The city of Portland is preparing public comments to submit on the proposed Interstate Bridge‘s design by the end of September.

On Thursday, the Portland Design Commission sought consensus on what changes they would like to see in the early bridge designs.

Chairman Brian McCarter focused on how the bridge will connect with the Vancouver Waterfront at the north end. A shared use ramp from the bridge to the waterfront appears to be “quite a journey,” he said.

“I’m having a struggle with the configuration being this long,” he said. “Is this the only way to do this, or could this be enhanced by some stairs, some elevators at strategic locations?”

Brenda Martin, major projects and transit manager for the Portland Bureau of Transportation, said a connection should be made between the light rail and a shared path for bicycles and pedestrians, given their close proximity.

Commissioners also discussed whether the design details of the bridge landings should differ on the Oregon and Washington sides. Commissioner Zari Santner said the bridge doesn’t need to look the same on both sides.

McCarter agreed, as long as it’s cohesive, he said. “Variety is great as long as it’s within an overall story,” he said.

McCarter also pushed for transparency in the bridge railings, so users can see outside the bridge.

Commissioners will consider and likely vote to approve a letter to the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program at their Sept. 18 meeting.

Construction on the bridge is expected to last 15 years, with 24 construction packages up for bid. The total project was estimated in 2023 to cost $5 billion to $7.5 billion. That range is expected to grow when Interstate Bridge project officials release an updated cost estimate later this year or early in 2026.

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Work has begun on an approximately $215 million project to extend TriMet‘s MAX Red Line into Hillsboro and improve service across the light-rail system.

Currently, the Red Line runs from Portland International Airport to the Beaverton Transit Center. Crews will extend the Red Line westward to 10 new stations.

TriMet’s plan also calls for a number of system upgrades intended to reduce congestion and boost reliability. These include:

• constructing a second set of tracks in two sections between Gateway Transit Center and the airport in order to reduce delays (currently, MAX trains sometimes must wait for one traveling the opposite direction);
• building a Gateway North station;
• renovating the airport MAX station and building a new multiuse path connecting the airport to Northeast 82nd Avenue;
• building two new bridges – one over Interstate 84 to connect to the new Gateway North station and another to the north to provide access to Gateway Green; and
• upgrading tracks, switches and signals in order to expand service in Washington County.

MAX trains in Washington County were often crowded at peak times before the pandemic began, according to TriMet. The expansion will help people who struggle to find affordable housing near workplaces, shopping centers and medical services, officials stated.

“To Washington County, the Red Line expansion is more than an investment in transportation,” Washington County Commissioner Nafisa Fai stated in a news release. “It’s an investment in creating safer, healthier and more livable connected communities.”

The project – called “A Better Red” – is being paid for in part via a $99.9 million Federal Transit Administration construction grant that was announced on Sept. 24.

Stacy and Witbeck, a longtime contractor for TriMet projects, is the contractor for the Red Line extension. Stacy and Witbeck in 2019 was awarded the construction manager/general contractor role, including $508,000 for preconstruction services.

At the time, TriMet forecasted that the project would increase ridership by about 5,000 daily trips. Increased revenue was expected to cover 30 percent to 50 percent of higher operation costs.

Completion is expected in 2024.

More modest improvements are coming to the Lloyd District. TriMet will rebuild a section of track slightly east of the Lloyd Center/Northeast 11th Ave MAX station beginning Sunday. Disruptions are expected through Oct. 23.

TriMet is also awaiting word on federal funding for the Southwest Corridor light-rail construction project. The extension to Tigard and Tualatin has been on the shelf since Metro voters in November 2020 rejected a multibillion-dollar bond package that would have paid for the rail extension and other projects.

Meanwhile, the $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill has passed the U.S. Senate and is now before the House. Dollars from that bill could potentially be allocated to the Southwest Corridor project. A TriMet spokeswoman declined an interview request.

“It is a bit too early for us to comment as the bill continues to evolve,” Roberta Altstadt stated in an email.

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A steering committee voted Monday to for the Southwest Corridor proposed to run between downtown Portland and Tualatin.

Over the past seven years, project planners have identified more than 60 potential routes through the southwest part of the metro area as part of the . The steering committee finally settled on the option that would send green-line trains along an extended southern route using Southwest Barbur Boulevard instead of Naito Parkway.

The recommended plan also calls for construction of bike lanes and sidewalks along Barbur Boulevard between downtown Portland and Southwest 60th Avenue.

