Portland port to sell headquarters building

Portland port to sell headquarters building Port of Portland officials, with plans to move to a new headquarters at the Portland International Airport by 2010, have reached a deal to sell their current headquarters building.
   The port tentatively agreed to sell the 160,000-square-foot building to Washington Real Estate Holdings LLC of Seattle for $29.2 million. The port originally purchased the building for $20 million in 2000.
   The deal also calls for the port to lease the building back from WREH until May 31, 2010, with an option to extend the deadline to Aug. 31, 2010. The lease will cost the port roughly $2 million in 2008, with an additional 3 percent cost — or about $60,000 — each following year.
   WREH, a private real estate investment firm, controls more than $1.5 billion in commercial real estate in the three Pacific Coast U.S. states as well as Nevada, Idaho and Utah.
   The firm will use funds from Washington state's pension fund to complete the purchase.
   If the Portland port commission approves the sale at its weekly meeting this Wednesday, the deal should close on Jan. 8.