L
auren Noecker, once a rising star in Portland’s real‑estate scene, now looks back on the city’s transformation with a mix of disbelief and resignation. After earning an MBA in 2009, she and her brother Spencer poured capital into the Portland metro, buying garden‑style apartments in Vancouver, Wash., and Gresham. Their firm, NBP Capital, was backed by billionaire Nicolas Berggruen, a Paris‑born investor who had sold almost everything except a few personal items and a Gulfstream jet to chase new deals.
The Noeckers’ portfolio grew quickly. In 2012 they acquired the Templeton Building on the east side of the Burnside Bridge for $1.2 million, followed by the Woodlark Hotel in 2014 for $6.9 million. A year later they snapped up 290 units in the RiverPlace development for $97.2 million, and in 2018 purchased the old Multnomah County Courthouse on Southwest 4th and Salmon for $28 million. At one point NBP owned more than 50 properties in the city, but the market’s collapse forced many of them back into lenders’ hands. The courthouse, now appraised at only $5.8 million, remains a lender’s asset; the bank pays the taxes while NBP covers utilities and upkeep, but the economics simply don’t add up.
Noecker’s own experience mirrors the city’s downturn. She recalls walking from her Pearl loft to a Northwest office one morning and seeing a man with a butcher knife roaming the streets—an image that made her question whether Portland was still the place she’d envisioned. By 2024 she had moved back to Los Angeles, yet she still owns a condo in the Pearl and holds onto the RiverPlace property, convinced it will eventually recover.
Her flagship project, the Holloway apartment complex, is a 271‑unit building on the former Sunshine Dairy site. It boasts a spa‑style gym, artist‑curated common areas, and a nearby distillery‑bar, Kachka Fabrika. Rents start at $1,399 a month, and only 63 units have leased since the building opened in August—about a quarter of the total. In other markets a property of this caliber would command higher rents, but in Portland the market is saturated with low‑priced units, making it difficult to justify the Holloway’s premium amenities. Noecker sees this as a silver lining: the scarcity of high‑quality rentals gives the Holloway an edge, allowing it to attract tenants from less desirable developments.
The city’s decline is reflected in permit data: new apartment construction applications have fallen to their lowest levels in a decade, signaling that out‑of‑state developers have lost interest. Noecker attributes the slump to a confluence of factors—Measure 110, widespread protests, the exodus of office workers from downtown, and a tax environment that feels punitive. She notes that Portland once ranked in the top five markets for investment capital, but now sits near the bottom of the list, with only 80 out of 81 markets attracting significant funding.
High property taxes further erode the market. Noecker’s own Pearl condo tax bill is a stark reminder of the financial burden residents face. She laments that even the Woodlark Hotel, once a flagship property, has struggled to maintain profitability; the hotel’s Michelin‑starred restaurant and top Tripadvisor ranking are impressive, but the lender’s reluctance to reacquire the property underscores the broader financial strain.
Despite these challenges, Noecker remains committed to Portland. She believes that the city’s future will be built on basic, no‑frills developments, as luxury amenities become unsustainable. Her experience with the Holloway and RiverPlace projects gives her confidence that, while the market may never return to its former glory, there is still room for thoughtful, well‑executed real‑estate ventures.
