Why Develop in Sandy?
With the economy steaming ahead at full speed, the City of Sandy is in the midst of another period of sustained growth in our local economy. Right now, there are a number of indicators showing that Sandy is a great location for retail and other commercial expansion. Here are the top five reasons why we think that Sandy is the most profitable place to build your next commercial development:
Sandy's population is growing rapidly: Maybe it's the country air and the laid back, semi-rural lifestyle, maybe it's the short hop to the ski resorts, maybe it's SandyNet's gigabit fiber-to-the-home internet network......whatever the reason, Sandy is fast becoming one of Oregon's most desirable place to live. According to Portland State University's Population Research Center and the U.S. Census Bureau, the City of Sandy was one of the five fastest growing cities in Oregon from 2000 to 2020. More people moving to Sandy means growing demand for goods and services in our market area, which in turn leads to an increasing demand for available commercial space to lease.
Sandy is the retail hub for east Clackamas County: Many smaller communities including Estacada, Boring and the Villages on Mount Hood (Welches, Brightwood, Wemme, Zigzag and Rhododendron) count on Sandy businesses to provide them with a competitive market for retail goods and services that may not be as readily available to them locally. This gives Sandy a market area of around 45,000 people, roughly four times larger than its current population. In addition, Sandy residents generally have pretty strong feelings about doing their shopping and banking in town, and prefer to avoid driving to nearby Gresham if it can be avoided. This is largely because the travel time adds a minimum of 30 minutes to any task.....and for our friends in Estacada and on the mountain, that's more like 60 minutes. Shopping local isn't just good for the local economy - it saves our residents time and money too!
We're running out of available commercial space to lease: The City's supply of available commercial properties for lease has steadily been shrinking as the economy recovers from the Great Recession. There are currently fewer than a dozen commercial properties available within Sandy city limits, and we anticipate this number to continue to decrease as the City continues to grow. This is putting pressure on the local commercial real estate market and increasing the need for new retail spaces for lease. You can see the current inventory of available spaces on the City of Sandy Available Commercial Buildings database, as well as the inventory of lands ready to develop on the City of Sandy Available Commercial Lands database.
More eyes on your retail space: The age old adage about business states that the three most important things in business are location, location, location. Sandy is located along US26, the primary transportation route between the Portland Metro area and central Oregon, and almost all of Sandy's commercially zoned properties are either on US26 or are easily visible from it. According to the Oregon Department of Transportation, more than 30,000 cars a day travel through Sandy along the US26 corridor.* That's more than 30,000 pairs of eyes on virtually every retail business in town....every single day. Many regional and national chains have already taken advantage of this fact - see our competition maps showing regional/national chains broken down into three categories: retail and service businesses, restaurants, and miscellaneous businesses. You can also take a look at the traffic counts in Sandy at different points along US26 with our traffic map (*ODOT 2018 traffic count at US26 & Bluff Road)
Why wait for Google? Why deal with Comcast? Sandy's got world class internet services right now: 15 years ago, the City of Sandy developed its own internet service provider due to the lack of services provided by the private market in the area. SandyNet began offering gigabit fiber internet service to businesses in Sandy way back in 2007, and currently provides gigabit service to a number of local business titans including AEC Inc., Clackamas County Bank, Suburban Auto Group, the Resort on the Mountain and Konell Construction to name a few. (Click here to see a short video explaining how SandyNet came to be, brought to you by the Institute for Self Reliance and Next Century Cities) Today, gigabit fiber is available to any business within Sandy city limits for extremely competitive pricing. Sandy is also one of the few cities in America where you can also get dedicated gigabit fiber internet service at your home. With residential service like that, you might just want to keep that start-up business in the garage for a little while longer...
