New study projects a rosier recovery for the Central Eastside after COVID-19 than in other Portland areas
Central Eastside Industrial Council’s quarterly meeting will include an economic and development forecast April 15 with Tyler Bump of EcoNorthwest

RSVP required

Portland, Ore. – The Central Eastside Industrial Council (CEIC) partnered with ECONorthwest, a Portland-based consulting firm that specializes in economics and planning, to produce a report that forecasts development and market trends for growth after COVID-19. That plan’s key findings include forecasts that the Central Eastside district will recover better than other parts of Portland, given its diversity of uses and what the market needs in a post-COVID recovery.

The Central Eastside neighborhood of Portland stretches from the Willamette River in the west to 12^th Avenue in the east and from I-84 in the north to Powell Boulevard in the south. 

Findings include: 

The Central Eastside saw employment growth at a much faster rate than what was anticipated during the Central City 2035 planning process. 

• The Central Eastside saw 76 percent of the forecast job growth in only a third of the 25-year forecast period in the Central City 2035 plan. 
• The District was not immune to job losses in 2020 and the share of total job losses in the Central Eastside is comparable to employment in the Central City as a whole. However, because employment growth in the Central Eastside had increased at a higher rate than forecasted, employment in the third quarter of 2020 was still above expected employment in the district over the forecast period.

Employment growth will continue but slow down in the Central Eastside Industrial District over the next two to five years.

• This slowed growth will be due to both commercial developments completed during the pandemic that will absorb office demand in post-COVID recovery environment, and macroeconomic trends. Until commercial absorption increases and vacancy rates decline, there is unlikely to be a large amount of new commercial development in the district.  

Demand will continue for additional residential development in the Central Eastside Industrial District.

• The CEID is positioned better than other parts of the Central City given the diversity of (land) uses and niche of the market for post-COVID recovery. While demand for residential development in the Central Eastside will decrease below recent activity, demand will continue for additional residential development in the district as recently delivered residential units are absorbed.

Attend CEIC’s quarterly meeting on Thurs., April 15, 12 – 1 p.m. 

The public is invited to join CEIC for an economic and development forecast with Tyler Bump of EcoNorthwest. Attendees will find out which industries saw pre-covid growth in the Central Eastside, how employment has fared in comparison to the rest of the region, and where and what kinds of commercial and residential development to anticipate in the near future.