DonGlock26
Diamond Member
- Sep 15, 2024
- 17,998
- 26,494
- 2,288
"Would a Vacancy Tax Spur Owners of Empty Towers to Seek Out Commercial Tenants?
To reduce blight and revitalize downtown, a trio of progressive councilors wants to explore penalizing owners of long-vacant commercial and retail properties.
By Garrett Andrews
April 22, 2026 6:15AM PDT
A vacant storefront in Northwest Portland. (Brian Brose)
A decade ago, central Portland was abuzz with rising property values, high demand for storefronts, and the third-most construction cranes in the U.S. hovering overhead. These days, it seems, the only one making moves downtown is Jeff Swickard.
In July, the West Linn auto exec bought Big Pink, the second-tallest building in Oregon, for a fire-sale price of $45 million—12% of its 2015 sale price of $372 million. And earlier this month, a partnership of Swickard and Melvin Mark Investors purchased the 19-story 200 Market Building, another prominent downtown property that had teetered for years on the edge of foreclosure.
Swickard, a University of Oregon alum, says he’s fully committed to Portland despite everything—the current economic downturn, public safety concerns, the great work-from-home shift and, in the case of Big Pink as of April 20, a 75% vacancy rate.
But some on the Portland City Council want him to move faster. To reduce blight and revitalize downtown, a trio of progressive councilors wants to explore penalizing owners of long-vacant commercial and retail properties. But a vacant property tax or fee, should it ever reach the council chamber, would likely draw considerable pushback, as interviews with local business leaders bear out.
“We are trying incredibly hard to find tenants,” Swickard tells WW, “making insane deals and taking a lot of risk to do it. I promise a tax won’t help us create demand for the space.”
Would a Vacancy Tax Spur Owners of Empty Towers to Seek Out Commercial Tenants?
To reduce blight and revitalize downtown, a trio of progressive councilors wants to explore penalizing owners of long-vacant commercial and retail properties.
The Marxist Democrats drive away businesses with crime and violence, and then want to tax the owners of commercial clients who have no renters.
This is Democrat logic.
