x
Breaking News
More () »

Cool Spaces: Vacasa settles into its new Pearl District HQ

The move into the spacious new office comes as Vacasa itself is continuing its ambitious expansion, fueled in part by a monster $103.5 million fundraise last year.
Vacasa's new headquarters in the Pearl District in Portland, Oregon. (Photo: Portland Business Journal)

Before Vacasa moved into its new headquarters in the Pearl District this summer, most of the company's 400 or so local employees were in the nearby RiverTec Building in about 36,000 square feet of space.

It was tight, but CEO and co-founder Eric Breon liked the setup.

"We were bursting at the seams when we moved," he said. "I loved it though. It was all lively."

But if Breon is somewhat wistful for Vacasa's cozier days, he's just as enthusiastic about the vacation rental company's roomier digs right across the street in the new Heartline office building at 850 N.W. 13th Ave. About 325 employees moved into 61,000 square feet of office space in the building in late August.

SEE SLIDESHOW: Vacasa new headquarters in Portland

There’s plenty of room for employees to gather in communal spaces, park their laptops in open-air seating areas or hash it out in team conference rooms. There are two taps for kombucha and three for beer — “We’re a proper startup,” Breon said — as well as the requisite ping-pong and foosball tables, a well-stocked break room and a full underground floor of bike parking, plus one for cars.

“Now we do have a lot of space to work with,” said Tracy Anderson, public relations manager for Vacasa. “Everyone is just kind of moving about and working the way they want to, whether that’s down in the lobby on the couch with the fireplace on or on the roof or at their own workspace. People are taking full advantage of the space.”

The move into the new office comes as Vacasa itself is continuing its ambitious expansion, fueled in part by a monster $103.5 million fundraise last year. The company is up to more than 2,500 employees and 10,000-plus vacation homes in its rental inventory.

It’s also planted a flag in the real estate space, launching Vacasa Real Estate in July as a way to connect real estate agents with buyers and sellers of vacation properties. That market, Breon said, will be one of Vacasa’s main priorities moving forward.

Though the majority of Vacasa’s Portland employees now call Heartline home, the company did keep its sales and customer service teams in about 24,000 square feet of space in the RiverTec Building. It plans to sublease its remaining 12,000 square feet in that building for the next two years.

Breon said Vacasa wasn’t initially all that motivated to move offices, but as Heartline began to emerge, that changed. The Vacasa team sized up a few other new spaces around town, but in the end, it was hard to ignore what was right outside their window.

“It wasn’t until we really started to see a lot of the features that we really started to get interested,” Breon said. “As it got closer and closer, we just couldn’t resist.”

Before You Leave, Check This Out