Creative disruption leads to innovation, even when it hurts - OVF as part of the solution
Melissa Freeman
March 2025
The Portland Metro Chamber released a State of the Economy and State of Downtown (Portland) report that was produced by ECONorthwest and presented by Bank of America and Downtown Portland Clean & Safe in February. Now, many community leaders are convening around the region to discuss the findings and implications with authors Dr. Michael Wilkerson and Brittany Bagent. The key takeaways hurt:
-4,820: Net population loss in Multnomah County in 2023.
-9,600: Jobs lost in the Information, Financial Services, Manufacturing and Professional Service sectors in 2024.
$105,800: Average income of individuals moving to Clark County, versus $73,540 for those moving to Multnomah County in 2022.
80th: Portland ranked second to last in national real estate attractiveness rating.
This month marks the 5-year anniversary of the start of the pandemic. Our region’s major metropolitan area is still struggling in important ways, despite efforts to address unsheltered homelessness and open drug use on the streets. The problems are complex, with multiple funding streams attached, and are a result of many policy decisions made over the past 30 years, such as underproducing affordable housing.
However, at OVF we are increasingly seeing signs of progress, improvement, and collaboration. We invest in insanely great teams, who are tackling large opportunities, with “must-have” solutions, that make the world a better place. Through this disruptive period, we are seeing sparks of innovation and landlords creating affordable space for new businesses to enter the downtown corridor and beyond. We’ve witnessed companies such as Cloud Campaign and Eclypsium open offices in the central city and a few entrepreneurs who left Nike and Intel come up with new business ideas of their own, either out of necessity or sheer joy that they finally have the time and excuse to do something in a better way. We continue to have a robust pipeline of over 250 companies we’re reviewing annually and are regularly meeting entrepreneurs who have moved here from other more expensive regions to start their companies.
Yes, we want people who are suffering get the support they need AND we want to be part of the solution to invest in startups, create jobs, build wealth locally and ensure that wealth is recycled and reinvested here locally. With your leadership and support, collectively, we can be part of the solution.