When the Port of Portland announced in 2022 that it was looking for local food and retail shops for PDX’s new main terminal, Orox Leather Co. founder Martín Martinez wasn’t planning to apply. Until he heard from the Port directly. A loyal customer of the Martinez family’s downtown Portland store had nominated Orox after PDX asked Portlanders to suggest local shops they’d like to see at the airport.
Inspired by the possibility of expanding his 17-year-old family business, Martín submitted an application. Orox wasn’t one of the 20 concession spots we announced earlier this year. But thanks to PDX’s new pop-up program, designed with women- and minority-owned businesses in mind, Orox’s pop-up will sell the Martinez family’s leather goods as well as products made by Latino American and Oaxacan artisans. "A lot of the businesses in U.S. airports are impersonal,” Martín says. “Our goal is to transmit the soul of the melting pot we have here in Oregon, and the diversity that happens through craft.”
“We've looked at so many options for how to build this company, and the airport is going to be an incredible blessing,” adds Melissa, whose PDX store will sell her dairy- and nut-free chocolates. “The airport allows us to directly reach the people who want to know about us.”
At Orox, Oaxaca meets Oregon
Martín and his two brothers, Levi and Kevin, grew up in a family of leather artisans in Oaxaca, Mexico. Their father, José, was a master craftsman who had studied traditional leatherworking in both Mexico and Japan. In 2006, after Martín finished his business degree at Portland State University, he founded Orox with José. “We were thinking about how to make a cultural bridge between our Latino roots and this new reality in Oregon,” he says.
The Martinez family sold their handmade bags, belts, wallets, and other goods at Portland’s Saturday Market before opening a workshop and store in Portland’s Chinatown in 2011, which Martín’s entire family helps run. Many customers, Martín says, first stumble upon Orox while searching for Chinese food: “They hear the sewing machines. They hear us speaking Spanish. They hear the story told by the owners, who are working and making and selling in that space.”
Now Martín’s looking forward to sharing his family’s story with visitors to Portland who pass through his airport store. "The hope is to have a place where we can tell stories and connect with people," Martin says. "We're reimagining our business as we speak."
Missionary Chocolates: From farmers market to PDX
Missionary Chocolates has been in business since 2008, when Melissa, a naturopath, began making dairy-free, nut-free, vegan truffles for her mother in her own kitchen. She moved into a small storefront on NE Glisan Street in 2011, then joined the weekly Shemansky Farmers Market in downtown Portland, where her stand has now been a familiar presence for a decade.
Missionary now has a staff of 14, and Melissa has partnered with fellow Portland entrepreneur Josie Hartman to expand into the PDX store. At the airport, she plans to sell a wide array of her truffles, chocolate bars, and other sweets, as well as coffee from Cascadia Coffee Roasters.
Melissa already ships her chocolates around the United States, and visitors to Portland stop by at her store to pick up chocolate on their way to the airport. “Now I can reach clients who don't have the time to come in,” she says.
PDX’s pop-ups boost small business
Every year, visitors spend $115 million eating and shopping at the airport, and that number is projected to grow once 20 more concessions open in the main terminal. We know you love finding your favorite local businesses at PDX, where we lead the industry in ensuring the diversity of airport concessions: 59% of PDX’s shops and restaurants are fully or partially owned by women or BIPOC entrepreneurs.
But we also know building an airport location is expensive and intimidating, and a lack of access to funding keeps many women- and minority-owned shops and restaurants from opening at PDX. That’s why we’ve invested our own resources into a retail pop-up program in the pre-security area, which will host tenants like Orox for a year at a time. We’ve done everything short of stocking the shelves to ready these spaces for small businesses to grow their brands in their hometown airport.
The pop-ups are the next generation of PDX’s popular food-cart program, which ended when the Oregon Marketplace closed in 2019. “We’re hoping this gives businesses like Orox the ability to grow brand awareness, experience, and capital to springboard into future opportunities at PDX or elsewhere in the region,” says Abby Carey, PDX Concessions Development Manager.
Tom Strong - Chief Executive Officer, Skokomish Indian Tribe, Skokomish Washington
"We're foresters in that we're stewards," says Tom Strong, Chief Executive Officer of the Skokomish Indian Tribe, which manages 2,000 acres of Washington forests for its 800 tribal members. "We're not cutting and planting, seeking to develop our lands into a commodity. Instead, we're doing it to restore the forest."
Over the past 100 years, the two dams on the North Fork Skokomish River have had a major impact on the entire ecosystem of Skokomish land. "We want to restore the entire Hood Canal watershed," Tom says. The forests are just one part.
Selling wood from Douglas fir trees the tribe selectively thinned will help fund this restoration. "We don't have an endless amount of money," Tom says. "But we would like to think we've got an endless amount of time."
Ben Hayes - Co-owner, Hyla Woods, Cherry Grove, Oregon
Ben Hayes is a sixth-generation forester who manages Hyla Woods, outside Cherry Grove, Oregon, with his father, Peter. He is also a sustainable-forestry consultant. At Hyla Woods, the Hayes experiment with selective thinning and patch cutting, instead of clear-cutting, to foster diversity of tree species, ages, and sizes.
"When you look 100 years out, having greater complexity in terms of species and the structure of the forest, you can increase the forest's resilience in the face of extreme weather and drought," he says.
"We're working toward a model of forestry that you could practice for the perpetual future,” Ben says. “It's a model that lifts up both rural and urban communities and the ecosystems we rely on."
