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Portland Business Journal
After 2 years, a positive sign for downtown Portland office leasing
Downtown Portland office leasing surpassed the suburbs for the first time since the end of 2022, according to real estate brokerage CBRE, as employers signed large leases in the core.<\p> Still, downtown vacancy remained stubbornly high at 31.5% in the second quarter, compared to 16.1% in the suburbs, CBRE reported. The Portland metro's overall vacancy rate stood at 24.1%.<\p>
Portland's second-largest law firm renews 50K-sq. ft. downtown lease
Schwabe, the anchor tenant in the PacWest office tower in downtown Portland, has renewed its lease and plans a major remodel, the law firm announced Thursday.<\p> Schwabe was the first tenant in the building, located at 1211 S.W. Fifth Ave., when it opened in 1984. The lease encompasses 50,000 square feet on two and a half floors, making Schwabe the largest tenant in the building.<\p>
Ex-Nike, Adidas execs join Old Town apparel manufacturing hub effort
See correction at bottom of the story.<\p> The team behind a $125 million sustainable manufacturing hub planned for Portland’s Old Town has brought on two high-profile former executives from the city’s biggest footwear and apparel companies.<\p>
Editor's notebook: A record store/pub brings soul to Sellwood
A wall in the corner of Sellwood's The Record Pub contains a chalkboard neatly divided into equal squares. Within those squares sit entries in The TRP Top 3, which change regularly depending on that week's theme. In early July, the theme was "best food and drink songs," per the July 4 holiday.<\p> It's, on several levels, an open slate.<\p>
Larch Creek Fire in Wasco County was 'human caused'
This story is available courtesy of Portland Business Journal media partner KGW-TV. <\p> Crews are battling a wildfire burning near Friend in Wasco County, about 16 miles south of The Dalles. The fast-growing fire, called the Larch Creek Fire, started Tuesday afternoon and has burned 9,135 acres, officials said Wednesday evening. <\p>
Pacific Northwest pizza chain gains new owner
Bellevue fast-casual pizza chain MOD Pizza has sold to a restaurant group amid bankruptcy rumors.<\p> The company announced the sale Wednesday to California-based Elite Restaurant Group. Financial terms were not disclosed. <\p>
As employee insurance premiums soar, these businesses make it work
Oregon health insurance carriers want to hike premiums by an average of 12.3% in 2025, a year after rates rose by 8.1%.<\p> “I wish I could say our members weren’t expecting it, but it’s been this way for some time now, so we’re taking it for granted that we’ll see another huge rate hike again,” said Anthony Smith, Oregon state director for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). “I hate to characterize it as getting desensitized, because we’re talking huge numbers, but that’s how it feels.”<\p>
Portland VC activity cracks key marker after sluggish stretch
Venture capital activity in the Portland metro appeared to tick up in the second quarter of this year following several quarters of sluggish activity that mirrored national trends.<\p> The latest research from Pitchbook and the National Venture Capital Association indicates that investment in the Portland metro area, which includes Vancouver, cracked $100 million for the first time since the second quarter of 2023, according to the Q2 2024 Venture Monitor. <\p>
How Kann, Magna Kusina and other Portland restaurants find capital
The business of restaurants is one with razor-thin margins and a model where multiple lost days of business can spell the end. It’s also an industry where traditional lending is hard to come by and access to capital is tricky. <\p> It’s this reality that inspired InKind founder and restaurant lover Johann Moonesighe to help restaurateurs and chefs sustainably fund their businesses.<\p>
Exclusive: Oregon battery maker expands, aims to add 250 jobs
With a $12 million automated production line in place, Joseph Lu's QPO Energy battery manufacturing plant in Tualatin is set to open in the coming weeks.<\p> The company employs about 50 people now but could grow to 300 next year as more production lines are added, Lu said.<\p>
What Portland businesses need to know about shifting noncompete rules
Employers in Oregon and across the U.S. are struggling to understand how to respond to recent conflicting decisions around noncompete clauses, which restrict workers from changing jobs in the same industry.<\p> In April, the Federal Trade Commission issued a near-total ban on noncompetes, scheduled to take effect in September. But in early July, a federal judge in Texas backed a legal challenge to the FTC’s ban, saying the agency lacked substantive rule-making authority. <\p>
Opinion: An ESG approach to modernizing Oregon's power grid
In February 2021, a winter storm descended from the North and wreaked havoc on large swaths of the continental U.S., overwhelming the power grid and resulting in 9.9 million people losing power.<\p> Some 4.3 million were in Texas, which was hit particularly hard in this storm. In June 2021, a heat bubble formed over the Pacific Northwest, sending temperatures in Portland soaring above 110 degrees and, like the winter storm, overwhelmed the power grid, with thousands losing power for an extended period. Power lines were even melted within the transit system.<\p>
Dutch Bros signs massive office lease, but it's not in Oregon
Dutch Bros Inc. has found its home for a corporate office in Arizona. <\p> Grants Pass-based Dutch Bros (NYSE: BROS) has signed a full-building lease at Liberty Center at Rio Salado, a business park in Tempe, according to industry sources and multiple second quarter office market reports by brokerage firms with a presence in Phoenix. Dutch Bros will occupy 136,426 square feet in the same building that was once home to the headquarters of Tempe-based online car retailer Carvana Co.<\p>
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