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Many people thinking of lands of opportunity may not consider Colombia.

The South American country for more than half a century has been plagued by drug wars and rebellious uprisings. But following a military crackdown in the early 2000s, that violence has decreased; now, stakeholders in Colombia’s blossoming economy are looking to enact significant social change via investments in urban development.

Building industry professionals in Portland are paying close attention.

“We see it as a very high opportunity market,” said Michael Gurton, business development officer for the Portland Development Commission. “It’s a resource-rich country, and it’s been using that wealth to build infrastructure and grow the economy. It’s a rapidly growing economy, it’s an urbanizing economy, and they are focusing on sustainability in their urban development.”

This week, a small delegation of local building professionals, led by PDC Executive Director Patrick Quinton, is visiting Colombian cities Bogotá and Medellín to meet with foreign planners and developers. The trip coincides with an invitation Quinton received from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to present information about Portland during its Fostering the Green FDI Opportunity in Latin America & the Caribbean event in Bogotá this week.

But beyond that, the purpose of the trip is twofold. The team will not only look for opportunities to export Portland’s design and building expertise through “,” but also potentially pique the interest of Colombian foreign investors.

Lucas Posada, a GBD Architects designer and a Medellín native, said Colombia is making huge investments in what he calls “mega-developments.” Medellín, following installation of an aerial tram system and an elaborate series of escalators connecting slums to its downtown core, was named by the Urban Land Institute as its City of the Year in 2013.

Many other Colombian cities, however, lack such transportation connections, which exacerbates the divide between rich and poor. Posada said green building technologies are important, but sometimes the most sustainable solutions are the simplest ones.

“As you go to places abroad and you talk about sustainability, and energy performance, and all these kinds of things, you’re talking to a very sophisticated audience,” he said. “But sometimes it’s the silly little things like walkable streets, mixes of uses, and proper densities that are a little harder to find in a lot of the new developments around the world.”

Posada, Glumac‘s Kirk Davis and Craig Briscoe, and Place Studio‘s Mauricio Villarreal (a Bogotá native) plan to discuss the work they are performing jointly for the Hassalo on Eighth superblock project in the Lloyd District. Posada said the $200 million development is the first eco-district built from the ground up in Portland in recent memory, and shares a challenge faced in South America – namely, re-creation of a pedestrian environment in an area previously forged around the automobile.

Posada and his colleagues see fertile grounds for Portland’s urban growth boundary, 20-minute neighborhoods and more-or-less ubiquitous bicycle culture to be planted abroad. Quinton said similar pushes in countries like Japan have resulted in master planning efforts there by local companies.

“We spent a lot of time in the past few years really focusing on exports: How can we grow exports from local companies?” he said. “Now we’re embarking on the companion piece to that, which is to try and grow foreign investment into this region.”

Quinton sees that investment taking the form of foreign businesses locating in the Portland region – like Daimler establishing its North American headquarters on Swan Island – or via direct investment in private property development. Recent deregulation in the is expected to help make those opportunities more prevalent.

Quinton said the trip to Colombia will hopefully come with important lessons to apply in Portland. Medellín, he noted, has made important strides in its development of affordable housing and social equity.

“It’s really a popular spot to talk about the future of cities, and obviously a lot of the talk is around Third World cities that are rapidly urbanizing,” Quinton said. “So it’s kind of where the action is in thinking about these issues.”