Between Washington Square Mall, the I-5/217 interchange office parks, and the Tigard Triangle redevelopment zone, Tigard punches well above its population in commercial square footage. The city sits at the intersection of two major highway corridors in the southwest Portland metro, and that geography has attracted the kind of retail, office, and mixed-use development that lands squarely in the crosshairs of Oregon’s Building Performance Standard. If your Tigard building is 35,000 square feet or larger, ORS 330-300 requires you to benchmark your energy use, complete an ASHRAE Level 2 audit, and demonstrate a compliance pathway — all before the 2028 Tier 1 deadline.

What makes Tigard’s BPS situation distinct from Portland proper is what it doesn’t have: Portland’s separate energy reporting mandate. Tigard building owners answer to the state BPS administered by the Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE) — one set of rules, one compliance pathway, one deadline. That’s simpler on paper, but it also means there’s no local program that’s already been nudging you toward benchmarking. If you haven’t started, you’re starting from zero.

Which Tigard Buildings Fall Under Oregon BPS

The 35,000 square foot threshold under ORS 330-300 captures a specific slice of Tigard’s commercial inventory. Here’s where the bulk of covered buildings sit:

Washington Square area and Greenburg Road corridor. Washington Square Mall itself is roughly 1.2 million square feet — one of the largest single-building BPS obligations in the metro outside Portland. The surrounding office and retail pad buildings along Greenburg Road and Hall Boulevard add several hundred thousand more square feet above threshold.

I-5/Highway 217 interchange office parks. The cluster of mid-rise office buildings between I-5 and 217 — including properties along SW 72nd Avenue, Dartmouth Street, and Hunziker Road — contains some of the largest Class A and B office buildings in Tigard. Many of these are 40,000–80,000 square feet and built in the 1980s and 1990s, which puts them right in the zone where aging HVAC systems drive EUI well above target.

Tigard Triangle. This 470-acre mixed-use zone between Highway 99W, I-5, and Highway 217 has been undergoing redevelopment for two decades. Newer mixed-use projects may have more efficient building envelopes, but older retail and light industrial properties in the Triangle — especially those built before 2000 — are likely above target EUI.

Bridgeport Village and Durham Road retail. Bridgeport Village is an open-air retail center exceeding 400,000 square feet. The larger anchor tenant spaces and any single-structure buildings above 35,000 square feet are in scope.

Tigard BPS Snapshot

Data Point	Detail
City population (2025 est.)	~55,800
County	Washington
Electric utility	Portland General Electric (PGE)
Gas utility	NW Natural
Average commercial electricity rate	~$0.095/kWh (PGE commercial schedule)
Key commercial districts	Washington Square, Tigard Triangle, I-5/217 corridor, Bridgeport Village
Estimated covered buildings (35,000+ sq ft)	40–60 properties
Tier 1 deadline	2028
Tier 2 deadline (20,000+ sq ft)	2030 (anticipated)

The Compliance Process for Tigard Building Owners

BPS compliance isn’t a single filing — it’s a sequence that takes 12–18 months to complete properly. Here’s what that looks like for a Tigard property:

Step 1: Determine if your building is covered. Any commercial building at or above 35,000 gross square feet falls under Tier 1 per ORS 330-300. If you’re between 20,000 and 35,000 square feet, you’re likely Tier 2 with a 2030 deadline. ODOE maintains a list, but building owners are responsible for self-identifying.

Step 2: Collect 12 months of utility data. Pull your PGE electric bills and NW Natural gas bills for a consecutive 12-month period. You need both consumption (kWh and therms) and demand data. If your building has multiple meters, you need all of them. This step alone takes most owners longer than they expect — especially when meters are shared with adjacent tenants or when utility account ownership has changed.

Step 3: Complete an ASHRAE Level 2 energy audit. This is the core of BPS compliance. A qualified auditor visits your building, inventories every major energy-consuming system (HVAC, lighting, envelope, plug loads, domestic hot water), and builds a calibrated energy model. The audit identifies Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) with projected savings, costs, and payback periods. For a typical Tigard office building in the 50,000–80,000 square foot range, expect audit costs between $18,000 and $30,000 at standard market rates.

Step 4: Benchmark your EUI. Enter your utility data into ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager to calculate your Energy Use Intensity — total annual energy consumption divided by gross floor area, expressed in kBtu/sq ft/year. This is the number ODOE uses to measure compliance.

Step 5: Compare to target and implement. If your EUI meets the target for your building type, you file for compliance. If it doesn’t — and most buildings audited for the first time won’t — you implement the ECMs from your audit report on a timeline that demonstrates good-faith progress toward compliance. ODOE’s framework rewards buildings that can show a credible improvement pathway, not just buildings that already hit target.

For a detailed walkthrough of the audit itself, see our ASHRAE Level 2 energy audit explainer.

What Tigard Buildings Typically Look Like on EUI

Tigard’s commercial building stock skews toward two categories: 1980s–2000s suburban office parks and large-format retail. Both tend to run higher EUI than their owners expect.

