BEND, OR -- Development of multi-family housing is picking up in Bend. Pat Kesgard, with Compass Commercial Real Estate, says around 2,000 units came online over the last few years. But now, "Either just finished or going to be finished in the next six or eight months, there’s another 1,200."

He says many of those projects are considered in-fill - using available land mixed with other commercial uses, "Behind Verizon there at Reed Market and Third Street, there’s some infill going in there of apartments. Over by the Phoenix Restaurant, off of 27th and Highway 20, infill apartments." More than 200 units were just finished on Deschutes Market Road. 

Kesgard tells KBND News more are coming, "There are a number of large projects that are going through permitting; some of have received permitting. So, like Costco, they’ve received their permits. You’re going to have Costco, you’re going to have some other retail, you’re going to have a lot of apartments." And, "On the other side of Cooley Road, on the north side of Cooley Road, a developer has a couple of hundred acres there tied up for a mixture of single-family apartments, single-family dwellings, as well as a commercial element. Not sure when that will come out of the ground."

The big question to remain: will rental rates come down, with so much new inventory? "From a standpoint of making Bend more affordable, hopefully we’ll have a little bit of rent relief in these new projects," But, Kesgard says, that will depend on how many people move to Bend to live in all those new units.