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Compass President Leads Bend Real Estate Investors Conference

Bruce Kemp, partner and president of Compass Commercial Real Estate Services, advised 200 attendees of the Bend Real Estate Investors Conference that "The next decade belongs to Redmond."

Bend, Oregon

Kemp's presentation covered key figures and trends over the last 10 years in commercial real estate in Central Oregon.Some of the observations and recommendations were as follows: residential land in Bend has risen 1333% in the last 10 years, and 2000% for the same in Redmond. Bend land is currently 30-40% higher than Portland, Bend is experiencing a severe shortage of industrial land with current vacancy rates at only 2.9%. Redmond's UGB expansion of 2100 acres, due to come online by September should provide plenty of room to grow in all zoning categories, Bend is looking at over 4-5000 acres but timeline is farther out.
Kemp went on to advise selling Bend industrial land if purchased as an investment or developing it if possible, with Juniper Ridge looking at least 4 years out. He recommended purchasing/developing Redmond land, buying in downtown Redmond, and/or converting invested real esate dollars to cash or taking it out of market. Indicators are clear that the bullish pace of the Central Oregon market rise is slowing to more reasonable levels and opportunities to invest in Prineville, Madras and LaPine are now looking like wise plays.
Kemp challenged the attendees to realize that Bend and its neighbors are at a crossroads of sorts, currently defining whether or not the region can support diverse projects and communities or wondering whether the cost of Central Oregon may begin to mirror the economy of other, much smaller, elite resort areas in the West.

Bruce Kemp's Powerpoint Slides in PDF