Tallest building in Oregon sold for pennies on the dollar.

[Finklejag]

The Tallest building in Oregon, which is located in downtown Portland, sold for just $45 million. That’s a 88% below what it was for sale in 2020. I bet it cost $5 million plus for just the yearly upkeep. Downtown Portland was so vibrant years ago, now it’s dead zone.

https://www.oregonlive.com/business...line-defining-big-pink-office-tower-sold.html

 

[Pablo]

I feel sorry for rural Oregonians.

 

[Nessism1]

San Francisco is also struggling.

What's the homeless situation like in downtown Portland?

 

[SC Maintenance]

Behind a paywall, I don't get the full story unfortunately.

At least someone bought it. I listened to a long podcast a year ago about how half the big buildings in St. Louis are abandoned, the owners bankrupt - no tax revenue turning the entire downtown into a "doom loop" outsiders are calling it, the abondoned buildings make it dangerous meaning no one wants to come downtown and all the other businesses close as well - rinse / repeat. Of course the city says they have a plan and have been buying up the properties.

On the flip side I have recently been to the thriving downtowns of Charlotte, Nashville and Orlando. Tale of two cities I guess.

 

[Vercingetorix]

It is quite a thing parking under that building after 9/11. 43 stories of concrete above your head makes you think.

 

[Elkins45]

Portland is extremely unfriendly to a fairly large chunk of the populace, so that’s something. Add to that the inevitable decline of commercial real estate in the post-Covid environment of remote work and this is something I foresee happening more and more.

Redevelopment into dense housing is the only hope a lot of these building have moving forward.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Wow. Around here businesses are crying for real estate.

 

[Finklejag]

San Francisco is also struggling.

What's the homeless situation like in downtown Portland?

Really bad. All the big towers are half empty because the companies that were in them moved to the suburbs or their workers do remote work now since covid. Oregon as a whole isn’t businesses friendly, Intel just announced their laying off 2,000 workers in Oregon.

 

[4WD]

Wow. Around here businesses are crying for real estate.

Of course more and more of the ‘big boys’ have a secure campus - and that’s not just a CA thing …

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Workers got tired of all the homeless camped outside.

 

[oilboy123]

Drugs were legalized for sometime. Last I heard they were illegal again. Of course letting homeless take over plays a big part.

 

[jcy]

Behind a paywall, I don't get the full story unfortunately.

You're not missing much: https://archive.is/Eu8VD

 

[SC Maintenance]

Redevelopment into dense housing is the only hope a lot of these building have moving forward.

They have tried this in a few places and failed miserably. The cost associated with the retrofit is much higher than you would think - the wiring is all wrong, the plumbing is all wrong, the windows are all wrong. Maybe if the building started out free - and there is still the problem of does anyone want to live there.

 

[4WD]

Portland is extremely unfriendly to a fairly large chunk of the populace, so that’s something.

My son was getting gas when a local saw Texas plates and decided that was a reason to start a fight - quite confident of his size advantage …
Enter all the money I spent - and his hard work in martial arts …
Fortunately the CCTV filmed it - and the LEO’s were briefed by the store owner. He got a letter from the DA asking to come back up and help them press charges - I convinced him that this guy has a dented door/pride to remind him of his stupidity … No idea after that - and he will never visit that place again …

 

[Elkins45]

They have tried this in a few places and failed miserably. The cost associated with the retrofit is much higher than you would think - the wiring is all wrong, the plumbing is all wrong, the windows are all wrong. Maybe if the building started out free - and there is still the problem of does anyone want to live there.

In that case there’s no hope for them at all other than implosion.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

Behind a paywall, I don't get the full story unfortunately.

At least someone bought it. I listened to a long podcast a year ago about how half the big buildings in St. Louis are abandoned, the owners bankrupt - no tax revenue turning the entire downtown into a "doom loop" outsiders are calling it, the abondoned buildings make it dangerous meaning no one wants to come downtown and all the other businesses close as well - rinse / repeat. Of course the city says they have a plan and have been buying up the properties.

On the flip side I have recently been to the thriving downtowns of Charlotte, Nashville and Orlando. Tale of two cities I guess.

Gary, IN met its urban decline decades ago, with downtown abandoned and dangerous as well. Their solution: raze anything that had been vacant & in disrepair longer than X amount of time. Yes, it was a shame to lose some of those historic buildings, but nothing was going to change without drastic measures.

These days, it’s still blighted, but at least it’s not the murder capital of the world anymore (per capita, of course). Even nature eventually burns everything down so life can begin anew. St. Louis will likely need to follow suit, and for the same reasons.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Bring back insane asylums.

 

[edyvw]

At least someone bought it. Check ST. Louis if you want to feel depressed.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Gary, IN met its urban decline decades ago, with downtown abandoned and dangerous as well. Their solution: raze anything that had been vacant & in disrepair longer than X amount of time. Yes, it was a shame to lose some of those historic buildings, but nothing was going to change without drastic measures.

These days, it’s still blighted, but at least it’s not the murder capital of the world anymore (per capita, of course). Even nature eventually burns everything down so life can begin anew. St. Louis will likely need to follow suit, and for the same reasons.

Yes excellent point. I have been to Gary, not that long ago, the Gary Works is still going, but its not the center of the steel industry it was all those years ago. Everyone that works there commutes in. No one I met actually lives in Gary.

St. Louis used to be the gateway to the West, but its not needed anymore. Its really no different than so many Southern textile towns that no longer really exist either, or all those Western gold rush towns. Things change and move on.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Wow. Around here businesses are crying for real estate.

In 3 years all the entry level and admin stuff will have been replaced by AI, and they will have lots of space.