The night before I stayed at the Nines, in Portland, Oregon, I spent the night at the White House in Yakima, a bed and breakfast. It's actually a couple of bedrooms that are available to let on the second floor of the White House Café, which serves an amazingly delicious breakfast. But the rooms themselves weren't to my personal taste -- an exuberant bride/doily/doll meets shabby chic theme. I know that many people, particularly those who, say, enjoy weddings (I don't) would be charmed, but that's the chance you take when you stay at a B&B -- you are really immersed in a particular taste.

I've also had the experience of staying in a smaller hotel that was more to my taste, but my travel companion was non-plussed by it -- I'm thinking of Le Quartier Français in Franschoek, South Africa, where the Four Quarters suite is a cream and brown palette punched up with accents of bright hot orange and pink. I loved it, although I could see why it wouldn't be for everyone. Human variability in taste is why most hotels resort to the kind of utter blandness that has you calling the front desk in the morning to find out what city you're in.

So when I walked into the Nines -- a 331 room Starwood-owned hotel occupying the top floors of the former Meier & Frank department store in downtown Portland -- and one that's known for its distinctive interiors, I was really thinking about décor and what a challenge it is for a large hotel, to create rooms with some consistency that have a distinct yet relatively universally appealing personality.

Check out the photo gallery and let me know what you think, but I think the Nines manages to strike the right balance. The décor is described as "nostalgic modern", and the rooms are done out in rich brown, charcoal gray, creamy white and a Tiffany turquoise. There are a few fun frou-frou touches -- a beaded light fixture, for instance -- but nothing that should make a buttoned up business man feel uncomfortable (I assume, not being a business man or a man for that matter.) It also felt very Portland-elegant to me, if I were going to an affair in PDX, I'd hit a vintage shop over a department store. Beyond that, there's also a good sense of the local community, as the hotel commissioned some 400 original art pieces to display throughout the hotel, a library on the hotel's main level is stocked with a selection of books from Powell's, Portland's incredibly amazing book store, and Urban Farmer, the hotel's restaurant, works with local purveyors.

A major condo project in Portland, the Waterfront Pearl, is going back to its lender. Oregon Live reports that a subsidiary of Macquarie Group, an Australian financial firm has taken over the project because the developer could not raise enough money to deal with project cost overruns. The condo building is featured in this year's Street of Dreams show which is currently underway. This year the show is highlighting condos showing nine condos in four buildings.

The bank is still trying to sell the units, offering around 150 of the remaining units as rent-to-owns or for-sale condos. Units were originally priced at $350,000 to $1.3 million. A rush of building projects has led to many unsold condos in the market in Portland and many are selling at deep discounts from their original list prices.

The beautiful Nines luxury hotel in Portland, Oregon had the unfortunate timing to open just as the economic crisis began to take hold last fall. The resulting fallout means that this $141 million hotel is struggling to pay its bills (much like a couple of hotels in Scottsdale, Arizona).

The Oregonian reports that the Portland Development Commission agreed this week to accept delayed payments on taxpayer-funded loans to keep the developer from defaulting. The developer, Sage Hospitality Resources of Denver requested the delay with Ken Geist, Sage's executive vice president for development, telling the Portland Development Commission's board that the hotel could not have picked a worse opening date. The sudden and rapid drop in corporate travel spending deeply cut into the hotel's expected revenue. It is expected to generate less than half of what it was originally supposed to deliver in net operating income in its first year.

The 331-room hotel sits above a Macy's store (formerly the historic Meier & Frank department store) and is one of the most ambitious projects planned for the city's urban renewal. The developer is still planning to repay its $16.9 million in city loans at the original interest rates once The Nines' business improves. The current expectation is that loan payments should start up again in 2011 if the economy improves along the current predicted trajectory.

The hotel is offering a variety of special offers with rates starting at $129.

Condo gloom is everywhere, some projects are stopping half-completed, some are shrinking, some are turning into rentals, and then there are the incentives. Developers have been using all sorts of lures to get people into condos including price cuts, appliance and decor upgrades and even free bikes and cars. A new technique comes out of Portland, Oregon. The developer of the Atwater Place condominiums thinks you'll be more eager to buy if you can just sleep in it over night. The ninth floor display unit is accepting potential buyers as overnight guests, hoping they'll rise in the morning, look at the Willamette river views and make coffee in the new kitchen and decide to sign the contract. The Atwater tower is 30 percent sold and sells condos from just under $300,000 to over $1 million, pretty steep for Portland.

Whole Foods stores in Portland and Seattle recently participated in Community Giving Day, agreeing to donate 5% of the day's sales to Farm Aid, a non-profit org that supports local farmers.

The total came to $30,000, money which will help farmers produce and market their food.

"We appreciate [Whole Foods] customers who value family farmers and the food that only they can grow," said Carolyn Mugar , Farm Aid's executive director, in a press release.

A new luxury hotel has opened in Portland, Oregon. The Nines is part of the Starwood Hotels Luxury Collection and is located in the historic Meier & Frank building which was built in several phases starting n 1909. The rooms are above the downtown Macy's and the project was announced back in 2006.

The 331-room Nines includes a 419-piece art collection, and rooms are decorated in turquoise and a rich espresso brown. Rooms have modern amenities like 42-inch high-definition televisions but also have green features such as dual-flush toilets. The hotel has a fitness center, club lounge and two dining and bar options including the Asian-inspired rooftop Departure restaurant and the Urban Farmer. The hotel represents a new level of luxury in a town where most hotel rooms are under $200 a night. Rooms start at $249 a night which The Oregonian reports is nearly twice the downtown average.

Arrive just 15 minutes before your flight is scheduled to depart. Take off from a private terminal. Avoid TSA shenanigans altogether. Protect conservation land in the Pacific Northwest. The four previous statements more or less define the mission of Portland-based SeaPort Air, a new airline that's trying to bring the jetset experience to the masses (at least if they're flying between Portland and Seattle). To mitigate its fuel consumption (the new "carbon offset"), it has as of yesterday announced its partnership with the Columbia Land Trust, noting the company is determined to give back locally to an environmental organization that will have a lasting impact on the Pacific Northwest. With any luck, SeaPort will initiate flight service near the rest of us.

I'm inspired by those who grow their own vegetables and raise their own chickens but I'm not cut out for farm life. For those like me who might want to stick a toe into the sustainable life without opting for their own farm, a new condo in Northeast Portland, Oregon might be a way to start. The Columbia Ecovillage is part of the Portland Permaculture Institute which offers classes on sustainable living. A former apartment complex is being turned into 37 condos next to a 1912 farmhouse which will be a common building for the condos. This complex will be more of a community, residents will cultivate some of their own food and share some meals in the farmhouse. It will be a co-housing community. The prices are pretty low: studios to three bedrooms, will run $145,500 to $329,500. Reservations will be taken starting in May with move-in scheduled for the end of this year.

Is this part of a trend? Bankrate recently had an interesting piece on the new-found popularity of commune-like situations. As the Baby Boomers age they are looking for a sense of community and communes are one possible answer, offering both shared resources and shared experience.

[via The Oregonian]

Today's estate is a quirky home perched on a hillside in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The lakefront home is on a private on-acre lot. The compound includes a guest annex and a separate guest house. The home is a real art house with detailed like colorful fused glass stairs and doors that with sculptural reliefs. The home also has an elevator to help cope with all of the up down and all around. This home is listed at $5.95 million.