The application period is now open for Oregon‘s Regional Infrastructure Fund, a $10 million grant pool that is intended to go toward small community and tribal projects.

The program is open to local governments and tribes with populations of less than 25,000. The funding was created by House Bill 5204, an economic development package that was passed by the Legislature and then signed into law in April.

Construction grants will range from $100,000 to $1 million. They can be used for site acquisition, infrastructure construction and related improvements.

Planning grants are also available, from $25,000 to $250,000. They can be used for land-use planning, engineering, feasibility studies and project research.

“The Regional Infrastructure Fund is designed to meet our small, rural, and tribal communities where they are, whether that means supporting the engineering work that gets a project shovel-ready or helping move construction forward.” Gov. Tina Kotek stated in a news release issued on Monday.

The program is administered by Business Oregon, the state economic development agency. Grant applications are due by 5 p.m. on Sept. 16. Notices of awards are expected to be issued on Oct. 30.

Applications will be evaluated on criteria such as project readiness and alignment with regional community and economic development priorities. A scoring matrix and eligibility details are available in the Request for Grant Applications.

An informational webinar for applicants is scheduled for Aug. 18. Details will be posted on the Business Oregon website.

To learn more and submit grant applications, visit .

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Oregon transportation commissioners on Friday approved a $5.87 billion budget request for the Oregon Department of Transportation for 2027-29.

The agency is in the process of finalizing its budget request, which will go to the state’s chief financial officer. The Legislature ultimately determines the agency’s funding through appropriations bills, which are finally signed by the governor.

ODOT anticipates a $5.87 billion budget for 2027-29. That’s a drop of $29.5 million and 548 positions from the preliminary budget that the Oregon Transportation Commission approved in June.

“As we get deeper and deeper into this, we’re becoming more and more concerned,” OTC Chairwoman Julie Brown said.

ODOT is bracing for its fourth consecutive biennium of cuts. The agency has lost approximately $200 million in its annual budget since 2019-21.

Most of that reduction has come in workforce, ODOT Deputy Director Travis Brouwer said. “This is really a reduction in spending on people, primarily.”

The cuts have fallen largely in project delivery and administration.

“With any scenario presented to us, there are painful cuts to capacity and painful cuts to provide service to our communities and to the state of Oregon,” Commissioner Phil Chang said.

Commissioner Jeff Baker asked for budget assumptions if maintenance was not cut at all. Cuts to maintenance affect safety, he said, while cuts to Driver & Motor Vehicle Services come as an inconvenience.

Brouwer replied that impacts on other agency operations would be “catastrophic” if maintenance funding was maintained. Revenue could also be affected if DMV operations are scaled back, he said.

The agency’s budget request tees up what’s sure to be a contentious budget fight next year.

“We’re thinking about every line item,” Brown said. “We’re thinking about everything we can try to do to help. We’re also trying to flag areas that we feel strongly (about).”

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A Portland Trail Blazers executive said Thursday that the threat of litigation is casting a pall over negotiations with the city of Portland on paying for Moda Center renovations.

The Trail Blazers have attacked a provision in their current lease that would allow the city of Portland to sue the team for the cost of renovating the Moda Center if the team were to leave the arena when the lease ends in 2030.

Dewayne Hankins, the Trail Blazers president of business operations, decried the “threat of litigation hanging over these negotiations.”

The provision “has been wielded as a weapon, chilling our negotiations,” Hankins said.

Trail Blazers officials and city councilors held a work session Thursday that functioned as a temperature check on negotiations over arena upgrades. The two sides appeared far apart on any agreement to renovate the nearly 31-year-old Moda Center, which the city took ownership of in 2025.

They couldn’t even agree on whether the Trail Blazers were negotiating.

“It sounds like you have walked away from the table a bit,” Councilor Loretta Smith said.

Zandria Conyers, the Trail Blazers’ general counsel, disputed that characterization.

“We’re still at the table,” she said. “We have not walked away from the table.”

Conyers said the draft term sheet the city has circulated is a “nonstarter.”

“It is just not even a document we can respond to,” she added.

The Trail Blazers’ executives ceded little ground, instead taking a maximalist position in council chambers. Hankins reiterated that the team’s ownership group, led by Tom Dundon, would not agree to spend any money to renovate Moda Center.