Building Type	Typical Tigard EUI (kBtu/sq ft/yr)	Common Target EUI	Gap
Suburban office (1985–2000)	85–120	60–75	15–45 kBtu
Large-format retail (big box)	70–110	55–70	15–40 kBtu
Mixed-use (retail/office)	90–130	65–80	25–50 kBtu
Medical/dental office	100–145	70–90	30–55 kBtu
Restaurant/food service	200–350	150–220	50–130 kBtu

The suburban office buildings along 72nd Avenue and Hunziker Road are a particular concern. Most were built with single-pane or early double-pane windows, packaged rooftop HVAC units that are now 25–35 years old, and T-12 or early T-8 fluorescent lighting in some cases. These buildings are running EUIs of 100+ kBtu/sq ft/year when their target may be 65–75 kBtu. That’s a gap that requires real capital investment — heat pump conversions, LED retrofits, envelope improvements, and controls upgrades — not just thermostat adjustments.

Energy Trust Incentives for Tigard Properties

Tigard building owners served by PGE are eligible for Energy Trust of Oregon incentives. Two programs are directly relevant:

Commercial audit incentive. Energy Trust can cover up to 50% of a qualifying ASHRAE Level 2 audit cost, with caps based on building size and scope. For a $25,000 audit, that’s potentially $12,500 back. This is real money — and it’s separate from whatever PGE offers through its own commercial programs.

Capital improvement incentives. When you implement ECMs from your audit — HVAC replacements, lighting retrofits, building controls, envelope upgrades — Energy Trust offers per-measure incentives that can offset 20–40% of project costs. These incentives stack with any federal 179D tax deductions available for energy-efficient commercial building improvements.

The practical effect: a Tigard office building owner who starts with an audit in 2026 can potentially recover $12,000–$15,000 of the audit cost through Energy Trust, then capture another $30,000–$80,000 in implementation incentives depending on scope. The financial case for starting now is strong — and it gets weaker as the 2028 deadline approaches and auditor availability tightens across the metro.

Building Types We Serve in Tigard

We work with commercial building owners across every major property type in the Tigard market:

Office buildings along SW 72nd Avenue and the I-5/217 interchange — Suburban Class A and B office, typically 40,000–120,000 sq ft, many with aging packaged HVAC systems ready for replacement
Washington Square Mall and surrounding retail — Large-format enclosed retail with complex HVAC, lighting, and tenant fitout considerations
Bridgeport Village anchor tenants — Open-air retail with individual tenant spaces that may individually exceed 35,000 sq ft
Medical and dental offices along Pacific Highway (99W) — Higher-EUI properties with specialized ventilation and sterilization loads
Tigard Triangle mixed-use developments — Newer construction with better baseline efficiency but still subject to BPS benchmarking requirements
Light industrial and flex space along Bonita Road — Warehouse and flex buildings where office/admin portions fall under BPS even when manufacturing areas have process-load exemptions

Frequently Asked Questions

Does my Tigard building need a BPS energy audit?

If your commercial building in Tigard is 35,000 square feet or larger, yes — Oregon’s BPS under ORS 330-300 requires you to complete an ASHRAE Level 2 energy audit as part of the Tier 1 compliance pathway. The deadline is 2028. Buildings between 20,000 and 35,000 square feet fall under Tier 2 with a 2030 deadline. Residential properties and buildings with specific statutory exemptions (certain agricultural, religious, or manufacturing process buildings) are not covered.

How much does a BPS audit cost for a Tigard office building?

For a typical Tigard suburban office building in the 50,000–80,000 sq ft range, an ASHRAE Level 2 audit runs $18,000–$30,000 depending on building complexity, number of HVAC systems, and whether the building has submetered tenants. Energy Trust of Oregon incentives can cover up to 50% of audit costs for PGE-served buildings, bringing the effective cost to $9,000–$15,000. Our audits are flat-fee — no hourly billing surprises.

Is Tigard subject to Portland’s separate energy reporting requirements?

No. Tigard is an incorporated city in Washington County and is not subject to Portland’s municipal building energy reporting mandate. Tigard properties only need to comply with the state-level BPS administered by ODOE. This is one compliance program, one set of targets, one reporting pathway — simpler than what Portland building owners face with overlapping city and state requirements.

What happens if my Tigard building doesn’t comply by 2028?

ODOE’s enforcement framework is still being finalized through rulemaking, but the expectation is that non-compliant buildings will face reporting penalties, potential fines, and public disclosure requirements. More practically, buildings that haven’t started the audit process by mid-2027 may struggle to find qualified auditors — demand across the Portland metro is already increasing as the deadline approaches. For more detail, see our post on what happens when Oregon BPS deadlines are missed.

Can I handle BPS compliance without a professional auditor?

ODOE requires an ASHRAE Level 2 audit conducted by a qualified professional — this isn’t something you can self-certify. The audit requires calibrated energy modeling, system-by-system analysis, and professional-grade ECM development that meets ASHRAE standards. Building owners who attempt to self-assess typically waste 6–12 months before engaging a professional anyway, which eats into the already tight 2028 timeline.

Get Your Tigard Building Audit-Ready Before 2028

The 2028 Tier 1 deadline is less than two years away. Factor in 2–3 months for utility data collection, 4–8 weeks of auditor lead time, and the audit itself — you’re looking at starting now to finish comfortably.

We offer flat-fee ASHRAE Level 2 compliance audits for Tigard commercial buildings. No hourly billing. You get a complete audit report with baseline EUI, target gap analysis, prioritized ECM list with costs and paybacks, and a written compliance pathway you can submit to ODOE. We also handle annual BPS benchmarking — utility data collection, ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager entry, and ODOE submission — so you stay compliant year over year without adding headcount.

Tigard building owners: your 2028 deadline is less than 22 months away. Schedule your compliance audit or set up annual benchmarking before auditor availability tightens across the SW Portland metro.

Tigard Building Performance Standard