5800 NW Pinefarm
As many of you know, LTX-Credence made the decision to pull much of their presence from Hillsboro, Oregon last year. It started with the company announcing it’s sale-leaseback deal in January 2008. The two building portfolio (72,000 SF and 112,000 SF between the two structures) was sold to local real estate investor/owner Barry Menashe for a cool $20M ($108.70/SF), a $3.6M loss for Credence. Mr. Menashe’s firm, Carlyle Investment, owns numerous properties in downtown Portland including 621 SW Alder, Portland Medical Center and the Carlyle Building.
Unfortunately, the downsizing did not stop there and another announcement in September of 2008 was released outlining further reductions at LTX-Credence. The company was now down to around 120 people from over 400 just one year prior. What this all translates to is roughly a 70% reduction in workforce in the Hillsboro operations. A few more cutbacks thereafter and estimates have the headcount somewhere around 70.
The decrease in leased square feet is, well, bigger. Effective this month, the company announced that after an exhaustive search of the Sunset Corridor, it plans to relocate the remaining employees into approximately 17,000 SF at Amberglen. This move reflects an astounding 91% (roughly) reduction in space (from 184,000 SF to 17,000 SF). This leaves an entire campus vacant and available for lease at their old location, 5800 and 5975 NW Pinefarm Lane.
5975 NW Pinefarm
The shift for LTX-Credence is another in a long line of tech companies with substantial footprints in Oregon and SW Washington who have made major cutbacks on their real estate holdings (HP, Tektronix and MagnaChip to name just a few). Let’s hope this is the last of that trend, but I won’t hold my breath just yet.
