Oregon extruder backs off move to Vancouver USA port

Oregon extruder backs off move to Vancouver USA port Rising building materials prices are behind an unnamed aluminum extrusion firm's apparent cancellation of plans to move from Portland, Ore. to a proposed facility at the Washington state Port of Vancouver.
   Documents filed with Vancouver port officials last month regarding the development of a 57-acre port site do not identify the firm by name, however, officials from Portland-based aluminum extrusion firm Sapa Profiles confirmed that the port-document description comes close to matching Sapa.
   The firm employs about 800 people manufacturing bike frames and architectural extrusions. While the firm is the only aluminum extruder in Portland to match the description in the port documents, Sapa, a subsidiary of Norway-based conglomerate Sapa Group, has never directly confirmed it was the manufacturer in question.
   On Monday, the development specialist looking into the Vancouver expansion and relocation plans for the unnamed firm told the Seattle Times that any move to the Vancouver port is not likely given the current economic situation.
   'The escalation in building costs, primarily of steel (for plant construction), would make the costs very difficult right now,' Roy Bennion, managing partner of Seattle-based Sutherland Development told the paper.
   Sutherland, which also prepared the port documents last month, has been trying to lure a manufacturing firm to the Vancouver port site for at least 18 months.
   According to the Sutherland documents, the Vancouver facility would have initially employed 500 manufacturing workers and 100 support workers, with a gradual build up of 300 additional manufacturing jobs.
   Sutherland, which is paying $5,000 a month to lease the farmland site from the port, has already paid tens of thousands of dollars in permitting fees to local city officials. Under an agreement with the port, the development firm has until May 26, 2009, to purchase the site outright from the port or sign an 80-year-lease.