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THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
A worker aboard the African Raven directs a crane as it lifts timber from the shore and places it on the ship.
Slowdown: ‘We don’t have enough people to fi ll all three suites’
Continued from Page A1
“We’re just consolidating, because we
don’t have enough people to fi ll all three
suites,” said Chad Niedermeyer, the Asto-
ria Forest Products yard manager .
During the trade war, the Chinese have
imposed tariffs on hemlock, the most
common species exported from Astoria,
along with Douglas fi r and spruce. The tar-
iffs have made buyers hesitant and mostly
dried up timber exports, which account for
between one-fi fth and one-quarter of the
Port’s operational revenue .
Astoria Forest Products has drastically
cut back its workforce, and local long-
shore union leadership has reported hav-
ing to travel farther away to fi nd work. The
Port has cut its staff by about four posi-
tions through attrition to help save money.
By the end of November , the Port will
also move out of its newer offi ces on Pier
1 to the older Gateway Building, where
the agency moved from several years ago.
“When revenues decrease, you have to
fi nd ways to cut our costs,” said Will Isom,
the Port’s interim executive director and
fi nance manager. “That’s part of the rea-
son we’re moving back to the Gateway .
Sometimes it’s coming up with a string
of small things to move the organization
forward.”
When the Port advertised its offi ces on
Pier 1 for rent, it only took a couple of
days to fi nd a local company, Watershed
Wellness, to lease the space, Isom said.
He doesn’t expect the 1,500 square feet
Astoria Forest Products is vacating to stay
empty for long.
Niedermeyer and Isom are hopeful the
trade war is ratcheting down after the most
recent negotiations in Washington, D.C.,
during which the two sides struck a par-
tial deal. The Trump administration agreed
to halt a new round of tariffs scheduled
for December, and the Chinese agreed to
buy between $40 billion and $50 billion
in U.S. agricultural products. But the pur-
chase does not include timber.
Astoria Forest Products reached a deal
with Southport Lumber Co. to load barges
at the Port with logs from a state timber
sale in Washington for shipment to a mill
near Coos Bay. But the agreement rep-
resents a fraction of the revenue from
shipments to China. Southport’s contract
with Washington state wrapped up ear-
lier this month, Niedermeyer said, but
he expects the relationship to continue if
there is more work.
Astoria Forest Products was formed
in 2014 under Murphy Overseas USA, a
company owned by the family of Dennis
Murphy, a former shareholder in Eugene-
based timber giant Murphy Co. The fam-
ily had been looking to sell the company
since before the trade war, but could not
immediately be reached for comment.
Vacation rental fi rm could be state’s largest new company
By MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
Oregon hasn’t produced a really big
company in more than two decades.
There have been many contenders
during that time, among them tech aspi-
rants Jive Software, Integra Telecom, Pup-
pet, Pixelworks and Viewpoint Construc-
tion Software.
All ran into stumbling blocks along the
way, or sold before they had a chance to
grow genuinely large. That’s left the state
with a dwindling number of aging, Ore-
gon-based companies as corporations die
off, sell or move out of state.
Portland vacation rental management
company Vacasa will now have the oppor-
tunity to break Oregon’s losing streak.
The company said Tuesday it has raised
a whopping $319 million in new funding,
with investors valuing Vacasa at more than
$1 billion.
Tuesday’s huge investment underscores
the enormous potential major investors see
in the Portland company — and the intense
pressure Vacasa will face to deliver on that
promise.
Founded in 2009, Vacasa provides
cleaning and maintenance services to own-
ers’ vacation properties and lists their prop-
erties online. It uses technology to dynami-
cally adjust rental pricing online based on
market demand, aiming to get the most for
the property owners — while taking a cut
for itself.
Vacasa has been growing rapidly, fueled
by more than $200 million in prior invest-
ment and this year’s $162 million acquisi-
tion of Wyndham Destinations’ own vaca-
tion rental business.
Privately held Vacasa doesn’t disclose
detailed fi nancial results but says it now
manages 23,000 vacation homes and has
grown revenue sevenfold in the past four
years. The company said it expects more
than $1 billion in gross bookings and more
than $500 million in revenue by July.
