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B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 2021
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BRIEFING
Nike lays off more
workers; profits up
Nike has laid off an un-
specified number of peo-
ple, the sneaker giant told
The Oregonian.
The latest cuts follow
larger layoffs the com-
pany announced in the
summer. Nike wouldn’t
say how many people
lost their jobs recently, or
in what departments.
Nike confirmed the
new job cuts the same
day it announced quar-
terly revenue of $10.3
billion and profits of $1.4
billion in the quarter
that ended Feb. 28. The
company said its rising
profits resulted, in part,
from “lower wage-related
costs.” Sales and adminis-
trative expenses fell $242
million compared to the
same period a year ago.
North American sales
actually declined nearly
11% last quarter. But Nike
blamed that on a short-
age of shipping contain-
ers and congestion in
U.S. ports, not any brand
weakness.
Facebook works on
Instagram for kids
Facebook says it is
working on a version of
Instagram for kids under
13, who are technically
not allowed to use the
app in its current form
due to federal privacy
regulations.
Critics raised concerns
immediately, saying a
kid-friendly Instagram is
just a way for Facebook to
expand its user base and
condition children into
using its products so it
can later make money off
of them.
“Increasingly, kids are
asking their parents if
they can join apps that
help them keep up with
their friends,” Facebook
said in a statement. “Right
now, there aren’t many
options for parents, so
we’re working on build-
ing additional products
— like we did with Mes-
senger Kids — that are
suitable for kids, man-
aged by parents.”
Powell: Recovery
far from complete
Federal Reserve Chair
Jerome Powell reiterated
his belief Friday that while
the U.S. economy has
been steadily rebound-
ing from the devastation
caused by the pandemic
recession, the recovery
is far from complete and
needs continued support
from the Fed.
In an opinion piece
posted Friday in the Wall
Street Journal, Powell
characterizes the econ-
omy as much improved,
with about half the 20
million jobs that were lost
to the pandemic having
been recovered and with
the outlook brightening
as vaccinations are more
widely administered.
— Bulletin wire reports
PEOPLE ON
THE MOVE
• Four broker teams were
recognized by Coldwell
Banker Real Estate LLC,
a Realogy (NYSE: RLGY)
brand at its 2020 year-
end award recipients
in North America for
top 10 Adjusted Gross
Income in Oregon.
Earning top three were:
Robinson-Ludwick
Group, Coldwell Banker
Bain of Bend; Cascade
Lifestyle Group, Cold-
well Banker Bain of
Bend; and The Power
Group, Coldwell Banker
Bain of Bend.
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bendbulletin.com/business
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Major hike in beer, wine taxes to fund OLCC
treatment lacks support; backers pivot fines
NASDAQ
13,215.24 +99.07
S&P 500
3,913.10 -2.36
BY NICOLE HAYDEN
The Oregonian
The lobbyists who pushed
major increases in Oregon’s
beer and wine taxes are ask-
ing the Legislature to set up
a task force to design a new,
more broadly accepted pro-
posal that would fund addic-
tion recovery services and
lower alcohol consumption.
Their pivot acknowledges
30-YR T-BOND
2.45% -.03
the bill faced steep opposi-
tion. One of the bills two co-
sponsors, Rep. Rachel Pru-
sak, D-West Linn, already
dropped off, leaving Rep.
Tawna Sanchez, D-Portland,
as the lone sponsor.
They now hope lawmakers
will vote to create a bipartisan
task force that includes rep-
resentatives from the health
care and alcohol industries.
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If approved, the task force
would have until Nov. 30 to
come back with draft legis-
lation showing how the state
could reduce alcohol con-
sumption by 15% by increas-
ing alcohol costs. It also would
need to create a plan to fund
additional addiction services.
“We want to have this
conversation of what can be
done, not what should be
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done,” said Mike Marshall,
director of Oregon Recovers,
the primary lobbying group
behind the bill. “We want to
secure a meaningful long-
term gain instead of a short-
term win.”
