The record · Transcript
Council Session — 2026-01-13
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Session summaryEditor-reviewed
The Arts and Economy Committee met on Tuesday, January 13th at 9:30 a.m. Roll call noted the presence of Dunphy, Clark, and Green, with Ryan noted as in transit and Smith joining online. The statement of conduct was read, minutes from the November 18, 2025 meeting were approved, and no one had signed up for public comment. The main agenda item concerned authorizing submission of a minor boundary change request to the State of Oregon to amend the Portland Enterprise Zone boundary, involving three tax lots near the south end of PDX airport tied to a proposed Alaska Airlines aircraft maintenance facility developed with the Port of Portland. Presentations covered the history and mechanics of the Enterprise Zone program, job creation figures, public benefit requirements, and the proposed facility's size, job counts, and union representation, though some figures such as cost-per-job and foregone tax revenue were stated inconsistently. Discussion included questions about living wage calculations, collective bargaining, workforce development fund use, general fund impact, job growth enforcement, and why a resolution rather than an ordinance was required. A motion was made and seconded to refer the resolution to full Council with a recommendation for adoption; a vote occurred, with outcomes recorded in the vote ledger. The next meeting was set for January 27th.
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Procedural markers in this session
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0 Mr. Chairman, this is Loretta. I'm online. I don't know if you can hear me. Councilor Green. Can you let me know if you can hear me?
1 For those who are online, we can hear. But we aren't broadcasting yet.
2 Okay, great.
3 She's online and her hand is already up, so. Good morning. I call the meeting of the arts and economy committee to order. It is Tuesday, January 13th at 9:30 a.m. I did the three gavels because my councilor Smith does it that way and I'm always inspired by her approach. Diana, will you please call the roll?
4 Good morning.
5 Dunphy here.
6 Smith. Ryan. Ryan. Thank you. Clark. Here.
Procedural episode · turns 7–15
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7 Green here. And councilor Ryan is just in transit. Got kind of stuck in a little bit of traffic, so he'll be here shortly. Ashley, will you please read the statement of conduct?
8 Welcome to the meeting of the arts and economic committee to testify before this committee in person or virtually. You must sign up in advance on the committee agenda at ww. Dot gov council agenda slash arts and economy committee. Or by calling 311. Information on engaging with this community can be found at this link. Registration for virtual testimony closes one hour prior to meeting in person. Testifiers must sign up before the agenda item is heard. If a public testimony will be taken on an item, individuals might testify for three minutes unless chair states otherwise, your microphone will be muted when your time is over. The chair preserves order. Disruptive conduct such as shouting. Refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up or interrupting others testimony or committee deliberations will not be allowed. Will, will will cause disruption. A warning will be given. Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting. Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass. Additionally, the committee may take a short recess and reconvene virtually. Your testimony should be addressed, the matter being considered when testifying. Is that your name? For the record, if your lobbyist identify the organization you represent, virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the clerk calls their name. Thank you.
9 Thank you very much. Colleagues, members of the public, today's arts and economy committee just takes up one item of substance, and that is to consider a change or expansion in our enterprise zones near the Portland airport. I'm looking forward to that conversation. This is an item that prosper Portland had reached out in December, maybe even late November, to try to get our dance card. And so we wanted to make sure we prioritized that as early as possible in January, because we know it's an important linkage. I think, in the broader economic development conversation we're having in all of our jurisdictions right now. So I'm really excited about the conversation we also have before we get, you know, we'll do our committee meetings thing, approval of the previous minutes. But I also just want to remind folks that we do have a standing item now that we've trying to accommodate, which is just public comment and, and and the intention there is it's it's an opportunity for members of the public to speak to this committee on a topic that's relevant to this committee, but for any range of issues. So that includes like if you don't like me trying to ban fog off, for instance, come and tell me. And so I and I say that with a little bit of a smile on my face, just because I want everyone to understand that your way of interacting with this committee is through this, this public comment process, even if it's oppositional to the thing that I like or it's in support of a thing I like, that's how we generate our discussion. That's how we generate our debate. And that's, that's that's why we wanted to do that here. So just wanted to remind folks that's what we'll do today. It'll be a lighter agenda but meaningful. Ashley, will you or diane. I'm sorry, will you please read item number one.
10 Item number one, November 18th, 2025 arts and economy committee minutes.
11 Okay. Thank you. Colleagues, are there any objections to approving the minutes by unanimous consent? I see no objections. The minutes are approved. Thank you. Diana, will you please read the next item?