“The opportunity that lies ahead of us
is enormous, both on the property manage-
ment and real estate side of the business,”
Eric Breon, Vacasa’s founder and CEO,
said in a written statement.
Formerly an Oregon business analyst,
Breon says he started Vacasa because he
had diffi culty locating a rental manage-
ment company for a vacation cabin his
wife’s family owned on the Washing-
‘THE OPPORTUNITY THAT LIES AHEAD OF US IS
ENORMOUS, BOTH ON THE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
AND REAL ESTATE SIDE OF THE BUSINESS.’
Eric Breon | Vacasa’s founder and CEO
ton Coast. Breon, 41, thought a new com-
pany could do better by adopting technol-
ogy to track maintenance and cleaning and
using algorithms to adapt prices to market
demand.
The company now employs 5,000 alto-
gether, including 379 at its corporate head-
quarters in the Pearl District. Most of its
staff works in the fi eld, maintaining, clean-
ing and managing properties from Long
Island to Lincoln City.
Silver Lake managing director Joerg
Adams said in a written statement Tues-
day that his fi rm believes Vacasa “has the
potential to become a global brand.”
With Tuesday’s funding Vacasa said it
will focus on continued expansion, not just
in big U.S. vacation markets but in Can-
ada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Vacasa
said it will also try to expand its new real
estate business, which provides market
and fi nancial data to property buyers and
sellers.
Tuesday’s investment was led by Sili-
con Valley private equity fi rm Silver Lake,
known for participating in leveraged buy-
outs such as the $24 billion deal that took
Dell private fi ve years ago. Vacasa did not
disclose what level of debt accompanied
Tuesday’s deal.
Vacasa is now among the best-funded
young companies in Oregon history. The
company has made it clear it plans an ini-
tial public offering of Vacasa stock, though
the company has given no indication of its
timetable.
No Oregon company has held a signifi -
cant IPO since 2004, when Cascade Micro-
tech and McCormick & Schmick’s each
went public. Both companies struggled
in the public markets, though, and sold to
larger companies.
Oregon’s recent business history is
fi lled with such cautionary tales. Consider
Integra Telecom, which took on $1.3 bil-
lion in debt in hopes of capitalizing on the
rapidly growing market for internet ser-
vices. Integra fl oundered when its growth
evaporated in a competitive market, then
wilted under massive debt.
Others, like Portland tech upstart Jive
Software, were undone by investors’
demands for outsized growth.
Positioned between the roaring entrepre-
neurial communities in San Francisco and
Seattle, and stifl ed by the absence of large
research universities and local investment
pools, Oregon has rarely been a destination
for the most ambitious entrepreneurs.
Recent startups have tended to focus
on less competitive, niche markets and are
easily rolled into larger organizations with
broader portfolios.
The absence of locally based companies
hasn’t crippled Oregon’s economy, which
is enjoying one of its longest expansions
on record and exceptional growth in per-
sonal income. During that period, though,
the state has become increasingly reliant
on out-of-state employers who use Oregon
as a low-cost outpost.
That’s been a persistent worry to econ-
omists, who warn outposts usually per-
form the ancillary corporate functions that
are most likely to be cut to save costs or
respond to a market or economic down-
turn. Just Monday, onetime Portland
startup Sightbox notifi ed Oregon offi cials
it will lay off 50 employees — two years
after its sale to Johnson & Johnson.
Tuesday’s funding makes Vacasa the
state’s best chance to develop a new,
homegrown company to help anchor Ore-
gon’s economy and to nurture a new gener-
ation of employees and executives to lead
future businesses.
Seaside American Legion Post 99 • 100 th Birthday of the American Legion
Semi formal Celebration
November 10th
No host Cocktail hour 5:30
Dinner served 6:00pm
$30.00 per ticket
Prime Rib or Salmon
All Dinner Guests MUST RSVP before November 2 nd so do it now!
503-738-5111 • 1315 Broadway Seaside Oregon
Public event Proceeds go toward helping our Veterans