Commercial Real Estate
WeWork closes downtown Portland location, emptying four floors
WeWork had operated on four floors at the downtown Power and Light Building. JONATHAN BACH / PORTLAND BUSINESS JOURNAL
By Jonathan Bach – Staff Reporter, Portland Business Journal Dec 27, 2023
WeWork, the beleaguered coworking company that filed for bankruptcy protection in November, will close its downtown Portland office in January, the company said. The WeWork at the Power and Light building at 920 S.W. Sixth Ave. will close on or around Jan. 12, according to a company spokesperson.
"We have offered affected members the option to relocate, with our support, to our other Portland location and deeply apologize for any inconvenience this may cause," the spokesperson said in an email. "We look forward to continuing to provide Portland members with flexible workspace solutions at our location in the Lloyd District." WeWork occupies four floors in the 16-floor Power and Light building. It first opened inside the building in 2018, as WeWork expanded its reach across Portland. It was WeWork's third location of an eventual four. But during Covid, WeWork shut down two other locations, at U.S. Custom House and Pioneer Place mall. With the Power and Light WeWork closure, it will only have a Lloyd District presence at 830 N.E. Holladay St. in Portland. Built in 1928 and owned by the Green Cities Co., Power and Light ranks No. 34 on the Business Journal's list of largest office buildings in the Portland metro, at 248,813 total square feet. The move deals another blow to downtown's office sector, where the vacancy rate was 29% as of the third quarter, according to CBRE, up from 26.6% the year before.