Mark Tool-ford fired from Urban Farmer

well,who’s next? Maybe the morons who hired and let the casino restaurant buffet manager. Oh, i mean fine dining manager screw so many people. Michael car-turnbough and Peter Karpinski, thay are all frauds.I see that michael corvino’s bid to be chef didn’t work. Banquet hack!
The problem with these fucking idiots is they think portland needs them to show us how and what to eat.The cuisine of all show and no go. Cold Limp dick banquet food, a sustainable=less steak house, $99 cut rate uber fancy rooms( the hotel doesn’t break even on a daily basis with out 44%occ. and room rates at $200 plus or full at $99. how long will that last?) and now fusion sushi in the sky with an open air patio in the pacific northwest. I wonder if the city who now owns (through default) a percentage of the nines regrets the 130 million dollar blunder. Think about this ( jp morgan owns sage who owns the nines. jp morgan got 30 billion in your tax money through bail out and the city let them default on the loan for 130 million)As tax time nears how heavy is this bag we the tax payers hold?

How completely AWESOME!!! Now they need to can Freddie, as well—and replace them both with local candidates.

Anyway, does anyone know the grisly and sordid details??? Inquiring minds want to know!!!!

Hahahahahahahaha 44% occupancy? The hotel has been sold out almost every night.

haha, that refers to getting room rates of $200 or better. At $99, of course the hotel’s full. And losing money hand over fist. Or better be, because why else would Sage need an 18+++++ month deferment?

P.S. the original The Nines forecasts anticipated year round occupancy of 75% - 80%, with a rate of $280 or better. Any idiot could’ve told you Portland would never, ever see that.

Actually, just checked the Daily Journal of Commerce, The NInes currently runs at 60% - 70% occupancy. Yes, with the $99 rate AND NBA contracts. Guess we’ll be looking at 10% when the 99 days are up.

I guess “almost” means “once every once in a while” to haha. Must have been one of the ones hired by Mark Woolford. Heard those were the sharpest sticks in the Tool-shed, fer sure..

Can someone tell me when the $99 for 99 days deal actually ends?

Is it possible the low rates will be extended?

What do you think will happen at the Nines when it’s over (in graphic detail, please)?

Is Urban Farmer more successful now?

Urban Farmer hasn’t been garnering much gossip lately, what with Departure opening (and already annoying people all over Portland)—I still want someone to share the gory gossip about Toolford’s firing!!!

The $99 offer runs through 4/18–but The Nines has 9 other offers running as well—and I suspect they’ll backpedal into a similar offer. Currently, they’re probably hoping that tourist season will save them…though it could quite possibly be a bust.

If tourist season IS as bad (unemployed people don’t vacation at $$$ hotels) as I suspect it will be, then look for a LOT of priceline and hotels.com deals for absurdly low rates (again). And with both the $99 rate ending in 10 days and basketball season (we won’t be in the playoffs all THAT long) ending shortly thereafter—they’ll have at least 2 very dead months to contend with.

They’ll also have their sister property to scramble against for the little business that’s left, beginning next month.

zumpire wrote…
“Actually, just checked the Daily Journal of Commerce, The NInes currently runs at 60% - 70% occupancy”

That’s old data. We haven’t been that empty in quite awhile. A few months ago that would have been more accurate but these days if we are below 85% that’s a slow day…

Well spanky, the promo ended 4 days ago, so I suspect you’ll be seeing occupancy well below 85% very, very soon. And for the record, the hotel was originally slated to be profitable at 80% year round occupancy, with ADR of $280.

P.S. if the Nines really IS doing so well now, when can the people of Portland expect them to resume (or begin, more accurately) their payments to us???

Thats right spanky. The $99 rate is over. We are still busy. Does sage deserve kudos for making a successful hotel? No, not really, but its still successful. Anyone in the know knows that NBA contracts hardly carry a hotel. A contract brings maybe 20-40 room nights a month plus modest f&b? The Jupiter motel gets more business than that from zumpie’s sewing circle convention every week and we don’t even have to sound-proof our rooms from all the crying and hysterical, delusional ranting. (win-win) Sure a lot of us wanted the nines to fail, myself included, but its not. Get over it. Who cares about the tax payments, we are all liberal right? We all know that this hotel was planned when everything was A OK, and despite everyone’s prediction its doing alright. Rush Limbaugh wouldn’t make such a big deal out of this “scandal.”

