Portland’s economic recovery is slower than other U.S. cities Business leaders say there are positive trends, but the work is still a work in progress.
PORTLAND, OR — It’s been nearly three years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and downtown Portland is still trying to recover. From homelessness, to rising crime and gun violence, to business closures and office vacancies in the early days of the pandemic — Portland continues to face a myriad of daunting challenges.
The economic recovery has been slower than in other U.S. cities, but business leaders say there are positive trends and acknowledge it’s a work in progress and won’t happen overnight.
On this week’s Straight Talk, Laural Porter talks with leaders from the Portland Business Alliance, Prosper Portland and Travel Portland about the state of the city and its future. Leaders said progress had been made in attracting tourists back to the city and bringing workers back to the city center, but there was still work to be done.
“We’re headed in the right direction, but I admit … the recovery has been a bit slower than other markets,” said Megan Conway of Travel Portland, a private nonprofit marketing and management firm. organize.
Conway said the city’s visitor spending fell sharply in 2020 due to the pandemic, but it’s starting to pick up, growing more than 72 percent from 2020 to 2021.
“We want to keep climbing and we have a lot of work to do in order for people to understand that we are a viable destination,” Conway said.
related: Downtown Portland ranks last among U.S. cities in pandemic recovery
The data showed a similar pattern when it came to the number of tourists staying in downtown Portland. Between January and October 2020, the number of hotel rooms booked in the city dropped significantly at the start of the pandemic. The year before that, occupancy reached an industry peak in 2019.
Conway noted that 10,000 hotel rooms were available in 2019 and 2,000 new hotel rooms were opened during the pandemic.
The graph below shows that hotel occupancy rates start to increase significantly in 2022.
Andrew Hoan, president and CEO of the Portland Business Alliance, added that more tourists means more tax revenue going to the city.
“So you just look at the relationship and the success of our government getting funding to provide critical services, it’s so dependent on the success of the hospitality industry,” Hoan said.
Another key to economic recovery and success, leaders say, is filling vacant office buildings. Kimberly Branan of Prosper Portland said there are signs of progress, as many large businesses have either moved downtown, expanded or renewed their leases. However, Brannan said downtown Portland’s 26 percent vacancy rate poses a significant challenge.
“It’s going to take creative solutions, like looking at increasing the amount of housing that we invest in in our central core,” Brannan said. “That means maybe looking at how we retain and recruit businesses. Whether it’s incentives or something like that , we really need to get creative because 26%, none of us can remember that number.”
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