{"id":840513,"date":"2026-09-08T11:16:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T11:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/840513\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T11:16:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T11:16:41","slug":"portland-councilors-take-vacancy-fee-off-the-table-after-city-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/840513\/","title":{"rendered":"Portland councilors take vacancy fee off the table after city study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) \u2014 A controversial proposal to charge owners of vacant commercial properties in Portland is off the table for now. The development comes as Portland continues to deal with record-high vacancy rates in downtown office buildings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s empty office space, and there\u2019s empty residential units, and we need to come up with a solution,\u201d Council President Jamie Dunphy told KATU in May.<\/p>\n<p>Market data from Colliers, a real estate firm, found the city\u2019s office buildings had a nearly 28% vacancy rate in the second quarter of this year. Downtown, it was even worse at just under 39%.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, councilors approved a study of whether charging owners of long-vacant commercial properties could help bring life back to empty storefronts and office buildings.<\/p>\n<p>Property owners panned the proposal.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED | <a href=\"https:\/\/katu.com\/news\/local\/portland-leaders-review-report-on-vacancy-fees-as-property-owners-push-back-business-real-estate-downtown-vacancies-market\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Business leaders warn vacancy fee sends &#8216;wrong message&#8217; as Portland reviews study on fees<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now, the city has the results.<\/p>\n<p>The study found vacancies are driven mostly by weak demand and costly build-out barriers. The study said a fee would be costly to impose, could disproportionately affect small or local owners, and would do little to reduce vacancy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat study was very clear, and [it] aligned with research from our office. It&#8217;s clear that in a narrow, defined circumstance, a vacancy fee is an effective tool. But it&#8217;s apparent to me that it is not the tool to solve Portland&#8217;s current vacancy problems. I am still deeply concerned about the way that vacant spaces are detracting from Portland&#8217;s recovery, and how commercial [lease prices] are not falling in spite of high vacancy rates, but am not pursuing a vacancy fee at this time,\u201d Dunphy\u2019s office told KATU this month.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for another councilor who proposed the study, Councilor Sameer Kanal, says Kanal has no plans to move forward with the fee.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED | <a href=\"https:\/\/katu.com\/news\/investigations\/as-portland-leaders-consider-vacancy-fee-who-else-has-tried-it-oregon-portland-downtown-sale-rental-rent-vacant-business-central-business-taxes-economy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">As Portland leaders consider vacancy fee, where else has it been tried?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The report did make recommendations on what the city could do to address vacancies.<\/p>\n<p>It said the city could make the permitting process cheaper and quicker. It also recommended changing rules to make it easier to convert empty spaces to a different use.<\/p>\n<p>The report also said targeted enforcement for things like nuisance properties or elective vacancies would be more effecting than a citywide fee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) \u2014 A controversial proposal to charge owners of vacant commercial properties in Portland is off&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-840513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}