Sage is the only ones hiring in this town of any consequence. It is what it is. We are hiring hundreds of people, not too many can say that. Non-existant benefits not withstanding. Its important to remember our competition as someone wrote today in another post. Portland is full of half-assed boutique hotels with no name recognition and ran-down marginal chains, like the only remaining doubletree, the struggling marriotts, the has been embassy, etc. They are just like the “who-gives-a-shit” boutiques but with a vaguely recognizable name. “Our hotel was built in Nineteen Hundred and go fuck yourself” No one cares. You are not unique. We can still catch fish in a barrell even if Karpinski’s full of stink bait. I will say that opening a courtyard in a strange, neglected part of down town is iffy. Marriott name or not. Thats three marriotts in a mile radius. They are more ruthless than walmart. Its an uneasy alliance in a town such as this.

To sum up: The Nines and its restauarants are not bad, not mind blowing either, but neither are the hookers on 82nd st. This isn’t NY in more ways than one. This is Portland and we are the best of the worst. Even the special olympics give gold medals. so hurrah for me and fuck you!

Trust me if sage wasn’t the only one hiring in this town I would have left a long time ago. I don’t love it here, but its gotten much better over the last few months. Not great, but tolerable. Its a job, its shameful, but not as shameless as it once was. That is why the tread is only kept alive by those that don’t work there or have a legitimate right to bitch.

By the way the nines is not in any position to fail. Too much big money tied up into it as well as government assistance. Everyone losses if it fails, even if we weren’t running 90% almost every night. JP Morgan, the city of Portland, Sage, and more..they are not just going to say “oh well, Zumpie was right! If only we had put coffee makers in the rooms and let our rooms sit vacant for $200 a night, then we could have been a contender.” If only.

This post in loving memory of Marky Mark Woolford.
2008-2009.
“Its not sexual harrassment if she can still walk into HR.” -MF

effinlost, we’re in agreement about all the run down, faux “lifestyle” hotels—but Sage is only hiring because they have new hotels to staff. That doesn’t make them the “only major player in town”—we already have much bigger hospitality companies here (plus quite a few that are the same size).

The jury’s still out on successful, as well. I very much doubt they’re anywhere close to turning a profit! And again, if they are, then the taxpayers of Portland DO want their money back!!! We need those bucks to fund schools, fix roads and pay police officers—all at a time when revenue is shrinking.

Or at a minimum, Sam Adams need those $$$ back to fund Paulson’s vanity project.

As to being “too big to fail”, I’d take a look at Sage’s balance sheet before I’d make that claim. They’re a medium sized company, who expanded too fast and have further expansion goals they probably can’t meet. Unlike the mega banks our government currently props up, Sage could easily go bankrupt and might well. With ill conceived vanity projects like the Nines at the forefront.

Oh—also, if JP Morgan Chase has credit default swap insurance on Sage and thier ventures, they might prefer to see the company file for bankruptcy. There’s abig rise in “empty creditors” these days, where they won’t negotiate restructuring because if the company falls apart, the creditor will be repaid through their insurance. It’s why as Six Flags execs beg their creditors to let them restructure, many creditors simply reply “no”, because they can easily be repaid through insurance.

Of course, too much of this and the insurers will go broke, along with even further staggering unemployment, etc…But Chase isn’t exactly warm and fuzzy, so don’t put it past them.

zumpie wrote “but Sage is only hiring because they have new hotels to staff.”

