Portland, OR – Clarion Partners leased 225,250 square feet of industrial space to SoloPower at Marine Drive Distribution Center I, 6308 N Marine Drive, in Portland, Oregon. Tom Talbot, Tony Reser, and Sean McCarthy of Kidder Mathews represented the landlord, Clarion Partners.
San Jose, California-based SoloPower, Inc. is an innovator of thin-film photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules. In January, the company announced their intentions to create 500 jobs and invest approximately $340 million into a new solar panel manufacturing facility in Wilsonville, Oregon. The City of Wilsonville would not create a special enterprise zone for the company, but the City of Portland was eager to locate SoloPower within its Rivergate Industrial District, which has now designed new jobs and investment for manufacturing companies. SoloPower is set to receive substantial assistance from multiple layers of government, including $197 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, $14 million from the State Business Energy Tax Credit Program, $20 million from Oregon’s Energy Loan Program, and $15 million in tax abatements for the Rivergate Industrial District.
Clarion Partners’ Asset Manager, Ryan Collins, is enthusiastic about SoloPower’s commitment at the park. He stated, “We are very pleased to have such a high-quality tenant in Marine Drive Distribution Center and truly value their tenancy.” Leasing broker, Tom Talbot, stated, “This lease represents one of the largest industrial transactions for the Portland/Vancouver market in 2011. This was a win-win transaction for both parties. Now there are no other vacant buildings larger than 150,000 square feet anywhere in the North/Northeast Portland submarkets. Any large users may be forced to look to new construction as the only solution to operating in large spaces. Continued leasing of large blocks of space will certainly lead to lower vacancies and higher rents.”
About Kidder Mathews
Kidder Mathews is one of the largest independently owned commercial real estate firms on the West Coast, with more than 200 brokers in 9 offices in Washington, Oregon, and California, performing $2.2 billion in transactions annually. For more information, go to www.kiddermathews.com.
About Clarion Partners LLC
Clarion Partners has been a leading U.S. real estate investment manager for almost 30 years. Headquartered in New York, the firm has offices in major markets throughout the U.S., as well as a presence in Mexico and Brazil. With more than $22 billion in total assets under management, including more than 100 million square feet of industrial space in industrial hubs across the Americas, for more than 200 institutional investors, both domestic and international, Clarion Partners offers a broad range of real estate strategies across the risk/return spectrum.
For inquiries, please contact Karen Benoit at 206.296.9600 or email: kbenoit@kiddermathews.com
