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Portland Office Space for Rent: In my quest to find affordable office space for rent in downtown Portland, Oregon I came across many obstacles but eventually found a building and square footage that made sense for my business. Portland office space is not nearly as expensive as other west coast cities like Seattle or San Francisco and I knew that when I moved up here from California years ago. My small business had grown into more than something I could run from my house so I wanted to lease an executive suite in Portland and potentially grow the business. The recession has left many areas depleted of tenants and I knew I could get a good lease option in many areas of town. I like the Hawthorne area and the Pearl District, but the main section of downtown is where I really wanted to rent office space. Before I even started my search I did some research (reading lots of articles online) and I found a good one done by the Wall Street Journal that spoke of "new life" in the office market. Things were looking better for average office rents going into 2011 so I figured my timing couldn't be better in terms of getting in at the low point. Craigslist is a good source for finding basic price ranges and see what size office spaces are available. I found one spot in the Pearl District that was leasing for $2500/month for the 2600 square foot loft. They wanted a 6 month lease and I was looking for something a little more long term (1 year). We did negotiate a bit but I ended up not following through on that spot since I found a better location. If you look at the Portland metro region, office space goes for about $25-$30 a square foot. Big companies - especially technology - are out in the Beaverton and Hillsboro area where Nike and Intel are located. Downtown is where smaller, niche business offices can be found and that is where the talent that I wanted to find actually lives. Computer and web designers is what I was going to hire, and downtown Portland has affordable office suites for businesses like mine (10 to 20 employees maximum). Executive Suites for Lease in Portland, Oregon: Commercial office space in Portland that is furnished was another option for me. Unfurnished spaces are prevalent but I wanted furnishing. Age of the office was somewhat of a factor, but ultimately I knew I could move the office in a year if the location or office dynamics didn't work out. This was a risky growth move for my business and acquiring office space through a lease was part of the equation. Rates are a bit better if you commit to a long term lease, often a year or more. I had lined up 5 new employees to start the year with me so I knew I would be downtown for at least 6 months and hopefully for the entire year if things worked out. Besides Craigslist, you can do searches on Google for terms like "portland office space lease" or "portland office lease rates" and get a whole list of commercial real estate listings or brokers that deal with office space suite leases. Contact a few and go check out the furnished office space. If you are doing an unfurnished lease, take a tape measure and get exact measurements of each office/suite so you know what the furniture configuration could be once you are moved in. If you are going to do cubacles, decide in your mind what you want and see if the office suite will do. Downtown Portland Lease Options: What I really like about Portland are the variety in office lease spaces available. There are high rise building with spaces on the 20th floor and many low rise buildings that office retail or commercial lease space on the 1st or 2nd floors. I figured a low floor would be good for a start and if I ever did expand the operations, I would probably relocate to the building on the outskirts of downtown. Portland does have a bit of a homeless issue and some streets are notorious for people getting hassled with money requests all day long. I avoided those areas and focused my search into a few regions. I knew that I my attorney was located in the Pittock building on Washington and I like that area and then over towards the Keller Auditorium were a few others spots I had seen. Overall Portland proved to be much easier in finding office space that made sense than if I had tried in Seattle or San Francisco. The talent is here (for what I need) and the executive office lease options are within my budget. Let's hope that next year I can expand to new cities and even hire more in Portland. © 1999-2011 Funskins.com