Assuming it gets the $20-million in tax breaks its looking for from Multnomah County via the state's Strategic Investment Program, Arizona-based Microchip Technology has agreed to pay $183.5 million for the plant, which in 2000 received $350-million in upgrades to convert all production lines to flash memory, the memory used for cell phones and other handheld electronic devices.
The transaction is expected to close sometime between the end of August and the end of October, depending on Fujitsu's eagerness to seal the deal. Microchip says it expects to be up and running at the plant by July 2003. Employment is expected to hit 60 initially and rise to more than 300 in the coming years.
Established in October 1988, the Gresham plant (21015 SE Stark St.) was Fujitsu's first overseas wafer fabrication facility and one of its key production bases for memory products. In April 2000, the company spent $350 million converting all production lines to flash memory -- used for cell phones and other handheld electronic devices -- but because of the downturn it has been running at well below capacity. Fujitsu last August tried to get AMD to buy a 50% share of the Gresham plant, but the deal fell through.
Fujitsu announced the plant's closure and its ultimate sale in November 2001, saying it reflected "the continuing slump in the worldwide semiconductor market" that has forced the company to "reorganize its worldwide manufacturing structure to eliminate surplus flash memory capacity, a process that unfortunately requires the closing of the Gresham plant" and shifting operations to a manufacturing facility in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan, which it co-owns with AMD.
Knox & Co. of Westport, Conn., an investment banking affiliate of Bank of Tokyo - Mitsubishi Ltd., a trusted advisor to Fujitsu, selected Colliers International to market the property. Paul Breuer of Colliers was the Portland-area point man for the leasing team, which included Steve Rothrock and others from the company's corporate property services division in Seattle.
The proposed partnering relationship between the city, the county and Microchip--the aforementioned Strategic Investment Program on which the deal hinges--will be reviewed during a public hearing process and will be brought before the County Board of County Commissioners and the Gresham City Council for final approval in August.
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