According to CBRE’s Second-quarter Portland Office Figures Report released in July, the overall vacancy rate rose across the Portland metro. The average direct asking lease rate across the metro area also remained flat, at $32.23 per square foot. At the same time, overall direct asking rates for office space downtown have increased 4% when measured from the same period in 2020.  

The report partially attributes the rise in vacancy to the completion of The Offices at 11W. The report also noted the amount of available subleased space in downtown Portland decreased 2.3% quarter-over-quarter, the first decrease since 2021. Sublease availability still accounted for 19.7% of overall availability in the market, increasing by over 1 million square feet year-over-year.

Samuel Hatcher, field research manager for CBRE in Portland, says while some commercial real estate prices are coming down, Portland’s premier Class A buildings won’t be lowering lease rates any time soon. He says overall trends showing workers coming back into the office, as well as cyclical indicators, signal the recovery of Portland’s commercial real estate market. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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According to CBRE’s 2^nd-quarter data, asking lease rates are relatively flat, despite the vacancy rate. Do you see lease rates going down any time soon?

I don’t think we would come to a consensus that rates are coming down, especially on Class A product. But there has been some movement downward, potentially, in Class B and Class C. We really haven’t seen your prices come down in Class A office buildings, whether that’s downtown in the central city, or in the suburbs. On Class B and Class C buildings, maybe some movement to the downside.

Why are Class A buildings slower to drop asking prices?

It’s just the nature of the environment, and the nature of the market. When you think about the mix between institutional owners versus family owners or smaller portfolios, I would say that institutional ownership can withstand turbulent market volatility, and they aren’t necessarily as incentivized to fluctuate with the market.

When we’re talking about Class A buildings, we’re talking about the trophy office buildings that have been determined to be the top-tier buildings in the market by our office leasing and sales professionals, whether it’s due to their age, location, and really, we’re looking at amenities. I would just say it’s the fact that there is a large share of the market owned by institutional owners with deep pockets that don’t necessarily move based off what other owners might move off of.

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There are reports of companies moving into [downtown] Portland [or choosing to stay downtown], specifically Miller Nash, Davis Wright Tremaine, and All Classical Radio. Is there more demand from people wanting office space in downtown Portland?

We do have active tenants in the market. We are tracking an overall trend of flight to experience or flight to quality. It’s something that we’re building a database off of, their reasons for moving and so on and so forth.

The example that you mentioned with All Classical falls into the category of flight to experience or flight to quality, where they were originally located on the East Side, now they’re downtown, and KOIN tower is a Class A building in prime location. I would say that same with Miller Nash and Davis Wright Tremaine.  

Your report mentions sublease agreements expiring as a reason to be bullish on Portland’s commercial real estate market recovering. Why is that positive?

When you’re looking at Q4 of 2019 or Q1 in 2020, before the pandemic we were tracking about 500,000, 550,000 square feet. Fast forward two and a half, three years. We’re sitting at about two and a half million square feet across the market. Subleasing space could be an indication of a downturn in the market. But when we’re looking out into 2024 2025, there’s a great chunk of that space expected to expire.

During the time period of 2019 to 2020, when there was a lot of scrutiny on commercial real estate needs, you saw a lot of tech companies, a lot of health care companies, reevaluating their office needs and putting space on the market. That’s an indication of, I don’t want to say necessarily tougher times, just a higher level of scrutiny.

We’re projecting nearly a million square feet of sublease availability to expire between now and the end of 2025, so that is a signal of a recovery.  Now that is coming back on the market for direct space. When the sublease space is expiring, it’s an indication that the market is absorbing that space. Rather than having more space come online, seeing it come off in a wave is showing the cycle of the market.

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What are the other trends you’re looking at for Portland’s commercial real estate market?

Irrespective of sublease, keeping a continued eye on office utilization. That’s not necessarily tracking occupancy, having in-depth conversations with property managers about employees returning to the office. As far as positive trends that we’re seeing in Portland, both downtown in in the suburbs, is a year-over-year uptick in office utilization.

We don’t account for every single last building in the market, but when we’re looking at July of 2022 in downtown, multi and single-tenant building utilization was between about 25% to 30%. Fast forward a year to the July-August time frame in 2023, we’re at about 40 to 65%. So, there has been a noticeable difference. And that trend is replicated in the suburbs where there’s a noticeable difference in not necessarily occupancy rate, but the amount of employees who are coming into the office building.