This option also would see the Portland Bureau of Transportation and the Oregon Department of Transportation replace the Newberry and Vermont viaducts, which are not built to current code, according to Metro.

The proposed 12-mile light-rail route would run through the middle of Barbur Boulevard, and would not reduce vehicle travel lanes.

In Tigard, the committee-approved route would travel south along Southwest 70th Avenue until reaching Elmhurst Street. From there, it would head west, cross over Oregon Route 217 and run east of Hall Boulevard. The route would then travel next to existing Westside Express Service train tracks until splitting off to arrive at Bridgeport Village in Tualatin.

The light-rail plan is part of the larger Southwest Corridor Plan that includes improving roadways and more. Projects already completed include the Tualatin River Greenway, a new crosswalk on Barbur Boulevard at Alice Street, and infrastructure to serve a new TriMet bus line reaching Tualatin and Sherwood.

Estimated project costs currently are running between $2.6 billion and $2.9 billion, and are based on estimates for 2024, according to Metro.

The new route would send trains through the downtown Tigard Transit Center. A shuttle would connect Portland Community College‘s Sylvania campus to two proposed MAX stations nearby. In addition, the western end of the Ross Island Bridge would need to be revamped to improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists.

According to the draft plan, an estimated 80 to 100 residential units would be displaced if the route were built as proposed. Also, 100 to 120 businesses would be at risk of displacement.

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TriMet recently kicked off a five-year, $22 million project to replace or upgrade 19 separate elevators serving MAX light-rail platforms and other multilevel facilities run by the agency.

Work started last month with the replacement of the outdoor elevator at the Northeast 60th Avenue MAX station and will proceed with the replacement of the outdoor elevator at the Northeast 82nd Avenue station. Howard S. Wright, a Balfour Beatty company, was selected as the general contractor for the project; KONE is performing the specialized elevator work.

“They’re going to be done one at a time,” TriMet public information officer Tim Becker said.

Work will be split into four packages. The first three stations to receive replacement elevators will be at Northeast 60th Avenue, Northeast 82nd Avenue and the Hollywood Transit Center at Northeast 42nd Avenue.

A construction manager-general contractor delivery method was chosen, TriMet project manager Kaliska Day said, because of the particular type of work being done and the region’s ongoing shortage of skilled tradespeople.

“Portland is a really small market, and especially right now a lot of the smaller firms are stretched thin as it is,” she said. “The other thing that makes this difficult is that the project is really just around the elevators. There isn’t a lot of scope of work to hand out. Ninety percent of this will be done by the elevator contractor.”

The elevators being replaced have a life expectancy of between 25 to 30 years and simply are wearing out. This is especially true of the ones serving the MAX blue line, which was built in 1986.

The work for each elevator is expected to take 12 to 14 weeks, during which time it will be inoperable. It will involve replacement of all the components of the elevator cabs, including the electronics, mechanical and HVAC equipment, along with panels and doors. The work will not involve modifying or replacing the actual elevator shafts.

Additional TriMet staffers will be manning the stations that are under construction.

“We’ll have personnel there all the time,” Becker said. “We’re going to great lengths to make sure riders are inconvenienced as little as possible.”

Notably, just 11 of the 19 elevators being replaced are used by the public. The Washington Park MAX station, which sits 260 feet below ground, has four elevators that will be replaced. That effort will stand out, Day said.

“The biggest one that’s going to be different is Washington Park,” she said. “It is its own unique elevator, and it’s the only one that’s completely different.”

Work on the Northeast 60th Avenue station elevator began May 17. It began operating in 1986, serving an average of more than 1,500 riders each weekday.

For more information, visit .

Elevator construction packages

Package 1: Hollywood Transit Center, Northeast 60th Avenue and Northeast 82nd Avenue

Package 2: Gresham City Hall Park & Ride, Sunset Transit Center (three elevators) and Washington Park (four elevators)

Package 3: Center Street Administration Building (two elevators) and Center Street Garage (two elevators)

Package 4: Elmonica/Southwest 170th Avenue, Merlo Road and Ruby Junction (two elevators)

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A plan to extend  MAX light-rail tracks through the southwest Portland suburbs is on track after approval by voters in Tigard.

The proposed Southwest Corridor line would run from Portland south through Tigard before ending at Bridgeport Village in Tualatin.

“Tigard voters have allowed us to keep planning for light rail to come to Tigard,” Mayor John L. Cook stated in a news release.” We will continue to be at the table to bring Tigard’s voice for what light rail will be for this part of the region.”

