Airport Way

Formed in 1986, the Airport Way URA is unique in its proximity to major transportation infrastructure and its absence of a substantial housing element. As such, the URA’s primary goal has been to facilitate development to create a major eastside employment center.

Originally, at 2,780 acres, the Airport Way URA was the city’s second largest urban renewal district. The district’s boundary, from NE 82nd Avenue, adjacent to the Portland International Airport, to the Portland city limits at NE 185th and Marine Drive, remained unchanged from its inception until 2010 when the Portland City Council passed the Tenth Amendment to the Plan which removed 872 acres and reduced the URA’s size to 1,841 acres, so as to create additional capacity to expand an existing or create a new urban renewal area in the city. In 2015, Portland City Council passed a package of URA amendments which included the reduction of the Airport Way URA’s acreage to 971.

Airport Way’s maximum indebtedness of $73 million has been reached and there is no capacity to issue additional debt.  Project activities now must all be funded with land sale proceeds: in other words, the money that Prosper Portland receives from the sale or lease of property that it had acquired over the years. Currently, Prosper Portland still has 23 acres of vacant land (an estimated $16 million in real estate holdings) that it is marketing for new development.

The Urban Renewal Plan and the Development Plan identified several objectives: