[jyl]

Around here (Portland) office RE in the central city is dying/dead. WFH, overbuilding, taxes, homeless, have chased so many companies to the suburbs or to employees’ kitchen tables. You can get space in the best class A building for $30/sf, half of what it used to be. Our biggest office tower is losing its anchor tenant and will be 20% occupied by end 2025. Older class C buildings are emptying out as tenants upgrade to Class A/B, many are ghost buildings now. Our local class C building owners don’t seem interested in converting to residential, and many don’t have the $ to do so. Really sad, there are dozens of lovely pre-war office buildings that would make great condos/apartments but will sit vacant until they are demolished, then sit as surface parking lots until the next development cycle.

Meanwhile my office rent goes up every year. They have me trapped because this older building has parking with reserved spaces (incredibly rare) and is on the same side of the Willamette River as my house. Did I mention they are going to close one of the main bridges over the river for five years to build a replacement? Traffic will suck, even fewer people will want to go downtown. I certainly won’t.

So I’m looking for an alternative.