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How is the Port helping to map a meaningful future in East Multnomah County? 4 questions for Emily Bower

May 21, 2025
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In East Multnomah County, the Port has played a role in economic development for decades—it's where we developed two business parks, plus own and operate the Troutdale airport. In 2023, we launched a new initiative with key partners to figure out the best ways to rev the local economy and create more opportunities for the people who live and work there.

Flash forward to 2025, and we’re ready to share the East Multnomah County Roadmap: a report that outlines community needs, and prioritizes programs and projects to meet those needs, while increasing access to quality jobs and economic prosperity in our region.

Keep reading to learn more about how the roadmap was developed and exciting projects on the horizon from Emily Bower, Senior Manager of Partnerships and Property Development at the Port.

Emily has brown hair and is wearing glasses in her headshot
Emily Bower,
Senior Manager,
Partnerships and Property Development
 

1. Can you bring us up to speed on the East County Strategy? What is it, and what has happened so far? 

Emily: Launched in 2023, the East County Strategy is our focus on creating new economic opportunities for those who live and work in East Multnomah County, where the Port owns Troutdale Airport, and developed Troutdale-Reynolds Industrial Park, and Gresham Vista Business Park. These developments have created a lot of jobs. But we know we can have a bigger impact—so we’re focusing on building stronger communities and creating new kinds of economic opportunities.

In 2023, we held more than 30 meetings with community leaders, elected officials, community organizations and businesses—and participated in local events to hear what’s most important to community members.

In 2024, we brought together a steering committee to better understand local needs and priorities—for example, education and training opportunities to grow talent and income, transportation investments to improve access to opportunities, and more. Together, we established the East Multnomah County Roadmap in 2025.

 

2. What exactly is the East Multnomah County Roadmap?

Emily: The East Multnomah County Roadmap is a report informed by the community engagement work from 2023 and 2024 that identifies some of the greatest needs and the most impactful investment and development opportunities in East County.

For the Port, it will guide our plans to develop our assets in ways that have the greatest long-term impact on the people who live and work there. But it isn’t just about the Port. 

The roadmap is the culmination of many months of analysis and discussions we convened with the Cities of Gresham, Troutdale, Fairview and Wood Village, Mt. Hood Community College, Multnomah County, Metro, Oregon Community Foundation, Craft 3, Oregon Tradeswomen, and Cultivate Initiatives—to name a few of the partners collaborating throughout this process. 

The group started with 48 ideas of possible projects for the region, and prioritized about 10 for the roadmap, along with some program areas like transit improvements and workforce development. 

Roadmap priorities were determined by a range of factors, including whether an involved organization had the interest and capacity to support the project’s development. Additional factors included whether a project would advance economic mobility, support multimodal transportation opportunities, and contribute to environmental sustainability and climate resiliency.

 

3. Can you tell us more about the priorities—the projects and programs—recommended in that report?  

Emily: Three priorities were identified as the first to be advanced by the coalition, with each led by a local sponsor.

One of these projects is called a semiconductor workforce pathway, and the idea is to create and promote a semiconductor workforce program that serves East County residents. This project is sponsored by Mt. Hood Community College and involves additional partners, including Worksystems, Portland State University, Microchip, semiconductor employers, and city governments in East Multnomah County.

The second priority project is Gresham Vista Business Park, Lot 11, which is sponsored by the Port of Portland, with partners including the City of Gresham, Metro, and Business Oregon. We’re working on site readiness at this location, which means developing a master plan, conducting a feasibility study, and preparing site infrastructure. The goal is to stimulate public-private investment for a mix of uses, which could include housing, child care, or workforce development training. 

Another top focus is Multnomah County's Vance Vision Master Plan (PDF), a three-phase initiative to transform 90 acres of county-owned land previously used as a quarry and municipal landfill. A primary area for the coalition’s efforts will be along 190th Avenue in Gresham, where about 20 acres have been identified as a future county facilities and employment corridor, along with opportunities for workforce development and transit opportunities.

Additional locations of interest in the roadmap include downtown Rockwood, Fairview Springs, and Troutdale Airport.

 

4. What's Next?

Emily: A coalition of local institutions and community organizations will continue to meet and collaborate over the next two years to develop work plans for each priority program and project, implement those plans, and track progress. Each project’s sponsoring and partner organizations will be responsible for public involvement, depending on the project’s unique stakeholders and needs.

We look forward to providing updates on the Port-sponsored effort at Gresham Vista and on the coalition’s projects in general as this work takes shape.  Learn more about the Port’s East County Strategy.

