Bend Building Performance Standard

A hotel GM in the Old Mill District called last quarter with a question we hear a lot: “If we’re already doing a deep retrofit in 2027, does that count for BPS?” The answer, unfortunately, is “only if it’s documented through the specific ASHRAE Level 2 process the state requires and submitted through Form Q to the Oregon Department of Energy.” Good energy upgrades don’t automatically satisfy Oregon BPS — the documentation is the compliance.

That’s the quiet trap for a lot of Bend building owners, because Central Oregon tends to have more voluntary sustainability investment than most of the state. Doing the work is great. But if the engineering framework isn’t the one Oregon requires, you still owe the audit.

Buildings We Help With in Bend

Bend’s commercial real estate market is small relative to Portland but unusual in its composition. Compass Commercial tracks roughly 900 commercial buildings totaling 13.7 million square feet across office, retail, and industrial. Office vacancy has stayed under 6 percent even through national slowdowns. Retail vacancy has been closer to 3 percent. And industrial is effectively full at under 2 percent. The result is a commercial market where buildings over 35,000 square feet are disproportionately concentrated in a handful of categories:

• Hospitality — Hotels, resorts, and larger lodging properties serving Bend’s year-round tourism economy
• Healthcare — St. Charles Health System’s flagship Bend hospital, plus the clinics, medical office buildings, and support facilities in its four-hospital network across Central Oregon
• Office (tech-heavy) — Bend’s tech sector grew 64.8 percent between 2015 and 2020, adding roughly 2,280 jobs, and the commercial office space that supports that sector is increasingly in scope
• Old Mill District mixed-use — The 270-acre former mill site along the Deschutes has 55+ retail, restaurant, and entertainment tenants, and the larger buildings on that campus are captured
• Outdoor recreation and consumer brand HQs — Bend is home to a dense cluster of outdoor and consumer brand headquarters in commercial office space
• Multifamily and hotel conversions — Larger apartment buildings and adaptive-reuse hotel projects above the square-footage threshold
• Warehouse and industrial — The small industrial stock in Bend is tight, and the larger buildings are captured

Bend Compliance Snapshot

Bend Data	Detail
City population (2026)	~110,545
County	Deschutes
Electric utility	Pacific Power (primary) & Central Electric Cooperative
Total commercial sq ft tracked	~13.7 million
Commercial buildings tracked	~900
Office vacancy (recent)	~5.66%
Industrial vacancy (recent)	~1.99%
Anchor employer	St. Charles Health System (~3,800 caregivers)
City climate target	40% fossil fuel reduction by 2030

The Oregon BPS Mandate in Plain Terms

Oregon’s Building Performance Standard, adopted under ORS 330-300, requires covered commercial buildings 35,000 square feet and larger to benchmark their energy use annually, complete an ASHRAE Level 2 energy audit on a defined schedule, run a life-cycle cost assessment on identified energy conservation measures, and submit a Form Q compliance report to the Oregon Department of Energy by the 2028 or 2030 deadline depending on tier.

The ASHRAE Level 2 audit is the technical centerpiece. It’s a structured engineering review governed by ASHRAE Standard 100 with Oregon amendments — not a checklist, not a desk review, not a rebrand of your existing utility audit.

How the Audit Actually Runs

A typical Bend BPS audit runs four to six weeks from engagement to delivered report. We start with a kickoff call and data request (benchmarking records, utility billing history, building systems inventory), then schedule a one-to-two-day on-site walkthrough with your facilities team. We measure key envelope and mechanical performance, model the building’s energy use, and run a life-cycle cost assessment on every candidate energy conservation measure. We deliver a compliance-ready Form Q package and stay available to walk the report through any ODOE questions.

The Energy Trust and Utility Incentive Layer

This is where Bend building owners often win: Energy Trust of Oregon offers up to $0.85 per square foot in incentives for BPS-related audit and early-action work. A 50,000 square foot hotel qualifies for up to $42,500 in Energy Trust money, which is more than our $10,000 flat audit fee for that size bracket. The remaining incentive dollars can be directed toward actual equipment upgrades. Pacific Power also runs commercial efficiency rebates that stack on top of Energy Trust for qualifying measures.

Flat-Fee Pricing

Building Size	Flat Fee
35,000–50,000 sq ft	$7,500
50,000–75,000 sq ft	$10,000
75,000–100,000 sq ft	$13,500
100,000–150,000 sq ft	$17,500
150,000+ sq ft	Custom quote

No hourly billing. No percentage of savings. No contingency. The fee you see at scoping is the fee at invoice.

Start Before the Rush

Compliance deadlines in 2028 and 2030 sound far off, but the audit and remediation cycle for a working commercial building typically runs 9 to 18 months. Central Oregon has a smaller pool of qualified energy auditors than the I-5 corridor, and we expect availability to tighten significantly in 2027 as the deadline approaches. Starting the audit in 2026 gives you room to implement the measures your report identifies rather than racing a state deadline.

Email Mike at vanvicklebros@gmail.com with your Bend building details and we’ll send back a flat quote and a read on Energy Trust stacking the same week. For more on the technical side, see our post on what happens during an ASHRAE Level 2 site visit or review the full compliance process.