“Going forward, in order for this deal to make economic sense, the contribution needs to come from the public sector,” Hankins said.

Hankins said the Trail Blazers should get credit for spending nearly $1 billion in the past 30 years on previous Moda Center upgrades and maintenance — even though that spending came under previous ownership.

Councilor Angelita Morillo, who has been a vocal critic of the Blazers’ recent statements, said the team had “moved the goalposts” after the city published a draft term sheet. She also dismissed the Blazers’ fear of litigation.

“They are only sued if they choose to move the team according to the bridge lease,” Morillo said.

A Trail Blazers representative said they had had discussions with potential architects and contractors to renovate the Moda Center. The team has identified $600 million in needed upgrades.

“We have architects and general contractors that we are excited to get to work with,” Hankins said. “We, in fact, had interviews with the city and state by our sides to have those, to pick those and select those, but until we have the funds to pay those architects, we don’t have plans to show you.”

The Oregon Legislature in its previous session passed a bill to supply $365 million in bond funding for Moda Center upgrades. The city has surveyed voters on potentially spending $120 million on the project. Multnomah County is also weighing its contribution.

The City Council is moving forward with public hearings on Wednesday and Thursday, with a vote on the term sheet to follow on Aug. 12. The council plans to vote on a lease agreement in December before bonds can be issued — if the city and the Trail Blazers can play ball.

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New data show a stable multifamily market in the Portland-metro area, with little change in rents or vacancy rates, while construction deliveries and investment sales fell.

The numbers indicate a market giving multifamily developers little reason to invest in new projects amid high interest rates.

Average asking rents in the Portland area slipped by 0.24 percent compared to a year ago to $1,656, according to a Kidder Mathews analysis of CoStar data. The numbers are from the second quarter — April through June. Rents rose 0.7 percent from $1,644 during the first quarter.

Vacancies improved to 7.1 percent, down from 7.2 percent a year ago and 7.4 percent in the first quarter of 2026, indicating a “relatively stable rental market,” Kidder Mathews stated.

Investment sale prices dropped 12.9 percent compared to a year earlier, to $182,489 per unit. Falling values reflected “continued repricing in the investment market,” Kidder Mathews stated.

Capitalization rates were unchanged at 6.4 percent, compared to the previous quarter.

The top transaction during the second quarter was the $63.3 million sale of Ladd Tower in the South Park Blocks by Invesco to buyers Guardian and PCCP. The 332-unit property fetched $190,663 per unit.

Construction deliveries fell 24.8 percent compared to a year earlier, with only 1,813 units arriving during the quarter. The largest completed project was at the Vancouver Waterfront, where Lincoln Property‘s 440 West added 198 units to the market.

The largest multifamily development under construction is the 369-unit project in Beaverton’s Cedar Hills neighborhood from High Street Residential, SCOA Real Estate Partners and Lease Crutcher Lewis.

Absorption remained positive at 2,604 units during the first half of the year.

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A New York City investment firm snapped up a Lake Oswego luxury apartment building this month for $66 million.

Sentinel Real Estate purchased the 158-unit Willow Apartments, in the Kruse Way area, in a transaction that values the 2-year-old development at $417,721 per unit — a high-end valuation for the Portland market.

The seller was an entity tied to the original developer, Shorenstein Properties of San Francisco. Deacon Construction built the project, which was designed by GBD Architects.

“Willow Apartments aligns with our strategy of acquiring high-quality rental communities situated in markets characterized by limited supply, strong population growth and positive economic fundamentals,” George Tietjen, Sentinel’s managing director, stated in a news release.

“Lake Oswego is considered one of the most affluent and supply-constrained submarkets in the greater Portland metropolitan area given its high household incomes, desirable schools and limited new multifamily development,” Tietjen added.

Willow Apartments offers units with one, two or three bedrooms, community amenities including a sky lounge, flexible dining and workspaces, private work pods, a fitness center with forest views, an open-air deck and a barbecue patio, covered parking spaces with electric-vehicle charging, multiple storage areas and a pet-grooming spa.

Willow Apartments sits on a 5.16-acre site at 5600 Meadows Road.

This property will “benefit from durable rental income and sustained market demand for upscale living spaces” in Lake Oswego, Tietjen stated.

