Riverfront Downtown Urban Renewal Area     

Downtown Commercial Core Area Inventory
The Downtown Commercial Core Area Inventory (Inventory) was unveiled March 2008 and developed to support the Urban Renewal Agency’s Riverfront Downtown Urban Renewal Plan and the Council Goal for Downtown Revitalization, Go Downtown! Salem, and Vision 2020.

Inventory Development and Design
The Inventory study area is a 28 square block area of downtown.  This comprehensive inventory of buildings, businesses, and residences was developed as a foundation for tracking trends in the downtown economy.  The inventory is used to: measure achievement of department goals and to identify potential locations for redevelopment assistance; support projects such as Vision 2020; and market, retain, recruit, and track development trends within the downtown commercial area. 

Data Gathering
The 2008 data was populated from existing publicly accessible information sources and contact with building and business owners.  These resources included data on business units within the Parking District, property data from Go Downtown! Salem, Marion County tax records, additional field reviews, and Internet research.  

Attempts were made to contact each business and building owner in person and by US Mail.  In 2008, a blanket survey was conducted making contact with as many building and business owners as possible in order to create an initial baseline of property data.

The focus of subsequent efforts is to improve the integrity of data in the Inventory by filling building/tenant information gaps that were not provided or available by business and property owners in 2008.  Emphasis has been placed on new businesses and a random sampling of 20% of existing businesses.

2011 Statistics :

• 28 square block area
• 137 commercial buildings
• 13 mixed-use buildings
• 1 park
• 121 residential uses
• 140 businesses open on Sundays
• 128 businesses are open after 7 PM, Monday through Friday
• Retail trade accounts for over one million square feet of the total square footage
• Educational services account for 119,577 square feet
• 63 law offices
• 3 bakeries
• 12 jewelry stores 

Map & Sample Reports

• Downtown Commercial Area   
• Business Class and Hours of Operation 
• Business Class and Employee Report 
• Square Footage by Business Class Report

Requesting Data
Because the data in the Inventory is public record, anyone may obtain a copy of the available data.  It is not the City’s intent to sell the Inventory data.  The data will be made available in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.  The following is a quote from the data sharing policy distributed with the data:

Staff Contact:

To request data, please contact Todd Klocke at 503.588.6178.