The U.S. Custom House, a granite and brick Pearl District landmark that has watched Portland cycle through more than a century of booms and busts, is now looking for its next act. The four-story building at 220 NW Eighth Avenue, built in 1901 and later converted to creative office use, has quietly joined the roster of downtown properties seeking buyers or new plans at a time when demand for central city office space is unusually soft.
Newmark is marketing the property as either an owner-user opportunity or an investment play, and public listings show the Custom House hit the market in August 2025. The building is listed at roughly 67,500 square feet, with brokers directed to Newmark’s Portland team. The offering is still active, according to LoopNet.
The U.S. Custom House last changed hands in 2017 for about $30 million, when an entity tied to Vista Investment Group acquired the property. That deal followed earlier ownership changes and a renovation that brought the interiors in line with contemporary office expectations while preserving the building’s character. The sale history and building details are outlined by Bisnow.
Debt, tenants and a checkered past
Reporting indicates the building’s debt was sold at auction in 2025, but a full-blown foreclosure was ultimately headed off. That move kept the property out of the usual courthouse-steps drama while leaving title and loan questions hanging as the asset now comes to market. The Custom House has seen a revolving cast of tenants over the years. The federal government, its original occupant, vacated in 2005, and coworking operator WeWork later took over significant space before departing in 2021. Those twists are detailed by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Market context
The Custom House is coming up for sale in a tough office climate. CBRE’s Q1 2026 figures put Portland’s overall office vacancy at about 27.1 percent, reflecting continued negative absorption coming out of 2025, according to CBRE. In the downtown core, direct vacancy runs even higher, at roughly one third of the inventory, or about 34.7 percent, as reported by Axios. With that level of empty space, owners, lenders and city officials are weighing conversions, incentives and other strategies to keep buildings from sitting dark.
Investors are already leaning into debt-driven plays to scoop up downtown assets at a discount. A spring deal for the 200 SW Market "Black Box" tower, where buyers acquired both the loan and the building and are now repositioning the property, has become a case study in how to rewrite a likely foreclosure story. Local coverage framed the transaction as a high-stakes downtown gamble, and the strategy is drawing more attention in Portland’s current market.
Conversion and reuse are on the table
Industry research points to a rising pipeline of office to residential and mixed-use conversions across the country, and visually distinctive buildings like the Custom House often land on the shortlist if the numbers cooperate. Conversions are gaining traction, but retrofit costs and financing hurdles can be steep, which means many projects do not pencil out without some form of public support. That combination of high construction costs and weak downtown demand looms large for any would-be buyer here, according to CBRE.
Legal status
Public filings and news accounts point to outstanding debt and foreclosure-related actions tied to the Custom House that could complicate a clean, quick sale. Any buyer will likely need to untangle title and loan claims before the keys change hands. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that the 2025 debt sale disrupted what had been a straightforward foreclosure path, leaving the legal outcome to depend on lender moves or court decisions. For now, the building is being actively marketed while those issues play out.
That puts Newmark’s listing in the spotlight as a kind of bellwether for downtown Portland. Whether the Custom House lands with a debt-savvy investor, becomes a conversion project, or is held long term in anticipation of a rebound, the outcome will be closely watched as owners, lenders and civic leaders try to reshape how the city’s historic core is used.