12 Item number two, public comment on arts and economy issues.
13 Do we have anyone signed up?
14 No one signed up.
15 Okay. Thank you. So we'll continue to remind folks that this is the venue. If you have a bone to pick or you have a really good idea, this is the space to do it too. Or you just love the work that we're doing. That's that's welcome as well. Okay, colleagues, we're zipping right along. Diana, will you please read item three?
16 Item number three, authorize submission of a minor boundary change request to the state of Oregon to amend the Portland enterprise zone boundary.
17 Okay. At this time, I would love to invite up our representatives from prosper Portland, the port of Portland. We have folks from alaska airlines and any project managers. Please come on up. And as you as you enter and get settled, please just go ahead and introduce yourselves for the record. And then we can we can kick off the presentation from there. Thank you.
18 Thank you.
19 Okay. Good morning. Co-chairs greene and Ryan. My name is andrew fitzpatrick. I'm the director of economic development at prosper Portland. Appreciate you all. As members of the arts and economy committee, giving us some time here on the agenda and prioritizing this important issue for the city. I'm joined here by my prosper Portland colleagues, faith aiken and Eric knoll, with david long from alaska airlines and Steve winkel from the port of Portland on zoom. We're here today to talk about a proposed minor boundary amendment to the Portland enterprise zone. Before we jump in, I just want to briefly acknowledge the great work that our business advancement team at prosper Portland has done to assist growing businesses as they invest into Portland to create living wage jobs in our community. The enterprise zone or the zone program, as we call it, is a key tool to compete for traded sector projects that are looking to expand locally or to locate new investments in our community. And our presentation will outline the proposed boundary amendment, will give a brief overview of the enterprise zone program itself. Overall, we'll hear from our partners at the port of Portland and alaska airlines about a specific business expansion opportunity. And then we'll close out with next steps required before we open for discussion and answer any questions that you may have.
20 Good morning. Committee. My name is faith aiken. I'm a project manager at prosper Portland, and I manage the enterprise zone program, along with my colleague elaine shea, who's here today. Today we're going to go over this map. You'll see here the map of our two existing enterprise zones. So in the yellow is the Portland enterprise zone. And in the purple is the east Portland enterprise zone. What we'll be talking about today is where the red square is outlined. And then on our next slide we will help orient where this is. Next slide please. Thank you. So just to zoom in of the location of the boundary amendment that we'll be talking about today. It's the south end of the pdx airport. And the next slide. And then a very zoomed in. So you can see here this is at the intersection of airtran's way and mary olsen way. So in the purple outline is where the enterprise zone currently exists. And the yellow outline is where we are proposing a boundary amendment. It's an inclusion of three tax lots or 0.05mi■!s. And we'll go into more detail on that later in the presentation.
21 So just a little bit of additional context for you all. Oregon's enterprise zone program is an economic development tool that's authorized under Oregon state law. And in particular rs 285 c, and it has existed for over 50 years. The program encourages business investment and job growth by abating property taxes on new eligible capital investments for up to five years in exchange for job growth and commitment to public benefits. The program is also a key tool to incentivize investments that have the impact of increasing the property tax base for local jurisdictions. The city of Portland is portland's zone sponsor, and prosper Portland administers the program on the city's behalf. It's important to note here that this is the only incentive tool that our business advancement team at prosper Portland manages in-house, so it really does play a critical role for us in terms of the work that we do to retain and expand employers in our community. In 2017, we added the country's first public benefit requirement within an enterprise zone zone. Companies that sign up for the full five years of tax savings must also agree to invest back into the community. They're able to achieve this through important programing such as the Portland means progress initiative. Companies can select from a menu of benefits ranging from investing in employee trainings, updating internal hiring policies and practices, hiring local interns, and partnering with community initiatives. As mentioned, the enterprise zone was originally enacted by the state legislature back in 1985 and remains an important tool for both urban and rural job creation and economic growth. Today. There are currently over 70 zones across the state of Oregon, with most medium and large sized cities having at least one zone. Each zone has a ten year designation that is approved by the local