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A11 B USINESS THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 2021 q DOW 34,060.66 -267.13 q bendbulletin.com/business NASDAQ 13,303.64 -75.41 q S&P 500 4,127.83 -35.46 p 30-YR T-BOND 2.38% +.01 q p CRUDE OIL $65.49 -.78 The federal govern- ment has seized $3.6 mil- lion from the bank account of a Eugene company involved in a deal to sell $4.5 million in overpriced, counterfeit N95 masks to the state of Maine. The U.S. attorney is seeking to force the com- pany, Med-Tech Resource LLC, to forfeit the money and reimburse Maine for 1.8 million fake respirators. But the company’s CEO already agreed to refund the state, the Portland Press Herald reported. “We’ll do everything in our power to make every- one whole,” said Michael Modrich, founder and CEO of the 30-year-old medical supply company. The National Recall Alert Center notified Maine that the state had purchased masks that might be counterfeit, according to a forfeiture claim filed on Friday. 3M, which manufac- tures the real N95 masks, later confirmed the masks were counterfeit. The money was seized in March, according to court documents. Shares in biotech firm plunge Little-known Vancou- ver biotech company CytoDyn lost nearly a third of its market value after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found “ no clinical benefit” for the firm’s purported treatment for COVID-19. Further, the FDA said Monday that data the Vancouver company had published that purported to show a small benefit from CytoDyn’s Leron- limab drug were statis- tically insignificant. The agency issued an unusual public statement on the typically confidential re- sults , citing “substantial public interest.” CytoDyn’s shares fell 76 cents, or 27%, Monday after the FDA issued its findings. The stock which trades over the counter, was down another 9 cents Tuesday morning, to $1.95. Even so, the company still has a mar- ket value of $1.2 billion. The company had 19 employees at this time in 2020, when CytoDyn is- sued its last annual report to securities regulators. Home construction falls 9.5% in April U.S. home construction fell a sharp 9.5% in April and economists attributed that partially to builders who delayed projects be- cause of a surge in lumber prices and other supply constraints. The April decline left construction at a season- ally adjusted annual rate of 1.57 million units, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That was down from a rate of 1.73 million units in March, which had been the best showing since July 2006 at the peak of that decade’s housing boom. Applica- tions for building permits, considered a sign of future activity, rose 0.3% in April, suggesting that the April dip will be temporary. The price of lumber alone has added $35,872 to the price of an average single-family home, ac- cording to the National Association of Home Builders. Part of those in- creases are border taxes imposed by the Trump administration in a trade dispute with Canada. — Bulletin wire reports p SILVER $28.31 +.05 p EURO $1.2229 +.0070 COVID-19 | Federal aid BRIEFING Eugene company slammed over sale of fake N95 masks GOLD $1,867.80 +.30 DATA CENTERS Pacific Power and Facebook partner on renewable energy Small-business grants flow to 960 Oregon restaurants BY PETER WONG Oregon Capital Bureau Han Ly Hwang is one of almost 1,000 Oregon restau- rant owners who shared a total of $138 million from a Small Business Administra- tion program spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Earl Blume- nauer and Oregon restaura- teurs. He owns Kim Jong Grillin, a Korean barbecue restaurant in southeast Portland. He was among the 960 Or- egon owners — of 38,000 na- tionwide — who got shares in the first round of the pro- gram totaling $6 billion. SBA got more than 300,000 appli- cations for the $28.6 billion that Congress set aside for the program in President Joe Biden’s pandemic recovery plan. The applications totaled $69 billion. Still, after Blumenauer spent nearly a year craft- ing the program with help Submitted image, file An overview of Facebook’s Prineville data center campus provided in March. from Portland restaurateurs — and barely 60 days after Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law — Hwang got help from the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. The average grant was $143,000. “This is a complete game - changer. For someone like myself, being a Korean American, this money gives me more of an opportunity to put my culture first and to really share it through the food,” Hwang said Mon- day during a conference call sponsored by Blumenauer. “This is far from over, but how easy and smooth (Con- gress and SBA) transitioned this program from being in writing to actually being im- plemented is jaw-dropping. The help means the world to us. It means that we’re not alone, and we really appreci- ate that.” See Restaurants / A12 BY SUZANNE ROIG • The Bulletin F acebook’s Prineville Data Center is being fueled by a Oregon hiring stalls as recovery slows partnership with Pacific Power support, which fits the mission of building and operating sustainable centers in the United States. Of the 55 new solar and wind projects Facebook supports across 18 states, 1,033 megawatts are from projects located in Oregon, Mon- tana and Utah, including two