Insider: Meier & Frank: The Story of How Oregon’s Largest Building Became Home to a Boutique Hotel
By John M. Tess, President, Heritage Consulting Group
Mr. John M. Tess
Our firm works with clients in securing historic preservation tax credits around the country. I’ve been doing this since the 1980s with a fair degree of success. But I’m also a 30-year resident of my adopted home town of Portland. For that, I am so pleased to be involved in saving the Meier & Frank Store.
I date back to the days when department stores ruled the retail core. I remember taking my children down to see the Meier & Frank Christmas Parade, to see the animated displays in the shop windows, to see Santa Claus next to the toy department. With Monorail going in Seattle for their World’s Fair, Meier & Frank even installed a children’s monorail at the ceiling of toyland.
In one sense, saving buildings is about real estate development and often making our downtown’s thrive with a unique urban setting. But sometimes – such as with Meier & Frank – saving a building is saving a community’s collective memories. The store perhaps closing and the building going away – as has happened in so many towns – would have had a devastating impact on Portlanders – including me. Thus, to be working on strategies to not only save the building but to revitalize and re-energize it is exciting.
That said, the project was not without its “opportunities to think outside the box”. It is said that the good doesn’t come easy and I can attest to that. The tea room is a good example. I can appreciate the role that room played in the store’s history. That was the floor with toyland and for a while it was THE place to have lunch in downtown Portland. But the tea room reached 60 feet into the building. It was not physically possible to co-exist with the atrium for the hotel. And without the atrium, there was no hotel. And without the hotel, there was no project. Fortunately, all the parties involved appreciate how important the project was to Portland. I can’t say that the solution was ideal – to some degree it was essentially Solomon’s cutting the baby. But it was a good one. We documented and preserved the heritage of the room and will be able to integrate that heritage into the building.
We’ve still some hurdles to get by, but I think the toughest parts are behind us. I look forward in the near future to walking through the new store, the new hotel, maybe having a drink on the rooftop restaurant and soaking in the new old Meier & Frank.
Read "Meier & Frank: The Story of How Oregon’s Largest Building Became Home to a Boutique Hotel" in this week's issue of Hotel Business Review.
Sincerely,
John M. Tess
President
Heritage Consulting Group
Jmtess@heritage-consulting.com
www.heritage-consulting.com
