The property owner is Fred Michael, the former owner of Pacific Rock, an asphalt company that occupies about one third of the property with a lease that runs through 2009. The rest of the site is occupied by a couple of dozen tenants with a mix of short and long-term leases. The asking price is $15.25 million. Cushman & Wakefield has the disposition assignment.

C&W Associate Director Brad Carnese tells GlobeSt.com the property will be redeveloped in phases and, depending on who shows interest, could end up as a corporate industrial campus, a speculative industrial park or a flex-service development. "The plan is to put some sort of higher density industrial manufacturing on the site that will produce more jobs per acre that what is currently there," says Carnese, adding that he is "fully in discussions" with the Portland Development Commission regarding its interest in supporting the effort. The PDC's support is conceivable, he says, because the agency recently advised the City Council that there needs to be a much larger inventory of "shovel-ready" industrial sites available if the city is to continue attracting employers to the market.

Indeed, PDC officials say they are optimistic that redevelopment of the site will produce as many as 1,000 - 1,500 jobs on the site, compared to the 300 jobs the site currently supports. "This piece of land is one of the best opportunities we have for industrial growth and jobs in the Lents Urban Renewal area," says Cynthia Peek, Chair of the city's Urban Renewal Advisory Committee.