I think that’s a very positive trend, whether that means we’re getting further away from the pandemic or offices are implementing different types of incentives for people to come back, just the idea that we are seeing more people both downtown and, in the suburbs, coming into the office I think is very positive.

Why is your report bullish on Portland’s commercial real estate market’s recovery?

One of the things that Portland has going forward for it and I think always will, is people in their 20s and 30s. They’re always going to look at Portland as a destination for lifestyle. You know, it’s always going to be a metro area that offers live, work, and play options.

Downtown just welcomed a Class A premier trophy office building with 11W, a mixed use property that also has residential and retail space as well. The Ritz Carlton opening in block 216 is the first Ritz Carlton in the Pacific Northwest, and that is a very positive story for downtown, and Portland generally. I think that the Midtown Beer Garden that just opened in collaboration with Expensify and Chef’s Table will spur additional foot traffic back downtown. That’s all part of Portland’s culture.

There’s a lot of very exciting things happening in Vancouver both on the industrial side and on the office and residential side. Zoominfo signed a lease couple years ago for new construction of 365,000 square feet. The Vancouver waterfront is, I think, one of the most exciting places to be on a on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday night. The investment and development that is ongoing right now at the Vancouver waterfront is, I don’t want to say going unnoticed, but I think it’s almost a national story. Just the amount of activity and foot traffic.

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What are you most concerned about?

When I have conversations with my colleagues or other brokers, it really comes down to a couple of things. Number one, the business environment. Then also, just wanting to do our best to get this city back to being as clean and as safe as it can be. I think we’re making great strides right now.

Downtown is in great shape compared to where it was a year and a half ago, but I think we need to just continue with that sentiment, and continue putting our efforts into making the city more lively. I think we’re doing a great job right now. But I think there’s room for improvement.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced last week that it will award $7,500,000 to the Warm Springs Housing Authority to develop new infrastructure and build 10 housing units on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.

The funding comes from the Indian Housing Block Grant Competitive Program, which provides grants to support affordable housing projects in tribal communities. The allocation was part of 22 awards totaling approximately $128 million for affordable housing investments in tribal communities, including $45,616,683 to tribes in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

“This critical federal housing funding will help address a critical housing shortage in Warm Springs. I will keep working to make sure everyone in our state is able to find a safe, affordable place to call home,” Sen. Jeff Merkley said in a press release jointly issued with Sen. Ron Wyden.

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 “This vital funding allows tribes to make investments in safe, affordable housing,” said HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge when she announced the affordable housing spending in Kenai Alaska last week, per a HUD press release announcing the 22 awards. “Indian Housing Block Grant Competitive awards provide tribes with funding to address these challenges in ways that best serve their communities.”

The following grants were made in the Northwest Region and support a variety of housing projects for American Indian Alaskan Native (AIAN) communities:

Alaska

$7,500,000 will be used by Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority to build 13 housing units to increase the number of housing units available to AIAN families.

$7,500,000 will be used by Kenaitze-Salamatof TDHE to build 18 housing units to increase the number of housing units available to AIAN families.

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Idaho

$7,500,000 will be used by Fort Hall Housing Authority to build 30 housing units to increase the number of housing units available to AIAN families.

Oregon

$7,500,000 will be used by Warm Springs Housing Authority to develop new infrastructure and build 10 housing units to increase the number of housing units available to AIAN families.

Washington

The award of $7,500,000 will be used by the Lummi Nation Housing Authority to build 32 housing units to increase the number of housing units available to AIAN families.

The award of $7,500,000 will be used by the Port Gamble S’Klallam Housing Authority to build 30 housing units to increase the number of housing units available to AIAN families.

The award of $6,167,683 will be used by Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe to develop new infrastructure and build 4 housing units to increase the number of housing units available to AIAN families.

Rent prices for Oregon apartments are coming down quickly, a new report from Rent.com finds, with Oregon rent prices falling 5.66% annually between July 2022 and July 2023.  The state ranks third in the country for fastest-dropping rent prices, behind Washington (-7.72%) and Pennsylvania (-5.76%). The rent slide is even steeper in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro area, which saw a 9.81% annual decline in rent prices, according to the report.