JLL Capital Markets Senior Managing Director Ira Virden and Managing Director Carrie Kahn represented the seller.

Clackamas County recorded the transaction on July 10.

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A major Midwest industrial developer is looking to make its mark on the Portland-metro market with a speculative project in Hillsboro.

Scannell Properties plans to seek bids in the coming weeks for construction of a 126,000-square-foot industrial structure with a 32-foot clear height. Mackenzie is designing the project for Scannell, and CBRE will search for a tenant.

The developer, based in Indianapolis, saw opportunity in the Portland market after completing two build-to-suit projects in Salem, said Mohnish Narlanka, a Scannell senior development manager who oversees the company’s Pacific Northwest projects.

Scannell built approximately 1 million square feet of logistics space for Dollar General and 300,000 square feet for Gensco after approaching the city of Salem to forge a land agreement to develop an industrial park.

“That was kind of our first dive into the greater Portland market,” Narlanka said. “As we got some positive momentum in the region, our next mandate was let’s go find that speculative deal that we like and plant the flag.”

Narlanka said he’s not among those investors turned off by the “optics around downtown Portland.” The developer said his wife grew up in Beaverton, and he’s become familiar with the area.

“Yes, there are challenges for downtown Portland, but it’s not indicative of what’s going on in Clackamas or Hillsboro or these submarkets that are doing really well,” he said. “So, we’re going to continue to invest where there’s demand. Our broad thesis is the Portland area is an area where there’s durable demand.”

Scannell develops some $4 billion in industrial real estate annually, split between speculative and build-to-suit projects. The privately held developer has in-house construction managers, along with accounting and legal staff, and typically works with local architecture firms and contractors.

In Hillsboro, Scannell was encouraged by limited land availability and activity from Washington County users.

“What we really liked about Hillsboro is it’s kind of a captive demand audience where people want to be close to those they serve, whether that’s Intel or someone else,” Narlanka said.

The developer is investing in a market that has seen its share of ups and downs in recent years. A spate of speculative construction led to higher vacancy rates and softening rents in some submarkets.

In the second quarter, leasing activity grew 25 percent compared to a year earlier, and leasing was up 7 percent compared to the previous quarter. That led to net absorption of 508,147 square feet.

Vacancy rose as new projects opened with limited preleasing. “Despite these headwinds, demand for modern Class-A space remains strong in select submarkets, particularly the Sunset Corridor, where premium facilities command some of the market’s highest rental rates,” CBRE stated in the quarterly report it released last week.

Vacancy in the Sunset Corridor remained low at 4.2 percent, compared to the market average of 7.7 percent.

An undisclosed tenant signed the quarter’s largest lease at Prologis Park Clackamas for 304,000 square feet. Consolidated Supply Co., Nuna Baby Essentials and Ferguson Enterprises also signed major leases, according to CBRE.

The construction pipeline remains robust, with nearly 3.5 million square feet on the way. Developers have delivered 1.6 million square feet year to date in the Portland market.

Scannell will seek one or two tenants for the Hillsboro speculative project, Narlanka said. The development is located at Northeast Starr Boulevard and Meek Road in Hillsboro, just south of U.S. Route 26 and near a cluster of new construction, including an Amazon fulfillment center and data centers.

The warehouse “theoretically could demise into two suites,” Narlanka said. “Many users prefer (an) entire building.”

Scannell is in the final phases of permitting and expects to begin clearing and grading the site in late September, Narlanka said. The company expects a 10-month construction phase, with availability in summer 2027.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Mohnish Narlanka leads Scannell Properties’ West Coast projects. Narlanka is in charge of the Pacific Northwest for Scannell.

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Portland design commissioners are girding for battle as they begin to confront a push to suspend the city’s mandatory design review process for two years.

The procedure is advancing quickly, and city staff anticipate the City Council will consider legislation to suspend design review as soon as December.

The Portland Planning Commission will weigh a suspension of design review on Aug. 25 as a prelude to council action. Design commissioners said Thursday they plan to write letters and perhaps testify in person at that meeting.

The time has come for design commissioners to make their case, said Tim Heron, a senior city planner who works with the Design Commission.

“So, it’s go time,” he said after laying out the calendar during a brief Design Commission work session on Thursday.

