GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: 40,000-SF Tenant Bringing 200 Jobs

BEAVERTON, OR-In a move that is expected to bring more than 200 jobs to the region, American Intercontinental University Online has signed a six-year lease for 39,377 sf of flex-office space at Cornell Oaks, a business park here owned by publicly traded PS Business Parks. AUI Online, which touts itself as the fastest growing university in North America, is the Web-based virtual campus of American Intercontinental University, a division of Hoffman States, IL-based Career Education Corp., one of the world’s largest providers of private, for-profit education. CEC also owns Western Culinary Institute, which last year consolidated its local operations into the Galleria Building in Downtown Portland.AIU Online plans to use its new space at Cornell Oaks as a recruitment center for its a Web-based accelerated degree programs. Given the number of new jobs, the company’s commitment will no doubt merit a press conference replete with high-ranking public officials, however; nobody is saying anything just yet. Career Education Corp. SVP Jeremy Wheaton declined comment when reached by phone Thursday evening. Regardless, the lease fills up more than half of the 74,677-sf Greenbrier Court building, the largest contiguous availability at Cornell Oaks, a 685,000-sf development that is now about 90% leased in a market where the average vacancy is probably close to 20%. Major tenants in the park include Intel and Symantec. Several building lots remain undeveloped and available for sale.CB Richard Ellis brokers Lana Baldock, Dan Swift and Trevor Kafoury have the leasing assignment for Cornell Oaks. Mike Holzgang and Gordon King of Colliers International represented AIU. Coby Holley, vice president of PS Business Parks’ Northwest Division, declined comment on AIU’s lease rate, however; deals for flex-office space in the area are reportedly being signed for between $0.80- and $0.90 per sf per month, triple net, which would put the value of the AIU lease between $2.3 million and $2.6 million.Career Education Corp.’s Colleges, Schools and Universities Group operates 78 campuses, in the U.S., Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates and offers doctoral degree, master’s degree, bachelor’s degree, associate degree and diploma programs in the career-orientated disciplines of visual communication and design technologies, information technology, business studies, culinary arts and health education. The Online Education Group operates American InterContinental University Online and Colorado Technical University Online and offers degrees in information technology, business administration, visual communication and education.