Portland, Oregon Has the Assets for a Comeback

The conversation around Portland, Oregon has spent plenty of time focused on what the city has lost. In a recent conversation with David Moore, CEO of Equity Advantage, Jose Cienfuegos, president of the Revitalize Portland Coalition, offered a different way to look at Portland’s future: What does the city still have going for it? Vancouver, Washington took advantage of its riverfront and, as Jose sees it, is experiencing a renaissance. Why can’t Portland, Oregon do the same?

With its river, mountains, ocean, and natural beauty, Portland already has assets that are not going anywhere. The opportunity is figuring out how to make better use of them.

“We always used to talk about what Portland’s lost,” Jose says. “Well, what’s changed and what have we gained?” Instead of starting with everything that has gone wrong, Jose wants to start with the assets Portland already has and ask what can be built around them.

Portland’s River Is an Asset

For Jose, one of the most obvious opportunities is the river. It is already there, running directly through the city, and unlike many of the challenges Portland is working to solve, it is something that is not going to change.

But having a great asset and taking advantage of it are two different things. Jose believes Portland could be doing much more with its riverfront, and he looks across the river to Vancouver, Washington, as an example of a city that made its waterfront a bigger part of its redevelopment.

“They took advantage of it,” Jose says. “They did what needed to be done.” He describes what has happened there as a kind of renaissance.

His point is not that Portland needs to copy Vancouver. It is that Portland already has an asset capable of playing a much larger role in the city’s future. The river does not need to be created. The opportunity is already here.

Look at What Portland Already Has

The river is only one part of the picture. Portland also sits between the mountains and the ocean, surrounded by the kind of natural beauty that cannot be manufactured or easily replicated somewhere else.

Those advantages matter because a city trying to rebuild does not necessarily have to start from scratch. Portland already has qualities that make the area distinctive, and that changes the conversation.

Instead of only asking how Portland can fix its problems, the city can also ask:

• Which of Portland’s existing assets are being underused?
• How could those assets become a bigger part of the city’s future?
• What would it take to turn those advantages into reasons for people and businesses to invest here?

For Jose, those are practical questions because the underlying assets are permanent. Portland’s challenges may change, but its location and natural surroundings remain.

A Different Way to Think About Portland’s Future

Much of the discussion about Portland in recent years has centered on what the city used to be or what it has lost. Jose is trying to shift that conversation.

That does not mean ignoring Portland’s problems. It means recognizing that solving those problems is only part of rebuilding the city. Portland also needs to think about what makes it worth investing in and what advantages it can build around.

The river is one of those advantages. The mountains and ocean are others. Together, they offer a different starting point for thinking about Portland’s future: not simply how to recover what was lost, but how to make more of what the city still has.

Portland does not have to invent everything it needs for a comeback. Some of its greatest assets have been here all along, and the opportunity now is to start using them.

The Guys With All The Answers…

David and Thomas Moore, the co-founders of Equity Advantage & IRA Advantage
Whether working through a 1031 Exchange with Equity Advantage, acquiring real estate with an IRA through IRA Advantage or listing investment property through our Post 1031 property listing site, we are here to help Investors get where they want to be. Call them today! 503-635-1031.