zone sponsor, the port and the state. The Portland enterprise zone was authorized in 2019 and expires in 2029, and the east Portland zone was reauthorized in 2023 and expires in 2033. So just a quick snapshot of how the program itself works. For an eligible business. To enroll, they must follow several key steps. First, they work with a zone sponsor to determine if the project and their investments are eligible for the program. The zone sponsor then, in our case, works with Multnomah county tax assessor's office, business Oregon and the state department of revenue to authorize their participation. The business submits annual investment, compliance and reporting documents to these jurisdictions, and then the business receives their tax savings with their annual property tax bills when the project closes, all covered investments and the increased property taxes all go back onto the tax roll. And zone. Property tax abatement does not reduce the existing tax liability for a business in any zone. The important part to note here is that the business only receives tax savings on the new capital investments that they choose to make. With this incentive. So one way to think about an average tax liability of a new capital investment is taking an estimate of about 1.5% of the the value of the new investment. And so, hypothetically, if you had a $20 million investment, it could create a tax liability of about $300,000 in local property taxes a year. So under the program, after five years and about $1.5 million in abated taxes or exemptions, the total asset, the new improvements that were invested in all reenter the tax roll. We've seen an average of the net assessed taxable value across all zone properties increase around 14% year over year. So that's basically an increase in the property tax base that's resulting from the increased investment and job creation that the zone helps to enable. In the Portland and east Portland enterprise zones, we currently have 29 total projects, with 90% of those being small businesses representing currently 2000 living wage jobs in Portland. Over the last seven years, the program saw 3600 new living wage full time jobs. Cumulatively, while there is a 10% job increase required for each business that participates in the zone program. In total, we've actually seen a 30% increase across all businesses. 2.6% is the business license tax rate. All of that is still collected from the businesses that participate in the zones, in addition to any additional payroll taxes or other types of property taxes that the new investments and jobs create. Last year or two years ago now, in 2024, there was over 34 million in total capital and procurement investments made in our city through the program. And the projects leveraged a ratio of about 15 to 1 in terms of the private investment, relative to the tax savings that these programs or these projects realized. We're excited that the businesses want to stay, want to come and want to invest here in Portland. And we wanted to share with you a list of some of the participating companies that you may be familiar with. I now welcome our partners, our representatives from the port of Portland and alaska airlines, to share a bit more about the specific business expansion opportunity that we mentioned earlier. Like I said, we have Steve winkel, senior manager for airside real estate at the port of Portland, who's online, and then will be followed by david long, who is a senior manager of airport development at alaska airlines. Steve.
22 Steve, it appears that you're muted.
23 Can you hear me?
24 We can hear you now.
25 You can hear me now.
26 Yes, we can hear you.
27 Okay. Hey, sorry about that. Thank you. And my apologies up front for not being there in person. I'm traveling and out of state. Otherwise I would be there. Just a few comments from the port of Portland before we turn it over to our client, alaska airlines, but wanted to note as the landowner, the port of Portland supports the proposed technical boundary adjustment to encourage this significant investment in a new aircraft maintenance facility at the port Portland international airport. As you know, the majority of the site is already contained within the existing enterprise zone boundary, and the port supports this minor boundary amendment to include the full proposed development site within the enterprise zone. Alaska airlines is a key partner for the port of Portland as our largest airline at pdx, and it continues to grow its operations and investments within the Portland market. Currently, the airline operates alaska, horizon and hawaiian airlines. The proposed development will occur on approximately 10.69 acres of land, and the built and will build a facility consisting of approximately 125,000ft■!s of nw hangar space, 60,000ft■!s of new office space, and 225,000ft■!s f new aircraft ramp and other supporting facilities. The site is a unique development opportunity that will include long term expansion of the aviation ecosystem at pdx. It will create jobs, expand the tax base and generate airport supporting revenue, and further strengthen alaska airlines long term commitment to the Portland market. At this time, I'd like to turn it over to david long to expand a little more on the development itself.