Richard and Ann Hanschu - Owners, Doneen, Forest Grove, Oregon
Ann Hanschu's father first bought land outside Forest Grove, Oregon, in 1956. Ann grew up trailing her father around the forest, learning from him. The Hanschus now have three children, four grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
Richard says, "We're planting trees that our grandchildren will see the profits from — not even our children. It's long-range thinking."
"A lot of the timber is older,” Ann adds. “We're laddering it with trees of different age groups — some 30-40 years old, some 10-20 years old — so the land can continue to produce a sustainable amount of wood."
Herman Flamenco - Central Cascades Conservation Forester, The Nature Conservancy, Cle Elum, Washington
"We know historically that the stands we're working on were overstocked," says Herman Flamenco, Central Cascades conservation forester for the Nature Conservancy, of the 50,000 acres outside Cle Elum, Washington, the organization manages. Thinning the trees welcomes in light and biodiversity.
Some loggers in the region worry that this low-impact approach to forestry yields less lumber, and less profit, than clear-cutting. One local outfit took on this labor-intensive challenge, selectively harvesting Doug fir trees from steep slopes.
"Western Washington is wetter. In our dry climate, there's less moisture and increased fire risk," Herman says. "As we look at climate change, it's just going to get dryer. We want to make sure we can keep our forests around."
In the 1950s, back when people wore fancy hats to the airport, PDX’s main terminal had brown terrazzo floors.
By the 1970s, blue carpet sporting the old Port of Portland logo replaced the terrazzo. The airport was so concerned about keeping the carpet clean that we banned gum-chewing indoors.
In the 1980s, PDX replaced the ski-chalet paneling in the Clocktower Plaza with high ceilings and skylights, but kept the blue carpet.
SRG Partnership, a Portland-based architecture firm, designed the pattern for the now-iconic carpet on the layout of the airport runways.
The Clocktower Plaza, post-1988, with the iconic carpet.
The Clocktower Plaza (before its demolition in 2021-22) with the new carpet.
The flexible interior spaces were designed with the future of travel in mind — and to give you plenty of comfortable spots to recharge before your next flight.
Two permanent installations from acclaimed contemporary artist Jacob Hashimoto hang like clouds above the concourse’s common areas.
Shops and restaurants are clustered together like city blocks, with a pedestrian-friendly scale and lots of room to spread out.
PDX’s swanky new bar, Juliett, honors women in aviation with mid-20th-century style, top-class cocktails, and local wines and beers.
Sky-high windows fill the interior with daylight while maximizing the concourse extension’s energy efficiency.
At the east end of the concourse, a wall of windows opens up this epic view of Mt. Hood, where you’ll definitely want to pose for a photo before takeoff.
The Concourse E extension project is the dedicated home for Southwest Airlines at PDX, with six new gates.
Remember the view of Mt. Hood on Concourse E? It’s coming back, brighter than ever.
Tillamook’s menu includes the best of the classics with fried cheese curds and a signature grilled cheese.
Calliope takes its name from one of Oregon’s native hummingbirds and showcases creative and playful keepsakes.
Grab your favorite book, magazine or newspaper at Your Northwest Travel Mart.
Concourse B's 38-foot-high ceilings and 6,900 square feet of windows don't just let light in. They let you watch the airport in action. "I think this airport gave us a chance to celebrate the romance of flight," says Gene Sandoval of ZGF, the architecture firm that designed the new concourse.
ZGF Architects was inspired to bring the Pacific Northwest’s natural world indoors. You can contemplate the plants hanging from the ceiling and the Oregon white-oak walls as you relax in B’s comfy new seats. (Bonus: More power adapters!)
RYAN! Feddersen’s art installation, which fills the concourse, is made up of three interconnected pieces. The “Sentinel” landscapes and abstract “Habitat Tiles” are pictured here.
RYAN! is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. She draws inspiration from the region’s traditions and landscape for these pieces, which include the gently rolling “Cloud Walk” overhead.
Nicole and David Mouton, in partnership with HMSHost, opened an outpost of Portland’s beloved Screen Door Restaurant on Concourse B. Find Screen Door’s legendary fried chicken and waffles here from breakfast until dinnertime.
Sam and Nick Purvis, the brothers behind Good Coffee, source fresh coffee beans and teas from all over the world. Pick up a pastry or a bag of beans, too!
Our new rental car center opened in November 2021.
All rental car brands are now on-site at PDX – no more shuttles to pick up your car.
Perez Westbrooks' colorful digital mural celebrates Northwest flora.
Ben Butler's swirling wood sculpture is made from reclaimed Douglas fir.
The new facility also adds 30 ADA parking spots, more than 30 electric vehicle charging stations, and 2,200 long-term parking spaces to the airport.
Adding more lanes to our new, relocated exit toll plaza helps you leave PDX more quickly.
Every design decision we make is about keeping the heart and soul of PDX intact. You’ll see homages to all the things you love about our city and region in the new airport designs.
You’ll notice subtle nods to the Pacific Northwest landscape throughout the space. Natural light, living trees, and native Oregon foliage may give you the feeling of walking through a park.
The new terminal’s wooden ceiling, made from sustainably grown, local Doug fir, might remind you of daylight filtering through forest canopies.
This will be your new view when entering the spacious ticket lobby at PDX. The nine-acre wood roof is so distinctive you’ll be able to spot it from the air.
The ripples and currents of pristine Northwest rivers inspired the new terminal’s curvy profile.
Expanding the heart of PDX creates more space for our beloved local shops and restaurants — not to mention local humans (and visitors, too).