With Portland officials under a tight deadline to negotiate a deal with the Portland Trail Blazers on major Moda Center renovations, Blazers owner Tom Dundon is showing little interest in making concessions.
Instead, Dundon told a crowd of more than 750 business and political leaders Wednesday that he’s already done a lot to help the city by purchasing the team — and isn’t interested in further commitments. He said the Rose City is an expensive place to do business.
Dundon’s statement was, in part, a response to why he’s not planning on spending his own money on needed renovations at the Moda Center, the city-owned arena that’s home to Portland’s NBA and WNBA teams.
“There’s lots of places that don’t have taxes at the same rate,” Dundon told the crowd. “So if you charge people taxes and invest it back into the thing that helps generate the money relative to the market, other places … it’s a huge investment.”
Dundon’s appearance at the annual Portland Metro Chamber meeting came as discussions around the future of the 30-year-old arena heated up. Elected officials at the city and Multnomah County both met this week to discuss their separate commitments to funding area renovations, and what both governments want to get out of the agreement. Several have called for a financial commitment from Dundon to help pay for the renovation costs.
Dundon said he’s already made a financial contribution to the city, since his ownership group is paying taxes and fees related to the team. Dundon implied that it should be those funds, along with other collected tax dollars, that should go toward modernizing the arena.
“I think everybody can characterize things however they want — I don’t see it the same way, but I’m not trying to get people to agree or disagree with me,” the billionaire investor told the crowd, many of whom paid upwards of $350 to attend the event. “I just know it feels like we’re making a pretty big investment by staying here and paying these tax rates and agreeing to these fees for dollars that go back into the building.”
The Moda Center, which opened in 1995, is in need of expensive ongoing maintenance if it is going to host the same caliber of events — WNBA and NBA games, concerts, monster truck rallies — it currently does. The city of Portland owns the building with the Blazers as the main tenant. The Blazers’ current lease with the city goes through 2030.
The city estimates the costs of necessary improvements at around $482 million. Dundon and his team have been lobbying for closer to $600 million in public dollars for the project. So far, the state has pitched in $365 million in bonds and Multnomah County has signaled willingness to contribute another $88 million.
Portland has pledged at least $120 million to fund renovations, but hasn’t identified a funding source. Mayor Keith Wilson has suggested using $50 million in tax proceeds from the team’s sale, and filling the remaining gap with money from two sources: tax money from large corporations contributed to the Portland Clean Energy Fund and funding from Prosper Portland, the city’s economic development bureau. City councilors haven’t reached an agreement on where the money should come from but will ultimately have to vote on the final funding package.
At the Metro Chamber event, Dundon appeared for around 20 minutes with chamber president Andrew Hoan. The two discussed Dundon’s upbringing, his favorite food (Italian) and what he does in his spare time (hang out with his family). Before leaving the stage, Hoan told Dundon the Blazers help bring Oregonians together.
“It’s the thing that gives people a sense of universal pride to see the city and the state on the big screen on the flyovers when the season’s in action,” Hoan said to Dundon. “And so I just want to say to you how much it means to us, this place, this team, and this facility, and I just want to say thank you for investing in our city. Thank you for stepping up into the ownership spot.”
Hoan wasn’t the only leader touting Dundon’s investment and arguing for public money to fix the Moda Center. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek also spoke to the crowd, as did prominent state legislators, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson and Mayor Wilson.
Development in North Portland
The neighborhood surrounding the Moda Center used to be home to a thriving Black business community in the middle of last century. But racist urban renewal policies decimated homes and businesses for major projects, some of which never materialized. Others, like building Interstate 5, forced more Black Portlanders to leave the neighborhood.
Now, the area is in the middle of a transformation that leaders hope will nod to the neighborhood’s history while adding housing and other structures and spaces for future generations. At the heart of that development is a coalition of investment groups, including Albina Vision Trust, a nonprofit focused on restoration and redevelopment in the area.
At Wednesday’s meeting, before Dundon took the stage, Albina Vision Trust executive director Winta Yohannes told the crowd that one building doesn’t make a district — the people in it do. But a working arena helps provide opportunities for the community, if it is maintained with respect to the people living in the area every day.
