Buried in the Oregonian today is news that a Pearl District hotel project may likely be marketed as a timeshare — perhaps the city’s first.
Opus Northwest is hoping to complete the project, located at NW 14 & Irving, in two years. From the city’s Design Commission docket for August 7, 2008:
The building is U-shaped, pulling back on its south façade to form a private ground floor courtyard distinguished from the Irving St walkway by a fence and landscaped planter. Active ground floor uses form the NW 14th Ave frontage, with a hotel lobby, hotel services and a sales room facing the street. The ground floor of the NW 15th Ave façade is characterized by vehicular uses, with a structured loading bay, and the entrance to two floors of below-grade parking incorporating 109 parking stalls. Three hotel units form the ground-floor of the southwestern corner of the building with outdoor patio spaces facing the Irving St walkway. The upper floors include of a total of 114 hotel units of varying sizes.
The building design is by SERA Architects. The Oregonian reports the client is Wyndham Worldwide, a timeshare operator.
In a soft condo market, I think the idea could have some momentum — serving the occasional to frequent Portland visitor. It would provide an alternative to the pied-a-terre model of a small, temporary-stay second home. Often, the burden of homeowner association fees and insurance make pied-a-terres overly expensive for the less-than-frequent visitor. Fractional ownership usually offers clients some flexibility to travel to other resort locations, too.
The Portland Design Commission is holding a public hearing on Opus Northwest’s (the developer) design advice request at 1:30 p.m., Aug. 7, in Room 2500A at 1900 S.W. Fourth Ave.
No word yet on how excruciating the sales presentations will be 
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