Construction on a new union hall for IBEW Local 280 in Redmond is nearing completion.
The new building will serve Local 280’s Central Oregon membership, which has grown significantly over the past 20 years.
The hall will include offices, a conference room, and a meeting hall with space for around 100 people. Local 280 business manager Lynn McDonald said the union looked for a couple years for an existing building they could purchase in Redmond’s limited commercial real estate market, and in the end decided to find a property and build their own.
Construction broke ground in January and is expected to finish in December. By January 2026, Local 280 plans to host general membership meetings in the new space. An open house will also be scheduled to celebrate the building’s completion.
The property, construction and furnishings for the hall will total $5 million, McDonald said. Members approved the investment, which Local 280 is making without loans or increasing dues.
At 7,200 square feet, the new hall will have more space than Local 280 currently needs, McDonald said. That gives the union room to grow — and the ability to rent out the extra space in the meantime.
Skanska is the general contractor on the project, which is, of course, staffed fully union.
Local 280 represents electricians in six Willamette Valley counties and the three counties that make up Central Oregon. The union’s membership in those three counties — Crook, Jefferson and Deschutes — has grown from a couple dozen members in the early 2000s to now more than 400 members, McDonald estimated.
Local 280’s main training center and union hall are in Tangent, near Corvallis. The local has also always held regular union meetings in Central Oregon and started offering apprentice training in Central Oregon around 15 years ago. But for most of that time, IBEW Local 280 was using the United Association of Plumbers (UA) Local 290 training center in Redmond — just down the street from Local 280’s new hall.
As both unions grew, the UA Local 290 training center got too snug.
“They’ve been so great to us, and it feels like it’s our home. It’s really not, but that’s just how great they have been,” McDonald said.
Local 280 eventually started leasing space for classes and then purchased its own training center in Prineville a couple years ago. The new union hall is the second part of Local 280 planting its own roots in Central Oregon.
“We’ve had a lot of help along the way. Now we’re in a position to hopefully help out another labor union that might be starting to grow and have a bigger presence in Central Oregon,” McDonald said.
