Oregon DMV closing Mall 205 location due to 'facility issues'
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles will be closing down one of its "busiest" locations at the end of the month at Mall 205 in Southeast Portland.
Located inside the now-closed shopping mall in the same building as an adjacent Target store on Southeast Washington Street, the DMV announced the office's final day of operation will be Jan. 31. Officials said they are closing the location due to ongoing and persistent "maintenance issues."
“We have high standards for our offices, and the facilities must meet certain expectations for our customers and staff,” DMV Administrator Amy Joyce said in a statement. “As a tenant of Mall 205, we’ve had to consistently deal with facility issues. We’ve worked with the mall owners trying to address these concerns, but they continue. Our lease is up Feb. 28, so we made the difficult decision to close the office and find a more suitable location.”
The 18 employees who work at the Mall 205 office will be "reassigned to nearby DMV offices to balance customers' needs," which may entail reconfiguring existing offices to make room, officials said.
In addition, The Sandy DMV will now have expanded hours. For the past year, the location on 37395 Hwy 26 was operating three days a week due to a staff shortage. Starting on Feb. 18, it will now operate five days a week.
The Mall 205 DMV office was first opened in 2015 and quickly became one of the busiest locations in the state, serving nearly 95,000 customers in 2015.
The DMV said it is committed to finding a new location to replace the Mall 205 one but officials said the search could take more than a year.
For people who regularly use the Mall 205 DMV or who live nearby, there are alternative locations that can be found on the DMV's website. There are also transactions that can be completed online via the DMV2U site. In addition, the DMV launched nine self-serve kiosks in Fred Meyer stores around Oregon, with a Portland kiosk planned in the near future.