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Portland City Council will be taking an action to approve a resolution to affirm support for the OMSI – City of Portland – and Prosper Portland term sheet, authorizing the Mayor to sign the term sheet, and directing named bureaus to develop formal definitive documents or amendments to existing agreements necessitated by the term sheet. Approving the term sheet affirms the spirit of cooperation between OMSI, the City of Portland and Prosper Portland to achieve the goals and policies set forth in Central City 2035 for the Central Eastside including: creating an active riverfront station area with educational and recreational opportunities while promoting visitor-serving attractions; establishing high-density mixed uses including office, institutional and employment uses, and ensuring the affordable housing supply maintains and supports the area’s growing racial, ethnic, and economic diversity. 

OMSI is a regional science and cultural institution that attracts over one million visitors annually. Its mission is to inspire curiosity through engaging science learning experiences, fostering experimentation, and exchanging ideas and stimulating informed action. OMSI collaborates with partners through direct programming, classroom learning, and regional partnerships. The museum moved to its current location, a former PGE power station in the early 1990s which the utility donated to OMSI. Situated along the Willamette River between the Marquam and Tilikum Crossing Bridges, OMSI owns roughly half of the property surrounding the museum. Its neighbors include the Portland Community College Climb Center and the former Hampton Opera Center, which the Native American Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest (NARA) recently acquired from the Portland Opera. OMSI seeks to create a one-of-a kind neighborhood, an inclusive community destination rooted in innovation, culture, the arts and science. It will use the proceeds from land transactions to further its corpus and continue to deliver its programming and community connections. 

City Council adopted the initial Central City 2035 Plan (“CC2035”) by Ordinance No. 189000 on June 6, 2018, which became effective July 9, 2018, to serve as the primary guiding policy document setting forth the goals, policies, and tools to guide growth and development in the Central City. It identified the Central Eastside as a Regional Center district within the Central City. Further, the OMSI Station Area (the “OMSI District”) within the Central Eastside district was identified as a large potential redevelopment site that was required to go through a Central City Master Plan process to identify future development requirements, locations of uses, plans for meeting infrastructure capacity, and the location of open space and rights-of-way that will connect to the larger surrounding district. Following a series of appeals related to portions of CC2035 to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals and the Oregon Court of Appeals, the plan was eventually remanded to the City, resulting in City Council’s readoption of CC2035 on July 8, 2020, by Ordinance 190023 

In 2018, OMSI retained Edlen & Co. to be the master developer of the burgeoning district, and ZGF Architects to lead the Central City Master Plan process. In addition, Prosper Portland coordinated city bureau participation to support master plan development. OMSI’s plan contemplates a new waterfront education park featuring public green space, plazas, restored riparian and upland habitats, and outdoor science programming. Through its partnerships with the Indigenous and Tribal communities, a native presence will be restored along the waterfront and within the built environment. The OMSI District will become home to 1200 new residential units, with a goal of over one-third of them being offered affordably. On February 16, 2023, in Case Number LU-21-115214, the City’s Design Commission approved the OMSI Central City Master Plan (“OMSI CCMP”) and related Infrastructure Zones to guide future development within the OMSI District. 

Prosper Portland partnered with city bureaus to develop the term sheet with OMSI using the Infrastructure Zones to identify needed investments in public and private infrastructure and development and to align respective development priorities within the OMSI District over three phases. Key public priorities include: 1) Vertical development that supports the return of the Indigenous community in the area as well as mixed income housing, and a complement to the district’s industrial job center; 2) Increasing multi-modal access, particularly along the New Water Avenue realignment; and 3) An active waterfront that supports ecological health, increased educational opportunities, and public spaces. 

OMSI’s priorities align with the City’s, noting that New Water Avenue and the Waterfront Education Park are key projects for the first phase. In addition, OMSI will seek out private development projects and plans to build out 250,000 gross square feet of vertical development in Phase One. OMSI recognizes the previous public resources that have been invested to support the district’s growth, and under this term sheet has committed to not seek financial support from city partners for any projects identified in the OMSI CCMP except as committed in the first phase, without notice and agreement. Phase Two is focused on feasibility studies that include developing a district parking solution, pursuing private development, and negotiating an agreement between the Portland Housing Bureau and OMSI to achieve the district’s affordable housing goals. The third phase uses the feasibility findings to continue build out of the district.