Greg O’Stean thinks that everything that’s conveyed by a well-known Portland mural is what will also be the essence of the new Radisson RED hotel that will open on eight floors of the Broadway Tower in 2018.

“You look at the sign that says Keep Portland Weird and that tells you everything you need to know about Portland,” said O’Stean, chief development officer for Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, which announced the plans for the hotel yesterday.

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Walter Bowen, president of BPM Real Estate Group, the firm developing the tower, likes the idea, but tempers it a bit

“That doesn’t mean that the Radisson RED is weird,” he said.

Instead, what it means is that the new hotel will feature plenty of local art, food and beverages that are unique to Portland. The hotel, O’Stean said, will feel like you’re in Portland.

“It’s less about the brand and more about speaking to the local market and everything that makes the market unique,” he said.

Bowen said the initial idea for the property, owned by the Goodman family at the corner of Southwest Broadway and Columbia, was to do a full office building to help meet the city’s demand for new space. After a meeting with Carlson Rezidor, however, the hotel component of the 19-story building stuck.

“It was like a miracle meeting,” Bowen said. “It just really fit well.”

He noted that, while none of the office space in the building has been pre-leased yet — construction isn’t even expected to begin until at least June 10 — there is plenty of pent-up demand. BPM is also the developer behind Pearl West, a 230,000-square-foot speculative office building in the Pearl District that all but leased up before its opening this spring.

Bowen said the 18,000-square-foot floor plates, the expansive views and the sheer volume of office space available in the new tower will be appealing to larger tenants, likely from outside the city.

“I suspect that by the time we break ground, we will be in discussion with tenants,” he said. “The timing is really right for this. It’s a special building.”