28 Good morning, council members. I'm david long, senior manager of airport development with alaska airlines. First, thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning to share our aspirations for development of a new maintenance hangar here in Portland, a facility that will support domestic international growth for us and invest in our long term, good paying jobs offered here in the city of Portland. First, a brief bit of history. Alaska airlines and our regional affiliate, regional subsidiary horizon air, have been proudly serving the Portland community for more than 45 years, providing critical connections for business and leisure travelers to destinations around the country and the world. Portland is one of our largest hubs in the network and a place that we're actively investing alongside our partners at the port of Portland, alaska and horizon combined employ nearly 3000 people in Portland, and proud that 80% of those employees are unionized and covered under collective bargaining agreements, which provide excellent competitive wages and benefits. Alaska operates more than 100 daily departures from pdx today, serving nearly 50% of all travelers that come through the airport. And by the summer, we'll be connecting travelers to 65 nonstop destinations from pdx. So we're really looking forward to the opportunity to expand our footprint at a critical and strategic hub such as pdx. The scope of our project is to support our network and fleet growth with a state of the art maintenance facility capable of housing 737 narrowbody aircraft, as well as a330 and 787 widebody aircraft. These aircraft require support facilities that we simply don't have at pdx today. And so development of this is critical for our long term growth in the region and pdx, specifically, the facility itself, all told, will span about 197,000ft■!s, including classrooms, hangar bay space, engine shop space and administrative space. With that size, it can accommodate three narrowbody aircraft or two wide body aircraft simultaneously within the building. Footprint also contains three exterior hardstand positions for parking aircraft. Overnight, the proposed facility represents more than just a capital investment for us at alaska airlines. It's an investment in portland's economic growth and our continued partnership with the community. Once completed, the proposed facility will support more than 100 good paying, full time jobs, including maintenance technicians, engineers, materiel and stores handlers. And nearly all of these jobs will be union represented. The facility will house training classrooms to support ongoing training and development for employees stationed here. So that's background on the facility. The importance of the easy program to us is really that with any significant capital investment, controlling our costs is critical and a huge parameter in our understanding of the feasibility of a project in the environment we operate, in the industry we operate in, which is incredibly competitive. The top four airlines account for about 80% of the total market share in alaska, and subsidiaries account for approximately 8%. So to stay competitive, we have to focus on costs and keep them as low as possible for our developments. The enterprise zone program offers an attractive and meaningful incentive for us that would enable alaska to move forward with our plans for development of this new hangar facility. And as prosper, share, the footprint of alaska's proposed hangar falls largely within the existing enterprise zone boundary. However, a minor adjustment to the boundary is required to ensure we can participate in this program. In closing, we're grateful to prosper Portland, the port of Portland, and to you all for your time this morning to consider this important, important adjustment request. We appreciate our long legacy of partnership with and support from the city of Portland and its community, and hope to work together collectively to realize the benefits of this important project. Thank you.
29 Thank you. David. I just want to go over the next steps of what we're asking of you all today. So to ensure the entire site of this development is eligible for the zone program and to move this project forward, we're proposing our minor boundary amendment. This requires a resolution from city council directing prosper Portland to amend the boundary. As noted earlier, the amendment adds an additional three tax lots at the south end of pdx, and the resolution goes in a packet that we submit to business Oregon. The current, the current boundary you'll see on this map, as I showed you earlier. And here's an outline of the proposed development site. So you can see in the purple two thirds of it exists already. And then we have that bottom corner that doesn't exist yet within the enterprise zone. Here is the project overlaid with the proposed new tax lots. It's three new tax lots outlined in yellow. And you can see that that brings in the bottom third of the investment. Finally, this does not mean that alaska is automatically in the enterprise zone. We amend the boundary and alaska airlines would be required to go through the same process that andrew outlined. We'd work directly with alaska and the port to determine what activities are eligible, detail the requirements of the program. We'd work to obtain authorization through the county tax assessor and the department of revenue. We ensure that the project is in compliance and that they're meeting the reporting requirements. Once those are complete, they submit a tax form every year, and they would realize the tax savings on the subsequent year. And then when the project is complete, the improvements and the rest of the property are fully taxed and brought back onto the tax rolls. So with that, I think that concludes our presentation, and we'd like to open it up for discussion or questions.
30 Thank you very much, faith and folks, for bringing this forward. Colleagues, at this point, let's let's move into discussion on this. This is a resolution that we would need to adopt today to move it to full council. I think you've seen the process outlined, but I'm looking forward to the conversation here. Councilor Dunphy, why don't you go ahead?
31 Thank you. Yeah. First, I just want to note I look forward to being supportive of this. Alaska has been arguably our best corporate partner in this city in so many ways, and I'm deeply thankful for the way alaska has shown up, and I'm eager to be supportive. I do have a question about the zone program a little bit. Andrew, you had said that the zone program is designed specifically around living wage jobs. Doing some research on the prosper website, we found, like the original zone project document from like 2017 describes a living wage job as 15 to $20 an hour minimum wage in the city of Portland is like 1650 now. So like obviously outdated document living wage jobs. According to the mit living wage job calculator in Portland, puts it at $27.45 an hour, which is about $56,000. And I saw that on here. It says this is going to be supporting an average of $50,000 for baggage handlers and some other processors. My question is sort of twofold. One for prosper, is this project calibrated properly? Do we have the the the dollar amounts and the requirements and the public benefits calculated sort of properly? And to our friends in alaska is the living wage job calculator. Is that a a defined by bargaining? Specifically you said that 90, I think 80 or 90% of your employees are in represented positions. Are their wages determined through that bargaining process, or is this sort of a projection going forward?