Jon Leckie, a researcher and data scientist for Rent.com, says he expects rental prices to continue to drop, especially in the Portland Metro area.

“In Portland and Oregon, they still haven’t found that bottom,” says Leckie. “When you look at Portland from June 2020, to June 2022, so sort of early pandemic until its peak, rents rose 42%. That was $780 in dollar terms. In Oregon it was similar. From 2020 to 2022 it went up about 13.2%, so that was actually more reasonable. But in Portland, I think it’s the part of it is just rent rose so fast, so high, so quickly, that it was a bit of a bubble, and those rents are unsustainable, and they’re starting to come down.”

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Leckie says rents in Portland rose quickly because of an uptick in demand from people moving to Oregon. He says now that the demand has cooled, the rental market is going through a correction.

“Our migration data show a lot of moving away from the West Coast, and so a lot of that’s going to be California. And you know, California rents are obviously some of the highest in the nation. And when I think of places that people want to go from California, the first place I think of is Phoenix and the second place I think of is Portland. I think it became when you were untethered from your workplace, and rents were rising quickly, Portland became a pretty popular destination.”   

Rent prices in the city of Eugene are outliers. Rent in the city rose by almost 13% year-over-year, according to Leckie.

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Monthly data from Zillow.com also show a 13% annual drop in median rental prices in Oregon across all residential property types, including apartments, condos, rental homes and townhomes. The Zillow data show Oregon median rent at $1,800, $300 below than the national median price.  

The reduction in median rents in Oregon bucks national trends. National rents rose 0.31% in July, slightly lower than June’s 0.50%. Year-over-year, rents increased by double digits from October 2021 through August 2022, peaking at $2,053 and averaging yearly changes of 14.65%.

Renters continue to face challenges affording rent across the state. In June, The National Low Income Housing Coalition released its annual “Out of Reach” report, which found  According to the study, Oregon renters must earn $29.72 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment, while paying 30% of their overall income towards rent, which the Oregonian noted was double the amount of Oregon’s minimum wage.

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The Rent.com report also noted landlords trying to put increasing prices on renters in other vectors. A recent National Consumer Law Center report revealed that additional rental “junk” fees, such as pet fees, deposits, pest control fees are worsening the affordable housing shortage.

Leckie adds that he expects rent prices in the Portland metro area to continue decreasing, giving renters more power with landlords as they renegotiate leases.

“More landlords have vacancies that they are trying to fill, but there are fewer people looking for them. And so that’s when they start dropping prices,” says Leckie. “I always encourage people to always try to negotiate. The worst they can really do is say ‘no’. It may not have been worth your time last summer, just because of where the market was. But I think particularly now, it’s definitely worth a shot.”

Sales momentum for medical offices slowed significantly in the first half of 2023, totaling $16 million in sales volume, down from the $91 million in sales volume recorded in the first half of 2022, according CBRE’s bi-yearly medical office trends report for the Portland area.

The report also found the Portland medical office market continues to experience strong demand, with health care tenants showing strong commitment to long-term leases.

The report found relocating medical practices posed significant challenges due to serval compounding factors – including disruptions in the global supply chain, increasing costs of construction and lengthy time frames to obtain permits.

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The report, which includes data on all medical buildings 5,000 square feet or largerin the Multnomah, Clark, Washington and Clackamas Counties, found medical office tenants who were faced with the decision to either renew their current lease or relocate preferred to stay in their current setup.

“Medical practices tended to be closely tied to a specific location, and are hesitant to move more than two miles away due to the potential risk of losing their patient base,” the report reads.

The report also found medical office practices unable to adopt a hybrid work schedule, in contrast to the conventional office market in Portland, which has seen growth in companies adopting hybrid work models.

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The Portland medical office market vacancy rate stands at 4.9%, still approximately 30 basis points (0.3%) below the 10-year average.

Available medical office space was most prevalent in Clark County, (24%) and Beaverton, (14%) with Lake Oswego (3%) having the lowest supply.

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Since 1927 Portland’s Heathman Hotel has been a staple of Portland’s cultural landscape. Located next to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, the Heathman saw significant revenue loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, was put up for sale in February and was purchased by Rockbridge Capital in April.

The same month, the group hired Laura Maldonado as the Heathman’s new general manager. On June 15, the Heathman reopened its restaurant, which had been shut down since 2020.

