20 Nov Nike doubles headquarters-expansion plans, will build two office buildings totaling 1.3 million square feet
Nike is planning to build two office buildings and two parking garages on the northeast side of its World Headquarters campus near Beaverton, doubling the scope of the headquarters-expansion project it originally envisioned two years ago, The Oregonian has learned.
The largest of the two buildings will have 649,000 square feet with 238,000 of auxiliary space, and the other building will have 412,000 square feet of office space. One parking garage will have 1,400 spaces and the other 1,100 spaces. Another 500 parking spaces will be located under one of the two office buildings.
The 1.3 million in office space more than doubles the 550,000 square feet in office space that company had previously planned.
Existing office buildings within the berm that surrounds the campus now total about 2.2 million square feet of space. But Nike also owns office space south of the campus, as well as on its west side.
Pending Washington County approval, construction is expected to begin in the first three months of next year, said Stephen Roberts, spokesman for the county’s Department of Land Use and Transportation.
Plans that Nike submitted to the county Oct. 22 call for the project to be constructed on the northeast side of the 270-acre campus, near the intersection of Southwest Murray Boulevard and Walker Road. The previous version of the project was destined for the west side. An access road had even been built for construction equipment access.
The wheels to this project were set in motion more than two years ago but blasted onto the public sphere toward the end of 2012.
In December 2012, the Oregon legislature met in a hastily convened special session to consider Nike’s request to be assured the state would use the existing taxing method — which Nike says it favors because it provides tax certainty — for the next 30 years. In return, Nike promised at least 500 new jobs as part of the minimum $150 million expansion.
For the purpose of assessing fees, the revised project submitted to Washington County has a listed value of $150 million, Roberts said.
— Allan Brettman