Downtown occupancy increases slightly

By Terry Murry on Monday, February 21st, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories

PENDLETON – The Pendleton Development Commission does a downtown occupancy survey every year. Mayor John Turner said this year’s count was performed last month.

“We have in the Main Street area an 87 percent occupancy rate,” Turner said. “It’s a little bit lower than what we had five years ago, but it was only at 75 percent back in 2012. Last year, it was 85 percent. This year was slightly better.”

The occupancy survey saw the city’s RARE Intern Patrick Holzman going door-to-door throughout the downtown area. Turner also pointed out that Sears is going into the old JC Penney building and another business is opening up across the street from that.

“Overall, it represents a healthy economy,” Turner said. “One of the councilors asked Patrick if there’s a number nationwide that reflects whether you’ve got a healthy downtown core and Patrick said he thought it was about 80 percent.”

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