solar projects generating 100 megawatts in Crook County, according to a Facebook economic impact report released Tuesday. “We are proud that our com- mitment to renewable energy has brought additional investment and benefits to communities in the U.S., including Central Oregon,” said Urvi Parekh, head of renewable en- ergy at Facebook. “We appreciate the partnership of numerous util- ities, developers and community members. “It is clear that renewable energy is not only good for the environment but creates opportunities for busi- nesses, people and communities.” In March, the social media giant announced it would add two new buildings to its campus in Prineville that will make it the largest in its fleet of data centers in the United States. The two new buildings will add 900,000 square feet to the campus, expanding the 11-building cam- pus to 4.6 million square feet or the equivalent to nearly 80 football fields. “We applaud the data centers for their commitment to energy ef- ficiency and the use of renewable energy,” Prineville City Manager Steve Forrester said in an email. “Their commitment has resulted in Crook County and Prineville hav- ing the largest solar plant farms in Oregon.” Prineville has a more robust power infrastructure in place to- day only because of the presence of data centers, Forrester said. The community also benefits. More than 500 high-paying jobs have been created as a direct result of the data center, creating the most economic stability seen in Crook County since the height of the tim- ber industry after World War II, he said. “The data centers replaced lost jobs with new industries like tech and construction and driven our economy when we needed it most,” he said. Data centers are energy-inten- sive buildings, using large amounts of electricity to power servers and cooling equipment, according to the report. Generally, they’re built in commu- nities with low land costs, low and reliable energy and access to water. BY MIKE ROGOWAY The Oregonian Oregon added just 2,200 jobs in April — one-tenth as many as in March. That’s a worrying sign for the state’s economic outlook and par- allels a national hiring slow- down. Oregon’s unemployment rate remained steady at 6.0%, according to data released Tuesday from the Oregon Employment Department. That’s unchanged from March, making April the first month since the pandemic’s outset that the state’s jobless rate didn’t improve. The na- tional jobless rate was 6.1% last month. Overall, there are 117,400 fewer jobs in Oregon than in the month before the pan- demic hit, a 6% decline. Government jobs posted the biggest gains in March, at 2,300, which economists said reflected school re openings. Leisure and hospitality added 2,000 jobs, the next-largest gains. Manufacturing, ware- housing and retail all lost hundreds of jobs last month. Economists across the country are puzzling over the hiring slowdown. A computer- chip shortage has See Energy / A12 cooled manufacturing by limiting access to key com- ponents. Some workers may be cautious about returning to their jobs during the pan- demic, and many parents are unable to work while schools are closed or operating on se- verely reduced schedules. Employers, though, say some workers are staying away because they can make more from unemployment benefits than they can at cer- tain low-wage jobs. In Or- egon, the value of the aver- age weekly jobless benefit is $16.75 an hour, including a $300 federal bonus paid each week through Labor Day. That’s above the minimum wage, which ranges from $11.50 to $13.50 an hour, de- pending on region. But it’s well below the roughly $24 an hour that full-time workers average in Oregon. Regardless of the reason, Tuesday’s jobs numbers in- dicate a slowdown in Or- egon’s economic recovery. Economists are divided over whether it’s a signal of more trouble ahead, or if it’s a brief pause ahead of the broad re- opening now underway as COVID-19 vaccines become prevalent. Enchanted Forest delays reopening after threats Amusement park requires masks if proof of vaccination is not given BY JAMIE HALE The Oregonian On Monday afternoon, En- chanted Forest announced on social media that it would fi- nally be reopening to the pub- lic, after the coronavirus pan- demic, financial woes and an ice storm all devastated the be- loved Oregon amusement park over the last year. But as word of the reopen- ing plans got out, some fans responded with threats and angry comments, and own- ers walked back the reopening plan Tuesday morning. Park co-manager Susan Vaslev said most people seemed to be upset about the requirement to wear face masks inside the park, a state requirement, and Enchanted Forest’s decision to allow peo- ple to go without masks pro- vided they show a vaccination card upon entry. On Tuesday, the state released new guid- ance: Businesses no longer have to require masks, but vis- itors must prove they’re fully vaccinated “We weighed it all out and decided that we cannot open safely,” Vaslev said. “Until we reach the point where we all agree how this transition is going to take place between mask, unmasked, vaccinated, unvaccinated and every- body can be together safely and commingle — that has to happen before we can re- open.” See Park/ A12 Beth Nakamura/Oregonian file Enchanted Forest had initially planned to reopen this weekend.
