Hewlett Packard has finally sold their Vancouver, Washington campus to SEH America (Shin-Etsu Handotai Group), a Japanese manufacturer of solar equipment and computer chip components. The 174-acre campus, which includes administrative offices, R&D facilities, a basketball court and walking trails among other amenities sold for $55 million after going to the market in 2007 unpriced.
source: costar
In early 2007, HP was marketing a single building for lease (approx. 65,000 SF) which drew the interests of companies like Logitech. But ultimately, a property disposition became the more viable option for HP. Several developers looked into the offering, which has significant acreage of undeveloped land, for viable mixed-use projects. But as the market soured, those buyers dropped off and an owner-user became the likely buyer type. Enter SEH America.
H-P will lease back a portion of the campus for a while, but is likely pulling out of the market entirely over the next year and a half. They have already let go of half their workforce at this site.
Officials at SEH America, Shin-Etsu’s Vancouver-based North American headquarters, will likely use the facility to manufacture silicon wafers for computer chips or to make solar panel components, though nothing has been announced as of yet.
SEH’s current Vancouver campus is not fully built out, and could potentially house more wafer manufacturing. The demand for SEH’s products is booming. The Intel supplier stands to benefit from expansions underway in Hillsboro that will increase Intel’s demand for the 12-inch wafers that SEH makes. And state and federal tax credits, as well as widespread efforts to boost power generation through renewable energy, has spurred growth in the solar industry.
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