One of downtown Portland’s most photographed faces is officially up for grabs. Jackson Tower, the 12-story, clock-topped beaux-arts landmark that looks out over Pioneer Courthouse Square, has been listed for sale, putting a historic slice of the city’s skyline on the block as owners and lenders wrestle with what to do with aging office buildings. Built in 1912 as the Oregon Journal’s headquarters, its glowing clock faces and ornate terra-cotta tiers still anchor the heart of downtown.
The listing went live Tuesday, according to the Portland Business Journal. Commercial property records identify the address as 806 SW Broadway, at the corner of SW Broadway and SW Yamhill, and put the building’s size at roughly 58,000 square feet, per CommercialSearch. The listing is likely to catch the eye of both preservation buffs and developers scouting for a marquee downtown repositioning project.
Built for the Oregon Journal, now a landmark
The tower opened in 1912 as the Journal Building, was rechristened Jackson Tower in 1951, and landed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996, according to the National Park Service. The nomination papers call out its glazed terra-cotta “wedding-cake” massing, perimeter lighting sockets, and the four 12.5-foot Roman-numeral clock faces that ring the upper stories.
Sale arrives amid a fraught downtown market
The decision to sell follows a rough financial stretch for the property. The owner fell into loan trouble and a receiver was sought in 2023, according to Willamette Week. All this is happening while downtown office vacancy remains high, even after a modest first-quarter dip to about 31.9 percent, according to Axios Portland. The pressure has nudged some landlords toward selling or radically rethinking their buildings, which can make historic properties like Jackson Tower attractive to buyers willing to spend on restoration and reinvention.
What buyers might do
Because Jackson Tower is on the National Register, any major changes would come under preservation scrutiny. Even so, its size and prime corner over “Portland’s living room” make it a natural candidate for conversion into a boutique hotel, residential units, or high-end creative offices. Market watchers are pointing to recent downtown deals struck at steep discounts and an uptick in adaptive reuse projects, citing market data from Kidder Mathews. Any new owner will also inherit the to-do list already flagged in the National Register paperwork, including façade work and clock repairs…