Maldonado graduated with a degree in hospitality management from the University of Puerto Rico in 2006 and has worked for hotels all across the country, from New York’s Times Square to Miami Beach, and most recently the Kimpton RiverPlace Hotel in Portland.

Now that arts venues have reopened and tourism in some parts of the state has surpassed pre-pandemic levels, Maldonado says engaging with local art and performance is central to her vison of the historic hotel’s post-pandemic future.

This Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What originally drew you to a career in hospitality?

My dad loves hotels, even though we were never travelers. We wouldn’t go to New York, but he found ways for us to go on short weekends to little hotels here and there. The one I most remember was the Holiday Inn, which had a bar in the pool, which I thought was such a treat. I also loved getting to go to these glamourous front desks. I had this love affair with the hotel experience, and what it is to be part of this industry.

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What is your plan for the Heathman as the hospitality sector finds its new normal after the pandemic?

The community and the arts are what we are really focusing on right now. In the hospitality sector, we think of being very service-oriented, and I think we need to be very experience-oriented. We are creating a space that allows for people to be touched. When you’re in the [hotel’s] library, books are signed by the author. Right now we have the songwriter circle, which brings in new music and storytelling.

We’re also doing farmers market tours with the chef. The restaurant has opened back up this year, after it was shut down in 2020, and now every Saturday we go out and shop the local farmers market for our menu items. And starting this weekend, guests will have the option to go with the chef on this morning walk, and they’ll get to meet some of our vendors. That’s one of the really cool initiatives that we started. We have other concert-related events in the works.

The Flaming Lips are going to be here on August 22. That band has four albums that are intended to be played at the same time, which is hard for the average person to do, obviously. So we are having an event in our library and we’re going to play all four here so people can listen, then see the show in Pioneer Square.

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Portland has been getting hit with a lot of news stories about crime and the city’s deterioration for the past few years. How has that impacted how you do business?

I think reputation is really at the forefront of people’s minds, but I think we can be part of the solution. We have to create a space as part of our investment in the community that people feel confident coming into.

It’s going to be big for us to bring in locals, and that means creating a space for them to feel like they can come and interact with the chefs, they can come to the library and have a meeting or a conference call there. They don’t need to have a room. We’re doing a lot more on our social media to make sure that there is awareness that everyone is invited to this party, especially now that we’re bringing back the restaurant, something that was closed for a few years.

How are you incorporating that local angle into the Heathman’s strategy?

We are also using the opportunity to source Pacific Northwest products. Right now we’re testing out the Pacific Northwest cuisine in the restaurant for new takes on how we prepare the dishes to really make local ingredients define what we’re doing. But we’re also not rushing to make decisions until we can really explore what options we have. That goes from big decisions like our menu to little ones, like do we use product XYZ in our minibar in the room? We can make sure it’s all focused on local products or fill it with our generic things. A little M&Ms are delicious, but we also bring in the mushroom jerky that’s locally made. We’ve also done quite a bit of research for our new wine list.

We’re not afraid to go back and find our own way forward. It’s a little bit scary, like anything, anytime you change, but I am super encouraged so far.

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The hospitality industry is currently experiencing staffing shortages. What’s your strategy to be able to attract people to work?

I think culture is big. I think we underestimate how much turnover happens if you don’t create a space where people can actually do well and thrive. Focusing on culture means making sure we provide lunch for associates Monday through Friday, for example, as a way to say we’re going to take care of you. It means providing good benefits, and making sure the leadership team understands how turnover stops momentum, and how training new staff is also impacted by it.

How is staffing going right now at the Heathman?

We haven’t been experiencing staffing shortages ourselves. We are growing right now. We just hired a new director of sales to join our team. We are in the final stages of recruiting a beverage director, so we are in the process of growing. In May we opened the library as our first food-and-beverage venue, and in June we opened the restaurant, so throughout that process, we’ve been in recruitment mode.

Since then it has been continuous growth, which is exciting.

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If you had to give your vision of the hotel in the next five years, what would it look like?

I see this hotel becoming a portal for the arts. I want to be a space that is not just for important visual art and music but also literary work. Maybe if young poets want to have a space — I think we have such a great opportunity to make that happen.

