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Urban Renewal

Downtown Rockwood

Rockwood Rising — now Downtown Rockwood— is creating opportunity and empowerment in the heart of the Rockwood community. 

Featuring restaurants and micro-retail, community plaza, housing, job training and entrepreneurship services, quality health care, child care, and more.

Downtown Rockwood webcam and construction slideshow

  • Open Now
  • Coming Soon
  • Tenant Opportunities
  • Project Background
Open Now

Explore the Rockwood Market Hall.

Rockwood Market Hall

Local, fresh and authentic food options from both micro-restaurants and micro-groceries, as well as handmade artisanal goods from micro-retail spaces. 

Space is still available. If you would like to bring your business to the Market Hall, fill out the tenant questionnaire.

Commissary kitchen

The Market Hall also features a 1,042-square-foot commissary kitchen. It is available for rent by the hour or on a monthly basis. Learn more about the commissary kitchen and rental prices.

Community plaza

At the heart of the Downtown Rockwood project, the community plaza serves as the new living room for the Rockwood community. Featuring sprawling seating, playgrounds and a splash pad, the plaza can be a host site for public art, festivals, farmers markets and more. 

Job training and entrepreneurship

Learn more about available services in the Lumen Business Center.

  • Mt. Hood Community College’s Small Business Development Center supports entrepreneurs in creating, growing and running a successful business. Offering one-on-one advising and training workshops.
  • WorkSource Oregon helps “people find jobs and businesses find talent.” Offering job search assistance, job creation, hiring support, retention and advancement.
  • Oregon Tradeswomen, across the street from the Downtown Rockwood Plaza, offers training, career education, and leadership development for women and Black, Indigenous and other people of color to join the skilled trades. 
Coming Soon

Housing

The AVIVA Apartments will offer the best of integrated and vibrant living in the heart of Downtown Rockwood. 

Studio, 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom, 3-bedroom floor plans, amenities, and on-site retail will be available to those interested in being residents of the newest community in Gresham.

Construction started in 2022 and is expected to be finished in early 2024.

AVIVA Apartments

Tenant Opportunities

Rockwood has the youngest median age, greatest diversity and highest concentration of immigrants of any town center in the metro area.

Whether your business dream is to operate a weekend pop-up shop or open the doors to your brick and mortar store, we have a space for you.

Read more about Downtown Rockwood tenant opportunities and contact us about your business idea.

Project Background

Downtown Rockwood’s mission is to bring neighborhood revitalization without displacement, empowering residents to build prosperity for themselves and their families.

Urban renewal gets six more years

In May, Gresham voters approved extending the Rockwood-West Gresham Urban Renewal District until 2029.

This gives the City more time to spend approximately $37 million over the next six years on new projects. This includes transportation upgrades; parks and recreation; more housing options; more job opportunities; and small business support.

Transforming the catalyst site

In 2005, the Gresham Redevelopment Commission purchased the land at the former Rockwood Fred Meyer site, 18611 SE Stark St. 

Since 2014, Urban Renewal staff have met with community members in schools, churches, libraries, coffee shops and other gathering places to engage the neighborhood on this project. 

These community conversations directly informed the project’s design and identified the services and amenities that Rockwood residents desired most. 

With the recent opening of The Lumen Building in 2020, and the anticipated opening of both the Rockwood Market Hall and the community plaza in 2022, Downtown Rockwood is ready to serve the Rockwood community.  

  • Rockwood Rising development design
  • Rockwood innovation hub
  • Downtown Rockwood buildings
  • Market Hall building in Rockwood
  • City staff at Rockwood Market Hall building
  • Downtown Rockwood buildings

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  • Downtown Rockwood's The Lumen Building (left); Rockwood Market Hall (center); and AVIVA Apartments (right).

  • The Lumen Building opened in 2021. It features quality health care and child care services, job training and entrepreneurship opportunities, and a delicious family-owned restaurant.

  • It's only a few steps from The Lumen Building, left, to the almost-finished Rockwood Market Hall, right.

  • The Rockwood Market Hall will open to a community plaza with seating, splash pad, playgrounds and plenty of space for farmers markets, festivals and community events.

  • Rockwood Market Hall Manager Justin Bardwell shows City of Gresham staff the special touches built into the wood-framed, open-air marketplace.

  • Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center, a partner in the Downtown Rockwood redevelopment project, is launching a food apprenticeship program for local students to learn marketable skills in the food manufacturing and culinary arts fields.

  • Construction is underway on the AVIVA Apartments on the corner of 187th Avenue and Burnside, across from the Rockwood/188th MAX Station.