By Kate Snyder
One of Oregon’s most prominent firms is planning to exit its headquarters in downtown Portland. In 2025, when the firm’s lease is up, Hoffman Construction will leave Fox Tower, located at 805 SW Broadway, according to a report from The Oregonian. The company occupies at least one floor in the tower and has not yet released where it plans to move, only that it needs more space.
Built in 2001, the 27-story Fox Tower totals approximately 760,000 square feet and provides five levels of underground parking with 465 vehicle stalls, two levels of retail space, a 10-screen cinema and 23 levels of offices, according to Hoffman’s website. The firm helped construct the building more than 20 years ago. Other tenants in the building include law firms, consulting groups and real estate agencies.
Hoffman Construction Company is the largest general contractor headquartered in the Pacific Northwest, according to the firm’s website. Founded in Portland in 1922, Hoffman has grown beyond its initial focus on the Pacific Northwest and currently, the company has projects in more than a dozen states and overseas. The firm works in a wide range of markets, from urban high-rise towers and cultural projects, to education, healthcare, office, sports, advanced technology, industrial manufacturing facilities and water treatment plants, among others. Hoffman also has an office at 600 Stewart St. in Seattle.
The firm has been involved in multiple projects throughout the region.
One project completed last year was the Founders Hall at the University of Washington Foster School of Business in Seattle. Designed by a team led by Hoffman Construction and LMN Architects, the 84,800 square foot building frames the northeast edge of Denny Yard and is meant to act as a hub for community, entrepreneurship and innovation, according to The Registry’s previous reporting. Founders Hall is located at 4215 E Stevens Way NE.
Hoffman was also the contractor on Skylab Architecture’s Serena Williams Building on the Nike World Headquarters campus at One Bowerman Drive near Beaverton. For that building, which totals about one million square feet, the architectural design process started in the fall of 2014 and construction was ultimately finished in 2021.
The Portland office market has seen near historic lows in leasing, according to a recent Kidder Mathews report. The report, Portland Office Market Report 2nd Quarter 2023, shows that leasing continued to fall in the year’s second quarter to 639,000 square feet leased, which is down 33 percent from the year before. That number was only beaten once in 2020’s third quarter at the start of the pandemic, when leasing activity posted at only 548,000 square feet. At the same time sublease availability has been continually hitting record highs since the start of the pandemic. This year’s second quarter posted an overwhelming all-time high, reaching over 16 million square feet for the first time on record to approximately 17.6 million square feet.
