Search Downtown Portland Real Estate on the Interactive Map
Portland’s largely commercial Downtown neighborhood is the city’s urban core. Residential dwellings consist chiefly of apartment buildings of recent construction and others that date to the 1920s and later. The architectural diversity of Portland condos for sale owes much to the conversion of these apartments as well as modern condominium and townhouse construction.
Living downtown is ideal for walkers and one can easily do so without a car. The city’s retired Mayor Vera Katz lives in a downtown high rise in part because she chooses not to drive. The area is the hub for bus and light rail, rapid transit to Portland International Airport and Amtrak.
Major department stores, Nordstrom’s and Macy’s, are in Downtown as well as Pioneer Square shopping mall with movies, food courts, and boutiques. S.W. Broadway and S.W. 2nd Ave. numerically through S.W. 12th Ave. are lined with all manner of shops and services, restaurants, galleries, cafes and any amenity you could want in an city’s central core.
Pioneer Courthouse Square is the city’s open public square and the site for the annual Christmas tree lighting and other public events. If Pioneer Courthouse Square is Portland’s living room then Waterfront Park is the front lawn. A green strip along the Willamette River, it is host to the amusement park rides during the annual June Rose Festival and other events.
Things to do and sights to see Downtown and in the adjacent neighborhoods such as the Pearl, Old Town-China Town and the others could fill a book – and indeed they have. It’s not possible to name even the highlights without someone complaining that a critical feature has been overlooked. What follows is an abbreviated list selected in hopes of appealing to a variety of tastes.
The annual Rose Festival celebrates all that is Portland every June with parades, an amusement park and local boosterism. Every First Thursday there is an art gallery walk in the Pearl District. Art in the Park is a juried exhibit and demonstration of visual arts during Labor Day weekend.
Other cultural venues include: the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, the Keller Auditorium, for traveling Broadway musicals, the Portland Opera, and the Oregon Ballet. The main stages for live dramatic theater include the Performing Arts Center on S.W. Broadway and S.W. Main and the Gerding Theater on N.W. 11th Ave. and N.W. Davis.
Downtown is dotted with small parks, sculpture and drinking fountains called Benson bubblers after lumber baron Simon Benson, who donated money to the city to install them.
Schools: Chapman Elementary, West Sylvan Middle, Lincoln High
Parks: Chapman Park, O’Bryant Park, Waterfront Park
Shopping: Fred Meyer, Safeway, Whole Foods, Zupan’s
Freeways: I-5, I-84, S26
Library: Multnomah County Library Central Branch
Population: 9,965
Home ownership: 8%
The South Park Blocks are home to The Portland Art Museum, the Oregon Historical Society and Portland State University. The restored Beaux-Arts building that houses the central branch of Multnomah County Library is on S.W. 10th Ave.
Downtown is also home to the Classical Chinese Garden, The Crystal Ballroom for rock, folk and R&B concerts, the Embers for dancing, Darcelle’s famous drag show, Harvey’s Comedy Club and Jeld-Wen Field, the Portland Timbers MLS soccer team stadium.
The Oregonian, Pdxnorthwest.com and Willamette Week publish weekly restaurant reviews and annual best dining guides. Some of the favorites they’ve singled out for high marks include: Pazzo Ristorante, Hiroshi Japanese Restaurant, Higgins, the Heathman Restaurant, Fenouil, the Peruvian restaurant Andina, 50 Plates, the Vietnamese restaurant Silk, Kenny & Zuke’s New York style deli, Nel Centro, Patanegra, Paley’s Place, and Wildwood. And look for the row of food carts at S.W. 9th Ave. and S.W. Alder as well as those on S.W. 5th Ave. and S.W. Stark.
Downtown is a vibrant neighborhood with activity, culture, entertainment and more. Downtown is where to begin if you are looking for Portland real estate that sits in the center of everything.
