The Long-Term Goal of Harbor ReDI is to clean up contaminated sites and redevelop vacant and underutilized industrial land for new industrial uses in the working harbor while insuring that parties responsible for any contamination remain responsible.

The Immediate Project Goal of Harbor ReDI is to develop a range of processes and tools for restoring at least one or more contaminated sites along the Willamette River to productive industrial use with one site under development by 2013.

Bridge image courtesy of Steve Kountz

The Portland Harbor is an important part of the City’s overall economy. In addition to the jobs it provides and revenues it generates, the Harbor’s close proximity to downtown Portland increases the overall regional density and helps reduce the need for expansion of the Urban Growth Boundary. The Harbor serves as Oregon’s uniquely situated multi-modal freight transportation hub with marine, airport, freeway and rail (2 major lines) and is home to pivotal traded sector industries serving global export markets. Maximizing the use of all of the land in the Harbor is critical to the economic future of the city and the state.

Despite strong demand for land and robust investment in Harbor properties, there remain several key sites that present a challenge to redevelopment efforts. A total of 18 have river frontage, range from 6 to nearly 60 acres and total just over 333 acres. This is a significant portion of the forecasted harbor area industrial land need of 877 acres over the next 10 years. Redeveloping just 50% of these 18 waterfront sites over the next 10 years could add 1450 jobs or 1/4 of the full 10-year projected job growth for the City’s harbor area industrial districts.

Also see:

• Harbor ReDI Sites Map

The obstacles to redevelopment are closely linked to both environmental liability and economic conditions.

The Portland Harbor is impacted by environmental contamination in soil, groundwater and river sediment from past industrial activity, with the in-water contamination being designated as a USEPA Superfund site. The far-reaching nature of Superfund liability allocation creates a disincentive for prospective purchasers of these sites. Superfund site investigations and remediation can take many years, creating uncertainties about the future use of the properties along the river.

All of the 18 sites that are the primary focus of this project have varying degrees of upland contamination with largely unknown cleanup costs. Potentially offsetting the cost of cleanup through a change to a more lucrative land use is not possible due to the Harbor’s zoning as an industrial sanctuary intended to preserve the availability of industrial land close to the urban core. Property tax laws that allow the devaluation of environmentally contaminated land and the restrictions on the use of certain public environmental cleanup funds in Superfund-designated areas create additional economic barriers to the redevelopment of these brownfield sites.

In 2007, the PDC brought together a group of stakeholders, several of whom constitute the Harbor ReDI coalition partners, to discuss the issue and find ways to make the Portland Harbor brownfield sites attractive for purchase and redevelopment.

The Harbor ReDI coalition partners consulted the National Brownfield Association, a non-profit, educational organization dedicated to encouraging the responsible redevelopment of brownfields. The NBA was asked to perform an analysis of how to stimulate redevelopment of the Portland Harbor brownfield sites. In August of 2007 the NBA convened a team of nationally recognized brownfields experts in Portland as part of the NBA’s STAMP program (Site Technical Assistance for a Municipal Project). The group’s mission was to study the situation and offer their insight and recommendations.

Using the concept of rapid pattern recognition in problem-solving, the STAMP Team developed a set of actionable recommendations designed to address the legal and economic obstacles to site redevelopment.

The STAMP Team provided 5 multi-faceted recommendations to the coalition partners. Notably, the first recommendation was to recognize the cost of doing nothing (box).

Several recommendations are “vehicles” intended to encourage the transfer and sale of the properties. These suggestions included outreach to current owners, producing parcel-specific information that may facilitate transactions, and creating standard operating procedures for dealing with potential buyers and tenants.

The Team presented three key "pathway" recommendations that share a common feature- separating any in-water Superfund liability from the sale of the upland property so that prospective purchasers will not be burdened with liability for any past inwater contamination. The STAMP Team believes that separating the Superfund liability from the transaction will increase the value of the upland property giving the seller more resources to deal with any Superfund cleanup costs they may incur.

The three pathway recommendations are:

• Create a model purchase and sale agreement that addresses liability separation.
• Retain a master developer to gain control of sites, increasing efficiencies and allowing for the redrawing of property boundaries for more efficient use of waterfront access.
• Creating a public/private entity to own the properties and manage a redevelopment effort.

Also see:

• STAMP Summary of Recommendations
• STAMP Team Background Information

The STAMP Team also recommended identifying a Champion or Champions to lead the effort to redevelop the Harbor sites. A Steering Committee (SC) made up of coalition partners approached a group of elected officials, agency directors, and CEO's from the private sector to serve on a Blue Ribbon Committee (BRC) (box). In addition to being Champions for the project, the BRC will provide guidance to the process.

The SC adopted a phased approach to the analysis of the STAMP recommendations:

• Phase I: Concept Phase – Communicating the goals and imperatives of the project, creating a working relationship between the SC and BRC.
• Phase II: Research & Outreach – performing the work of the "vehicle" recommendations, studying the feasibility of the "pathway" recommendations.
• Phase III: Implementation – Testing prototypes, developing a Harbor ReDI program from the recommendations.

As part of the Concept Phase of the Harbor ReDI project, on July 25 the Steering Committee held a joint meeting with the BRC to:

• discuss and agree on overall project goals,
• engage and inform BRC members,
• identify key issues raised by the STAMP Team and the SC.

Additional recommendations developed by the SC were also presented to the BRC:

• Examining the potential of offsetting risk through the use of environmental insurance.
• Exploring the adjustment of the property and income tax structure to create incentives to brownfields cleanup and redevelopment.
• Promoting cross-agency collaboration to expedite the process.
• Advocating methods to streamline permitting at all levels of government.

The outcome of that meeting included receiving feedback and guidance from the BRC, creating a working relationship between the SC and BRC and informing the scope for the next phase of the project.

The SC will continue to convene the BRC to report progress and and obtain guidance as necessary.

Contact information

For more information about the Harbor ReDI project, please contact Kevin Johnson, Sr. Project/Program Coordinator at (503) 823-1176 or by email at johnsonk@pdc.us.

Document Library

• Demand Opportunities Analysis
• E. Hovee Report Summary
• Harbor ReDI Recommendations Summary
• Harbor ReDI Sites Map
• STAMP Summary of Recommendations
• STAMP Team Background Information