M Financial Attempts to Sublease One Floor of Its Headquarters in the Pearl District

In a modest hit to Portland’s real estate market, wealth management company M Financial will attempt to sublease one of the three floors its headquarters occupy in the Brewery Blocks buildings.

The Portland-based company is headquartered at Northwest 11th Avenue and Couch Street, in one of the four office buildings that make up the Brewery Blocks.

Company spokesman Darryl Swan says the company consolidated its headquarters onto the ninth and 10th floors of the building and is looking to sublease the eighth floor, which it currently occupies. Its lease for all three floor ends in 2031.

M Financial is opening another location in Dallas but says that office won’t be considered a headquarters.

“We have no intention of leaving Portland—M Financial has been headquartered in Portland since its founding in 1978,” Swan says. “To optimize our real estate capacity across two locations, however, we are pursuing a sublease agreement for the eighth floor of M Financial Plaza in the Brewery Blocks.”

The company, which is known for providing life insurance to high-income individuals and companies, was co-founded by philanthropist Eli Morgan in Portland in 1978. Over the years, it merged with other companies, growing its footprint. It’s since grown to include more than 130 member firms across the country, as well as in the United Kingdom.

The impending move is a small blow to the Brewery Blocks, which for years have struggled to attract and retain retail and office tenants. (Current tenants in the four-block ecosystem include Whole Foods, Madewell, Ernst and Young Accounting, Anthropologie, GBD Architects, Perkins Coie Law and Greystar.)