32 I can start with a response and then you can respond as well. So thank you for the question, councilor. In terms of the Oregon state law, we're going well above and beyond in Portland to layer on those requirements and some of the public benefits that we see as important to toward our values and our city. So we look for at least 150% of of that minimum wage. Eric, if you want to show the jobs that are actually created in this case, that there is no there's no comparison really to the minimum wage for most of these. They're significantly above that. And that's typically what we're looking for with with all the projects that we're pursuing. But I appreciate the feedback. As alaska also mentioned, by and large, these are all well-paid union jobs that are fully benefited positions as well. So if we have continued conversation with you and your office about our own public benefits and how they work in Portland, we would definitely welcome that going forward. But in this case, we feel that the boundary amendment doesn't really bring that specific issue into question. I don't know if, david, you wanted to add anything to that.
33 Just want to make sure I understand the questions you're just asking. The wage scale, is it calibrated by.
34 Collective bargaining or just determined? I don't want to interrupt a collective bargaining process because a calculator online says that this is what a living wage is in Portland. But I do know that the difference between living wage and minimum wage is pretty dramatic. And if the program is specifically explicitly calling out that this is to support living wage jobs, I just wanted to know how we we calibrate that together and whether just specifically from alaska's perspective, whether the job category that you're hiring for has a wage limit or whether that wage limit is determined through collective bargaining, in which case it's none of my business what what you're paying, that's up to them to figure out.
35 My understanding. It's the latter. Admittedly not an expert on our labor side, so I can definitely take that as a takeaway and get more info on if that's acceptable.
36 Okay. Thank you.
37 Thank you. Councilor councilor Clark.
38 Thank you, mr. Co-chair. Thank you for being here. I'm happy to support this. I just have a couple of questions and I am a alaska mvp, frequent flier. Whatever it is, it feels like it's a part of my life. It's my credit card. What? Oh, nothing. I'm not supposed to say that. But thank you for everything that you do for our community. I. One question would be, is there really a downside to doing this? I'm not sure. I don't think so, but I was a little confused. On the map, you had shown a map with a red boundary. Is that what's being added or is it the yellow shaded area?
39 Sure, the red outline outlines the scope of the project, and the yellow shaded area is what we are proposing to bring into the boundary.
40 Okay, okay, I suspect there may be future plans for the rest of the what's being included as well.
41 That's right. We want it to be a little bit overly inclusive in terms of working with the port of Portland, with the airport, with potentially alaska or other investors to complete what kind of makes sense geographically as far as other developable property as well, even though it's not necessarily addressed by this specific project that we're talking about today.
42 And silly question, but why wasn't this included in the original enterprise zone?
43 That's a great question. I will have to follow up with you. I think that's a legacy question from when the zone was made in 2019. So I'm happy to follow up with your office on that.
44 Okay. Great. Thank you I appreciate that and I don't I don't see any downside to this. I would if someone has one. I'd like to hear it. Thank you so much.
45 Thank you.
46 Go ahead and chair Ryan.
47 Thank you. Chair andrew faith and david thanks for being here Steve. You're still online. Thanks for being here as well. I'm pretty excited about this. We're not hearing a lot of we don't have a lot of dialog of late about job creation and expansion. So let's just face it. Happy new year when it comes to that. That said, I just really am asking questions to understand, and I think it's common once we get into the reality of what you were discussing, like that boundary changes, you know, 4 or 5 years later have to be explored. So especially in the ever changing world of aviation and airport services and clearly alaska, did you say alaska? Alaska is our biggest hub here in Portland, correct.
48 We're the biggest carrier in Portland. Yeah. That's correct.
49 So anyway, this is pretty much happy news. And what I saw is 100 over 100 jobs and many of them are living wage jobs, which is great. I understand that the impacted businesses are required to pay 18% of the realized tax savings into the workforce development fund, which I think is very exciting. Where are those funds maintained? This is for me to understand better about a program. Yeah. What where are those funds maintained and who can access them?
50 So prosper Portland collects those funds. And then how we've used them is basically in partnership with work systems inc for workforce development programs. And then we've also used them to invest in our inclusive business resource network, which is obviously focused on small businesses in underserved parts of the community as well.
