91ÊÓƵ

At Mortenson, we are optimistic about Portland’s future. We are more encouraged than ever about where opportunities will lead us, both as a development and construction firm that can set the tone for others in our industry to follow as well as a forward-thinking community and city.

Our company culture emphasizes building for the greater good, which involves providing leadership and service, cultivating relationships, and becoming better partners. To us, this is about a lot more than just constructing new buildings. It’s about thinking carefully about who we are building for, what we are building for them, and being an exceptional partner through collaboration.

Crucially, we also feel that this applies directly to the communities where we live, work and play. Portland today faces social and economic challenges that it hasn’t faced in recent history. We believe any organization, regardless of its services or products, can be an integral partner in achieving solutions to those challenges.

When we opened our permanent Mortenson office in Portland in 2012, the city was renowned for the desirable and inclusive quality of life it afforded, reinforced by awe-inspiring natural beauty and a robust economic future. I arrived here in 2009 and found the connections we made with our partners downtown incredibly important to how business was done. Connections were made while attending events, dining at restaurants or simply walking down the street.

While the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest, homelessness and crime combined to deal Portland a significant blow and temporarily stall our region’s momentum, we continue to focus on the future and remain encouraged by the many positive signs showing that the region and the city are beginning to power their way past those hurdles.

To fully regain the thriving marketplace for developers, designers and builders, significant work remains to be done. At Mortenson, we have ideas that can potentially contribute to the reestablishment of Portland as the vibrant business center that drives our region forward.

First, we believe we need to find opportunities to bring people together – as businesses and as individuals. We recognize that there have been fundamental changes to the workplace and in our community brought on by the pandemic. But that doesn’t mean we can no longer get together in person and have fun! Some of our current projects reflect this, including the Portland Art Museum’s Rothko Pavilion and the new Hillsboro Hops ballpark. Both strive to build connections and invest in bringing the community together.

Next, we believe businesses can help be problem-solvers. This includes collaboration like what is transpiring downtown with the new Midtown Beer Garden, a new food cart pod headed by the partnership between software company Expensify and the ChefStable restaurant group. It’s a brilliant concept, and we see it as a blueprint for downtown Portland. In a situation where others might have made the decision to leave the city, they instead made a significant investment to improve this part of downtown.

There also needs to be a focus on building a sustainable workforce in and around the region. With billions of dollars in infrastructure spending headed our way, there is an immediate and pressing need throughout our community to continue building a pipeline of talent. Mortenson is emphasizing education, building a more diverse workforce, and spearheading new ways of communication that empower our team members and business partners. For instance, Mortenson has partnered with Portland Community College and Clark College to build program spaces that help fill the manufacturing skills gap.

Those workforce efforts are just one part of advancing our industry through creativity and innovation. Just as important is the work we are doing to drive efficiencies in the building process. These include the use of prefabrication, modular construction, and increasingly collaborative design-build delivery methods that integrate new technologies to allow for faster, more cost-efficient project completion.

Finally, working together as both an industry and a community naturally fosters a more business-friendly environment that seeks to emphasize the health and well-being of workers, the companies that employ them, and the region as a whole.

To help bring Portland’s recovery full circle, there needs to be ongoing investment in this region and this marketplace in both the public and private sectors. Portland is the beating economic heart of the region. Quite frankly, the stronger downtown Portland is, the stronger our entire region is. We all need it to be the best it can be, and that means it needs to be clean, it needs to be safe, and it needs to be attractive to both businesses and their customers.

Businesses should take the initiative to be a part of this effort. Downtown needs us all to be present and engaged. A retreat could accelerate existing problems. Only by working together as a resilient community will we be able to bring back that feeling that people are at the center of things here in Portland, part of something important and part of the greater good of the region.

Mike Clifford is vice president and general manager of Mortenson’s Portland office. Contact him at 971-202-4100 or [email protected].

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed in the preceding commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Daily Journal of Commerce or its editors. Neither the author nor the 91ÊÓƵ guarantees the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein.