Daniel H. Lownsdale reserved the Park Blocks for public use in his 1848
platting of Portland, but didn't actually donate land to the city. As historian
E. Kimbark MacColl stated, "By no stretch of the imagination could he be cited as a 'philanthropist.' He was greedy like most of his partners.... The record is clear: Daniel Lownsdale was a visionary but shifty character whose land speculation helped to spawn more litigation in Portland than in any other western city of comparable size."
Chet Orloff wrote an editorial in 2001 stating "six crucial blocks were lost to greed, government reluctance, poor estate planning and an adverse court decision." The park land was previously used for surface parking, and contained an early "
food cart institution", the Snow White House
crêperie. Developer Tom Moyer wanted to redevelop the block since the 1970s. The
City Club of Portland held a significant meeting in 1992 about the fate of the Central Park Blocks, also called the Commercial Park Blocks. Moyer and the PDC opposed "the downtown parking magnate" Greg Goodman's plans to turn the block into a 550-space 12-story parking structure in 1995, which was to be called the Park Avenue Plaza. Neil Goldschmidt said the parking structure would be "like putting lipstick on a dead corpse" and
Bill Naito said that a "12-story garage won't go away. This is a chance to do something special. We should try to do something special every decade." Moyer proposed the park in February 1998, in a move later described as Moyer's "march to reunite" the North and South Park Blocks. Both the
Portland Development Commission and the Portland Parks Foundation (Moyer, Goldschmidt) were in favor of Portland Planning Director Gil Kelley's 2001 recommendation for the area, which favored a new midtown Park Block as well as "thematically consistent development" along the blocks. The foundation raised $500,000 from 20 patrons, and had an agreement from building owner Joe Weston to donate a building to make way for the park blocks. By 2004, the idea to reunite the Park Blocks through midtown was dead, due to
Neil Goldschmidt moving out of the spotlight during his sex abuse scandal,
Vera Katz's disapproval of the plan, and because Moyer was "tired of swimming upstream" against the city council. The park was originally titled South Park Block 5. The budget in 2006 was $2.1 million, which included renovations to
O'Bryant Square and
Ankeny Park (which have not been renovated, as of 2010). Moyer also donated the surface space for the park, using the space underground for 700 spaces of additional parking, connecting the parking of Moyer's
Fox Tower and
Park Avenue West Tower. During a time of budget shortfalls, the city, the public steering committee (headed by
Chet Orloff), and Tom Moyer were willing to give away naming rights in exchange for further funding. Jordan Schnitzer, a local developer, donated $1.97 million for the plaza and asked city commissioners to name it for his maternal grandparents, Simon and Helen Director. Since plans for reconnecting the midtown Park Blocks had been squelched due to Moyer's announcement of
Park Avenue West Tower, which "drove a stake through its heart", the Park Blocks Foundation, started by Goldschmidt and Moyer but headed by Jim Westwood by 2007, suspended conversations to donating Park Blocks Foundation cash to build the surface of Park Block 5. The park, originally expected to be completed by late 2008, was dedicated on October 27, 2009, with a performance by
BodyVox. The total cost was nearly $9.5 million, with $4.5 million from the
Portland Development Commission, $1.9 million from the City of Portland, and $2.9 million in private donations, mainly from Schnitzer and Moyer.
Operations The cafe Violetta was run by local restaurateur
Dwayne Beliakoff. Elephant's in the Park, a branch of the local chain Elephants Delicatessen, replaced Violetta as the cafe tenant early in 2012. As of 2015, Elephants pays $23,292 in rent per year. ==See also==