Advantages to Opening Your Business in Sandy

• Low land construction costs - Sandy offers built commercial and retail space for as little as $18/SF annually.  Most commercial buildings lease for $18 -$24/SF annually. There are many commercial properties available for development, both downtown and in other commercial centers around town.  Please check the City of Sandy's Available Commercial Buildings database and Available Commercial Lands database for today's listings and rates.
• Inexpensive business license fees - Business license fees for businesses located within city limits are $85.00, regardless of size. The larger the firm, the more affordable our rates become when compared with other metro area business centers. 
• No county business tax - Unlike Multnomah County and its Business Income Tax (2% of net business income annually, $100 minimum), Clackamas County assesses no county-level tax on business.
• Low-cost business & residential fiber available anywhere within city limits - Unlike most other cities, the City of Sandy views internet connectivity as a utility, not unlike electricity or water. The City of Sandy created its own internet service provider (SandyNet) many years ago due to the lack of internet services made available by the private market. SandyNet has grown to the point that we can now provide gigabit optical fiber internet connections and VOIP telephone service to any business or residence within city limits.
• Governmental assistance programs available - There are many incentive programs targeted at new business available in the City of Sandy.  Please take a look at our local incentives page for more information.
• Location, location, location - We are 35 minutes from Portland International Airport, 45 minutes from downtown Portland, and 35 minutes from the resort area on Mount Hood.  We are also just minutes from some of the best outdoor recreation Oregon has to offer - not just skiing, but camping and hiking in the Mount Hood National Forest, mountain biking at the Sandy Ridge flow trail complex, golfing at the Resort on the Mountain and fishing and rafting in the Sandy and Clackamas Rivers.
• 30,000+ vehicles pass through downtown Sandy daily - Highway 26, the region's major arterial connecting Portland to Mount Hood and central Oregon, passes straight through the heart of downtown Sandy and is at least visible from almost every commercial property in the city.  According to the Oregon Department of Transportation's 2022 Transportation Volume, the number of vehicles on US Hwy 26 at Bluff Road, the west end of the downtown couplet, averaged 30,200 daily.  That's more than 30,000 additional pairs of eyes on your business every day just by locating in Sandy!  See our US26 traffic count map in the Supporting Documents below
• Cascadian-themed downtown building design - The City of Sandy has added a Cascadian theme, referred to locally as the "Sandy Style", to our building code to improve the look and continuity of architectural design in the community.  One component of this is the Facade Improvement Program, which offers local building owners matching City funds (in some cases up to a 99% match!) to improve the look of their buildings by adding Cascadian design elements and bringing them up to current code. This program has fundamentally changed the look of Sandy by replacing out of date and badly worn building facades with current design concepts and offering a contiguous theme throughout the downtown couplet.
• Pedestrian-friendly streetscape improvements - Sandy has been working on improving the walkability of the downtown couplet area for retail businesses by widening sidewalks, adding benches, flower planters & bike racks, improving traffic signals and placing utilities underground on Pioneer and Proctor Boulevards.  New, stylish downtown wayfinding signs were installed in 2015.
• Excellent public transit system - The City of Sandy operates its own transit system - the Sandy Area Metro (SAM ) operates bus lines to downtown Estacada and the Gresham Transit Center (with connections to Tri-Met and the MAX light-rail system). SAM also connects to the Mount Hood Express (MHX) at the Sandy Transit Center at Centennial Plaza in downtown Sandy. The Mount Hood Express serves the Villages of Mount Hood, Sandy Ridge, Ski Bowl and Timberline, and has a minimum of seven runs daily between Sandy and Timberline Lodge.  Sandy Transit also operates a "dial-a-ride" system called STAR 6 days a week, including complimentary para-transit rides for all ADA-eligible riders. For more information about transit in Sandy, see our Transit Department page.

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