Cascade Station

This is a shopping area built for Washington residents to come and shop tax free. That said it also draws in Oregonians with the states only IKEA. They have a lot of nice shops, Nothing seems overly high end but they tend to be nicer here then the norm for the chain. There are lots of discount chains here like Marshall. s and Home Goods.
Unlike Janzen Beach (another Oregon mall built for people in Washington to escape sales tax) it looks nice, is nicely laid out and it has a MAX stop. On the downside it doesn’t have the large variety of shops as Janzen beach, no Home Depot here. In the end the looks, and Ikea more then make up for what it doesn’t have.
For me, if I am on that side of town this can be a draw. I wind up here a few times a year.

Shopping. Lots of it. Tax free shopping, no less. I’m super pumped that Cascade Station is only a stone’s throw from my new house in the Couve. Like, I hop on 205 and 5 – 7 minutes later I’m pulling into the overcrowded fight to the death to get a spot parking lot. #Winning. There are hotel bars, chain restaurants, small restaurants, shoe stores, home stores, clothing stores, etc etc etc. You can (and will) spend all day here. Many of the stores offer a military discount which also pleases me. (It’s amazing how few businesses do!) Come early because you probably will spend half your gas tank looking for a spot otherwise. People get hostile over parking spots I’ve discovered. Tis the season?!

need more wheelchair accessible parking!!!

Cascade Station is a wonderful culmination of thousands of years of enterprise. It is located next to a red line light rail stop. There are several big box stores such as Ikea, Target and more. They also pack in some convenience stores and restaurants such as Famous Dave’s. This is just a fun place with so much enjoyment to be had out of shopping.
I have been to Cascade Station several times. It is better to experience by car, due to the vast space, but don’t let that stop you if you take light rail. Ultimately, they do pack a lot in one convenient location, potentially substituting for going to other shopping centers.
Shop until you drop at Cascade Station.

This is turning out to be a more convenient shopping center than I first suspected. Lots of parking and a good selection of stores and casual restaurants. The real draw for me, however, is IKEA. Still, with a week, I’ve stopped here twice for other stores – Target, Home Goods, and iced coffee from Starbucks when it was miserably hot.
Today I’m grabbing a fast lunch at Wow! Burger before venturing into IKEA for shelving.

Portland is full of unique independent shops and restaurants and Cascade Station serves as a wonderful containment zone for all the big box stores and chain restaurants. It’s good to have the option if and when an individual wants it. Also IKEA is here, I don’t know how any restaurant survives so close to Swedish meatballs.

I guess I’m a fan of Cascade Station, explaining its four stars, because I have been to IKEA more than a handful of times. For many, IKEA seems to define the Cascade Station mixed use (retail-​restaurant-​office-​lodging) complex.
However, there’s a lot more to it than that. It is largely organized around Cascades Parkway, which has a large landscaped median with park-​like features in the middle of it. Most of the retail areas, including some big box stores and IKEA, are on the north side of it. On the south side of Cascades Parkway is lodging and office space, as well as a few eating establishments.
For years, this large area, essentially not much more than open fields, was the subject of speculation as to what would be done with it. Then, a transit station where this center is located was included in the routing and this mixed use center dovetails that Trimet MAX stop quite nicely.

Granted, there’s IKEA, which anchors the easternmost end of Cascade Station and can be seen from I-​205. There is also a 24 hour restaurant there in the form of a very nice IHOP, which is sort of hard to believe — being that it’s both nice and open 24 hours.
There is an abundance of cars with Washington plates in the parking lots. And why not? For tax free purchases, they can jump on the I-​205 bridge for 5 to 10 miles and shop in Oregon. The center is closer to Vancouver WA than it is to most of Portland. Note that there are really no high-​end anchors or upscale stores in this center. Then, if you want to go green, you can go red, meaning you can board the MAX Red Line, which will take you to Cascade Station, only two stations prior to its terminus at the airport.

Awesome. I love it here! :)

This is one of the favorite place for our family to come and shop when we’re in Portland. A lot of hotels nearby and retail stores also good places to eat.
Target, Best Buy, Ikea, Marshall, Ross, Sport Authority. Buffalo Wild Wing is awesome place to eat at the Cascade Station. I find Cascade Station to be clean, the parking easy, and the overall experience enjoyable. The location is near the airport and you can see airplanes landing quite often.

I enjoyed my day at Cascade Station. The variety of stores was nice, the access to MAX was convenient, and I liked watching the planes fly over. Of course, my fav store here is IKEA. I could spend hours there just walking around and looking at all the cool furniture.
Go to Cascade Station, enjoy your day, and form your own opinion. You won’t regret it.