No, they are hiring because business is actually good. I’m not sure what you have stuck up your ass Zumpie, but it seems like people should be happy for ANY company that is providing jobs in this economy. Departure is averaging 200 reservations a night, 300+ on the weekends. Urban Farmer is still busy. The hotel, even with the promotion over is still full. We’ve more than tripled our housekeeping staff, kitchen staff is growing, banquet staff is growing. etc… This town just loves to hate anything new that isn’t chef/owner oriented. Unfortunately these days the chef/owners don’t have deep enough pockets to weather the storm. Yes, Sage did somewhat screw us on benefits but how many restaurants offer even their part time employees any kind of benefits? Something is better than nothing. Yes, the opening management sucked, but they’ve fixed that problem. It’s easy to bitch if you have a stable, well paying job. For those who don’t, companies like Sage are the only game in town right now. Sure, they owe the city a ton of money but if it comes down to working for someone who owes the city money or not working at all the choice seems pretty clear to me. It’s not like the city is going to put food on my table or pay my bills.

spanky, you are a dumbshit. The city DOES put food on your table and DOES pay your bills because they ensure that the city you live in has JOBS to employ your bitter, ugly ass. STFU about shit you do not know about it. While you are so busy working so hard at your uber-successful restaurant/hotel, maybe you could pick up and read a magazine other than Maxim for once. You sicken me…

Spanky, nobody said you shouldn’t work for a company that owes the city moeny. Just that if things are really so glorious (and seriously, the US economy shrank 6.1% in the first quarter, our state has 12.1% unemployment other hotels have seen revenues drop by over 30%—so forgive me if I take all your “things are fabulous” with a grain of salt) The NInes needs to repay their very low interest loans.

That’s money that can create more jobs, pave our roads, teach our kids and provide health care to the indigent. Or go into Sage’s pockets in Denver. Plus, they OWE us the money, so they’re obligated to pay it back.

And sorry, you need only look at the positions and location of those positions to know that Sage is hiring primarily for their NEW property. Except for an occasional housekeeper or other minimum wage spot (with high turnover), the only position they’re currently looking to fill at the NInes is an F&B Director spot (replacing Toolford) and event THAT would be responsible for The Original.

You ever consider that the same laughable limited service hotels that sage runs almost exclusively apart from the nines might actually keep this vanity project from sinking sage? Wouldn’t it be ironic if their lack of experience in high class hotels saves the only one they “own.” No one at the nines ever said that all was peachy and perfect here, but hey…we aren’t the vintage plaza either. Sure the tax payers shelled out some money for this project, but they should sleep better knowing that they didn’t finance the monaco or the lucier for that matter.

Obviously, most of sage’s job postings are for the original(we never said the jobs were specifically for the nines, rather that sage is hiring), however the nines is still hiring at a pretty decent rate. As far as Portland creating jobs and putting food on your table, Portland falls short. Even in the few moments that Portland has not been in recession in this last decade, when other cities are booming, (and now busting), this has always been a hard, hard job market for this industry. Maybe its beyond the cities contol. 12 bridges and 12,000 homeless does not a city make, but those are the only things vaquely memorable about this city. Other cities, like most notably vegas, and phoenix, ski towns in colorado, utah and idaho, even branson, missouri markets their town and forms industry-wide alliances to promote economic growth. Has this happened here? Portland has a lot to offer and I live here for a reason, but most people in the country don’t realize they need to come here. This is the most affordable city on the west coast and should be a bigger destination than the city near nike or whats left of the silicone forest. In short, the city of portland and the state of oregon have not put food in our mouths or paid our bills, they have fallen short of promoting the willamette valley wine boom(thankfully for me), the proximity of the ocean and mountains, let alone the city all in favor of an isolationist, oregoncentric economy. Sure we don’t have a space needle or leaglized prostitution, but we’ve got something to offer here. Local and sustainable may be the model of tomorrow, but we are not alone in this world yet.

Regarding the tax situation, I’ll quote an article that zumpie posted from the oregonian. “…loan payments will be paid before sage collects its profits.” The determent of sage’s loans contibute to operating costs and keeping people employed, not going back into sage’s pockets in denver. I’d love it if sage paid back its obligations to the taxpayers, maybe the state could rescind its tax increases on liquor and cigarettes if it did. I don’t care so much about roads or schools. My wife is barren and all roads are smooth if you’re drunk enough.

