No Dial Tone in Portland Telecom Market

PORTLAND-The economic slump is taking its toll on the Portland telecom market, just as it has elsewhere in the nation. In the long run, current troubles are expected to show up as a just a blip on the screen of an otherwise fruitful niche. In the short run, it’s more like the reality television show Survivor.

Already voted off the telecom island are RCN Corp. and Relera Inc. The former had purchase a building in Panattoni’s Cornelius Pass Corporate Center and the latter had leased one there. Relera has since paid to terminate its 78,000-sf lease, and RCN is expected to put their vacant 45,000-sf build-to-suit on the market anytime now. “It’s not of any benefit to have a competing property for sale right next door,” says Panattoni’s Mike Wells, who still has four of the business park’s seven buildings to unload.

The next victim may be Fowler Flannigan, owner of the Pearl Tech Center at, a 320,000 sf former warehouse at 1438 NW Irving that is believed to be largely, if not completely, vacant. A representative of the group declined to speak with GlobeSt.com for this article, but word on the street is it hasn’t been making loan payments and is now trying to refinance or find additional backing to stay out of bankruptcy.