Good News Signs in Oregon and SW Washington [10/20/26]
October 20, 2026
Aaron Kirk Douglas

Good News Signs in Oregon and SW Washington [10/20/26]

Good News Signs Abound in Oregon & SW Washington

Investors often ask whether Oregon and Southwest Washington are seeing positive economic signs. We’ve recently seen some of the region’s largest philanthropic, energy, and manufacturing commitments in years. State economists also report that Oregon’s growth has largely caught up with the nation after lagging since the pandemic.

Genentech breaks ground on $750 million Hillsboro expansion

Genentech broke ground Sept. 28 on a $750 million expansion that will double its manufacturing operation in Hillsboro. The new building will make auto-injector pens and prefilled syringes and add 250 manufacturing jobs when it opens in 2031, on top of the 800 people already employed there.

Downtown Portland posts its busiest summer since 2019

Downtown Portland Clean & Safe reported more than 3 million pedestrian visits in July and August, the first time those months reached that level since 2020. Visits through August totaled more than 22.2 million, up 3.6% from the previous year.

Portland ranked No. 1 city for young professionals

A national study by job site JobLeads ranked Portland the best of the 50 largest U.S. metros for young professionals and recent graduates. Entry-level workers in Portland keep about $28,016 a year after paying median one-bedroom rent, $11,412 more than in Los Angeles. The study credited large employers such as Nike and Intel, whose salaries run 12% above the national average. Denver, Seattle, Minneapolis, and Cleveland rounded out the top five. For apartment investors, a metro that attracts young renters provides durable demand.

Phil and Penny Knight pledge $1 billion to the University of Oregon

On Sept. 23, Phil and Penny Knight announced a $1 billion pledge to the University of Oregon to create the new Phil Knight College of Engineering at the Knight Campus in Eugene. The school will focus on bioengineering and other high-demand fields and will train engineers for Oregon’s semiconductor and technology industries. The state is home to nearly a tenth of the nation’s semiconductor workforce. Oregon has about 2,500 engineering job openings each year that employers struggle to fill. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan called the gift a door to “more opportunity for people across this state.” The University of Oregon now has the largest endowment of any Oregon university, at $1.84 billion. OHSU and Oregon State University are the only other Oregon schools with endowments above $1 billion.

Knights pledge $1.1 billion for Oregon’s first women’s hospital

Eight days earlier, on Sept. 15, the Knights pledged $1.1 billion over 10 years to Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland. The gift will create Oregon’s first women’s health hospital and expand the Providence Heart Institute, which treats 63,000 patients a year. The new hospital, to be built on what is now a parking lot on the St. Vincent campus, is expected to support hundreds of new clinical and nonclinical jobs. St. Vincent delivers more than 3,000 babies a year, the most in Oregon. The gift is one of the largest ever to a U.S. healthcare institution and follows the Knights’ record $2 billion gift to the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute last year.

$135 million bet on Oregon geothermal, with room for 10 gigawatts

Texas-based Mazama Energy raised $135 million in September, backed by funds tied to Bill Gates, Vinod Khosla, and John Arnold, to advance its “hotrock” geothermal project at Newberry Volcano, about 20 miles south of Bend. Last year the company drilled what it calls the world’s hottest enhanced geothermal system, at about 630 degrees Fahrenheit. Mazama plans to test wells producing up to 15 megawatts each this winter, supply the grid by 2029, and reach 200 megawatts by the end of 2030. The long-term number is the headline. The CEO estimates the recoverable heat on Mazama’s lease alone could support about 10 gigawatts of firm, around-the-clock power. That is more than double all U.S. geothermal capacity today and more than Oregon’s average electricity use in 2024. For a region facing steep power-demand forecasts from data centers and manufacturing, that is a meaningful potential source of clean baseload power.