If I have a vision for this property, it is to continue to grab the downtown market in a way that is heavily focused on the arts, which pulls in literature, hospitality and the arts for the experience of our guests. I think that will take a lot of resilience, which I think is one of the great descriptors of our team. That’s what I see for us.

Correction: A pervious version of this article named the Aparium Hotel Group as the Heathman’s new owners. Aparium is the Heathman’s operator, while Rockbridge is the owner. Oregon Business regrets this error.

Gov. Tina Kotek has signed nearly $3 billion of housing assistance bills into law to fight the state’s ongoing housing crisis.

HB 3395, an omnibus bill, allows affordable housing construction on lands zoned for commercial uses within urban growth boundaries, allocates $48.5 million from the general fund to reduce restrictions on housing types and calls for distributing funds to assist low-income college students and farm workers finding housing.

Kotek also gave her stamp of approval to SB 5511, which funds $2.5 billion and 441 new positions  at the Housing and Community Services Department, and includes $55 million for rental assistance, $6 million for eviction prevention services and $7 million assistance with housing down payments.

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SB 5511 also contains $130 million in homelessness response, including funding to maintain Project Turnkey sites, navigation centers, and the shelters being built now through the Governor’s emergency declaration on homelessness, which she declared on her first day in office.

In addition to providing funding and building out the HCSD, Kotek also signed legislation meant to protect tenants through housing protections. SB 611, which caps the amount landlords can increase rent for tenants to 7% plus inflation or 10%, whichever is lower.

HB 3042  give Oregonians in subsidized housing a three-year safe-harbor period, limiting terminations and rent increases after tenants’ housing is withdrawn from publicly supported housing.

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Earlier this year, the governor signed HB 5019 and HB 2001, which provided $200 million dollars to construct affordable housing and give financial assistance to Oregonians close to losing their homes, into law. 

Kotek has been a persistent advocate for the state’s role in fixing the housing shortage, and has pursued both conventional and unconventional alternatives to increase the state’s housing supply, including building mass-timber modular housing units as well as funding Project Turnkey, which helps cities purchase hotels for emergency sheltering.

“These bills are about progress toward making sure every Oregonian has a place to live, safely and securely,” Kotek said at last week’s signing ceremony. “Each tackle these issues from a different angle and complement the efforts well under way through the Emergency Homelessness Response Package that passed early in March. We have work to do. There isn’t one solution to our housing crisis, and it won’t be solved overnight. So let’s keep going.”

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Snell & Wilmer has relocated its Portland office to a bigger space in Moda Tower in the heart of downtown, the law firm announced Monday.

The news comes amid high — and climbing — downtown office vacancy rates in Portland. Although the downtown vacancy rate dropped to 26.8% in the first quarter of this year, by the end of Q2 the rate had risen to 28.4%,  according to data collected by the commercial real estate brokerage CBRE.

While Snell & Wilmer is bucking a trend among white-collar employers, it’s not the only law firm to make a similar announcement In recent months. Miller Nash and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe are both setting up shop in the 11W building at 1140 S.W. Washington St. Block 216, the Ritz-Carlton tower, has leased 19,100 square feet of office space to Davis Wright Tremaine.

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Snell & Wilmer’s Portland office began with four lawyers in 2020. In September 2021, the firm moved its offices from its Lake Oswego office to a 4,300-square-foot space in The Broadway Tower in downtown Portland. The law firm will now have a team of 11 lawyers in the new 11,500 square-foot Moda Tower location.

According to the law firm’s press release, the move to Moda Tower represents a deepening commitment to the firm’s Pacific Northwest clients, and a continuation of the firm’s growth in the region.

“This new office and continued growth in Portland support the firm’s strategic objectives to provide our clients with excellent legal services in the Pacific Northwest,” Barb Dawson, chair of Snell & Wilmer, said in the release. “The new space will foster our collaborative and innovative culture while supporting our commitment to service and leadership in the local community.”

Oregon’s restaurant and hospitality sector shows encouraging signs of growth, but workforce challenges remain a significant issue, according to data from the Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association.

There are more than 7,000 job openings in Oregon’s hotels and lodging sector and 24,000 job openings in restaurants, with 197,000 currently employed in both sectors, according to ORLA’s data.