Download the East Multnomah County Roadmap (PDF)

 

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Timeline

A new purpose for Terminal 2

2017-2019 aerial of terminal 2

With an abundance of breakbulk cargo terminals along the lower Columbia River between the ocean and Portland, the Port began to consider whether Terminal 2, located on the Willamette River, should continue serving as a marine terminal. Multiple studies confirmed it: T2 was no longer needed for breakbulk cargo.

Instead, the terminal would provide the greatest economic benefit – meaning it creates quality jobs for the people who live and work in our region, and opportunities for rural and urban businesses – if redeveloped as an industrial park or manufacturing hub, especially given the short supply of industrial land in the Portland area.

Finding possibility in mass timber

2020

Wildfires devastated rural Oregon, wiping out thousands of homes and increasing the region’s urgent need for more affordable housing – and sparked new collaboration between state and Port employees, who create an informal network to provide housing for fire victims.

Meanwhile, at PDX, we were bringing together partners from across the region to construct a new airport roof made of mass timber. Designed and built in the Pacific Northwest, with materials supplied by 40 Oregon and Washington landowners, mills and fabricators, the new 9-acre airport roof changed the region’s idea of what’s possible. Some of the wood was even harvested to reduce the impact of wildfires.

The PDX roof was just the beginning.

Create a coalition to do something big

2021 Oregon Mass Timber Coalition logo

The next step was to formalize partnerships that had started taking root, leading to the formation of the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition. Our goal was – and is – to create a regional hub for innovation and mass timber industry growth through sustainable design, manufacturing and housing construction.

Coalition members include the Port of Portland, Oregon Department of Forestry, Business Oregon, Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, University of Oregon, Oregon State University, and TallWood Design Institute.

EDA funding kick-starts plans for a mass timber modular factory

2021 Still rendering of T2 Mass Timber site concept

Another EDA grant enabled the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition to launch a comprehensive strategy for expanding the mass timber housing market.

Funding targeted coalition projects across the state, from fire and acoustical testing of mass timber products for use in multifamily housing, to wildfire reduction and sustainable, traceable wood harvesting in regional forests, to developing the workforce training needed for new jobs in an emerging industry. It also provided funding for the Port to begin site preparation at Terminal 2.

Transforming a longtime marine terminal this way requires a lot of planning, investment and infrastructure work before construction of new buildings can begin. We started identifying partners to help build and operate a new mass timber and housing manufacturing factory, and working with Mackenzie, a local firm, on high-level master plans to guide ongoing development.

Demonstrating mass timber’s promise for housing

2023 interior example of fully furnished mass timber home

One of our early partners was Hacienda Community Development Corporation, a local nonprofit that built six prototype homes from mass timber at T2. The Mass Casitas pilot project, funded in part by $5 million from the 2023 Oregon Legislature, not only provided homes for families in Madras, Talent, Otis and Portland. It demonstrated that mass timber modular construction can provide a quicker, more efficient and cost-effective way to build housing.

Around the same time, the Port also began leasing space to modomi, a Portland-based company specializing in sustainable modular housing, and modomi began renovating an old warehouse into a modular housing manufacturing facility.

Campus plans take shape

2024 Rendering of UO acoustics lab: modern timber building

Two years of plans started to become reality with multiple anchor tenants announced for the campus.

The Port approved leases with the University of Oregon for a new mass timber acoustics laboratory, along with Zaugg Timber Solutions, which took over the warehouse renovated by modomi to create a temporary mass timber manufacturing facility. With plans for a permanent mass timber modular factory at T2 as well, Zaugg began efforts to build an interim modular manufacturing facility and recruit for its training program in Switzerland.

Throughout all this excitement, we continued working out costs and plans for making sure soil is stable for future construction at the campus, and securing additional federal funding for developing critical infrastructure.

What’s next

2025-2028 man in hardhat and harness working on timber building

When complete, the 39-acre Mass Timber and Housing Innovation Campus at T2 will include manufacturing, research and development, skills training, and incubator space for small and emerging businesses.

In 2025-26, we’ll work on soil stabilization and critical campus-wide infrastructure improvements. We’ll also work with University of Oregon as they undergo design and permitting for their new acoustics lab – expected to begin construction in 2026 and open in 2027 – and finalize plans with Zaugg for a new, permanent mass timber modular factory to open in early 2028. Zaugg will begin producing mass timber modular housing units, industrial and commercial buildings, and prefabricated mass timber building components even sooner, as early as 2026, in their interim facility.

And we’ll continue collaborating with partners to make sure workers are prepared for the new, high-quality jobs in the emerging mass timber industry.

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