51 Okay. That's exciting. And in our workforce committee, maybe they already know this and they're in communication with you all in updates and reports to that matter. Okay. That's good. I want to make sure there was a communication through line between us and in city hall. Am I hearing voices?
52 Councilor Smith yes.
53 Oh, that's councilor Smith. Hi. Councilor Smith, you're online. So did you want to say something about that last question?
54 I think she was just.
55 You were just unmuted. Okay. Got it. Also, there's a requirement that the enterprise zone businesses collaborate with local entrepreneurs to grow portland's small business community. Can one of you share what that looks like for alaska airlines?
56 Yeah, I can give an example of what that looks like here. And this will be something that will partner with the alaska team on. So as a part of their application process, we work with them to discuss what public benefits they want to commit to. One of an example that we have of a current business is a local food maker. And they I'm trying not to disclose who they are with a like industry. They hosted a food fest. So for example, if it was a hot sauce, they hosted like a hot sauce food fest and brought in local entrepreneurs to talk about the challenges of their industry, taste test, etc. So that's an example of something that our smaller businesses are doing. But this would require some creativity of partnering with alaska, of how do we implement these public benefits. And that's something that the team at prosper Portland would work directly with the company to implement.
57 Thank you. I was trying to not guess it, and then I assumed when you went to hot sauce, it wasn't hot sauce. So anyway, that was fun. How do we get that information? How do we how do we just stay updated on this good news.
58 Yeah. So we run this program through the Portland means progress initiative and we produce an annual report. So we're actually an annual reporting right now. So we'll have the 2020 annual report out in March. When we have the annual report out, we'll make sure that it goes directly to you.
59 Great. I'll make sure that with the first two questions, it's really about us making sure that we have a communication loop so that we can be excited to promote what these investments do. What's the impact on the city's general fund for foregone tax revenues? If the enterprise zone is amended, and for how long?
60 The.
61 I get that question a lot.
62 Yeah. So the boundary amendment that we're making today, the three tax lots, doesn't really have a material impact on the city's general fund. We'd have to get the the full number back to you. But I would tell you it's for all the projects that we have right now relative to the overall property tax base. It's it's not a significant impact.
63 That's helpful. And I noticed in one of the slides that talked about job growth requirements, how do you regulate that. Because you know, the markets the market. And I believe you that these are your projections. But how do we how do anyway what's the what's the regulation on that. Like if they're not met.
64 Yeah. So there's a 10% job requirement through the state of Oregon. So it is written in statute as a requirement to tax savings. That's something that a company sends their forms into me. And we look at their job count if they're under jobs and there's like this is a they're really under jobs, then they would not receive the tax abatement and there would be a tax clawback. One of the the realities is we have many manufacturing companies that have high turnover. So one of the areas is the job is posted and they are recruiting for that position. So they may be required to grow ten jobs and they've had six people leave. Those six jobs are posted and they are actively recruiting for those six jobs. So that's one of the ways that companies who have that high turnover and the job market being what it is, we can offer some flexibility as long as they're posted.
65 Yeah, there's some good status when they're. Okay. Got it. But there is there is a good system in place. It sounds like okay, I think I'm just finally asking the questions I always wanted to ask when we had these. And we don't. I think the council doesn't always get the updates on those benefits. And then how prosper Portland plays that that role. Your matchmaker, and you're also the steward of this relationship. And so I think that those are some of the things that when you come back or when I hear from my colleague and workforce about how those are impacting our economy, this one's kind of a loaded question, but it's just say, this is like a scenario. If this was it was a denial to the change in the enterprise zone boundaries to alaska airlines plans for expansion and investment in our city. I mean, this what would that do to alaska airlines relationship with our city, our airport? This was denied.
66 I think it's hard to quantify specifics, but I can tell you with such a large capital project, a successful extension of the boundary and ultimately inclusion in the program is really key to our decision making process. So I couldn't say with certainty if x then y, but it is a really critical parameter at this juncture in our planning.
67 So and are we the second largest hub proportionality wise after seattle.
68 In terms of our market share?
69 Yeah. Market share.
70 Historically that's been correct. A-channel. With our acquisition of hawaiian airlines is now starting to get on the the field. So depending on how you measure it.
71 Honolulu might take us over.
72 I wouldn't say that.
73 I said it, but because of what you just said.
74 So I think I'm speaking from a place of uncertainty. I don't have the numbers specifically on honolulu, but as it stands right now, yes, Portland is the second largest hub.
