Be Seen. Be Heard: Downtown Portland revitalization

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - In our latest installment of Be Seen. Be Heard. Portland, the FOX 12 Investigates team found that there is optimism about the city.

Sometimes it’s hard to put your finger on the reason why people are feeling better, but one local artist agrees with that feeling and he’s putting his faith into a new art space downtown.

Mike Bennett is a former preschool teacher turned iconic Portland artist. He describes himself as a public joy creator and immersive space designer.

His latest project is called the Portland Aquarium located on the corner of Southwest Broadway and Alder.

Part immersive space, part educational experience, it’s important to note the Portland Aquarium does not have live animals. Instead, Bennett says it’s like walking through a Saturday morning cartoon.

When asked why he chose this location to open his new space Bennett says it’s important to have art downtown and he’s happy to be the person to bring it here.

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Andrew Hoan, President and CEO of the Portland Metro Chamber agrees that things are getting better downtown.

According to the Chamber, there’s been a 20% improvement of the way people are feeling around safety in the downtown area.

“To me, I think there are huge trend lines pointing in the right way. But no one should be spiking a football right now and saying, we’ve reached the mountaintop and that everything is rosy.” Says Hoan.

One problem that needs attention is the fact that downtown is still pretty empty. Over the past three years, the office vacancy rate has consistently crept up. Currently 35% of office space in downtown Portland is empty.

Portland lags behind other major cities in return-to-work policies.

Hoan says it’s time to think about downtown as a place to live, rather than just work.

“What I think people need to understand, though, about office vacancy is that our central city, is going to be in a transition period. What you knew before is not going to be what is in the future.”

He believes one of the fixes we need immediately is to start building housing in the central city to create a neighborhood that thrives 24/7