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Articles -
January 2010
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 BY JON BELL
Hit hard by declining harvests, the housing slump and the recession, Oregon timber towns have turned to everything from mountain bikes to microbrews to try to fill the economic void.
But Prineville-based Ochoco Lumber Company is sticking with something a little closer to home to stoke up its Malheur Lumber Company in John Day: ponderosa pine wood pellets.
In November, the 77-year-old Ochoco received a $4.9 million economic recovery grant from Business Oregon to build a wood pellet fuel facility in John Day. The grant, funded with federal stimulus dollars, will create 11 new jobs and retain 80 positions at the Malheur sawmill operation. That plant processes about 30 million board feet of ponderosa pine annually, down from some 50 million board feet in its heyday.
"Without this grant, we would have had a serious concern about being able to continue to run the operation," says Bruce Daucsavage, president of Ochoco Lumber. "Now, we'll have the ability to make a multitude of different products, which will make us more competitive and give us a better opportunity to retain jobs."
Ochoco planned to break ground before the end of 2009 and have a drying system and two pellet-making machines installed by summer. Production, which could range from 25,000 to 40,000 tons annually, is scheduled to begin this fall using woody biomass from surrounding national forests as the raw material.
Ochoco has partnered with Bear Mountain Forest Products, a Cascade Locks company, to market the pellets and compressed bricks to hospitals, schools and other commercial buildings in the region that are heated by boilers.
Daucsavage says the hope is to ultimately increase output at the pellet facility and add even more jobs, all while helping to manage the surrounding woodlands wisely.
"We have a lot of responsibility and a lot of exposure, but we want to do it right," he says. "This is a great opportunity for our little town."
| MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS |
| PRICE |
EXP. CLOSE |
BUYER / PARENT (HQ) |
SELLER / PARENT (HQ) |
ANNOUNCED |
| ND |
Q4 |
Connected Platforms (Vancouver, Wash.) |
Delta Systems and iTech Oregon (Portland) |
11/10 |
| ND |
Q4 |
H4Y Technologies (MD) |
iWeb Fusion Technologies (Portland) |
11/1 |
| ND |
Q4 |
Liquid Agency (Portland) |
Neutron (CA) |
11/11 |
| ND |
Q4 |
Riverside Company (OH) |
Precision Wire Components (Tualatin) |
11/9 |
| ND |
Q4 |
Veolia Energy North America (MA) |
Portland District Cooling Company (Portland)/Marubeni Sustainable Energy (CA) |
11/9 |
| ND |
Q4 |
Thomson Reuters (NY) |
Sabrix (Lake Oswego and CA) |
11/17 |
|
| CAPITAL RAISING AND CONTRACTS |
| PRICE (TYPE) |
COMPANY (HQ) / LEADERSHIP |
INVESTOR (HQ) |
ANNOUNCED |
| $36M (stock offering - projected) |
PremierWest Bancorp (Medford)/Jim Ford |
Private investors |
11/20 |
| $15.7M (recycling equipment contract) |
Bulk Handling Systems (Eugene)/Steve Miller |
South Bayside Waste Management Authority (CA) |
11/1 |
| $14.5M (highway contract) |
Klamath Pacific (Klamath Falls)/Jeff Schaffer |
ODOT and the Federal Highway Administration |
11/19 |
| $8M (private equity offering) |
Avnera (Beaverton)/Manpreet Khaira |
20 investors |
11/16 |
| $7.6M (highway contract) |
Moore Excavation (Portland)/Roy Moore |
ODOT |
11/24 |
| $6.5M (equity, options and warrants) |
RF Arrays (India and Portland)/Chandra Deshpandey |
ND |
11/23 |
| $4.9M (wood pellet plant grant) |
Ochoco Lumber (Prineville)/Bruce Daucsavage |
Business Oregon/U.S. Forest Service |
11/12 |
| $1.7M (Highway 101 contract) |
Laskey-Clifton (Reedsport)/Donald Laskey |
ODOT |
11/10 |
| $1.6 (road contract) |
Dirt & Aggregate Interchange (Fairview)/Henry Pelfrey |
ODOT |
11/5 |
| $1.3M (bridge replacement contract) |
Oregon State Bridge Construction (Stayton)/Craig Gries |
ODOT |
11/18 |
| $1M (earnest money) |
Country Coach (Junction City) Jay Howard |
Bryant Riley (CA), Riley Investment Management (CA) and Lloyd Miller |
11/25 |
| $393,000 (hazardous fuel removal contract) |
Bill Corley Logging (Pendleton)/Bill Corley |
USDA Forest Service |
11/24 |
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| REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS |
| PRICE |
BUYER / PARENT (HQ) |
REAL ESTATE (LOCATION) / SELLER (HQ) |
ANNOUNCED |
| $114M |
Blackstone Group (NY) and Glimcher Realty Trust (OH) |
Lloyd Center (Portland)/Glimcher Realty Trust (OH) |
11/2 |
| $4.9M |
Acumed (Hillsboro) |
54,000-sq.-ft. office building (Hillsboro)/Hansen Commercial Investments (Hillsboro) |
11/17 |
| $3.1M |
DP Partners (NV) |
14 acres (Portland)/City of Portland |
11/17 |
| $2.6M |
Grand & Salmon (Portland) |
18,000-sq.-ft.-office building (Portland)/Samrose Design Center (Portland) |
11/4 |
| ND |
Geoffrey Bernhard, BG Pacific Holdings (Portland) |
6,800-sq.-ft.-office (Portland)/Rose Festival Foundation (Portland) |
11/10 |
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Regards/-
Jason Webb
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