The vote’s outcome is not certain. Approximately 4,000 ballots that were not machine-readable must still be tallied, and 3,500 more have been challenged, said Mickie Kawai, Washington County’s election manager.

Even if Tigard’s ballot measure passes, the Southwest Corridor line still has a long road ahead. A regional bond measure asking for funding is expected to go before voters in November 2018.

Tigard expects to next summer choose the route that the rail line will take through the city. Project backers will also kick off a federal review process to create a draft environmental impact statement.

A Metro steering committee is meeting to discuss the scope of the environmental review.

The Southwest Corridor Plan, which also includes improvements to serve bicyclists and pedestrians, is critical to Tigard and its neighbors, said Craig Dirksen, a Metro councilor and former mayor of Tigard.

“We’re anticipating between now and 2040, as many as 700,000 more people will move to metro Portland,” Dirksen said. “Tigard and the Southwest corridor are going to need to be able to accommodate their fair share.”

Better transit is “really vital” for growth, he added.

The implications for development in Tigard and the rest of the southwest suburban area are not entirely clear – construction is years away, and even the precise route isn’t set. But backers believe a stronger link to fast-growing Portland can only help.

“The long-term future of the community will be enhanced with light rail,” said Mike Stevenson, who owns a printing business and is an active member of the Downtown Tigard Business Alliance. “Having an alternate transportation venue is a real plus. As our freeways get more and more crowded, we’re going to need to find another way to get people around.

“We think Tigard residents deserve choices as much as any other community.”

Expansion into the Southwest Corridor also would fill a gap in TriMet‘s transportation network.

“It completes one of the last fingers, if you will, of the Portland-metro area,” Stevenson said.

Extension of a light rail line into Tigard means more for the suburb than it does for the region, said Ethan Seltzer, professor of urban studies and planning at Portland State University.

“Fundamentally, it means Tigard is interested in being part of the region,” he said.

If Tigard turned back the MAX line, regional transportation investment would go elsewhere, he said.

The MAX line, as envisioned, would terminate at Bridgeport Village, a 500,000-square-foot outdoor mall west of Interstate 5.

“That’s historically the way these things got built,” Seltzer said. “Old streetcar lines used to go to amusement parks and picnic parks and things like that. In some sense, shopping malls are the amusement parks of our day.”

Better mass transit options could cause state regulators to look more kindly on development in the “Tigard Triangle,” Dirksen said. The area – bordered by I-5, Oregon Route 99 and Oregon Route 217 – is entirely within the urban growth boundary.

“Without improved transportation, the state of Oregon isn’t going to allow Tigard to develop those areas the way they need to be,” he said.

A scoping process drew 1,620 public comments, according to Metro. Most were supportive.

Light rail does have its opponents in Tigard and other suburban areas, however.

“We know that Tigard residents are very concerned about growth and traffic congestion, and that’s why this vote is so close,” Dirksen said.

In addition to going to voters for funding, backers of a new MAX line are planning to pursue a matching grant from the Federal Transit Authority. It distributes dollars to entities around the nation from a pot for light rail projects that holds about $1 billion annually.

About two dozen U.S. cities are building high-capacity transit infrastructure and are competing for that grant money, Dirksen said.

Planning for the light-rail link through Tigard began in 2011. Major questions remain, including whether the line will leave Southwest Portland from the transit mall down the center of Barbur Boulevard, or stay close to I-5.

In Tigard, the route is not envisioned to go down Barbur, in response to concerns from some local businesses.

Planners decided not to expand to Sherwood. They also decided not to construct tunnels at Marquam Hill or to Portland Community College’s Sylvania campus to reduce projected costs.

Stevenson said the lack of a link to PCC – a potential major user of the MAX line – is unfortunate.

“To not have a direct link to the campus, I think is disappointing,” he said.

The work involves a long roster of agencies and jurisdictions, including the cities of Beaverton, Durham, King City, Portland, Sherwood, Tigard and Tualatin as well as Washington County, TriMet, Metro and the Oregon Department of Transportation.

The current timeline for the MAX line shows that it could be constructed by 2025.

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In April, TriMet’s board of directors awarded a $6.7 million project to a Portland midsize heavy-civil contractor, passing over bids from three larger firms – including one 40 times its size.

The recipient was Raimore Construction, a black-owned business with a hand in the regional transit authority’s rapid and substantial growth over the past 15 years.