He hopes the Legislature
would then pass the new
draft plan during the Febru-
ary 2022 legislative session.
See Tax / A6
W
orkers at Astoria
Warehousing once
labeled millions
of cans of salmon shipped to
seafood companies in Seattle
and distributed around the
world.
When the plant closed in
2018, locals feared the expan-
sive campus overlooking the
Astoria Bridge and Columbia
River would continue the re-
gion’s transition from manu-
facturing toward a more ser-
vice-sector economy in the
form of another hotel.
Instead, the main ware-
house along Marine Drive
has filled with large steel
brewing and conditioning
tanks, a new high-speed can-
ning line, cold storage and
several million cans as Fort
George Brewery’s new com-
mercial production hub.
Chris Nemlowill, who
started Fort George with Jack
Harris 14 years ago, called
the transformation of Astoria
Warehousing a minor mir-
acle, given the coronavirus
pandemic and all the things
that came together to make
BY EDWARD STRATTON • The Astorian
the new brewery a reality.
“This property has really
always been our dream prop-
erty for distribution and pro-
duction,” Nemlowill said. “It’s
got a loading dock, beautiful
views of the waterfront. And
we get to stay in Astoria.”
Fort George’s expansion
comes at a watershed mo-
ment for Astoria’s burgeoning
alcohol sector.
Just a few blocks east, the
owners of Buoy Beer Co., the
other major brewer in town,
are jacking up the roof of
the former Video Horizons
for an expanded brewhouse.
They are also planning to
turn a nearby warehouse into
a new location for sister com-
pany Pilot House Distilling.
‘Kingpin’
Nemlowill and Harris
drove their first 8.5-barrel
brewhouse — nicknamed
“Sweet Virginia” — home
from the East Coast and
opened a small pub in the
Fort George Building on
Duane Street. In 2009, they
bought almost the entire city
block, including the Lovell
Building, where they installed
a 20-barrel commercial bre-
whouse — “Little Miss Texas”
— and continued an ascen-
sion into one of the state’s
premier craft breweries.
A decade later, the Lovell
Building was filled to the
brim with tanks and a can-
ning line. Walls of bulk-or-
dered cans filled the upstairs,
along with a growing bar-
rel-aging program in the
basement.
Nemlowill and Harris
bought a plot of land in War-
renton for a new distribution
hub. But when the seafood
company owners of Astoria
Warehousing decided to con-
solidate operations to Kent,
Washington, Fort George
saw an opportunity and pur-
chased what Nemlowill now
All unemployed Orego-
nians will continue to get
uninterrupted supplemental
benefits of $300 per week un-
der an extension of federal
programs contained in Presi-
dent Joe Biden’s pandemic re-
covery plan, which is now law.
But for thousands of
self-employed and gig work-
ers who have exhausted their
federal benefits, and workers
who have exhausted federal
benefits that kick in once
their 26 weeks of state pay-
ments stopped, they may
have to wait as the Oregon
Employment Department
programs the extensions into
the system.
“It will take us additional
time to add the newly created
benefits to their claim. We
are doing everything we can
to minimize that additional
time,” acting director David
Gerstenfeld told reporters in
a weekly conference call.
“It is important that if
someone receives a letter in-
forming them their claim
is exhausted — meaning
they have a zero balance —
they should keep filing their
weekly claims every week.”
Gerstenfeld said people
will be paid benefits retroac-
tively, including the supple-
mental benefits of $300 per
week under what is known
as Federal Pandemic Unem-
ployment Compensation.
Under the American Res-
cue Plan, federal unemploy-
ment benefits were extended
25 weeks from March 13
through Labor Day, although
Oregon and most states end
the closest claim week on Sat-
urday, Sept. 4.
“Our goal is to have them
be paid out by the end of
next week,” Gerstenfeld said,
for self-employed and gig
workers who still qualify
BY SUZANNE ROIG
The Bulletin
See River Pig / A6
Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
calls Fort George Waterfront.
