City officials confirmed they were in touch in 2025 with land use attorney Dan O’Connor, who brought them a project idea from the Southern California-based Perk Development for Creekside Quarter, a mixed-use redevelopment along Bear Creek in downtown Medford. The concept included a hotel, conference center and a baseball stadium.
City officials did not publicly identify Perk as the developer before putting forward a 2 percentage-point increase to the city’s hotel tax that would subsidize the project. Voters approved that increase last November. O’Connor could not be reached for comment.
In February 2026, city officials said progress on the conference center appeared to have slowed and that other developers had expressed interest.
The city ultimately never reached an agreement with Perk Development. It’s unknown why the company backed out of the project, and Perk Development did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The city sought new proposals for the conference center in May. The sole response they got was from Texas-based developer Garfield Public/Private. O’Connor is listed in Garfield’s proposal as the team’s “local team member.”
"Our Oregon based legal and consulting partner, Dan O'Connor, has connected our team with local Medford stakeholders, and we are actively coordinating with community partners, including Travel Medford and the Medford Chamber of Commerce, to align the conference center program with regional visitor demand, event recruitment, and business engagement," the company wrote.
Representatives from Garfield Public/Private did not respond to requests for comment.
The proposal identifies the company’s prospective designers, development partners and financial team. It also names a potential site: a roughly 3-acre parking lot on Riverside Avenue owned by Bryan DeBoer, president of Lithia Motors.
Garfield has an agreement allowing it to use the property for preliminary site planning. The agreement does not commit DeBoer to selling the land if the project moves forward.
A city official said the conference center request for proposals, or RFP, is separate from the broader Creekside Quarter concept, and developers could have proposed a location elsewhere. But the RFP required that any proposed site be compatible with the Creekside Quarter concept and gave preference to sites within that area.
“This RFQ/P for the conference center developer follows on a coordinated timeline, reflecting the City's intention to advance both components of the Creekside Quarter vision together, however with openness to site locations that allow the initiatives to be realized,” the RFP reads
Garfield estimates the project could take 39 to 46 months to complete.
The hotel and conference center is moving forward alongside a proposed minor league baseball stadium for the Eugene Emeralds, another potential part of the broader Creekside Quarter concept. The city is also considering renovating the existing Harry & David field in South Medford. An engineering study is underway to estimate the costs for either stadium option.
The city has not decided whether to select Garfield or seek another round of proposals.
