Yahoo Taking Down 55,000-SF Building for Call Center

HILLSBORO, OR-Yahoo Inc. has leased the better part of a 55,000-sf flex building here for a customer service center and optioned the remainder. A source at the San Jose, CA-based search engine company tells GlobeSt.com the facility will launch operations on July 11 and will employ about 100 people by the end of the year.The building, West Park Center II, was completed two years ago and has never been occupied. Located at 5420 Northeast Elam Young Parkway, it fronts on the region’s Max light rail system, which runs to Downtown Portland and onto Portland International Airport, among other destinations. Yahoo leased 38,000 sf and has an option on the rest, for which it is already developing a space plan, local sources tell GlobeSt.com.”We evaluated 74 communities over a two-year period,” says the Yahoo source. “We chose Hillsboro for its quality of life, sense of community, cost of living and proximity to our San Francisco headquarters; we chose the specific building because it’s close to public transit, daycare options and affordable housing.”Marty Horeis and Ted Nicholson of CB Richard Ellis represented the building owner, Saint Laurent Properties of Vancouver, WA. Chris Elsenbach and David Reinhart of Cresa Partners in Portland represented Yahoo in the transaction. The terms of the lease were not released by the parties involved. As one of the few flex developments right on the light rail line, local sources say it is the most likely candidate to achieve its $0.85 per-sf asking rate despite high vacancy in that product type in the Sunset Corridor, also referred to as the Silicon Forest.Horeis tells GlobeSt.com the Yahoo transaction has sparked interest in the remaining space at West Park Center, which includes 40,000 sf of a 42,000-sf building. “It has really increased demand and exposure for Phase I,” he says. The asking rate for that space, formerly occupied by Intel and built out as open-plan, drop-ceiling office space, is $0.70 per sf.