Media and Press
Burgeoning Waterfront Redefines Vancouver, Washington
The Urbanist
Ambitious development is taking Washington State’s most overlooked city from ‘Vantucky’ backwater to hip.
A few years ago an Urbanist reader approached me at a meetup and offered a story tip. Sleepy Vancouver, Washington on the Columbia River across the stateline from Portland, Oregon, was beginning to wake up.
“You have to check out the waterfront,” he said, explaining that he was certain it was one of the largest and most ambitious urban development projects underway in the Pacific Northwest. I made a mental note about it at the time and put a visit to Vancouver at the top of my project list.
Then the Covid-19 pandemic happened, and my first visit to the ‘Couve’, as I would learn Vancouver is sometimes affectionately called, was set back by a couple years. The long pause may not have been a bad thing, however, as the ensuing months would significantly advance Waterfront Vancouver and other development going on in the city.
By the time I was able to first visit Vancouver in September 2023, only four out of 22 city blocks in the 32-acre project site area remained to be developed. The result was a modern neighborhood of glass and steel towers set on a picturesque seven-acre Waterfront Park on the Columbia River that totally eclipsed the site’s past as a paper mill.
Salt & Straw’s Latest Scoop Shop Will Open In Vancouver
Salt & Straw will open its first Southwest Washington location early next year in Vancouver’s waterfront development.
Vancouver Waterfront Wine Tasting Room And Restaurant Offers Welcoming Vibe
Willamette Valley Vineyards.
The vineyards’ tasting room and restaurant opened at The Waterfront Vancouver in August 2022.
Vancouver Business Journal – 2023 Top Projects
#1 – Block 7 Parking Garage.
The garage will feature 8-stories, 831 spaces with 83 allocated for EV charging stations. Additionally, 10,664 sf of ground floor retail facing Columbia Way. Completion Date: July 2024
Diners Opting For Vancouver Waterfront Over Downtown Portland
Mixed-use building will be either 8 or 12 stories tall, to be finished in ’26.
Press Release: The Waterfront Vancouver – Nearing Completion – Brings $6.1 Billion In Economic Value and Benefits To The Region
New economic impact analysis shows local and regional investment to be well founded and delivering on the longstanding mission, while triggering hundreds of millions in future development spending and in tax revenue.
With an estimated 2030 completion date and $1.6 billion in direct investment and costs underway/projected, The Waterfront Vancouver will deliver the total output value of $6.1 billion in 2022-measured dollars.
The new, 2023 Economic Impact Analysis of The Waterfront Vancouver by Johnson Economics (Executive Summary can be found here) now verifies the vision has been realized. The study examines what has been invested to date, from one-year post construction starting in 2017 through 2024 including what’s now underway. The total impacts of output – direct, indirect and induced – are also estimated through project completion, anticipated for 2030.
Economist Jerry Johnson provided these key data findings in the analysis through 2024 and projected through project completion in 2030 (in 2022 dollar value):
Waterfront Lot Set To Grow Upward In 2024
Mixed-use building will be either 8 or 12 stories tall, to be finished in ’26.
Waterfront Vancouver Construction About Two-Thirds Complete
Every block of $1.5B project could be developed by 2030.
Construction To Begin On Parking Garage At The Waterfront Vancouver
Structure will provide 829 space, ground floor retail.
Construction Work Continues At The Waterfront Vancouver
Cranes overlook development as work on housing, hotel, retail buildings underway.