By Kate Snyder
Tesla, Inc., continues to establish its presence in the Pacific Northwest, this time in Portland. The electric car manufacturer signed a lease for 43,216 square feet in the city’s Bancroft Building, according to a 2024 first quarter market report recently released by Colliers. The structure is located at 690 S. Bancroft St. Multnomah County property records show the building owner is an entity affiliated with T & E Investments LLC.
In the past year, Tesla has been working to gain a footing in the Pacific Northwest. Previously, the firm has signed multiple lease agreements in Washington.
Last year, the company leased a 245,000 square foot building in Marysville’s Cascade Industrial Center. That facility, located at 16015 51st Ave. NE, will serve as a parts and assembly plant for the electric car maker, making it Tesla’s first plant in the Pacific Northwest. The 5.1 million square foot Cascade Industrial Center is a joint development for industry in Marysville and Arlington and is expected to create 11,600 jobs by 2040. The NorthPoint Development’s Cascade Business Park, which houses the Tesla building, is planned to eventually include a nine-building, 4 million square foot complex on 426 acres.
More recently, the company agreed to lease almost 115,000 square feet of space in Renton. Located at 600 SW 10th St., the 114,531 square foot asset was constructed in 1975 and is positioned on a 10-acre lot. The property is located just off of Highway 405 and State Route 167, and is minutes from downtown Renton. The building was formerly occupied by Ryerson, a metal processing and distribution firm, and Tesla plans to use the site as a service and collision center.
According to the Colliers report, Portland’s Central Business District experienced the greatest increase of vacant office space as occupiers gave back 475,000 square feet, increasing the submarket’s total vacancy rate to 32.5 percent. In total, 35 percent of the office inventory in the CBD is available for lease. The market-wide sublease availability rate continues to hover near historic highs but saw a slight 10 basis point decrease, falling to 3.5 percent. Across the greater Portland office market total leasing activity fell 10 percent when compared to the same period a year prior.
