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For Immediate Release

PORT OF VANCOUVER BUYS CADET FACILITY FOR $5.4 MILLION

Click here for map of property.

May 9, 2006 -- Port of Vancouver Commissioners today approved the purchase of Cadet Manufacturing's electric heater production facility in Vancouver for $5.4 million, finalizing an agreement that saves more than 100 local jobs and opens the way for more economic development.

The purchase includes 11 acres of land and a 75,000-square-foot building located on Fourth Plain Boulevard adjacent to existing port properties. Operations at the manufacturing plant will continue, with Cadet leasing the building and seven acres back from the port. Cadet has agreed to a five-year lease at the site with two additional five-year options.

The remaining four-acre parcel will be available for new business development at the site. The property provides an immediate opportunity for the port to expand its base of 44 tenants. Most of the port's shovel-ready industrial property has been occupied in recent years limiting its ability to meet current demands for growth.

"The Port of Vancouver, local jobs and the environment are all winners in this agreement," said Port Executive Director, Larry Paulson. "We are acquiring property that is contiguous to the port's current operating facility to promote jobs and economic development while allowing environmental cleanup at the site to occur more quickly."

The sale is based on a settlement agreement, signed by the port and Cadet last February and approved by federal district and bankruptcy courts in March, which resolves a multi-year lawsuit over liability for the cleanup. Under the agreement, the port will take over responsibility for completion of the environmental cleanup project at the Cadet site.

To help fund the cleanup, the port will receive $10 million from two Cadet insurance carriers, and the right to seek recovery of an additional $14 million in insurance claims.
Contamination at the Cadet site, and also at property owned by the Port of Vancouver, was discovered during the construction of the Mill Plain Extension project in the late 1990s. The cleaning solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), was found to have impacted soil and groundwater at both sites. TCE was commonly used as an industrial solvent until the 1980s.
Since 1998, Cadet and the Port have been working individually to clean up the sites under separate Agreed Orders with Ecology. To date, Cadet Manufacturing has removed 540 pounds of chlorinated solvents from soil and groundwater at its property and the Port of Vancouver has decreased solvents by approximately 80 percent at the former Swan site.

The Port of Vancouver, USA, created by Clark County taxpayers in 1912, is one of the major ports on the Pacific Coast. Marine and industrial operations at the Port of Vancouver currently generate about 5,500 direct and indirect jobs, over $1 billion in business revenue annually and $28.5 in taxes to fund public services, such as police, fire, streets and schools. The port's Economic Development and Conservation Plan will double the size of its current 600-acre operation, increasing jobs and economic benefits to the community.

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Contact:

           Maureen Chan-Hefflin, Port of Vancouver
           (360) 992-1107 or mhefflin@PortVanUSA.com