A5
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 2021
bendbulletin.com/business
BRIEFING
OREGON
U.S. infrastructure
deal now in doubt
President Joe Biden’s
bipartisan infrastructure
deal was thrown in doubt
Friday as Republican sen-
ators felt “blindsided” by
his insistence that it must
move in tandem with his
bigger package, while
the White House doubled
down on the strategy and
said it should have come
as no surprise.
The rare accord over
some $1 trillion in invest-
ments faced new uncer-
tainty barely 24 hours
after Biden strode to the
White House driveway,
flanked by 10 senators
from a bipartisan group,
with all sides beaming
over the compromise.
Senators were de-
scribed as “stunned,”
“floored” and “frustrated”
after Biden publicly put
the conditions on accept-
ing their deal, according
to two people familiar
with the private conversa-
tions who spoke on con-
dition of anonymity to
discuss the reactions.
“I’ve been on the
phone with the White
House, my Democratic
colleagues, my Republi-
can colleagues, all darn
day,” said Sen. Rob Port-
man of Ohio, the lead Re-
publican negotiator, in an
interview Friday.
“My hope is that we’ll
still get this done. It’s re-
ally good for America.
Our infrastructure is in
bad shape,” he said. “It’s
about time to get it done.”
White House press
secretary Jen Psaki, who
was asked at her briefing
about the GOP dismay,
said senators should not
have been surprised by
the two-track strategy
that Biden has publicly
discussed on many oc-
casions.
“That hasn’t been a se-
cret. He hasn’t said it qui-
etly. He hasn’t even whis-
pered it,” she said.
Psaki said the presi-
dent plans to stand by
the commitment he
made to the senators.
“And he expects they’ll do
the same,” she said.
The path ahead is now
uncertain.
Nike posts record
quarterly sales
Nike posted record fis-
cal fourth-quarter sales in
North America and gave
a better-than-anticipated
full-year revenue forecast.
The Beaverton-based
company’s revenue to-
taled $12.34 billion in
the fourth quarter, easily
beating the $11.06 bil-
lion that analysts polled
by Zacks Investment Re-
search predicted.
In North America,
Nike Inc.’s revenue soared
141% to $5.38 billion.
Nike also experienced
strong sales for its name-
sake brand, rising 88%
to $11.8 billion. Revenue
for the Converse brand
climbed 85% to $596
million.
Online sales climbed
41% compared with a
year ago and were up
147% compared with
2019’s fourth quarter.
And Nike continues
to see success with its
SNKRS app, which im-
mediately sells out of
new sneaker releases
and consistently trends
on Twitter. President and
CEO John Donahoe said
during a conference call
that SNKRS grew more
than 90% in demand and
saw nearly 80% growth
in monthly active users
during the fourth quarter.
— Bulletin wire reports
Backlog of aid slows
eviction response
Amazon
plans one
of Oregon’s
largest
buildings
3.84-million-square-foot
fulfillment center will be
located in Woodburn
BY 2JEFF MANNING
The Oregonian
Michael Dwyer/AP file
Housing activists erect a sign in Swampscott, Massachusetts, in October. A federal freeze on most evictions is set to expire soon.
BY SARA CLINE • Associated Press/Report for America
Amazon is planning one of the largest
buildings in Oregon history — a five-
story, 3.84-million-square-foot fulfill-
ment center — just west of Interstate 5 in
the city of Woodburn.
The retail giant earlier this week paid
$27 million to three different sellers
for the acreage that could host the new
building. Jerry Melby, assistant county
clerk at Marion County, said his of-
fice recorded the three transactions on
Thursday. He confirmed the purchase
price and that Amazon Services Inc. was
the buyer.
The operation could employ about
1,874 people, according to planning doc-
uments.
Amazon’s plan has been cloaked in se-
crecy. City documents referred to a po-
tential big development west of the free-
way only as “Project Basie.” Amazon was
never named.
T ommy Moore, a spokesman for
Woodburn, declined to offer any details.
“The city is not ready to give a statement
right now,” he said.