Two bureau directors, Eric Engstrom of Planning and Sustainability and Eric Kutch of Permitting and Development, sent councilors Angelita Morillo and Eric Zimmerman a letter May 7 outlining a potential two-year suspension of design review. That was prompted by councilors ordering a report on design review this past December.

Design review has attracted criticism for adding delays and expense while elected officials — including Gov. Tina Kotek and Mayor Keith Wilson — have made housing production a priority, to little effect. Other cities, including Seattle, have suspended design review.

Policy efforts have shown little progress to date. In 2025, the city of Portland approved only 22 new construction permits for multifamily projects.

The proposed suspension would affect only mandatory design review. Developers still could opt in if they prefer design review to a standards-based approval process.

Several Permitting and Development staffers who work on design review would be reassigned and integrated into a Planning and Sustainability project team, according to the directors’ memo. The directors also requested additional funding for the staffing during the two-year period to make up for reduced design review revenue.

The two bureaus, prompted by the December directive from the City Council, published a joint report on design review in April. The 119-page report painted a picture of a broad economic pullback. “… Development activity has steadily declined and, in 2025, experienced an even more precipitous decline. This multiyear decline has not been limited to projects in the Design and Historic Resource Overlay Zones but has been reflected citywide for almost all types of housing and commercial development.”

Design review proponents say the process benefits projects, often making buildings better and giving the public a voice.

“Design review is a time when the public is able to come provide testimony,” Design Commission Chairwoman Chandra Robinson said in February. “It’s the time when they’re able to get their voices on the record, and I think it’s an important part of the process that they’re able to share their thoughts on proposals in their neighborhood.”

They also say design review unfairly takes flack when national and regional macroeconomic conditions — interest rates, development cycles, construction costs — matter far more. The April joint bureau report also cast blame on larger factors.

“Development within the city remains at historic lows due to various factors including high interest rates, high apartment vacancy combined with stagnating rents and an aversion by institutional capital to investing in Portland due to real and perceived safety, taxation, regulation and market factors,” the report states.

On Thursday, Robinson said she would draft a letter to the City Council, either on behalf of the Design Commission or individually.

Commissioner Joe Swank said the Design Commission may want to write a different type of letter than one with typical dry, technical language, as it’s fighting for its life.

“I agree with a different approach,” he said.

The Historic Landmarks Commission is also expected to weigh in with its own concerns.

Design commissioners are expected to consider their response during an Aug. 6 meeting before transmitting it to the Planning Commission and City Council.

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An 85-unit apartment complex southwest of Portland has sold for $18.85 million.

The Habitat, located at 5745 S.W. Oleson Road in the Raleigh Hills area of unincorporated Washington County, was snatched up by Crown Point Real Estate Partners, which is based in Oakland, California.

The seller, Pathfinder Partners, achieved a valuation of $221,765 per unit and $280 per square foot for the 48-year-old multifamily asset.

Marcus & Millichap’s Institutional Property Advisors represented the seller and procured the buyer.

“The property is in a premier Portland neighborhood, but within Washington County boundaries, and thus it has long been an outperformer versus similarly aged comparables,” Anthony Palladino, IPA’s senior director for investments, stated in a news release.

“Previous ownership completed renovations and upgrades on roughly 40 percent of the units and the remaining units present a clear path for continued revenue growth, Palladino added.

Palladino, Philip Assouad, Giovanni Napoli, Ryan Harmon and Nick Ruggiero of IPA, in association with David Tabata, Marcus & Millichap’s broker of record in Oregon, arranged the deal. Brian Eisendrath, Cameron Chalfant and Jake Vitta of IPA Capital Markets secured acquisition financing.

Crown Point is led by co-founders and managing partners Chris Gordon, formerly of Baker Street Advisors, and Kyle Raines, formerly of NSW Corp.
The investors recently produced a white paper about multifamily investment opportunity in Portland.

“After several years of negative net migration and flat rents following the COVID-19 pandemic and civil unrest, Portland is experiencing the early stages of a market recovery that positions forward-thinking investors to capture significant value,” Crown Point stated.

Built in 1978, Habitat offers studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments with in-unit laundry and a private patio or balcony.

The property previously fetched $15.3 million in a 2017 transaction, according to public records.