The yearlong project won’t be easy – with some complicated night work on active MAX light-rail stations. But just landing the project award represented a culmination of a 15-year transformation led by Raimore business partners Jeff Moreland and Andre Raiford, as well as TriMet.

It’s the biggest TriMet contract to go to a minority-owned firm, and a good example of what supporters of equitable contracting call “capacity building.”

‘Pit crew’ mentality

Though the ribbon’s been cut on TriMet’s $1.5 billion Portland-Milwaukie light-rail project, the orange line isn’t quite done (all told, light-rail projects generally require between 10 and 15 years, according to TriMet spokeswoman Mary Fetsch). Several small projects, plus a study, remain.

The largest of these mop-up jobs involves the station platforms at each of the line’s 10 stops, which were originally envisioned to feature two standing shelters each – one to serve each end of 200-foot-long trains. The “second shelter” aspect was cut from the project’s scope when TriMet learned it would receive less federal money than thought.

But under an agreement with the Federal Transit Administration, TriMet was able to reinstate elements if the overall project came in under budget. The team accomplished that, to the tune of $48 million, according to TriMet – in large part, it says, due to historically low interest rates.

The agency planned “aggressively” to save this money, according to Steve Witter, TriMet’s executive director of capital projects and construction. For instance, platforms were designed with conduits and anchors, so the shelters – designed by Landscape Forms of Kalamazoo, Mich. – could be easily affixed later.

The second shelter project is now several weeks along, with canopies being craned in one-by-one, south to north, starting at the Park Avenue station in Milwaukie. Other improvements, like security cameras and rider information screens, are being added as well. The project should conclude by about this time next year.

It’s been challenging for several reasons, according to project manager Michael Kiser. To avoid interference with most MAX riders, the most invasive work is occurring at night – and all other work during the day. The hours that TriMet considers “non-revenue service” is only a two-and-a-half-hour window when the shelters can be lowered into place.

With overhead power lines to navigate and a narrow window in which to operate, plus riders to account for at platforms, the work requires a “pit crew” mentality, Kiser said.

“Everybody on-site really understands what they need to do, and is empowered to affect the final outcome,” he said.

The face of TriMet

Raimore’s history is deeply tied to TriMet. Its roots are in the Trucking Consortium – a novel attempt at pooling the efforts of minority haulers to procure larger bid packages. Led by James Posey, the consortium handled trucking and flagging duties for the Interstate MAX project beginning around 2000.

Posey sold his equipment to Raiford and Moreland, and the entity became Raimore – trucking and flagging came first, but expansion was in mind. After the Interstate yellow line project wrapped in 2004, Raimore performed masonry and brickwork on the green line and streetcar project. And it’s been all over the orange line, working on every platform, including a recent effort where it was co-construction manager-general contractor performing prep work for the upcoming installation of TriMet’s Hop Fastpass electronic fare system.

“They’ve really progressed through the projects that they’ve been involved in, taking on more complex work and really growing their organization around it,” Witter said.

TriMet’s effort in the arena of minority contracting have been recognized nationally. In several notable ways, the authority treats Raimore like a division of its services, rather than an owner and contractor. For this approach to work, its ethos has had to be adopted by TriMet’s regular general contractors, Witter said – notably Stacy & Witbeck.

TriMet has been thoroughly involved with Raimore’s operations. Kiser took an eye for the agency’s systems, helping it devise quality control measures such as rigorous safety training for all involved. Raimore was brought into preconstruction to start intensive coordination of operations – it’s been a process because one of TriMet’s goals has been to really look at how Kiser has worked internally to ensure that everyone is on the same page. That helps efficiency and improves relations and works out better for the customer.

“Obviously, we want them well-organized and when they are out there, they are the face of TriMet,” Kiser said. “Customers don’t always expect the contractor to play a positive role in that, and Raimore has really taken to stepping up in that area. They understand the critical role that they play just in terms of how they interface with the customers.”

The company worked on the early prep work on the E-Fare system, as co-CM-GC with Stacy & Witbeck, so this was kind of the next logical step. Raimore workers have erected shelters on the east side and the west side already, so they are already familiar with the process, and they’ve done lots of selective demolition and restoration. The firm was “strongly encouraged” to bid.

“It is a very logical next step for TriMet because they spent all this time growing us as a company and working with us really diligently,” Moreland said.

Moreland doesn’t often pose for photos, and he declined to do so for this story. He said he prefers to move forward, rather than dwell on success. The firm didn’t even celebrate when it won the bid for the second shelter project, he said.