75 This is all supportive. It's that right now we are market share wise. Second in your portfolio, correct? Right. And we're excited that hawaiian airlines was folded in, I think the pacific rim trade that Portland will always be a big part of that's going to hopefully benefit us. Do you have any why we're off topic because I put us there. Do you have any thing you want to share with us about the inclusion of hawaiian airlines and what that will do to the hub here in Portland in terms of better access, perhaps to the pacific in the east?
76 I think specifically to this development, we've sized this hangar facility to accommodate the critical aircraft in the hawaiian airlines fleet. And so that's realizing the benefit of this facility will allow those aircraft to be serviced here and not force route to other destinations, just from a maintenance need perspective. So while I can't look into a crystal ball and tell you the exact makeup of our route network moving forward, it will definitely be a huge benefit to have access to this type of facility for those aircraft type.
77 And co-chair Ryan, if I if I may just add briefly, two other things to emphasize about the zone program is we operate it here in Portland. One is we really do look at it as a critical differentiator against what other cities around the world can offer. It really does sometimes make the difference for us in terms of the investment attraction and the job creation that we can have here in Portland. And then the second key point is, we don't know if some of these investments would be made in the absence of this incentive. So we're looking for something that can use the zone to push an investment and a job creation project like this over the top. We don't know. There's like uncertainty is the right word. We don't know if some of these employers would be making the same investments. But for the offer that we're making under the zone program. So that's why it's such a critical tool for us. But like faith mentioned, we're really proud of the Portland means progress program and the menu of public benefits that we have layered in over the top in our community, much higher than what the state requires us to do. We've actually had a number of delegations from other states, even from europe, come to Portland, to look at how we created this curated menu, and then matchmake employers to community organizations so that there is a very strong partnership. You know, with a company like alaska, they're already councilor, Dunphy said. They're already so engaged in the community, it's not hard to get them to see all the different potential investments they could be making. They're making them. But for others, they're not always sure about, you know, internships, mentorships, procurement from diverse businesses. They don't really know exactly how to operationalize that. So faith is doing an amazing job of actually matching up what the community needs, different pathways with what employers can do as far as a broader community impact.
78 Great. You're all being very diplomatic. I'm quite supportive of this, and I just wanted to do some playful visioning about how important it is to take this step and how important it is for to continue to be partnering with alaska airlines in our in terms of the economic development for our region. And so you did help explain that that would pursue better opportunities for access. And I think that's what I was trying to get to. So I was trying to look at a crystal ball with quite a lack of perspective. So thank you for making it more reality in this dialog I appreciate it. Thanks.
79 You want that hawaiian fleet here?
80 Yes, indeed. I don't always want to have to go to seattle and transfer. Yeah.
81 Thank you counselor.
82 Thank you. Coach Ryan. Counselor Smith go ahead.
83 Thank you I appreciate it. Thank you. Co-chair. Thank. Excuse me. Thank you all for coming this morning. I was listening to it on the way in. One of the things that I was concerned concerned about is that. Excuse me, is that you said you need to do a resolution. How is it that you need to do a resolution and not an ordinance?
84 Yeah. So this is run by the state of Oregon, and the city of Portland is the zone sponsor. So the zone sponsor needs to provide a resolution from city council saying that they authorize the state of Oregon to approve the boundary amendment.
85 Still not clear.
86 It's a lot of bureaucracy. It's a it's a program of the state of Oregon. And the city of Portland is the zone sponsors.
87 Like a resolution, but you don't need a resolution from us. You guys can can apply for this without us having a resolution.
88 Yeah. I think the way it's constructed, though, is that you want to have the local jurisdiction actually have control over how the boundaries are set, because they know that there will be a local impact for that. So business Oregon basically wants like a formalized approval from you all that you are supportive of this program so that it's not just done without your your actual.
89 Input, but an memorandum of understanding would, would, would suffice.
90 It's outlined in Oregon statute that it requires a resolution.
91 So it says it it requires a resolution, not an ordinance.
92 Yeah. The resolution in this case is just obviously the boundary amendment. We wouldn't be coming back to you on specific projects that are occurring within zones as it exists today, if that makes sense.
93 Not to me, not yet, but. I can talk to you offline about it because it's I you know, in order for us to do things that that is binding, we have to put it in a ordinance. And so a resolution for me, I'm still not clear why we're not doing an ordinance that directs us to do this if we need it. So just if you could give me the statute and show me what it is and so I can look at it and see it because I, you know, sure.
