Large companies are fleeing offices in downtown Portland — because nightly Black Lives Matter riots are making the heart of the Oregon city a no-go area, according to a report.
“Businesses are leaving,” Andrew Hoan, president and CEO of the Portland Business Alliance (PBA), told KATU.
“The financial consequences to the downtown corridor are a running calculation that is almost impossible to wrap your mind around,” he said — with one company already saying the riots have cost $20 million in damage and lost business.
“You have blocks and blocks of plywood. You have graffiti. You have an accumulation of damages that are unrepaired, an ongoing perception that coming downtown is not a safe place,” Hoan said.
“We need to start to turn the corner now, so that this sort of irreparable damage does not last,” the business leader said.
Portland has seen regular violence and destruction during 83 consecutive nights of protests, with Tuesday once again being declared a riot as a mob smashed its way into a government building and set fires.
Standard Insurance is one of the companies to now largely evacuated, switching many of its 2,100 Portland employees from its downtown HQ to work at a site just outside the city, according to KGW.
“Our downtown properties have sustained significant vandalism and a number of employees and contractors have been assaulted in recent months,” said the company’s senior spokesman, Bob Speltz…
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