Portland city manager touts responsible development, shares convention-center aspiration

Photo/ Renee Cordes Jack Lufkin, board president of the Portland Community Chamber of Commerce, left, and Portland City Manager Jon Jennings take the stage at Wednesday's Eggs & Issues. Jennings addressed a wide range of development-related topics during the Q&A presentation at today's Eggs & Issues breakfast in Portland.

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By Renee Cordes

Portland City Manager Jon Jennings on Wednesday underscored the need for responsible development in Maine's largest city and urged the state to step up and help finance a modern convention center in Portland.

"We have to grow, but we have to do it in a responsible way," Jennings told about 350 attendees at the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce Eggs & Issue breakfast forum during an on-stage interview conducted by Jack Lufkin, board president with the Portland Community Chamber of Commerce.

In response to a question from an attendee, Jennings welcomed the idea of a modern convention center in Portland but said it remained an "aspirational goal" until there was a funding source. His talk was at the Holiday Inn by the Bay, which currently is the go-to place for large gatherings.

"We all would love to have a modern convention center," he said. "The question is, How do you pay for it?"

Indicating that Portland could not do that alone, he called on Augusta for help, saying it needs to decide whether it's willing to "embrace Portland" and put the financial resources in place for such a venue.

On a more general note, he said that "as a community we can come together to solve a lot of problems together."

Quincy Hentzel, CEO of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce, later told Mainebiz the Chamber is "extremely supportive" of having a convention center in Portland,

"Visit Portland informs us that we currently do not have the capacity to host an overnight conference in Portland with more than approximately 500 people," she said. "Also, we have several large businesses in town — and that number is growing — who are unable to host an all-employee meeting locally. They are forced to leave the state in an effort to find facilities to host 1,000-plus people."

Wide-ranging discussion

Opening with a personal anecdote at Tuesday's forum, Jennings recalled attending Ronald Reagan's 1981 presidential inauguration as a high school senior who was a "total geek" and hearing Reagan's quote that "government is the problem." More than four decades later, Jennings said he has fundamentally disagreed with that statement ever since.

Government can be efficient, he said, speaking of a mission "to try to create the most efficient government that we could have in Portland."

Tackling traffic congestion and waterfront zoning are among the most pressing issues, he said, alluding to an ongoing Commercial Street traffic study he later told Mainebiz is slated to be released in June.

Jennings, who came to Portland a little more than a decade ago to become co-owner and president and general manger of the Maine Red Claws, said he has come to appreciate the importance of Portland's working waterfront and the challenges fishermen have had with growth.

On that front, he highlighted the city's approach of working with fishermen and listening to their concerns, after successfully avoiding a citizens' referendum on restricting waterfront development.

"We have had some unbelievable productive conversations that have led to zoning changes" that will ensure the working waterfront remains a vital part of the city "for generations to come," he said.

The wide-ranging talk also covered social services, affordable housing, transportation and employment.