10 responses to “Slicing and Dicing”

1. Metro may want to consider reality.

   Nike closing Wilsonville distribution center!

   Seems our model for the nation transporation planning can’t compete with Memphis.

   “Memphis has greater “intermodal capabilities”

   Nike “could save $200 million over 20 years by consolidating its two main distribution centers — in Wilsonville and Tennessee —
   into a new one, to be built in the Memphis area.”

   “The transition means that 232 positions will move out of Wilsonville.”

   http://www.wilsonvillenews.com/WVSNews2.shtml
   Nike will close up shop here
   Distribution center will go dark at end of 2008
   By Curt Kipp
   Nike, the Oregon-based footwear giant, announced last week that for business reasons, it will close its Wilsonville distribution center by the end of 2008.
   “We have had a very good partnership with the city of Wilsonville,” company vice president Nick Athansakos said. “The quality of our workforce has been exemplary.”
   The company said that it could save $200 million over 20 years by consolidating its two main distribution centers — in Wilsonville and Tennessee — into a new one, to be built in the Memphis area.
   It will be closer to the company’s American customers, 78 percent of whom are on the East Coast. Further, Memphis has greater “intermodal capabilities,” making it “the place to be,” Athansakos said.
   But when asked whether state or local officials could have done anything to change Nike’s decision, Athansakos said no.
   “If we weren’t consolidating to one (facility), we would have stayed and worked here,” he said.
   The age of the warehouse may have been a factor in the decision. Nike spokesman Vada Manager said, “It just makes sense to put everything in one place and not invest in an aging facility.”
   According to Athansakos, the new facility will be more space-efficient.
   The transition means that 232 positions will move out of Wilsonville. The jobs pay $11.70 per hour and up, based on experience and performance.
   If employees wish to transfer to the Memphis facility, he company will pay their relocation costs and they will be guaranteed a job there.
   If they wish to remain in Oregon, the company will attempt to find them other work in the company. Failing that, they will be given a severance package and help finding new work.
   The company only made the decision to close the Wilsonville warehouse on Sept. 16.
   Officials decided to make an immediate announcement so that workers would have the full two years of transition time.
   “It was difficult news for the entire facility to hear,” Athansakos said. “People are still working through that news …. they don’t have to react right away.”
   Nike first purchased the Wilsonville site in 1984. It announced plans for the warehouse in 1986 and opened the doors in late 1987.
   The facility opened with 305,000 square feet of warehouse space and 137 employees. As Nike grew, it later expanded to 725,000 square feet.
   Over its 18-plus years here, the company has been an active community contributor. Employees have done litter pickups, participated in food and toy drives, and volunteered to read to students.
   The company teamed up with Hollywood Video to build a basketball court in Memorial Park, and installed holiday decorations in the city.
   And Purchasing Manager Dave Prescott helped found the Industrial Council at the Wilsonville Chamber of Commerce.
   Mixed feelings
   The closure will be a time of mixed feelings for Deb Hellmer-Steele, general manager of the Wilsonville center.
   She was there almost from the beginning as a systems manager. She worked her way up through a series of jobs before attaining her current post. She will be there when it closes.
   “I started just a few months after it was built, and know all of the employees and some of their family members,” she said.
   Hellmer-Steele worked on the committee to determine the company’s future distribution plans and agreed with its conclusions.
   “I’m totally supportive of the business decision,” she said. “It makes the most sense for our business and our customers.”
   She and Athansakos spent the week talking to employees in small groups about the decision.
   Meanwhile, city officials said Nike has approached them for help in finding a new user for the facility.
   “We’re anxious to see what becomes of the site,” city spokeswoman Danielle Cowan said. “The access is terrific for anyone that needs to move goods on Interstate 5. We do get calls from businesses that are looking for that sort of thing.”
   In fact, a warehouse of this sort may be at a premium because it is existing space. It does not need to secure trips under the city’s development impact rules.
   Under these rules, trips for locations south of Boeckman Road are not available on a large scale, and this has blocked firms such as Coca-Cola which would like to expand.
   According to the city of Wilsonville, the warehouse makes Nike the city’s sixth-largest contributor to local property tax revenues. The facility is valued at $27.3 million, which is 1.4 percent of the assessed property value in the city.
   As a result, the company paid $454,752 in property taxes last year.
   Nike is hoping to sell the warehouse and land, which it owns, then agree on a lease so it can continue to use the facility through the end of 2008.
   Nike plans to run at full steam through August 2008, then ramp down operations and completely close down that December.
   Hellmer-Steele plans to stay to the end. “I’ll be the last person out the door,” she said.