94 We'd be happy to do that.
95 Yeah.
96 Thank you.
97 Thank you, councilor Smith. I think it's always really important to ground ourselves in what the statutory and kind of institutional limits and boundaries are. So we know that we're we're doing what we need to do, but not more than it. Perhaps the resolution. Yeah. The first whereas clause in the resolution does list the statutes. If you if you want to look that up. But I'll just go ahead and speak now. I think everyone's had an opportunity to speak yet. You know colleagues actually I want to pick up on what councilor Clark had first asked, sort of I think maybe just rhetorically, but I think there's a reasonable debate to have around. It's like, well, what is the downside? And in this case, you know, I don't see a downside with this project. But I think the way that I always evaluate that is the marginal trade offs. And so not every enterprise zone is going to be created. The same with respect to variables like uncertainty payback period. What's your opportunity costs are I think the reason why I'm so very supportive of this is because we have a situation where you have a very clear point and purpose of the enterprise zone. There is an industrial cluster, there is a hub here. We have a very high likelihood of marginal investment at scale, $120 million that flows into our community that this this abatement can enable. And it's part of a tax lot that in some sense is dividing arbitrarily two different zones. And so I think in this case there is no downside. The downside, I guess, would be the foregone property tax revenue. And I think in the resolution under the impact statement, prosper Portland develops lists that business Oregon estimates that the seven year average foregone property tax revenue totals approximately $1.8 million per year to the city general fund. You know, but as noted earlier, that doesn't affect the current estimated budget. So there's no near-term opportunity cost there. What it does is unlock growth potential. And then there may be, of course, there's going to be a cost to property tax revenue in the out years. What you guys have done, though, is you've demonstrated that there is there is there's a payback period for this and a return on investment. Councilor Dunphy, I appreciate your line of questioning around the living wage piece. I can't help myself sometimes, so I just I broke out excel during the meeting and did some math, and the weighted average wage across all the different skills works out to $94,000 per year. So some of those are really high salaried. I think it was the I can't remember the eight positions at $160,000, 55, 120. So the weighted average over the whole project is $94,000 per year. And I really hopeful that the collective bargaining process and the baggage handlers themselves can get themselves a better contract through all this. But so I see a very clear nexus there. I think when we think about where we're at economically in the city of Portland, we desperately do need $120 million of private capital to flow in our community. And that then has this multiplier effect that then that's those are dollars that can be spent in shops and storefronts. Those are those are those are folks who now have higher wage expectations. So maybe they can buy that house, or maybe they can afford rent in a way that they didn't afford before. So it stabilizes everything. So I'm very supportive of this. I think my only ask the prosper Portland would be that after we pass, this is going to pass today. But after we pass the resolution, I would ask that you come back before full council with a little clarification on the economic and real estate development impact, because I, I can't really make the math pencil out. When you say the cost per job is 1513 based upon, it's not clear if what you're measuring against the for tax. I know that you guys can do this, and I think my colleagues at the full council will probably want to engage on that question, and so will be really helpful to be able to answer that.
98 I'd be happy to provide more clarity. Co-chair.
99 Thank you. So, colleagues, you know, I'm very supportive of this. I think we all are.
100 So need a motion.
101 Yeah, I think there's no further discussion. I would entertain a motion.
102 So moved. Second.
103 Okay, so councilor Smith moves. Councilor Clark seconds to move the resolution document 2026 016 to full council with a recommendation that it may be adopted. Can we make diana? Can you please call the roll?
104 Dunphy I.
105 Smith I.
106 Ryan.
107 Thank you for great economic news this morning.
108 I Clark. I Green I and with five a's the motion to refer the resolution document number 2026 026 to city council with the recommendation be adopted has passed.
109 Thank you very much, colleagues, and thank you for bringing this forward and the hard work that you're doing to kind of keep our economic engine going. Thanks.
110 Thank you very much.
111 Colleagues. That's our last agenda item. We had a light one today. I am frankly grateful because I've got a very packed day. So our next meeting of the arts and economy committee is on January 27th. I think the only agenda item that we currently have there is the the the ban on force feeding of poultry products in the city of Portland should be an interesting discussion. I think councilor Ryan and I always have our little planning meetings in the afternoon following it. So if we find that there's an opportunity to slot something in that's got high relevance and urgency for our for our committee, we might be able to do that, but no promises. Okay, with that, I will adjourn the meeting of the arts and economy committee.