Five years ago, former Portland Mayor Charlie Hales had a $57-million plan to revitalize Portland's Old Town district.
It included slashing fees for builders, 500 new jobs, 500 affordable apartments and cleaning up the homelessness and crime. Despite those promises, the neighborhood hasn't turned around. But the opening of the new Hoxton Hotel is bringing back some hope for change.
Travelers and business people are doing work on their laptops in the lobby. Mexican cuisine restaurant La Neta, from James Beard-award winning cookbook author and chef Joshua McFadden is steps away. And cozy, Portland-y rooms start at $115 a night.
Photos: Hoxton Hotel in Old Town
"It's definitely the hub of the neighborhood right now," said Eric Bowler, who owns three bars and dance clubs: Tube, Fortune and Maxwell, within blocks of the hotel. "It's very sophisticated. I know Nike is putting up a lot of people there, so we're seeing a lot of cool people traveling internationally that you would not see in this neighborhood before."
Bowler is like many business owners in Old Town, dealing with feces at his entrance, visible drug deals and homeless people. It's scared away customers and potential developers who could help clean things up.
"It's a battle on all fronts between crime, you have a lot of landlords who don't want to improve their spaces for whatever reason. You have tenants down here who don't follow the rules and serve people too much alcohol so we have this reputation of people puking in the street. There's a lot of things that affect us negatively," Bowler told KGW.
A $57-million action plan former Mayor Charlies Hales adopted for Old Town did grant money to help open Pine Street Market, and renovate for the Society Hotel, according to research done by our news partner The Oregonian/OregonLive. But virtually little else has been done.
The Old Town China Town district sits on an earthquake hazard zone, and it's a historic district, making it expensive and risky to build on. But the hope is the Hoxton could be the jump start to other developers taking a risk here.
"There's a lot of potential down here. This is kind of the last, unclaimed neighborhood to become what it's going to be, so we're excited to be part of the change," Bowler said.
The Hoxton is a four-star hotel. It has a rooftop bar and restaurant called Tope as well, which is open to the public. There is also a speakeasy style bar in the basement, so elusive they're not even naming it, which will open sometime in December, staff think.
It's part of a huge hotel boom in Portland. About 3,000 rooms will have been added this year and next year in new construction.