On a personal note, i’d like to thank zumpie for not taking my jabs too personally. You are great zumpie, and i don’t take anything i say too seriously and neither should anyone else. Maybe I just have stockholm syndrome and i’m actually falling—well not in love with my captor, peter karpinski, but just suffering from whatever is like a bittersweet disgust. Yeah management is a bunch of morons and sure no matter how long i hold my breath, they will never learn, but thats ok. We’ve just joined the ranks of every other dipshit hotel. In a few sweet weeks, i can sit back, drink my moonshine punch and watch the new kid on the block (our new courtyard hotel) fail. Or Not….

Oh my god you cut the legs out of Zumppie she is going to have to sow alot of scarfes to over come this post! love you effinlost! FUCK THE NINES what ever

heard toolford was working for plaid pantry! how is the toolford 2.0 with departure doing?
does freddy remind anyone of a gay richard gere in american gigalo?

What???? I took absolutely no offense to effin’ lost’s post! I quite liked how he publicly acknowledged me AND talked about his brainwahsed love for Karpinski.

I will say, he sould’ve admitted that the “loans will be paid back before Sage collects its profits” came from the PDC in an effort to save face and a Sage VP (as he prepared for his very long trip to the Cayman Islands)

Of course I never meant to be offensive to anyone and I never wanted to paint what I shared with Peter Kupkakes as love. I remember that fateful day in December when I first approached his table. I said “Hi, I’m Lost, and I’ll be your server tonight.” His eyes may have acknowledged that I’d be his server, but his tapping foot told me that I’d be lost no more and that I’d be his whatever tonight.” Long story short- I got a forty cent raise on January 1st. I knew it wasn’t love when everyone else I talked to seemed to get the same raise! Throughout the state! It does explain the brevity of the moment though.
A genius that burns twice as hot, burns only half as long.

As far as the Ken Lay, I mean Ken Geist and the Caymans thing…I shoudn’t have had to admit anything when quoting an article zumpie posted. Use your own eyes to read the article. Its not hidden. Let me get this right. The person who originally quoted the article is claiming that I misrepresented the quote, by further misrepresenting the quote by saying I failed to recognize the imaginary aspects of of saving face and embezelment. Thats dizzying. I just used zumpie’s argument against her. Using the same argument against me doesn’t work.

stillstanding, how can you be so mean to poor Richard Gere??? Or the loser he played in American Gigolo? At least a manwhore provides a service and serves a purpose. Freddy’s just a useless daddy’s boy (and not even in the gay whore sense!).

effin—again, you misquote me (and I did go back and check my postings)—I simply posted links to articles in which Sage muckety mucks made such comments to the press. So yes, you do need to acknowledge that. If I am, in fact wrong and directly made the claim of “Sage will payback its loans before it sees a profit”, please post the link here! Thanks

my apologizes to richard gere and his mythical gerbil! you’re right zumpie, freddy is in a league all his own. i’ve watched and listened to him before and found myself wanting to club myself just so the conversation would end. he was/ is a vacuous, shallow, pimpy dressed embarrassment! his father must really owe ALOT of favors now. i only meet him while he was blah, blahing our group. i’m curios to hear what people who work with him say!

Stillstanding, hee!!!! I can’t speak to what it’s like to work for him (I imagine it’s pretty painful, though)…but I can tell you about the interview I had with him (he being the reason I wasn’t offered a job there, but maybe that’s a good thing).

I definitely agree with all your points—and he’s also quite rude! He drank tea his assistant had brought in front of me, only adding there wasn’t an extra glass—and then droning on about how great it was (I didn’t even want the tea, just that’s rude—he even went as far as to interrupt our meeting to go out and get it). He kept me waiting and cut the meeting short because someone worthy of fawning over from Sage arrived early.

My favorite part was when he made a little crack about my clothes. I was wearing a brand new, completely professional $300 suit—it was nicer and newer (and a bit flashier) than what either of the two ladies had on in their office.

While I could certainly have used the job, the do feel very, very sorry for the people who did get hired!