Planar Inks 72,000-sf Build-to-Suit at AmberGlen

HILLSBORO, OR-Planar Systems Inc. has signed a build-to-suit lease for a 72,000-sf class A office building under construction in Birtcher Real Estate Group’s AmberGlen Business Center in Hillsboro, located just west of NW 185th on Cornell Road. The 10-year lease deal is valued at $17 million, and is believed to the largest deal this year in the Portland area. The building will be the publicly-traded company’s new headquarters.

Planar, a maker of display systems for applications such as computers and cash machines, is consolidating office personnel currently located in a few different buildings inside and just outside the park. Much of the personnel are currently housed in an aging class B building the company owns in the former Oregon Graduate Center Science Park adjacent to AmberGlen. Planar has not yet decided what it will do with the extra space once it moves into the new building next summer.

Jim Edwards, a senior vice president with Birtcher and manager of AmberGlen, tells GlobeSt.com it’s a “major gain” for Birtcher because the Planar may very well continue to lease all its existing space in the park to allow for growth. In addition to the science park building it owns, Planar leases manufacturing and office space in the so-called 1100 and 1400 buildings, says Edwards, and some of its leases don’t run out for another two or three years.