By tapping a heavy-hitting construction firm for a $573 million renovation, Portland signals long-term commitment despite unresolved lease negotiations and complex public funding requirements at Moda Center.
For all the uncertainty surrounding Moda Center, the Portland Trail Blazers just made one decision that looks awfully concrete.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson told KGW that the Blazers’ new ownership group has selected PCL Construction as the contractor for the proposed multiyear renovation of Moda Center.
That still does not mean the arena deal is done.
The Blazers and local officials are working through the lease, funding commitments and other agreements required to move the $573 million publicly funded renovation forward. The organization itself would not formally confirm PCL’s selection while negotiations with the city remain ongoing.
Still … picking the company that would actually build the thing is a pretty meaningful step.
For months, almost every development around Moda Center has come with another question attached. Portland has approved its framework, Multnomah County has advanced its own and Oregon has authorized up to $365 million in bonds.
The problem is that none of those pieces gets the project across the finish line on its own.
A new lease still has to be completed. The state’s conditions remain in place. Final agreements still have to turn all of those frameworks into something binding.
And somewhere in the middle of all that … the Blazers have apparently decided who they want holding the blueprints.
PCL brings the kind of résumé that makes the choice easy to understand.
The construction giant originally built what is now Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles and later completed a four-phase renovation while the building remained operational. PCL also built Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena and has worked on its multiyear renovation, renovated UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion and constructed Rogers Place in Edmonton.
That experience could matter quite a bit in Portland.
If the Moda Center project moves forward, this is not a tear-it-down-and-start-over job. The building still has to host basketball, concerts and everything else that comes with operating a major arena while the renovation happens around it.
PCL has already dealt with that problem before.
There is local familiarity, too. PCL served as the design-builder on the new Clackamas County Circuit Courthouse, and Wilson told KGW that an estimated “90% or 95%” of the jobs connected to the Moda Center renovation would be local.
Meanwhile, the bigger deal still has work left.
As we examined earlier this month, Oregon’s authorization of up to $365 million in bonds comes with several statutory conditions. Those include a binding lease of at least 20 years, final approval of the project’s scope, schedule and budget and binding financial commitments from Portland and Multnomah County.
Portland City Council has approved a framework that includes $120 million toward construction, while Multnomah County has advanced a framework for up to $101.6 million. Neither represents the final agreement, and the state says the required conditions must be completed by the end of December to keep the planned spring 2027 bond sale on track.
That deadline has not moved, and the lease is still unfinished.
But choosing PCL changes the feel of the conversation. Portland is no longer only negotiating whether a Moda Center renovation can happen … it is starting to make decisions about how that renovation would actually happen.
For a project that has spent months trapped in hypotheticals, that is a tangible shift — and perhaps the clearest sign yet that the Blazers are preparing for a renovated Moda Center while the paperwork races to catch up.