“The all-time high points for employment in the industry was August of 2019 when we had 223,795 [filled] jobs. If we could fill all the jobs that are available, then we would be beating the peak industry employment all time,” says ORLA president and CEO Jason Brandt.

The number of restaurants in Oregon has also returned to 2019 levels, ORLA’s numbers show. Brandt says that the state lost approximately 750 restaurant locations out of 10,000 prior to the pandemic, but now the number of restaurants in the state has surpassed 10,000.

Brandt attributes the restaurant and lodging sector’s recovery to increased travel.

“There’s a term out there called ‘revenge travel,’ which I think is is kind of a real thing. That term represents people that feel like they had travel taken away from them, but are now getting their revenge on the pandemic, and getting out there to stay overnight at a lodging establishments and go out to eat,” Brandt says.

A spokesperson for Travel Oregon tells Oregon Business over email that Oregon experienced a 26.5% year-over-year increase in direct travel spending from $10.9 billion to $13.9 billion in 2022.

In recent years businesses have struggled to find employees, especially on the Oregon coast.

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Brandt says one of the factors constraining the industry is the perception of poor pay. Data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics says food and beverage service workers make a median wage of $12.49 per hour; BLS data say Oregon food service workers make a median wage of $15 per hour, with waiters and waitresses making a median wage of $14.32 per hour. Brandt contends those numbers don’t necessarily reflect what service workers really make because they don’t account for tips; according to data from the National Restaurant Association, tipped workers make a median of $27 per hour. 

“This represents a considerable salary that can sustain someone for a lifetime, if it’s a career they truly enjoy,” says Brandt. “One of the things that I don’t feel gets a fair shake in our industry is the wage reporting data that we see often from the US Department of Labor, as well as the Oregon Employment Department. We’ve, talked to our friends at the state agencies about this, and we’re trying to figure out some solutions.”

For kitchen and other back-of-house jobs, Brandt says employers who institute a tip sharing policy could increase equity in the sector, as well as make positions more attractive to job seekers. (BLS data show back-of-house workers like head chefs have a higher median wage than waitstaff: chefs and head cooks make a median wage of $24.03 per hour in Oregon.)

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Increases in job demand and tourism spending have not been felt as strongly in Oregon’s largest city. in April of 2023, 167,000 hotel rooms were sold in Portland Central City, 12,000 more than in 2022, but still 22% lower than April of 2019, according to Brandt.

Brandt says media perceptions of Portland as being unsafe are still holding tourists back – a perception he says is not in line with reality, when compared to other cities across the country. 

Complete data on summer tourism will be available for ORLA to analyze in the fall. Until then, there is no way to know just how much of a drag so many opens jobs will have on Oregon’s hospitality sector. But even with so many open positions, Brandt says Oregon’s hospitality industry is on the right trajectory, and that he expects the sector to break even more records as time goes on.

“My advice would be to not underestimate the ability of the hospitality industry to break more records relating to demand over the next decade. And as people experience the amazing typography we have here and the different climates and cultures, I think our industry will be well served for future growth and opportunity,” says Brandt. “The future is very bright for our industry.”

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Home Forward, the largest public housing authority in Oregon, will manage the Housing Choice Voucher Program. Funds are limited and based on a forecast of available resources, and qualifying recipients will be picked via lottery. 

A report by the Portland Housing Bureau, released in March, found that half of Portland renters qualify as “cost-burdened,” paying more than 30% of their income on rent, while one in four pays more than half. In the report, Commissioner Carmen Rubio refers to Portland’s current housing situation as a “perfect storm of market conditions,” making affordable housing scarce. These conditions include rising interest rates and inflation. 

The City of Portland declared a housing state of emergency in 2015, and since then, PHB has opened 4,300 units of affordable housing. But the city is still dogged by a lack of affordable housing, and persistent inequities in access: according to the PHB report, there isn’t a single neighborhood in Portland that is affordable to the average Black household looking for a 2-bedroom rental, and several neighborhoods are out of reach for the average household of all ethnicities. 

“Our community has banded together to build new affordable housing, but so many families are still struggling to make ends meet because of the high cost of rent and inflation,” said Dena Ford-Avery, director of housing choice vouchers at Home Forward, in a press release. “We know that these vouchers will help thousands of our neighbors find safe and stable housing.” 

