Beaverton Is Having a Moment.

If you’ve driven down Canyon Road lately, you’ve probably noticed the orange construction signs, the new crosswalks being installed, and the fences around what used to be the Cedar Hills Shopping Center parking lot. Something is happening in Beaverton, and it’s bigger than a few road projects.

When I’m helping buyers evaluate neighborhoods, one of the first things I look at is what’s being built nearby. Not because new development guarantees anything, but because it tells you something real about how investors, developers, city planners, and school districts feel about an area’s long-term trajectory.

And right now in Beaverton and Washington County, that answer is: quite a bit.

Here’s a rundown of what’s underway, what’s on the horizon, and what it means if you’re thinking about buying or selling in this area.

1. Cedar Hills Shopping Center Is Being Replaced With Housing

Let’s start with the biggest one. High Street Residential, the multifamily arm of Trammell Crow Company, one of the largest commercial real estate developers in the country, broke ground in spring 2026 on a 369-unit mixed-use apartment community at the former Cedar Hills Shopping Center site.

The details:

•        369 apartments across three 4- and 5-story buildings

•        5,040 square feet of ground-floor retail

•        Located on 5.82 acres between SW Wilshire Street and Park Way

•        A pedestrian bridge to Sunset Transit Center with MAX Light Rail service into Portland

•        Units expected to begin delivering in 2027

The design replaces what was a sea of underutilized surface parking with mid-rise housing, walkable paths, and ground-floor shops. The project was specifically described by its developers as one of the largest multifamily groundbreakings in the Portland region in recent years. That’s not a small distinction.

"Trammell Crow doesn’t put 369 units into a submarket they don’t believe in. This is a major institutional vote of confidence in Beaverton."

For buyers, this matters as neighborhood context. The Cedar Hills corridor is getting denser, more walkable, and more transit-connected. Proximity to MAX without being downtown is exactly what a lot of move-up families are looking for, and that combination is becoming a real selling point.

2. Canyon Road Is Getting a Pedestrian Safety and Streetscape Overhaul

Construction on Southwest Canyon Road (OR-8) started in January 2026 as a joint project between ODOT, the City of Beaverton, and Metro. If you’ve been sitting in traffic on that stretch near Cedar Hills Boulevard, you’ve already felt it.

This isn’t just road maintenance. The stated goals are specifically about pedestrian safety and creating a more walkable downtown Beaverton corridor. The improvements include:

•        Two new pedestrian-activated crosswalks with flashing beacons

•        ADA-accessible sidewalk curb ramps throughout the corridor

•        A landscaped center median on Canyon Road between Watson Avenue and Cedar Hills Boulevard

•        Improved connectivity between Beaverton Central and Old Town Beaverton

The median is the most significant piece for the long-term character of the corridor. It eliminates left-turn access from driveways, which is temporarily frustrating, but creates a downtown street feel that makes walking and biking more comfortable. It’s the kind of infrastructure that, five years from now, makes the area feel like a neighborhood rather than a highway.

This is the type of public investment that tends to catalyze private development. When the street gets better, the buildings around it follow.

3. Washington Square Is Betting on Experience Retail

Washington Square, technically in Tigard but very much in the Beaverton-area orbit, is undergoing a significant transformation. The old Sears anchor space, which has sat vacant since 2018, is coming down. In its place: Dick’s House of Sport, expected to open in fall 2027.

This isn’t just a bigger sporting goods store. Dick’s House of Sport is a fundamentally different retail concept built around in-person activity:

•        Indoor climbing wall

•        Multiple golf bays with TrackMan simulators

•        HitTrax multi-sport cages for baseball, softball, and soccer

•        Full product assortment 2 to 3 times larger than a standard Dick’s Sporting Goods

Oregon’s largest mall has been navigating the same headwinds every major mall faces, and filling a massive anchor space with an experience-driven concept rather than another department store is a deliberate strategic choice. It’s also a signal about who lives in this area: active families who want a reason to show up in person.

The food court is also being fully renovated as part of the same project. For families buying near Washington Square, this is meaningful neighborhood context. An active anchor pulls foot traffic, supports surrounding shops, and makes the area a legitimate destination on a Saturday afternoon.

Retail is moving from “a place to buy things” to “a place to do things.” Washington Square is making that bet, and the families who live nearby will benefit from it.

