Thanks, Jack Bogdankski, for catching this one. Multnomah County has changed the tax status of the Fairfield Hotel, aka The Fairfield on Stark, to non-exempt, meaning that the Portland Development Commission has to pay property tax on this housing. The Tax Court shot the change down for 2009-10, but only because of defective notice by the County to the PDC. Probably Mult. Co. will try this again, and the Tax Court will have to rule on the substantive issues soon.
Most people don't care too much about who foots the bill for the property tax on the Fairfield, although now hardly seems like the time when the PDC can afford to pay it. But, some of the PDC's other projects, like the swanky but unprofitable hotel, The Nines, or the sweetheart deal to the Danish green energy firm Vestas for a new office in the Pearl, are a little more questionable. Perhaps the county is signalling that they are no longer interested in subsidizing the city's public-private partnerships.
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