Big Pink Becomes Lightning Rod in Portland Budget Drama

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson on May 20 took exception to The Wall Street Journal making Big Pink the latest symbol of Portland’s decline.

The 42-story U.S. Bancorp Tower on Southwest 5th Avenue at West Burnside Street went on sale this week, as first reported by The Oregonian, after hemorrhaging tenants for the past few years. The Journal piled on in Monday’s paper with a story headlined “A Fire Sale of Portland’s Largest Office Tower Shows How Far the City Has Fallen.”

The building’s owners, Seattle-based Unico Properties and a unit of Swiss banking giant UBS, are asking $70 million, according to the Journal, 80% less than the owners paid a decade ago. Big Pink’s woes are “a potent symbol of what ails downtown Portland,” the Journal said. The building, where tenants have complained in court papers about fentanyl smoke and human feces in public areas, is “a warning for what can happen to once-bustling downtowns if they get caught in the doom loop of losing business,” the Journal said.

In a Tuesday email to constituents, Wilson said the paper had overlooked Portland’s progress.

“I wish they’d covered our rapid improvements in public safety, new residents, business opportunities, regional destinations, and creatives,” Wilson wrote. “Instead, they focused on the upcoming sale of ‘Big Pink,’ an iconic part of the Portland skyline, and a business tenant who left over safety and livability concerns.”

Wilson went on to use Big Pink for his own ends, urging voters to contact city councilors and tell them what they want in the city’s budget, which goes to a vote this week, with police staffing the primary battleground.

Wilson cited a poll, first reported by WW, showing that 69% of Portlanders want the city’s officers per capita to keep up with those in other cities. To do that, the city would have to double the size of its police force.

A spokeswoman for Unico declined to comment on the matter.