“Our celebration is in our ability to be successful,” he said. “We aren’t going to celebrate until this project is complete – that’s our mentality. Then we’re really going to celebrate.”

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The latest major transportation project for the Portland Metro area has reached a critical decision stage, and it seems to be moving forward with only a modest amount of controversy.

There are still more steps in the process but the project’s advisory panel recommendation is for the new high-capacity transit line from downtown Portland to Tigard/Tualatin to be light rail, not bus rapid transit. The route, which probably will only go as far as Bridgeport Village,  generally will follow Barbur Boulevard, rather than going through a tunnel under Portland Community College.

This has major implications for how the region will grow over the next 20 to 30 years.  It reinforces Barbur Boulevard as a major redevelopment corridor, and downtown Tigard and the Bridgeport area as centers for much more intense growth.

It also could offer an opportunity to rethink the function and location of PCC over time.  Given its location away from major transit access, would it be better to begin transferring elements of PCC to downtown Tigard?

This has several benefits.  It places key educational facilities and services in a highly accessible location, especially for the transit-dependent people who most need PCC services.  It reinforces the desirability of Tigard as an economic and residential center of growth, and it enhances Tigard’s stated desire to be the “most walkable city in Oregon.”  Also, by designating Bridgeport as the location for a major station, it places the center for more intense development there rather than in downtown Tualatin.

As for the rest of the corridor, it places a great deal of development potential along what is now a high-volume street and a major state highway.  That will mean some very aggressive land use planning to accompany the transit line, with serious redevelopment implications for those areas chosen as station locations.

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TriMet is preparing to tackle three track improvement projects on a stretch of First Avenue in downtown Portland, in what will be its largest disruption to service in years.

Most affected will be riders of the red and blue lines, which run on the 30-year-old section of rail targeted for the rehab, though other light-rail travelers will see their routes “adjusted” to accommodate those displaced riders.

From May 8 through 21, crews with TriMet and Stacy and Witbeck Inc. will replace switches and sections of curved track. Wooden ties below the street surface will be replaced with ones made of a modern composite material. Drains between the eastbound and westbound lines will be cleared and cleaned, and broken pavement and Belgian blocks along the route will be fixed or replaced.

Heavy civil specialist Stacy and Witbeck has performed maintenance work for TriMet since 2013, when it signed a five-year standing contract.

The work will cost approximately $2.1 million. Once it’s done, regular users will notice a smoother ride, spokeswoman Roberta Altstadt said.

“The line was built in 1986 (and) is approaching the end of its serviceable life,” she said. “It’s just part of our regular maintenance – you just have to replace some of these areas because they get worn down by train traffic and auto traffic.”

The work to be done is the kind that can’t be performed during the two hours per day of “non-revenue service,” said Sarah Touey, a TriMet project manager.

“A lot of the bigger projects that require a five- to six-hour window can’t be done then, so (we) have to wait until a project like this,” she said.

With such a disruption in service, TriMet is focused now on a heavy public-relations push, Altstadt said. During the project, TriMet will have additional customer service representatives to field phone calls, and “ride guides” in official vests to be on hand to assist riders in person.

All MAX lines will run at reduced frequency of about every 20 minutes. TriMet expects trains to be especially crowded during regular commuting hours, and room for bikes limited.

Additional maintenance projects loom for TriMet. Switches and a signal system will be replaced at the Rose Quarter Transit Center from Aug. 21 to Sept. 3. And next year TriMet will install new rail and reconstruct the track bed at Southwest 11th Avenue in downtown, and make improvements to the Steel Bridge.

After San Diego’s trolley, the MAX was the second metropolitan light-rail system in the U.S. San Diego’s system is in the middle of a $660 million renewal project.

The MAX opened in 1986 after much wrangling with the federal government. The money for a planned highway project was redirected to help develop the MAX, which significantly altered Portland’s course, said Ethan Seltzer, professor of urban studies at Portland State University.

The MAX has proven popular with the public, and helped spur development. But challenges remain connecting buses to trains to homes, Seltzer said, and improving and increasing service.

“In a sense, our charge for using this system every day, 24-7 for over 30 years, is that for two weeks we have to disrupt service and repair spots desperately in need of maintenance. To me, that doesn’t seem like such a bad deal.”

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The opening last year of the long-awaited Tilikum Crossing, Bridge of the People, followed four years of careful design, planning, tight deadlines and close cooperation with several state and local agencies. Kiewit Infrastructure West, a division of Omaha, Neb.-based Kiewit Infrastructure, one of the nation’s oldest construction companies, handled the construction of an elegant structure in an environmentally sensitive area to produce what is now a Portland landmark.

