Goodwill Industries takes 107,850 square feet in Milwaukie
Aimee Curl
Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette has signed on for 107,850 square feet at the Heleco Distribution Center in Milwaukie.
The company, which collects clothing and household goods to sell at its retail stores, is relocating from its current location on Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard and will use the space for distribution as well as an outlet center.
The move will expand Goodwill’s current space by about 30,000 square feet.
Heleco Distribution Center, 1750 Ochoco St., was once the headquarters for Food Services of America before the company moved its operations to Woodburn last year. McCabe’s Quality Meats, a subsidiary of Food Services, still occupies about 100,000 square feet of freezer and cooler storage space in the 320,000-square-foot building.
Ken Boyko, vice president of Norris, Beggs and Simpson, said McCabe’s also has plans to vacate the center. The meat company’s lease is up in May.
Boyko, along with Steve Dodds and Peter Stalick, all of Norris, Beggs and Simpson, represented Heleco in the deal.
The landlord is very pleased to have Goodwill in here, Boyko said.
Boyko declined to comment on the terms of the lease but called it a market deal.
It wasn’t a give away, and it wasn’t expensive, he said. It’s a good indication of where the market is.
The space was advertised for 31 cents a square foot, not including operating expenses.
Built more than 50 years ago, the Heleco Distribution Center sits on 15.9 acres of land. The building includes 27,000 square feet of office space. Goodwill is taking the building’s dry storage space with ceilings that are 22 feet tall.
They’re getting a better quality building in their new location, said Dave Ellis, senior vice president of Trammell Crow Co., who represented Goodwill in the transaction. There’s better truck staging, more parking and still access to people off the street.
Ellis said Goodwill was hoping to find a building they could purchase.
I think ultimately, they would’ve liked to own, but they’ve leased this building long-term, for 10 years, so that will suffice, he said.
Ellis said Goodwill had been looking for a new location for five years.
They looked at the old (Portland Community College) campus on 82nd Avenue as a potential purchase, but the deal fell apart, he said.
Goodwill plans to spend between $400,000 and $500,000 on improvements to the building, the majority of which will go toward setting up the location’s retail center.
Ellis said the new site is ideal.
It happens to be well-located for Goodwill’s client base right now because it’s near the current location that’s well established for their customers, he said.
Goodwill plans to move in by early July.
Boyko said his team will continue to work to market the distribution center, which includes the cold-storage space soon to be vacated by McCabe’s and about 100,000 additional square feet.
We’re looking for a tenant to take what’s left, he said. We originally were, and still are, looking at food distribution companies. We’ve gone to all the usual suspects like Dreyer’s, Safeway and Whole Foods. There’s a lot of space down there and most of it is older-type space.
Copyright 2004 Dolan Media Newswires
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