4. A Brand-New Beaverton High School Just Opened

This one is directly relevant to any family with kids in or approaching high school. The new Beaverton High School opened for students in fall 2026, replacing what was believed to be the oldest public high school building still in use in Oregon, with portions of the original structure dating back to 1916.

The stats are hard to ignore:

•        $253 million project, the largest in the Beaverton School District’s 2022 bond

•        300,000 square feet, three stories, with an enclosed student courtyard

•        Capacity for 1,500 students with future expansion capability to 2,200

•        440-seat performing arts theater with a 55-foot ceiling, plus a black box theater

•        Indoor running track circling the upper level of a new gymnasium

•        Student health clinic on site

•        New turf athletic fields, tennis courts, and updated facilities throughout

The old building is being demolished, with final construction wrapping up in 2027. The school was the only high school in the district’s Facilities Condition Assessment rated as being in critical condition, so this wasn’t optional. But the outcome is a genuinely modern facility in a district that consistently ranks among the stronger ones in the Portland metro.

"Buyers relocating families to Beaverton often ask me about schools first. A brand-new $253 million high school is not a small thing to put on that list."

5. Downtown Beaverton’s Arts and Innovation District Is Taking Shape

This one is more in the early stages, but it’s worth knowing about if you’re paying attention to the direction downtown Beaverton is heading.

The Beaverton Urban Redevelopment Agency has been actively assembling property in the downtown core and putting it back into active use. The most recent example: the former Buffet Palace restaurant site at SW Center Street, a 1.6-acre property that has sat vacant since the restaurant closed in 2020. The city issued a developer call for a transit-oriented, mid-to-high-rise mixed-use housing project with ground-floor commercial space, specifically described in city documents as helping further an Arts and Innovation District identity.

The site sits just steps from the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, which opened in 2022 as the first major performing arts center built in the Portland metro area in more than 30 years. That venue has been a real catalyst. It seats 550, draws touring programs and professional performances, and has started to generate the kind of foot traffic that supports restaurants and shops nearby.

The city is also moving forward with a mixed-use development on Lombard West, near the Beaverton Transit Center, combining affordable and market-rate housing in a walkable location served by MAX.

Downtown Beaverton five years ago and downtown Beaverton today are genuinely different places. The Reser started it. The development pipeline around it is the next chapter.

For buyers considering downtown-adjacent neighborhoods, this matters. It’s not fully arrived yet, which also means you’re not paying a premium for a neighborhood that’s already peaked.

What This Means for the People Who Live Here (and the Market They’re In)

There’s a version of Beaverton that most people carry around in their heads: suburban, practical, a solid choice if you want good schools and a shorter commute. And that version has always been true. But something is shifting, and if you live here or are thinking about moving here, it’s worth paying attention to what that shift actually feels like.

Neighborhoods don’t usually transform all at once. They do it incrementally, project by project, until one day someone drives down a street they haven’t been on in two years and thinks: wait, when did this happen? That’s the stage Beaverton is in right now. A new performing arts center that people are actually going to. A Canyon Road that’s starting to feel like a real downtown street. A brand-new high school. Hundreds of new apartments being built by developers who ran the numbers and chose this market on purpose.

That kind of momentum has a way of building on itself. When infrastructure improves and amenities arrive, more people want to live somewhere. When more people want to live somewhere, demand goes up. When demand goes up in a market where inventory is already tight, prices tend to follow. That’s not a guarantee, and it’s not a sales pitch. It’s just how neighborhoods have historically worked.

"Beaverton is becoming the kind of place people choose on purpose, not just because it’s practical. That shift in perception is what drives long-term value."

For homeowners already here, that’s genuinely exciting. The investments being made around you are working in your favor. For buyers considering the area, the window to get into a neighborhood mid-momentum, before it’s fully priced in, is exactly the kind of timing that tends to look smart in hindsight.

And honestly, beyond the market stuff: a more walkable downtown, a world-class high school, an experience-driven mall, and a performing arts center in your backyard just make for a better place to live. That part doesn’t need a market explanation.

Thinking About Buying or Selling in the Beaverton Area?

I work this market every day and stay close to what’s being built, what’s selling, and what’s shifting. If you’re trying to figure out where to buy, or whether now is the right time to sell, I’m happy to talk through your specific situation.

Reach out at 503-453-6580 or tiffanie@tdrealtygroup.com. You don’t need to have it all figured out first.

Tiffanie