Portland-area leaders are gearing up for another run at building a hotel next to the city's under-performing convention center.
Metro councilors plan to invite proposals at the end of this month to build a 500 or 600-room hotel next to the Oregon Convention Center.
A recent audit found the center cost $10 million more to run than it raised through visitor revenue.
Metro councilor Rex Burkholder says the Convention Center's biggest problem is it doesn't have a big hotel nearby.
Government officials have struggled for years to build one.
Burkholder says he's hearing new interest in Portland from the lodging industry.
"There are going to be new hotels built in Portland soon. And the question is 'where?'. And it won't do the convention any good, or our economic development efforts any good, if they're located on the west side of the river," according to Burkholder.
Burkholder says another difference with previous convention hotel efforts is that the project should be mostly privately-funded, and privately-owned. But he says the public could subsidize it.
