Port, Toyota Negotiating 95-acre Lease Deal

PORTLAND-The Port of Portland and Toyota are deep in negotiations for a new lease that will upgrade and consolidate the car manufacturer’s auto processing operations at the port, ongoing since the 1970′s.

Toyota currently leases around 104 acres; 65 acres down by the river for parking cars and another 40 acres about a mile up a hill behind Terminal 4 that holds aging metal buildings used for processing the cars before shipment to both regional and national dealerships. Toyota and the Port want to consolidate the company’s operations onto 95 acres all down by the river, and the port wants to develop and lease to them more than 100,000 sf in several build-to-suit buildings.

“We are in midst of the permitting process, putting a financing package together and doing lease negotiations,” says one Port source. “We are anticipating a signed lease as early as late December, but probably more like January,” says another, pricing the project at $35.5 million.