Tracking Progress
The Central City Roundtable was created to help advance the vision outlined in All in on Central City and to track progress toward a stronger, more vibrant Central City. The Roundtable monitors a small set of indicators that reflect the health of downtown Portland as a place to work, live, visit, and invest.
These indicators are updated every two months and help guide the Roundtable’s work to remove barriers, accelerate investment, and support the long-term recovery of the Central City.
Office
Leasing Activity
Reactivating Central City as the hub for Portland’s economy
New
Housing
Units Permitted
Spurring the construction of high-quality housing units
Ground
Floor Activation
Ensuring local businesses can have the space and visibility to thrive
Foot
Traffic Recovery
Creating a place where people want to visit and spend more time
By December 31, 2030…
6.2 million sq ft. of office space leased
2,500 new housing units permitted
60 net new storefronts activated in the downtown retail core
31,000 average daily foot traffic trips added
GOAL:
Lease 6.2 million square feet of office space by 2030
A vibrant Central City depends on workplaces that attract employers, employees, entrepreneurs, and innovators. The Central City Roundtable is focused on supporting the conditions that encourage businesses to invest, grow, and lease space in the Central City.
The Roundtable tracks office leasing activity as an indicator of market confidence. Leasing activity reflects businesses making decisions to locate, expand, or remain in Portland’s urban core.
To measure progress, the Roundtable establishes annual leasing targets and reports on leasing activity every two months. The 2026 leasing target is 1 million sq. ft.
Why 6.2 million square feet? The leasing target was established based on current office market conditions and represents the level of leasing activity needed to support a return to a healthier office market over time.
Why 1 million square feet for 2026? The annual leasing targets set estimated, achievable yearly benchmarks that will eventually get us increase over time, getting us to 6.2 million by 2030. Annual leasing targets may be updated over time as market conditions change and new leasing data becomes available.
GOAL:
Permit 2,500 housing units by 2030
Permit pipeline definitions:
Units in the land use approval process: Housing units proposed in active land use review applications that are being evaluated against applicable zoning approval criteria but have not yet received a final land use decision or advanced to the building permit stage.
Units in the permit application process: Housing units included in building permit applications submitted to Portland Permitting & Development that are under review but have not yet received an issued building permit.
The Central City is one of Portland’s most walkable and transit-connected neighborhoods, with easy access to jobs, parks, entertainment, restaurants, and cultural destinations. Adding more housing in the Central City helps create a vibrant, active downtown while also contributing to Portland’s broader housing needs.
In partnership with the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) and Portland Permitting and Development (PPD), the Roundtable tracks housing developments as they move through the permitting pipeline. The current indicator shows units in the land use approvals process, which will become units permitted as they move through the process.
GOAL:
Add 60 net new storefronts to Central City’s retail core by 2030
The Central City Roundtable is focused on activating ground floor retail spaces in a focus area centered on the Downtown Retail Core. Within the focus area, about 27% of the 695 ground floor spaces are vacant storefronts. Focused attention on activating storefronts in this area would cut vacant storefronts by one-third over the next five years.
Ground floor businesses are the heart of the Central City, drawing workers, residents, and visitors alike to discover great shopping and delicious food. For Central City to serve as a gathering place for community members across Portland, it needs strong, sustainable ground floor business corridors filled with both local businesses and larger retailers.
Data note: Ground floor storefront data was collected through ECOnorthwest's propriety on-the-ground retail survey. Ground floor spaces include storefronts but also spaces like lobbies, apartment gyms, and places of worship.
GOAL:
Add 31,000 daily average trips to the Central City by 2030
A successful Central City attracts people for work, entertainment, shopping, dining, education, and cultural events. Foot traffic is one of the clearest indicators of overall activity.
Investments such as the James Beard Public Market, a reimagined Waterfront Park, Steelhead (a new 3,000 capacity venue in the Central Eastside), and a new AEG/Monqui Venue in the Lloyd District will be instrumental in driving foot traffic throughout Central City (see our Project Map).
Visits to Central City dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic, and have been slowly recovering. Using Placer.ai, the Roundtable tracks average daily foot traffic, comparing 2026 year-to-date levels with the 2030 goal. With the current foot traffic recovery trend, we are on track to exceed 2019 foot traffic levels by 2030.
Data note: The Roundtable uses information extrapolated by the analytics company Placer.ai. Placer relies on location data from location-based services on devices such as cellphones (for users who have enabled location sharing). This data is then anonymised and aggregated using proprietary algorithms to provide insights on visitation patterns.
The goal of adding 31,000 average daily visits by 2030 is based on the difference between 2019 and 2025 total visitation levels. As Placer.ai data is subject to regular revisions, this difference may fluctuate. This difference was determined in May 2026.
This analysis utilizes the YTD average when reporting visit trends. This approach allows us to smooth out daily or weekly anomalies and provides a clear view of incremental change in foot traffic every two months.