Portland Excels At Office Amenities. Here's Why.

Now is the golden age of office space amenities—with more to come, especially in Portland. That's why we're excited to present Portland Workplace of the Future at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront on April 27.

Menashe Properties VP Jordan Menashe, who will be a speaker at the event, stresses that "people want, need and love amenities in their office space"—which covers a wide range of flexibility, bike storage (of course in Portland) and creative design features.

With flexible working schedules, many companies now provide areas for leisure or socializing in the office as well. What was once square footage for private offices and conference rooms is now for fun, creative open areas where employees can work on a laptop with a dog at their side.

In Portland, Jordan notes, he's seeing a range of requests for what would formerly be nontraditional workplace amenities, such as lounge areas with coffee bars or beer taps; game areas with foosball, ping pong or video games; collaboration areas with chalkboards, bean bag seating and other unique features.

"What we try to do as building owners is provide the greatest flexibility in our spaces to make those adjustments, with open floor plans with high ceilings and infrastructure systems that are easy to plug and play."

Pictured: Menashe Properties' 60k SF 12th and Morrison development, a "white glass" office building that uses a special fritted glass and lighting to look whitish no matter what time of the day. From the interior, the design will greatly reduce glare and decrease the dependence on window shades. That counts as another kind of amenity.

Also, "people really want connectivity to the neighborhood that their building is in," Jordan says. "Any building must 'fit in' and make people feel comfortable." Besides the Portland area, Menashe Properties is active in greater Seattle and is looking hard at other markets, including Detroit.

Hear more about Portland office space amenities at Bisnow's Portland Workplace of the Future, beginning at 7:30am at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront on April 27. Sign up here.