PORTLAND, Ore. — A new economic outlook for Portland shows the city’s commercial real estate patterns have fundamentally shifted — and that returning to pre-pandemic, office-centered demand is no longer a realistic expectation. Instead, a “new normal” is taking shape, and Portland’s economic future depends on how well it can adapt.
Anyone who has walked through downtown Portland lately and felt it looks different than it used to is not imagining it. A new report from the Portland Metro Chamber, released Thursday, says the way people use downtown has changed in a big way — and it’s not just a slow recovery from the pandemic. It’s a shift that may be here to stay.
The business organization has published economic indicators for Portland since before the pandemic but began issuing more formal “state of the economy” reports in 2020. For the past six years, those reports used “recovery” as a benchmark, measuring how close downtown Portland was to returning to its pre-pandemic patterns…