Facts about the Columbia Corridor

-In 1989, the Portland City Council recognized the uniqueness of the Columbia Corridor as a location for new industry and jobs and designated it an industrial sanctuary.

-The Columbia Corridor is the single largest industrial area in the state of Oregon.

-It covers 22,600 acres or 28 square miles.

-The Corridor stretches over 18 miles along the Columbia River from the Rivergate Industrial District on the Willamette River to the Troutdale Industrial District on the Sandy River and north of Columbia Boulevard/Sandy Boulevard and I-84. And a slough runs through it.

-The Columbia Corridor boasts comprehensive intermodal transportation: air (both passenger and cargo), marine, rail (passenger and freight), freeway, transit (light rail and bus), and bike.

-Portland International Airport, at the heart of the Corridor, served more than 12.4 million passengers (2003) and over 250,000 tons of air cargo, with over 500 flights daily.  Troutdale Industrial Airport also operates in the Corridor.

-The Columbia River is the Corridor’s 40-foot-deep, 600-foot-wide marine shipping channel to the Pacific Ocean.  Five marine terminals support regional shipping imports and exports.  The Columbia River is the #1 wheat export gateway in the United States!

-Three interstate freeways serve the Corridor: I-5, I-205, and I-84.  Where these freeways move through the Corridor, average daily traffic trips total 46,300, 153,500, and 135,000 respectively.

-The Corridor boasts over 2,000 businesses employing nearly 60,000 people.

-Employers in the Corridor pay over $2 billion annually in wages, with average wage levels in excess of $36,000.

-The Corridor has about 11 million square feet of space for rent or lease, with a current vacancy rate of about 9.8%.

-A dynamic mix of light and heavy industry, warehouse and distribution companies, business parks, corporate operation centers, hotel/motel facilities, restaurants, and retail establishments populate the Columbia Corridor.

-The Columbia Corridor Association was founded in 1986.  It was formed to provide a forum for broad-based support of the economic and employment development of the Corridor and the creation of 90,000 new jobs for the Portland area.  Today the Association has evolved into an advocacy group for Corridor business and property owner interests, focusing on economic development, environmental, land use, transportation, water, transit, workforce development and marketing issues.