There were 27.3 million pedestrians in downtown Portland in 2024, a little increase of 3% over the previous year.
Based on anonymized mobile phone data gathered by Placer.ai and made public by the Portland Metro Chamber, the figures indicate that foot traffic has mostly plateaued after the post-pandemic recovery. Last year, there were 36% fewer pedestrians living, visiting, or commuting to work downtown than there were in 2019, right before the COVID-19 pandemic, when 42.8 million people walked around the city center.
In a Monday news release, the business lobby group provided a positive interpretation of the figures, pointing out that foot traffic had increased 54% from pandemic lows in 2021.
Increases linked to summer festivals and events as well as entertainment places were also mentioned. According to the Portland Metro Chamber, both the downtown plaza Director Park and nightclubs in Old Town/Chinatown reported a spike in visitors.
According to Mark Wells, executive director of Downtown Portland Clean & Safe, a consistent rise in foot traffic in general and the noticeable increase in the number of workers downtown shows that our recovery is still progressing as planned.
Due to the stipulation by Mayor Keith Wilson that 700 city supervisors and managers work full-time in person in the spring, foot traffic attributed to employees of downtown businesses increased 8% year over year and is expected to increase somewhat more.
According to real estate agency JLL, there are indications that businesses are beginning to re-locate to offices in the Portland suburbs.
According to the brokerage’s most recent quarterly research note, the majority of businesses that were thinking about moving to the suburbs have already done so, and the remaining businesses are primarily recommitting to the urban core.
According to JLL, a number of big tenants are looking for space downtown because they can’t find a significant discount when compared to the central business district, and suburban offices don’t have as many pedestrian facilities.
A few large tenants are leaving. Hoffman Construction has purchased a building in Lake Oswego as its new headquarters, Standard Insurance intends to list floors in its building for lease, and U.S. Bank is leaving its namesake U.S. Bancorp Tower. However, Portland office vacancy is nearing its peak, according to JLL, which places the downtown rate at 29.9%.
–Jonathan Bach covers real estate and housing. You can contact him by phone at 503-221-4303 or by email at [email protected].
Your support is essential to our journalism.Sign up now.
Stories by
Jonathan Bach
-
Oregon apartments need electrical components to open. They re competing with data centers
-
Oregon DMV closing east Portland location after complaints to landlord
-
James Beard Public Market buys downtown Portland building, eyes 2025 partial opening
-
Event-focused sports center, plus hotel and housing, proposed for vacant Washington Square spaces
-
High-cost states across the West should embrace choice in housing, Kotek says
