Winds Of change for Portland

Mayor Sam Adams announced last week that city taxpayers would give an $8.1 million interest-free loan to Gerding Edlen Development so the Portland company could build new North American headquarters in the Pearl for Vestas.

The Danish wind-turbine maker has been in Portland since 2002 and employs about 400 workers at one office on Southwest Naito Parkway and at four other buildings.

Once Vestas’ new headquarters are completed in 2012, the $66 million project will turn the long-vacant Meier & Frank depot on Northwest Everett Street into an environmentally friendly office for up to 600 employees, project boosters say.

In making his announcement Aug. 18 with Gov. Ted Kulongoski, Adams boasted that Portland beat out other major cities in the U.S. for the new headquarters, which will create 400 to 500 construction jobs. And that’s not because Portland offered the best financial incentives to lure the jobs here, Adams said. Instead, Adams suggested Portland’s $8.1 million, interest-free loan was modest compared with other cities’ bids.

“I will tell you that other communities in this country were willing to make much deeper subsidies/offers than Portlanders or Oregonians were able to afford,” said Adams, flanked by construction workers in hard hats and fluorescent vests. “But we offered a total package and we offered a strategy and we offered a place to live for the employees that helped us compete.”

In addition to the $8.1 million, 15-year loan from the city, Vestas will also get a $1 million grant from the governor’s strategic reserve fund and another $1.25 million state tax credit.

Is Adams’ boast about other cities’ aid packages accurate? Is the deal any good? And how much will it cost Portlanders?

Read the whole story in Willamette Week