Cascade Station Visionary Dies

"Starting in 1999, Ralph is the guy who herded all the cats that made this happen," says Jeff Sackett of Trammell Crow, Bechtel's partner in CascadeStation Development CO., the joint venture that in trade for $28.2 million toward construction of the 5.5-mile light rail gained development rights for 120 acres of Port-owned land along the route.

Indeed, says various public officials, Ralph directed the creation of some 85 agreements between Bechtel Enterprises, Inc., Trammell Crow Company, the Port of Portland, the Tri-Country Metropolitan Transit District of Oregon, and the City of Portland to both build a light rail extension linking downtown Portland with the city's airport, and to construct a commercial development project near the airport. The proposal is believed to be the first public-private partnership of its kind in the country to use a cost-sharing approach with the private sector to fund a public light rail and mixed-use real estate project.

Bechtel's Ed Hern said Stanley's job was to develop business that provides Bechtel with engineering and construction contracts, and he saw that opportunity in Portland's airport light rail project. "He recognized the need and the desire," says Hern. "And in the process of bringing all the public and private parties together to accelerate its development, he won the engineering and construction contract for the light rail project as well as the development rights to CascadeStation."

After stints as administrator for the Urban Mass Transit Administration and Elizabeth Dole's chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Stanley joined Bechtel in 1992 as vice president of infrastructure and development for Bechtel Enterprises, the project development and financing arm of Bechtel Group. He arrived in Portland in late 1998 to take the lead on what would become CascadeStation.

To be developed over 15 years beginning this summer, the $125 million master-planned CascadeStation project is expected to generate 10,000 jobs via 1,000 hotel rooms, 1.35 million sf of office space and about 400,000 sf of retail and restaurant space. The retail is being handled by MBK Northwest, which purchased developments rights to a third of the 120 acres from Bechtel earlier this year. "Ralph's ability to build relationships and consensus was the driving force that is creating this beautiful place," says Sackett.