Central to the new brewery
is the 60-barrel brewhouse —
nicknamed “Kingpin” — Fort
George bought at auction
after Portland’s BridgePort
Brewing closed in 2019.
Kingpin can turn out 60
barrels of wort — the sug-
ary liquid extracted from
grains and used in fermen-
tation — in a batch. Just as
important is the large bank
of fermentation and condi-
tioning tanks arrayed around
the main warehouse. They
include fermentation tanks
brought from downtown, la-
gering tanks from BridgePort
and more conditioning tanks
manufactured in Vancouver,
Washington.
“This is opening up our
opportunity to have a lot
more variety,” Nemlowill
said. “We can make more
lagers. We can make more
barrel-aged beers. We can ex-
periment a lot more, because
we’re going to have more
capacity over in the Lovell
Building.”
See Brewery / A6
Some Oregon jobless benefits will
continue unbroken under Biden plan
BY PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
River Pig
Saloon
in Bend
The River Pig Saloon has been
fined by the Oregon Liquor Con-
trol Commission for selling and
allowing customers to take open
containers of alcohol off its prem-
ises and into a common area at the
Box Factory.
The restaurant, on NW Arizona
Avenue, has agreed to pay $5,660
in fines by April 15 for the Oct. 27,
2019 incident, according to the
stipulated agreement approved
by the OLCC on Thursday. If the
restaurant chooses not to pay the
fine, it could face a 36-day suspen-
sion for the violations. The fines
or suspension are higher than
normal because an owner was
involved, according to the agree-
ment.
The commission also fined
the White Water Taphouse on
NW Bond Street for not closing
and continuing to serve alcohol
past the 10 p.m. COVID-19-re-
lated restrictions imposed by the
governor. The incident occurred
Aug. 8 after an inspector saw 20
patrons continuing to consume
alcohol, according to OLCC doc-
uments.
Fort George
Brewery
expands
on Astoria
Riverwalk
Fresh cans of Fort George’s City of Dreams pale ale travel down the line to be packaged.
EURO
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for federal benefits, and for
workers who still qualify for
federal benefits that kick in
after they received 26 weeks
of payments from the state
trust fund. These programs
are known as Pandemic Un-
employment Assistance and
Pandemic Emergency Unem-
ployment Compensation.
For workers in both pro-
grams who have exhausted
their federal benefits — but
are newly eligible for 25 more
weeks because of the exten-
sions — Gerstenfeld they
will be affected most by the
changeover.
See Benefits / A6
Portland
startup
CrowdStreet
is now based
in Austin
BY MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
CrowdStreet, a Portland startup
that runs an online marketplace
for real estate investments, said
Friday that its CEO is moving to
Austin, Texas, and that the com-
pany now considers that city its
headquarters.
“Austin has a number of bene-
fits such as pro-growth economic
policies that help job-creating
businesses thrive,” CEO Tore
Steen said in a statement an-
nouncing the move. He said that
Texas is among its top markets for
investors participating in its mar-
ketplace.
For now, the shift consists only
of Steen moving to Texas. Crowd-
Street said it expects to hire 80
people this year and said that as
it grows it will split new hires be-
tween its current Portland office,
its new Austin headquarters and
remote work.
CrowdStreet said it plans to
maintain its office in downtown
Portland “and a strong employee
presence.”
Founded in Bend, in 2013,
CrowdStreet was among the sec-
ond wave of technology startups
that emerged in the years after the
Great Recession. It has reported
$25 million in outside funding.
Last year, the company laid off
a fifth of its 110 employees citing
a pandemic-related downturn in
its business. But the company said
Friday that its headcount has re-
turned to a staff of 110, 76 of them
in Portland.
Oregon employment has fallen
7.4% since the beginning of 2020,
a slightly bigger drop than the
national decline. But overall en-
trepreneurship appears steady,
with new business formation
actually accelerating during the
pandemic.