Three of Portland’s four most noticeable construction projects include some type of housing—either affordable, homeless or retirement—while the fourth project creates an intimate home for the Portland Timbers of Major League Soccer, the city’s newest big-league sports franchise.
Lew Bowers, central city division manager for the Portland Development Council, says that in the short term, his agency wants to see smaller, sustainable rehabilitation projects. “Long term, we don’t see a return to large, single-developer projects,” Bowers says. “Instead, we’re focusing on master planning with opportunities for a variety of developers to participate on specific parcels so projects are ready as soon as the first mortgage financing markets begin to loosen up.”