“We had six months from the notice of award of the contract to install the foundations for the two support towers,” Kiewit project manager Ralph Salamie said. “We had four months to complete that within the ‘fish window’ to allow for the annual salmon migration. We finished it, including the coffer dams, right on schedule. I think that was really the most difficult part of the project.”

Spanning the Willamette River from the South Waterfront District to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, the 1,720-foot-long cable-stayed bridge accommodates light rail trains, buses, pedestrians and bicyclists with no provision for automobiles or trucks. The design created a strong but very flexible structure with excellent seismic integrity.

“We met or exceeded all the seismic criteria for the project,” Salamie said. “If a big quake hits and you’re on a bridge, you’ll want to be on ours.”

T.Y. Lin International served as the designer of record for the bridge. The construction process required casting 78 sections with each finished section subjected to close scrutiny. Casting on-site allowed for greater precision in constructing each segment and made the process more efficient.

In addition to T.Y. Lin setting high standards to ensure project excellence, Kiewit also contributes the success of Tilikum Crossing to TriMet‘s approach to the project, according to Salamie.

“They got the public involved,” he said. “By using a ‘project first’ approach, we were able to focus on prioritizing ways to keep the project moving forward. We worked hard to find innovations – post-tensioning, piers, foundations – and in the end TriMet got exactly what they wanted. It’s a really beautiful bridge.”

Salamie said Kiewit sees the Tilikum Crossing’s dedication to serving alternative modes of transportation as offering a model that other cities can emulate.

“We see light rail as a growing market,” he said. “As mass transit grows, you’ll see us there. We’ll go where the work is.”

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One of the newest developments along light rail in the Portland–metro area, Hub 9, is set to open later this month. The six-story mixed-use building sits within Hillsboro’s Orenco Station neighborhood, directly across from a MAX station offering service throughout the metro area.

This is merely the latest step to ensure the neighborhood is connected, according to Megan Gibb, transit-oriented development program manager for Metro.

“If you go back a long time ago, there was a large public-private partnership around Orenco,” she said. “There was a long history of planning for that station. It’s really been a very phased neighborhood development over time.”

The history of Orenco Station dates back to the 1800s, when it was homesteaded. Eventually the land became the town of Orenco, named after the Oregon Nursery Co., which owned the land for a time. When the business closed in 1938, the town disincorporated.

Flash forward to 1993, when the entire area around Orenco was zoned for industrial use. A decision was made to bring light rail to the metro area’s west end, and Metro and the city of Hillsboro agreed to require that use of surrounding land be transit-oriented. The city then decided it wanted the Orenco Station area to be a “town center” in Metro’s 2040 Growth Plan.

The area has developed over three real estate cycles. The first included the mixed-use town center and adjacent residential space north of Cornell Road. The second phase included three-story apartment and condominium buildings built around 2005 and 2006 slightly south of Cornell Road. Hub 9 is part of the final phase.

Hub 9 was developed by Holland Partner Group, which also served as the contractor. Leeb Architects LLC was the architect. The building’s 124 apartments – either studios, one-bedroom units or two-bedroom units – were leased completely within three months.

“It’s clearly been well-received by the market,” Hillsboro Planning Director Colin Cooper said. “We’re excited about being able to provide a place where our tech workers … consider urban and some of our older residents … choose to downsize and be in an exciting pedestrian environment.”

Hub 9 has three eateries – Ava Roasteria, 9 Dang Thai and Schmizza Public House – that are expected to contribute to the area’s vibrancy and safety. Other amenities include bike parking, secure car parking, a rooftop courtyard, multiple social gathering spaces, proximity to Orenco Plaza for community events, and a fitness center.

“We’re seeing that people are really starting to understand the value of transit access,” Gibb said. “Part of it is appealing to a different demographic. Millennials like to be in urban areas, they like walkable districts, they like having choices for transportation. Some older people are doing that too. They’re moving back into the city to be with grandkids, or because they’re tired of driving. There’s kind of a dual shift going on there in terms of the market economics and the demographic shift that’s increased the interest in transit access.

“Employers are also recognizing that if they want to attract employees, they want to be in places that have options for people other than driving 45 minutes to get to their job.”

The grand opening for Hub 9 is scheduled for Oct. 26, from 4 to 5 p.m.

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