She told the crowd preventing a mothballed arena is the bare minimum.
“The real test is far greater,” Yohannes said. “It is whether we can turn the public’s extraordinary investment into a building, into an extraordinary investment and transformation of the neighborhood around it, whether the same dollars that secure an arena also secure homes families can afford, streets people want to linger in, storefronts owned by their neighbors, and a real share of the new wealth for the people who have waited the longest for it.”
Protests over billionaire influence in politics
As attendees pulled into the parking garage for the event, they were met with a few dozen protestors demonstrating against billionaire influence in politics and, specifically, public money flowing to the Moda Center. Demonstrators argued Dundon should pay for the renovations.
The protest, organized by Portland’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, included a picket line at the parking entrance. Some protesters yelled “shame on you” as cars pulled in for the Metro Chamber event.
Three city councilors that identify as democratic socialists — Tiffany Koyama Lane, Angelita Morillo and Mitch Green — spoke at the rally. So did Alicia Chavez, incoming president of the Portland Association of Teachers.
“Our community should not be subsidizing luxury experiences for the wealthiest people in our city while the people educating Portland’s children are receiving layoff notices,” Chavez told demonstrators across from the Moda Center parking garage entrance. “We should not be asking teachers to do more with less while public dollars help increase profits for people who already have more wealth than most families could earn in 100 lifetimes.”
Inside the Moda Center, attendees were reminded of the protests when two individuals shouted down Wilson while he was taking part in a panel on stage. The demonstrators held signs protesting city climate change fund dollars going toward the Moda Center renovation. Building security escorted them out of the arena.
The other meeting
Conversations about the Moda Center and Dundon continued across the Willamette River at Portland City Hall Wednesday. At the same time as the chamber of commerce’s meeting, city councilors held the first of many meetings to discuss the city’s plans to contribute some $120 million to the arena renovation.
Councilors have been given an Aug. 12 deadline to vote on a “term sheet,” a document that includes the city’s proposed funding plan and other requests the city may seek to negotiate with the Blazers over — such as commitments to supporting union workers or investments in the surrounding neighborhood. This term sheet is expected to serve as the starting point for negotiations, which the city hopes to conclude by December.
On Wednesday, councilors expressed frustration about not having enough information in time to make that decision. They said they haven’t been given information on what the city’s money would go toward or any kind of analysis on the economic benefits the city could get out of the deal.
“This process has been terrible for city councilors and for the public,” said Councilor Sameer Kanal, speaking directly to Wilson, who left the Moda Center to join the council meeting midway through. “Mr. Mayor, we should have been brought in last year. An artificially compressed timeline does not increase the likeliness of support, it diminishes it.”
The meeting came a day after Wilson penned a strongly worded letter chiding city councilors for criticizing the process.
Other councilors Wednesday questioned why the city should hand over millions of dollars in the midst of a budget crisis.
“We just made huge cuts to our core services and to nearly 100 city employees who do absolutely critical work for the city,” Councilor Angelita Morillo said. “I think I can speak for everyone when I say that I am not happy.”
Several councilors listed specific commitments they’d like to include in the lease agreement. That included a commitment beyond 20 years from the Blazers to remain in Portland, clear financial investment from the Blazers and a guarantee that the Blazers recognize unionized staff.
No one from the Blazers was present to answer questions Wednesday.
The meeting comes a day after county commissioners held a similar meeting, discussing their $102 million commitment to the arena’s renovations. That money is expected to come from an existing tax on rental cars and anticipated tax revenue from the sale of the Blazers.
Like city councilors, some commissioners questioned why public dollars should be spent on expensive renovations during a budget crunch. Commissioner Meghan Moyer said the tax revenue from the Blazers sale could instead help fill the county’s critical budget gaps.
“I’m kind of disgusted by the degree we are being asked to help make a profitable organization more profitable,” Moyer said at the Tuesday meeting.
County commissioners will have to vote to approve their own funding commitment later this summer.
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.