eBay Renews Downtown Portland Lease Despite Industry’s Remote Work Trend
The commercial office lease of online marketplace eBay in downtown Portland has been renewed, suggesting that the remote working trend among Oregon software companies may not be on the cards for company workers.
eBay Portland Lease Renewed
In its quarterly update on the Portland office market, commercial real estate firm CBRE confirmed the eBay lease has been renewed. The company’s Portland footprint was established in 2010 after acquiring Critical Path, a small Portland smartphone app developer.
Amid a surge in demand for Oregon tech workers ten years ago, eBay was among several Silicon Valley companies that established outposts of software developers in the Portland area.
See also: Portland’s Downtown Office Vacancy Reported To Be Highest In The U.S.
Expanding steadily over the next several years, eBay’s Portland office on Southwest Fifth Avenue, near Portland State University, which once accommodated over 200 employees in 70,000 square feet was later downsized around 20% 57,000 square feet.
eBay said in a statement that the renewal covers the same square footage as it occupied in its most recent lease.
Some Tech Companies Moving Away From Remote Work
EBay has not indicated how many people work in their Portland office, yet many other tech companies with a big Oregon presence have ratcheted back, shut down, or moved to remote work. Over the past two years, Oregon software employment is down 7.4%.
The Salesforce Hillsboro office opened in 2013 will be closed according to the company’s statement last month and 150 workers will be laid off.
Web analytics company, New Relic which employed 600 people in downtown Portland, laid off workers every year from 2021 through 2023 before moving the rest to remote work. The business was then sold to a private equity firm.
Over the last decade, Portland-based tech companies with big downtown offices have scaled down. Jama Software, Jive Software, Puppet Labs, and Simple all sold their businesses whereafter their presence was significantly reduced or their offices closed.
eBay, like Amazon, appears determined to stay. Amazon still runs their downtown Portland office and has indicated that they will require most corporate workers to be in the office five days a week from next year.