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The contractor leading the approximately $700 million Interstate 205-Abernethy Bridge project had a history of subpar evaluations before a “near fatality” incident in which a work vehicle backed over a worker, according to Oregon Department of Transportation documents.

Construction giant Kiewit scored negative marks on four consecutive annual ODOT evaluations dating to the beginning of work in 2022-23. Its most recent score for work in 2025-26 was its worst yet: a -36. The evaluation uses a baseline of zero.

The annual evaluations, obtained by the 91��Ƶ through a public records request, also give new details on a series of safety incidents that have plagued the project. On Feb. 4, a work vehicle backed over a worker, resulting in a “near fatality,” according to the May 2026 evaluation. The victim endured a lengthy hospitalization, ODOT program manager Vidal Francis said at a June public meeting.

Additionally, an excavator bucket struck an employee on April 23. And a Kiewit employee piloting a skiff hit a pile and fell into the Willamette River, requiring rescue. No date was given for the boating incident, and details of injuries in the incidents were not available.

“Safety is fundamental to how we operate,” Kiewit spokeswoman Teresa Shada stated in an email. “We investigate and review incidents, injuries and near misses because every event presents an opportunity to learn, strengthen our operations and, where necessary, make changes to help prevent similar events in the future. We take every incident seriously and remain committed to protecting our employees, subcontractors, project partners and members of the public.”

The 2026 evaluation is not final; Kiewit has an opportunity to meet with the state construction administrator. Also, the 2025 evaluation was “was not formally submitted by (ODOT)” for “administrative reasons,” according to an ODOT records official.

“The Abernethy Bridge project is a technically complex infrastructure project that has required ODOT to direct significant scope changes throughout construction, resulting in a substantial number of change orders,” Shada stated. “While the ODOT project evaluations are one input into project performance and the scoring is currently under appeal, we continue working collaboratively with ODOT to address challenges and safely deliver this important project.”

Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division has an open inspection regarding the Feb. 4 incident and cannot release further details at this time, OSHA spokesman Aaron Corvin stated in an email on Thursday.

The project’s contractor is Kiewit Infrastructure West, a subsidiary of Omaha, Nebraska-based Kiewit Corp. It’s one of the nation’s largest contractors.

Kiewit has faced scrutiny elsewhere. The contractor was recently dropped from the multibillion-dollar project to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore after it was struck by a tanker and collapsed in March 2024. Kiewit’s bid came in at least $20 million higher than competitors’, the .

In Oregon, the Abernethy Bridge upgrade is the largest ODOT-led project in decades. The bridge between Oregon City and West Linn is being buttressed and widened. Massive supports are being built under the bridge, which is being widened to accommodate additional traffic. When completed, the bridge will be expected to survive a major earthquake.

“This project is complex and the contractor has faced challenges since construction began in 2022,” ODOT spokesman David House stated in an email. “The ODOT team and contractor are doing our best to manage schedule and cost risks.”

Several challenges lie ahead for the project that could increase costs and delay completion, which is now scheduled for winter 2027, House added.

Kiewit Infrastructure West was chosen in May 2022 to lead the project after competitive bidding. Construction began in June of that year.

Kiewit initially earned a -8 score on ODOT’s evaluation for 2022-23. That was followed by a -31 score for 2023-24, a -21 for 2024-25 and a -36 for 2025-26. On ODOT’s scale — developed in collaboration with the Associated General Contractors more than a decade ago — -50 is the worst score possible.

It is unusual for contractors to score below the top performance level, called Performance Level 1, for multiple consecutive years, House stated.

“The majority of ODOT contractors perform in the Performance Level 1 category for all of the different categories that they are rated on,” House stated. “There are however some contractors that do fall below the Performance Level 1 category, and we have discussions with the contractor if they are below the Performance Level 1 category.”

In the most recent evaluation, Kiewit earned the worst possible score in the category of “quality of materials and workmanship.” The score rubric states: “critical material certifications were not provided and work was suspended and/or workmanship was poor enough that remove and reinstall was required.”

In written comments, the evaluation, which was signed by ODOT project manager Ian Cannon, noted “major structural/civil workmanship issues,” including work that required concrete repairs, and stainless-steel bolt galling and overtorque in the main span. Also, the contractor did not install waterline-specific coating or use waterline contamination plugs as directed.