Housing Choice Vouchers (also known as section 8) fill the gap in affordable housing, increasing the options for low-income families. To qualify for a voucher, applicants must make less than 50% of the Area Median Income (AMI), which equates to $39,500 for an individual and $56,400 for a family of four in Multnomah County. At least one member of a household must also meet certain citizenship requirements. By covering the cost of rent in excess of 30% of a family’s income, Housing Choice Vouchers make housing options affordable that would not be otherwise. 

Every qualifying applicant who applies through the Home Forward website will be added to the waiting list, and 2,000 will be selected at random to receive HCVs. Selection will not, however, guarantee rental assistance as eligibility screenings will be done after families have been chosen via lottery. 

Anyone who believes they may qualify for a HCV is encouraged to apply, starting June 5, through the Housing Forward website. 

The design process started in 2015 with a master plan of the historic hotel. The team began by collecting input and needs from stakeholders and hotel operators. In 2021, the Benson went through a conversion to the Hilton Curio Collection, and at that time, renovation designs for the meeting rooms, ballrooms, fitness area, lobby, and restaurant were ushered in.

“We needed to create a distinction between what was old and what was new in a way that celebrated the history and delivered a more modern experience,” Meaghan McDonald, principal at GGLO, tells Oregon Business. “We peeled back layers of additive decoration that were focused on mimicking the original design, but over the years, had cluttered and muted the historic interior. We wanted to showcase the original materials and architecture but create a more modern aesthetic overlay. We felt this would tell a more cohesive story while the functional upgrades to the hotel created a more elevated experience for the public and returning guests. Downtown Portland has been anchored by the Benson hotel since 1913, but we wanted to bring back local traffic to the space, by giving it some well-deserved attention.”

The hotel features original Italian marble floors, Austrian crystal chandeliers, and the largest collection of Circassian walnut within one building. Contemporary furniture was added through the lobby, featuring pieces from B&B Italia. The newly expanded 1,500 square feet fitness and yoga suite was stripped down to the studs. A new glass wall highlights the original crystal light fixtures and backlit, arched mirrors and tailored casework creates a more boutique approach to guest wellness.

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Each of the newly refined meeting and event spaces pay tribute to the hotel’s legacy and its builder, philanthropist Simon Benson. The Mayfair Ballroom, and its pre-function area, features new technology, lighting and finishes throughout. Custom chandeliers, designed to mirror the historic fixtures of the lobby and built by Los Angeles–based Lusive Décor, are a focal point. Over 150 crystal ceiling fixtures were also repurposed from the hotel’s original guest room corridors to create dramatic shimmering light, bringing sophistication to the 5,800-square-foot ballroom. For the hotel’s guest rooms and suites, new 55” flat-panel televisions were added, and a new state-of-the-art Wi-Fi system was installed. 

The Benson Portland was built in 1912 as the New Oregon hotel. Colloquially known as The Benson, the hotel is managed by Coast Hospitality and is part of Curio Collection by Hilton, a global portfolio of hotels and resorts in more than 30 countries.  

In addition, The Benson Portland and Fire & Vine Hospitality recently announced a partnership to provide culinary services by El Gaucho Portland to the Palm Court lobby restaurant at the hotel.

“It has been a tough road for many metro regions across the country in bringing back the energy and excitement to their downtown cores, especially as hybrid and virtual work sets in for many professionals,” says Jason Brandt, president & CEO of Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association. “We have thousands of people who are no longer in downtown five days a week and these market forces are having a significant impact on hospitality business models. The Benson’s investment is a shining bright light. They’re sending a message that they are committed to Portland and will continue to invest in the community they love. Their willingness to stand tall and make considerable investments in their property is noteworthy and should be celebrated by all those who share a deep love for Portland and for Oregon.”

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Mark Goeman, managing director of The Benson Portland, says guest response has been overwhelmingly positive, and guest referrals have also increased significantly post-renovation.

“The Benson Portland takes pride in providing our guests with authentic and memorable travel experiences through distinctly local offerings and unexpected amenities,” he says. “These renovations demonstrate our commitment to guest satisfaction and alignment with the standards of this upscale, one-of-a-kind hotel brand. With our new affiliation as a Curio Collection by Hilton, accompanied with our extensive renovation, The Benson is uniquely positioned to lead the Portland Central Business District hotels in 2023 and beyond.”