As Qatar projects boggle the mind, officials visit Portland
A delegation of officials preparing for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar will be blowing through Portland next week to meet with business leaders and visit Nike, Jeld-Wen Field and the Port of Portland.
So why does this matter?
“I think every architect and engineer in the world is aware of the investment going on in Qatar,” said Jan Willemse, a partner at of ZGF Architects. “Anytime Qataris go anywhere there is plenty of interest, because 2022 is right around the corner.”
Consider the following very partial list of projects underway or under consideration in Qatar, which has the fastest growing population and the highest per-capita income in the world:
1. Modular stadiums. Talk about recycling and reusing! Imagine huge sports stadiums that get disassembled after the games end and shipped on to the next host city. Qatar is studying proposals but no one has gotten the contract yet.
2. Four subway lines and three light rail projects, a $35 billion investment.
3. The 76-acre, 110-building redevelopment of the old section of Doha. Portland-based Interface Engineering and Green Building Services are working on the sustainability requirements of that project, and hoping it will lead to further contracts as Doha’s building frenzy accelerates.
4. $25 billion in port investments, including $15 billion for a new marine port and $10 billion for an expanded airport.
Portland is one of three west coast cities along with with Los Angeles and Seattle that will host the Qatari delegation next week. Leading the delegation are Hassan Al-Thawadi, Secretary General of the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, and the U.S. Ambassador to Qatar, Susan Ziadeh.
Ziadeh’s predecessor as ambassador to Qatar was Joseph LeBaron, an alumnus of Portland State University. Other prominent PSU alumni with strong Qatari ties include Sheikh Hamad Bin Ali Bin Jassim Al-Thani, a member of the nation’s ruling family; Qatar’s Minister of Justice, Husan Al Ghanam; and the vice president of the Doha Chamber of Commerce.
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The Portland Business Journal is a KATU.com news partner.
Yes, come to Portland. The elected "officials" here know how to blow large chucks of money on pet projects.
Folks should visit if they get the chance. Â We paid for it.
I have a friend who is currently in Doha, Qatar working on a crew for the hydroplane races. Everything is new, everything is pristine and it is all mind boggling, according to him (he's from Portland). Would sure love to go there just to see the architecture!
Are they coming to Portland to learn what not to do?
Light rail? They are building light rail? Don't they know that this causes traffic jams, global warming, increased crime, highway tolls, and probably baldness?
While the guys from Qatar are here, we should show them the $170 million pile of paper we have generated in an effort to build a simple bridge. I'm sure they'd be impressed, once they stopped laughing.
I wonder if they have same-sex marriage in Qatar?
At least by visiting Portland, they will see how not to do things. Â I believe another somewhat important difference between Qatar and Portland is that panhandlers don't exist, so people like to go there to spend their money without being assaulted on every street corner.
@Shadow Don't forget the panhandling at checkout registers
Scum
If you want to know why our economy is going so badly, its because all of our money is going to the people at the top, like the people who live in Qatar.
Come on now, you don't think that repeatedly dumping millions into bridges that aren't built might have something to do with it? Or, maybe, spending tens out thousands on street renames, encouraging park destruction, lighting a beacon for the travelling homeless, while regularly robbing the schools of funding, might be a contributing factor? This state causes more problems for itself than any number of outside factors.
Well put!! Those are precisely the reasons this state has issues. We also don't have a sales tax which would increase funding to schools while reducing property taxes to homeowners but that will never happen, political suicide.
Love the login name ie reference to Ayn Rand. lol. Great novel.