As far as mega ultra strip malls go, this one’s pretty decent. It’s got a lot of recognizable shops, quite a few of which are of the bargain variety (Ross, Nordstrom Rack, IKEA, etc) and a few of which are kind of specialty (Petco, Sports Authority, a mattress store, Best Buy). There are a lot of different places to eat (I recommend the little sushi joint, they’ve got $ 1 plates after six PM nearly every day of the week).
The one problem is that it is FRACKING HUGE, so you’d better wear your walking shoes if you’re going to shop from one end to the other. It’s located near the airport and has two MAX stops all to itself. Seriously, it’s huge.

So it is kinda weird to review a shopping center, right? I mean the most you can do is say they have a good variety of stores and the parking sucks during lunch time and weekends. So as shopping centers go this is a pretty good one.
Oh also max stops running at 10pm to and from there, so you could get stuck if you lets say park there and go to a concert and then get stuck at the gateway fredmeyer at midnight waiting for a friend to pick you up…

A lot of shopping & dining choices conveniently located off the MAX stop which includes (but not limited to):
Best Buy, Target, Petco, mega IKEA, DSW Shoes, Sports Authority, Golfsmith, GNC, Starbucks, Panda Express, Red Robin, Quiznos, Jamba Juice, and a brand new Nordstrom Rack.
What’s not to like?

Lets see…
There are two ways to look at this area. I’ll write the two viewpoints & you can choose your own adventure.
1.) This acreage in what should have been restored watershed has been turned into a shining example of what is wrong with our wasteful consumer-​driven shit-​hole of a society. The acres of SUVs with a voracious appetite for fossil fuels driven by the tanned and toned & stoned morons alike will make you dizzy. You can find some of your most favorite big box and corporate fiends pushing their wares to those of us numbed enough to bend over and obey. If you’re going here thinking that there is going to be something wonderful, some hidden gem, you’re mistaken.
or
2.) Big Box stores and mediocre food chains have gotten together and are having an orgy all the time just for you. The best part? You get your pick of the litter here; Best Buy, PetSmart, Ross, Red Robin, some BBQ place I’ve never ever heard of nor care to try… It just keeps on going.
Take it or leave it, Cascade Station is what it is. There are a few shops that are useful for my family’s needs and we have dared to feast on the ‘food’ at Red Robin many times mostly because of its convenient proximity to the airport.

We stayed at a local hotel. This was a convenient place to kill some time as we walked around and checked out the different stores. We didn’t stop to eat since they were mostly chain restaurants or fast food, and we wanted more the local flavor. It’s a nice area with reasonable shopping option.

Cascade Station has its own Max stop and is close enough to PDX to draw in all those out-​of-​staters looking for sales tax relief. The Best Buy here is a good place to start if I were to theoretically do that.
The Aloft hotel here is very nice and I have done well with Hotwire pricing. Red Robin is across the street and my son and I have enjoyed a meal there. However, this Big Box Center is a long pedestrian slog and in the end looks pretty much like any other shopping area of this genre.

I come here a handful of times a year, depending on what I need. I’m an avid list-​maker. If there’s a list app, I’ve likely tried it or have multiple lists running on multiple apps concurrently. I’m not always an efficient, or well-​organized list maker, but I make ‘em, dammit.
Sometimes, the lists align such that a trip to Cascade Station is exactly what I need to knock everything off the myriad of lists all at once.
Target. Check.
DSW Shoes. Check.
Best Buy. Check.
Home Goods. Check.
Ikea. Ugh. And Check.
Hungry? Yo Cream! Check.
I find Cascade Station to be clean, the parking easy, and the overall experience enjoyable. That I can look up in the sky and watch planes take off and land is a bonus.
Would I «cross the river» to come here? C’mon. That’s why Beaverton exists. But I live on the east side, and Cascade Station is our own little sliver of Beaverton, which is just fine with me.

Is Cascade Station the best shopping area in Portland? No. Is it user friendly and convenient? For me, the answer is yes. It’s right off of the freeway at the airport, and has a MAX stop. It’s within a stones throw of my employee parking, and has a decent selection of stores, although most are of the chain variety.
During the week it’s not terribly busy, which is a bonus because I can hit several places and be on my way. On the weekend it can be packed.
There are a number of places to grab a bite, but for the most part the food isn’t mind blowing, other than Yo Cream.
It’s definitely building up. You can hit Ikea, Target, and Bath and Body works in rapid succession. That’s efficiency.

If your staying at the Residence Inn Cascade Station, this is your closest eating establishment… Next to Target.
Friendly and helpful counter service… Rasberry/​White Chocolate Chip Cookies are a must.

Lots of places to eat which is a plus when you have a dozen hs students.
My beef however is with the subway or railway. printing out those ticket is a @#$@#$@#%#@$%#$%#$%WE$% pain in my @#$@#$@# ass. do like bart in the Bay Area and upgrade!