<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Eugene manufacturing plant on auction block

Starting bid $3M for long-closed Hynix Semiconductor site

By
Published:

EUGENE, Ore. — The long-shuttered Hynix Semiconductor plant in west Eugene is listed for auction, with a starting bid of $3 million. The auction will start on Oct. 13 and end on Oct. 15, according to the auction.com website.

Chicago commercial real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle, which placed a flier on the auction website, described the 1.2-million-square-foot complex on Willow Creek Circle as “the largest advanced manufacturing availability in the West.”

The flier reads in part: “Located in Eugene, Oregon, USA, the former Hynix Semiconductor manufacturing plant consists of three buildings. Offering various classes of clean room space, sub-fab areas, and a separate administrative office building, all are suitable for a variety of uses. The well-located site includes ample expansion area, with great access to labor and a high quality of living.”

Two Jones Lang LaSalle brokers listed on the flier didn’t immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

South Korea-based Hynix built the west Eugene plant in 1995, spending about $250 million to buy the land and build the factory shell.

It quickly became one of Lane County’s largest private employers, manufacturing computer memory chips for the auto maker Hyundai. The Eugene plant’s 2008 closure rocked the local economy, wiping out more than 1,100 jobs.

In the past six years, several potential buyers showed some interest in the property, but none of these proposals moved much beyond the talking stage.

In 2009, South Korean firm Uni-Chem announced plans to convert the computer chip factory into a solar cell manufacturing plant, employing 1,000 people. But they never followed through.

In April 2012, Seattle-based Real Property Investors LLC signed a tentative deal to buy the plant from Hynix and spend $100 million redeveloping it into a data center and hub for tech businesses, envisioning 600 workers there.

But by October 2012, Real Property Investors had backed out of the purchase agreement, according to records filed with the Lane County Clerk’s Office, although a member of the Seattle Group said last year they were still working on a deal.

John Lively, a member of the Oregon House of Representatives representing Springfield and former interim director of the economic development agency Lane Metro Partnership, said he spoke last month with the representative of a business interested in buying the property. He’d heard some discussion of the property going up for auction, he said.

“People are interested in the plant,” Lively said.

The auction flier notes the Hynix plant’s location in the West Eugene Enterprise zone, which could make a buyer eligible for hefty property tax breaks if they make upgrades at the site.

“With access to abundant power and water, a skilled workforce, low utility rates and 120 acres of onsite expansion; the site provides a manufacturer speed to market and extraordinary flexibility,” the Auction.com marketing description reads in part.

Loading...