Weyerhaeuser opens 145,000 acres to geothermal development

On Sept. 11, Hexagon Energy announced it had leased geothermal rights on 145,000 acres of Weyerhaeuser timberland in Oregon and Washington, with the potential to develop projects totaling 3 gigawatts. Running at high utilization, that would equal roughly 40% of Oregon’s annual retail electricity use. Subsurface exploration is expected to begin in 2027. Together with Mazama and Quaise Energy, which raised $180 million in late August for a Central Oregon project, the region now has three well-funded efforts to bring next-generation geothermal power to the grid.

Lonza expands drug manufacturing in Bend

Lonza broke ground Sept. 15 on an expanded advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Bend that will add more than 80 permanent, high-wage jobs and about 650 construction jobs, with completion expected in 2029. Oregon’s life sciences sector generated $21.2 billion in economic impact in 2023 and supports nearly 75,000 jobs.

PDX adds routes and pursues a return to Asia

Travel Oregon awarded the Port of Portland $4.5 million to help attract an airline for nonstop service between PDX and Asia, a connection the region has lacked since 2020. Southwest Airlines will restore seasonal daily flights from PDX to Austin and Nashville in summer 2027, and Alaska Airlines continues to add routes, including a new Northwest destination announced Sept. 24. Overall, PDX passenger counts rose 6% in 2025.

Corvallis lands its first high-rise student housing

Oregon State University’s Zev Corvallis project secured a $94.8 million construction loan for a 13-story student housing tower with 667 bedrooms in 262 units and 4,500 square feet of retail. It is expected to open for fall 2028. Lender Affinius Capital cited growing enrollment and limited new supply. HFO senior broker Adam Smith has noted that “over the next 24 months, Corvallis is poised for the largest wave of purpose-built student housing development in its history.”

Electric truck startup expands in Portland

The Portland Business Journal reported on Sept. 10 that Revoy, a San Francisco electric truck startup, is setting up its engineering headquarters in the Portland metro area. Revoy raised a $27 million Series A this summer. It makes a detachable battery-powered dolly that fits between a diesel tractor and trailer. The company says one dolly can move an 80,000-pound truck more than 200 miles and can cut carbon emissions by up to 85%. Revoy plans to launch commercial service on the I-84 corridor between Portland and Boise before the end of the year.

Portland drops the vacancy tax

Portland has dropped a proposed vacancy tax, a welcome development for property owners.

Development moves forward around the Moda Center and Columbia Sportswear’s former HQ

The Portland City Council laid groundwork for development near the Moda Center (Sept. 4). Columbia Sportswear’s former headquarters is moving toward redevelopment (Sept. 30), and the former manufacturing site set for redevelopment in Northwest Portland includes housing, office, and green space (Sept. 14). NBA fans heaved a sigh of relief when the NBA commissioner said it would be “a failure” if the Blazers left Portland.

Community college enrollment rises 6.7%

Enrollment at the region’s community colleges grew 6.7%, with tuition and fees averaging just over $6,100 a year and nearly 12,000 students earning associate degrees. Staffing at Oregon’s colleges and universities rose 25% from 2019 to 2024, and the top five employ nearly 28,000 people.

Sports business momentum

The owner of the Portland Thorns and the Portland Fire hired its first CEO (Sept. 23), and the Portland Diamond Project says the city is still in the mix for a Major League Baseball team (Sept. 11).

Business leaders push tax reform

Momentum is building to reform Oregon’s Corporate Activity Tax (Sept. 14), an R&D tax credit is on lawmakers’ 2027 agenda (Sept. 29), and an Oregon business group released an economic turnaround plan (Sept. 22).

And finally: Portland gets a giant indoor slide park!

On a lighter note, an enormous indoor slide park is set to open in the Portland area, reported Sept. 21. After a few years of headlines about decline, it is a welcome change to report on a different kind of slide!

Want to know more? We’re tracking. Give us a call or send us an email anytime at service@hfore.com or contact your favorite HFO broker.

About HFO

HFO Investment Real Estate is the largest multifamily-only brokerage in the Pacific Northwest. The company has 12 brokers focused exclusively on apartment investment sales in Oregon and Washington. Call (503) 241-5541.

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