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The City of Portland, Oregon

Nick Fish (In Memoriam)

City of Portland Commissioner

phone: 503-823-3589

Email: nick@portlandoregon.gov

1221 S.W. 4th, Room 240, Portland, OR 97204

Public-private partnership brings Director Park to life

October 8, 2009

In 1997, local developer Tom Moyer purchased a block of property at Southwest Park and Taylor, intending to build a below-ground parking structure and donate the surface to to the City for a park.

Plans were finalized in Winter 2008 following extensive community input, and the park will open this Fall.

Almost one-third of the project's nearly $10 million total budget is private donations from Moyer and Portlander Jordan Schnitzer - this estimate doesn't include the land donated by Moyer, which is valued at $5 million.

The park also includes a central fountain. When the project budget couldn't cover construction of the fountain, Schnitzer donated almost $400,000 and asked the City to name the fountain to honor Portland's teachers. The result - Teachers Fountain - is a major feature of the park.

Chet Orloff, chair of the park's citizens advisory committee, told Jim Redden in the October 8 Tribune, "this is a really classic example of the kind of public-private partnerships we boast about here in Portland."