Robots have transformed Amazon's fulfillment process, but workers are still critical. 

On June 5th, Sussman Shank client Trammell Crow Company and one of its affiliates completed the purchase of a 73-acre site at the Troutdale Reynolds Industrial Park developed by the Port of Portland.

Sussman Shank partners Patrick Rowe and Jeffrey Tarr served as legal counsel to Trammell Crow and its affiliate in what was a complex and challenging transaction.  The transaction was complicated by the fact that the property sits on the Reynolds Metals Superfund Site, formerly the location of an aluminum smelter dating back to WWII. Trammell Crow has contracted to build and lease warehouse space on the property to Amazon for a fulfillment center. The new $178.4 million facility is projected to employ over 1,000 workers in the Portland metropolitan area that has experienced sluggish new job creation.

"This transaction is a big success in many ways" Rowe noted.  "It will bring good construction jobs and long-term employment at the Amazon fulfillment center.  It will increase local and state tax revenue.  And it demonstrates that brownfield properties, even on Superfund sites where remediation is ongoing, can be purchased and developed for productive uses."

The excavation of Intel's new D1X plant in Hillsboro has resulted in hundreds of thousands of yards of material dumped around Washington County.