Kiewit also got dinged for nonpayment of subcontractors. The ODOT reviewer commented, “Contractor holding subcontractor payments – No letter or explanation provided to ODOT for 17 subcontractors being paid late.”

ODOT also noted several environmental violations, including tree and brush removal during a bird nesting window and no notice of a bird survey, totaling “serious nonconformance to permits and specifications.” The agency also noted discharge into the river.

The evaluation score leads to mandatory meetings with ODOT staff and a corrective plan.

ODOT in June deemed the project about 78 percent complete. Kiewit’s evaluation score calls for mandatory meetings with agency staff and a corrective plan.

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The $14.4 billion Interstate Bridge project received a federal record of decision on Wednesday, a major step that allows the project to move toward permitting, hiring a contractor and building the Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River.

The decision completes the project’s lengthy federal environmental review process, which encompassed not just air and water but also cultural resources, safety and freight mobility, among myriad other factors. A final environmental Impact Statement was published April 17.

Now, the real work begins.

The Interstate Bridge program is preparing a request for qualifications to be issued in coming weeks to begin selecting a contractor, setting up a high-stakes bidding process likely to involve major international contractors and local partners.

A request for proposals will be issued later this year, with a contractor expected to be hired in 2027, the Interstate Bridge Program office stated.

For the construction industry, the project will be the largest in the Portland region in decades and dwarfs even other major infrastructure builds such as the $2.15 billion Portland International Airport expansion.

Contractors groups, including the Associated General Contractors Oregon-Columbia chapter, hailed the federal decision, which came from the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration.

“AGC is very pleased with the decision to proceed with the Interstate Bridge replacement project,” said Josh Tompkins, CEO of the AGC Oregon-Columbia chapter, via text message.

“The project is critical for the future economic health of our region’s economy, will put thousands of Oregonians and Washingtonians to work and will inject very-welcome funds into our area,” Tompkins added.

The project comes amid a tepid time for the construction industry. Construction spending nationally fell 2.7 percent year to date through May, compared to the same period in 2025, according to Census Bureau data released Wednesday.

Highway construction held steady, with spending rising 0.6 percent in May to an annual rate of $150.6 billion.

The project involves not just the replacement for the aging twin-span Interstate Bridge, which was first built in 1917, with the second span added in 1958. It also calls for highway widening and expanding interchanges throughout a 5-mile corridor spanning Oregon and Washington. Construction will cause disruptions near Delta Park and Vanport and Hayden Island on the Oregon side, and the Vancouver waterfront and downtown on the Washington side. The work will require a massive influx of construction labor.

“With this approval, our focus is squarely on execution — advancing procurement and ensuring the systems and structures that mega-projects of this scale demand are in place as we transition to construction,” said Washington Transportation Secretary Julie Meredith.

Critics have questioned how the Oregon and Washington transportation departments will fully fund the project.

“What’s missing is still a plan to pay for the whole thing,” said Joe Cortright, an economist and founder of City Lab, a Portland-based think tank. “The project is moving ahead, they’re going to spend $5 billion, then they’re going to come back and say, ‘hey, you owe me another $10 billion to finish the job.’”

Cortright noted that the project is overwhelmingly planned by consultants for the Oregon Department of Transportation and Washington State Department of Transportation.

“They’re substantially independent from the two state DOTs, and they’ve designed a project that will go on for the next 20 years,” Cortright said. “As a semi-retired consultant, I have a sneaking admiration for the people who have lined up work for the next 20 years.”

Nevertheless, state leaders in Oregon and Washington lauded the federal announcement. After the failure of the Columbia River Crossing more than a decade ago, it’s looking increasingly likely that today’s state leaders may get this project built.

“Replacing the Interstate Bridge will have lasting benefits for our communities and region for decades,” Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said in a prepared statement. “From improving safety and resilience for the region to creating tens of thousands of jobs and supporting local businesses, this project is key to our region’s growth. This milestone is proof of what Oregon and Washington can accomplish when we work together toward a shared goal.”

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson also said the project is “essential to Washington and Oregon.”

Interim IBR Program Administrator Carley Francis said the federal amended record of decision reflects years of study. “We now get to go do the work of actually building this bridge,” she said.

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