces. These efforts would take place over a many-year horizon and be part of a future comprehensive campaign for Portland State to support faculty and students more broadly.
Our involvement in this project is not just about PSU serving the city. It is also about PSU thinking big to support our future students. A facility of this caliber on campus will serve our brilliant and creative students by increasing their opportunities to study and interact with the performing arts. It will also provide the university a future means of revenue generation to support people and programs. And it will help revitalize the south end of downtown Portland, adding vibrancy across our campus and helping the city recover from its recent decline. We know that Portland and Portland State rise together.
I understand that it may be hard to hear news about this development while we are also discussing our current budget deficit and looking to make difficult decisions about cuts we must make to regain our financial footing. I want to emphasize that this project does not have any impact on PSU’s Education and General Funds that make up the annual budget for academic operations at PSU. Capital projects are paid for with auxiliary reserves that are not available for academic operations. I can assure you that other than the administrative labor spent pursuing this once-in-a-century opportunity, no E&G Fund dollars have been expended on this process nor will be.
I hope you will join me in applauding this exciting development. As we continue to say: Portland State will always take a seat at the table for critical conversations about the city we serve. And we will always make every effort to ensure a bright future for our students and our community.