REI closing Portland store

[Super S]

REI is closing its Portland location due to an increase in break-ins and theft:

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/ ... c0827ab740

REI actually relocated in 2004 to this store, in Portland's Pearl District, from a location at Jantzen Beach, another area which has been experiencing similar issues recently.

[storewanderer]

What will it take...

A Pacific Northwest rooted retailer leaving the downtown...

What will it take to get control over downtown?

Has REI been closing other stores?

[Super S]

What will it take...

A Pacific Northwest rooted retailer leaving the downtown...

What will it take to get control over downtown?

Has REI been closing other stores?

REI, as far as I know, hasn't been closing stores. But lots of other stores and restaurants have been closing in Portland, particularly locations within city limits and at Jantzen Beach/Delta Park.

I never understood the move to downtown in the first place. Outdoor/sporting goods stores seem to do better when there is ample parking and are located away from downtown areas. REI's remaining stores in the Portland area reflect that, as well as chains like Cabela's. While it might be true that REI has a more affluent customer base, I will say that their move to downtown did alienate some customers who shopped at the Jantzen Beach location, which drew many customers from Southwest Washington.

[Brian Lutz]

I do know that REI does occasionally to move and/or consolidate locations. For example, a few years ago the Redmond Town Center location (one of their larger ones with a climbing wall) and an older location in a strip mall in Bellevue which eventually got torn down to build apartments were consolidated together into a single location in a new shopping complex near Downtown Bellevue. The former Redmond REI store sat vacant for several years but now appears to have been turned into office space. The former Macy's next door (which closed in 2019) appears to now be used by Amazon for office space.

[ClownLoach]

I do know that REI does occasionally to move and/or consolidate locations. For example, a few years ago the Redmond Town Center location (one of their larger ones with a climbing wall) and an older location in a strip mall in Bellevue which eventually got torn down to build apartments were consolidated together into a single location in a new shopping complex near Downtown Bellevue. The former Redmond REI store sat vacant for several years but now appears to have been turned into office space. The former Macy's next door (which closed in 2019) appears to now be used by Amazon for office space.

They also closed Mission Viejo, CA about a decade ago which became Bed Bath and Beyond (and ultimately the only surviving BB&B in Orange County besides Seal Beach which is less than a mile from the LA county line). Interestingly enough they were able to take over the Laguna Hills Marshalls and are opening later in 2023. They announced the address of the new store which is how Marshalls found out they were not being renewed, and the store closed a few months later. Odd that they felt the need to outbid an existing tenant and compete with them for the site at lease end when they're building a new center next door (which is finally under construction after almost a decade of delays). But ultimately REI has been in growth mode and on the surface Portland appears to be the perfect place for a flagship store... But not if it gets a car driven through the front end to enable a Black Friday looting (note they are always closed Black Friday). Apparently $800K worth of increased security to harden the building didn't help and they've had 10 break ins since, including the drive through.

Last time I was there the area in the immediate downtown and Pearl District appeared to have been cleared out of homeless, but I heard from some friends who just returned that the area is scary and out of control again with aggressive homeless screaming and harassing everyone in sight along with human waste on the sidewalks and streets, plus car windows being smashed in broad daylight one after another down entire blocks and the police do not show up for the active burglary situations. Our friends stayed in what should have been a nice Pearl District hotel and would never do it again, they've wiped Portland off their list completely. They also noticed that many construction sites for luxury residential towers and offices are mothballed and appear to have been shut down for a while now. I've heard that people are selling their condos at a major loss or are just walking away because they have already been victimized or feel unsafe in the area. Portland is completely out of control. Every business in the downtown area is going to close at the rate things are going. The combination of crime/shoplifting losses and customers actively avoiding the area is too much. Meanwhile Washington Square has never been busier, and trendy restaurants are piling into the revitalized Vancouver waterfront, Lake Oswego, and other suburbs.

[storewanderer]

It seems to me Portland is losing retailers at a faster clip than San Francisco. The problems in the two cities seem very similar on the surface and from the outside looking in.

The thing that I find interesting is the closures in San Francisco seem to be more "essential retailers" while the closures in Portland seem to be more "non essential retailers" if we call back to the COVID definitions. I am not quite sure what that pattern means, but it means something, so the situation is not exactly the same in the two cities based on that.

[ClownLoach]

It seems to me Portland is losing retailers at a faster clip than San Francisco. The problems in the two cities seem very similar on the surface and from the outside looking in.

The thing that I find interesting is the closures in San Francisco seem to be more "essential retailers" while the closures in Portland seem to be more "non essential retailers" if we call back to the COVID definitions. I am not quite sure what that pattern means, but it means something, so the situation is not exactly the same in the two cities based on that.

I think more of the "non essential" retailers had already departed San Francisco for surrounding cities some time ago that could provide more traditional retail space. Portland, until very recently, acted more like a magnet and a place for businesses of all types. Portland used to bring people in from smaller surrounding suburbs. Now Portland residents are trying to get out and the suburbs are their #1 destination, so the businesses are following.

I think San Francisco is also in the later stages of the closure crisis. Portland is just getting started, and I think it's going to be a faster and more violent wave of closures. There are too many nice areas within a short distance of Portland which make it very easy to move out and retain your customer base; San Francisco is harder to get in and out of. Many people still live and work in the city and seldom travel more than a couple of miles from home. Portland is more of a car commuter market with the oddity of a high rise downtown while the rest of the city is like a suburb to downtown, which makes it less of a risk to close downtown and reopen in safer surrounding areas (unless you already had expanded past downtown, then you can just close and be done with it). Portland downtown could very quickly collapse into wall to wall vacancies and boarded up storefronts. The canary in the coal mine there is the collapse of the downtown real estate boom. And before everyone starts talking about interest rates and such - the Vancouver-Camas-Washougal area continues to be in very high demand with short supply, listings that sell in days and multiple bids. Values there are still growing faster than other western US "boomtowns." People are trying to get out of their misery in their formerly trendy downtown condos and they're moving in every direction away from Portland itself. Freeway traffic has never been worse in surrounding cities, but people have decided they value their family safety over their drive time.