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2. Memphis is closer to more of Nike’s customers…all the highways in the world won’t help much with that.
   What this story tells us is that all the talk by the Port, the Cost of Congestion study, etc., that Portland’s future is dependent on moving goods is a fantasy. We are not even a 2nd class container port.
   Even traded sector manufacturing is more dependent on innovation and hence, education, than transportation. Intel did not loose market share because the cost of getting chips to PDX, but because they produced second class chips.
   The expansion of OHSU, Portland’s largest employer and the region’s only research institution, is where our economic future lies. The Tram is actually one of the few transportation projects that contributes to that future.
   Last, since we persist in dis-investing in education, we must attract talent to this region…quality of life is really our ace in the hole. Better not mess with it.

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3. But when asked whether state or local officials could have done anything to change Nike’s decision, Athansakos said no.

   So which reality does Metro need to get? That Portland is not centrally located to the country’s major population centers. I suspect they already understand that!

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4. The Tram is actually one of the few transportation projects that contributes…

   Sure…that and the carousel at Oaks Park.

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5. Chris –

   I think metro gets that part. But the consequences of Portland not being close to the country’s major population centers is that the Port of Portland is never going to be a major player, no matter how much is invested in infrastructure trying to make it one. It works as an export port for wheat because it is close to wheat producers and barging wheat down the Columbia is relatively inexpensive. But there is little reason to think that market will expand.

   Lennie is correct. The future of Portland is an educated workforce, whether the children of those who are here or because it attracts people from other parts of the country.

   However, I’m not sure OHSU is any more a player in bio-medical research than the Port is in shipping. As I understand it, they are having a hard time even hanging on to their best students, muchless attracting people from the rest of the country. But I thought the tram debate was over.

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6. “””The expansion of OHSU, Portland’s largest employer and the region’s only research institution, is where our economic future lies. The Tram is actually one of the few transportation projects that contributes to that future.”””

   A more baseless and laughable comment you could not make.

   Having studied the issue extensively I know with certainty you have nothing to back that claim.

   Showing the extent at which the status quo supporters will go keep weep the farce planning we have.

   The point of my earlier post and the “Reality” I was speaking about is that the Portland region has created transportation chaos by their 20 years of misguided and often dishonest planning.

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7. [Personally directed comment removed]

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8. I love and appreciate Portland’s last 20 years of transportation planning. But if it’s that awful for you, I hear Nike’s hiring in Memphis … =)

   Seriously, tho, we should note that Nike is not talking about moving their main corporate campus. They are still very much based in Beaverton, and doing stimulating and/or controversial things in the local economy. This Wilsonville warehouse is probably a vestige of their early days as a much less global company. It sucks for Wilsonville, but to call this move a bell-weather of coming economic collapse due to a corrupt planning process is, well … wishful thinking?

   (So I wonder: does this mean no more container ships from Asia wrecking off the coast of Astoria and spilling free Nikes along the Oregon coast? Those were the cheapest shoes I ever owned …)

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9. OHSU may have its troubles, but it is the City’s largest employer and is the only research institution in the region.
   So, should we stiff it, or does it make sense to do what the public sector can (limited as that may be) to insure its growth and success?
   It now has room to expand, whatever shape that may take; why would anyone oppose that?
   But its not just medical research than needs talent, so does barge building at Gunderson and paper making at Boise Cascade. Without talented engineers and skillful operators, the manufacturing sector cannot compete. When Cascade General has to bring in welders from Brazil, you know that need to do better on the talent side. Transportation is not the problem on Swan Island

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10. “Chris Smith Says:

    But when asked whether state or local officials could have done anything to change Nike’s decision, Athansakos said no.

    So which reality does Metro need to get? That Portland is not centrally located to the country’s major population centers. I suspect they already understand that!”

    I guess we’ll just have to start moving Portland piece by piece to the ole’ nasty Mississippi River Memphis area! :o

    232 jobs? That’s not many. Plus they’re low pay probably, Portland area politicians seem to like the gentrifying type jobs, ones that aren’t in distribution centers anyway.

    …and Nike isn’t moving. Intel is more likely to pop up and leave before Nike (Which they’ve actively discussed before, and even threatened to do with some of the outragous health insurance propositions that have been proposed by some political groups).

    But Nike… they have their issues with the area, but I doubt it is enough to relocate a multi-billion dollar headquarters.

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