Amazon bought the bulk of its Wood-
burn land from Specht Woodburn LLC,
a company formed by prominent local
developer Greg Specht. Amazon paid
$23.3 million for the Specht parcel. He
declined to comment.
See Amazon / A6
P
ORTLAND — A federal freeze on most evictions enacted last year is scheduled
to expire July 31, after the Biden administration extended the date by a month.
The moratorium, put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in
September, was the only tool keeping millions of tenants in their homes. Many of
them lost jobs during the coronavirus pandemic and had fallen months behind on
their rent.
Landlords successfully
challenged the order in
court, arguing they also had
bills to pay. They pointed
out that tenants could ac-
cess more than $45 billion
in federal money set aside
to help pay rents and related
expenses.
Advocates for tenants say
the distribution of the money
has been slow and that more
time is needed to distribute it
and repay landlords. Without
an extension, they feared a
spike in evictions and lawsuits
seeking to boot out tenants
who are behind on their rents.
As of June 7, roughly 3.2
million people in the U.S.
said they faced eviction in the
next two months, according
to the U.S. Census Bureau’s
Household Pulse Survey. The
survey measures the social
and economic effects of the
coronavirus pandemic every
two weeks through online re-
sponses from a representative
sample of U.S. households.
The situation in Oregon
Oregon is one of several
states that enacted a morato-
rium last year halting evic-
tion proceedings. The mea-
sure is set to expire at the end
of June.
As experts warn about a
mass wave of evictions in the
state, lawmakers and the gov-
ernor are working to pass ad-
ditional safety nets for strug-
gling tenants.
Oregon has set aside $200
million in federal emergency
assistance to help tenants and
landlords with current and
outstanding rent. Based on
data from Oregon Housing
and Community Services,
as of Tuesday 10,830 house-
holds have completed appli-
cations for rent assistance,
with the average request be-
ing $6,921.
While Oregon has hun-
dreds of millions of dollars
available to pay past-due rent
and up to three months cur-
rent rent for qualified ten-
ants, high demand has cre-
ated a backlog that will not
be cleared before the eviction
moratorium ends next week.
See Eviction / A6
The Bulletin
adds staff to
reporting and
revenue teams
Bulletin staff report
The Bulletin welcomed several new
staff members in recent weeks.
Brian Naplachowski, 59, is The Bulle-
tin’s new revenue director. He started a
career in newspapers working with The
Seattle Times and Post Intelligencer as
an independent sales agent. He has more
than 25 years of experience in the in-
dustry. He has worked in four different
states as a circulation manager, circula-
tion director, audience director, general
manager and now revenue director for
The Bulletin.
“My goal at The Bulletin is to help
advertisers understand the reach of our
products both digitally and tradition-
ally,” Naplachowski said.
Originally from Baltimore, Maryland,
he loves Tenkara fly-fishing, pack rafting
and hiking. He and his wife, Lisa, have
been married for 35 years.
See The Bulletin / A6
Lawmakers delay paid family leave program
BY PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon’s new program of
paid family leave would be
delayed under a bill that is
headed to Gov. Kate Brown.
A final 34-21 vote by the Or-
egon House on Friday moved
House Bill 3398 to the gover-
nor. Democrats supplied all
the votes for it. One Demo-
crat, Paul Evans of Monmouth,
joined 20 Republicans in op-
position.
The Senate approved the
amended version, largely to re-
solve conflicts, on a 21-7 vote
the previous day.
The starting date for con-
tributions by employers and
employees would be put off by
one year, from Jan. 1, 2022, to
Jan. 1, 2023. The starting date
for benefit payments would be
Sept. 3, 2023, instead of Jan. 1.
Startup costs will be drawn
from the tax-supported general
fund, but will be repaid from
contributions by employers
and employees into the pro-
gram.
The 2019 Legislature ap-
proved the program. Eight
other states and Washington,
D.C., have started or are pre-
paring similar programs.
Employers would contrib-
ute 40% and employees 60%
of a new fund based on pay-
roll deductions. Workers who
earn at least $1,000 during the
previous year would qualify for
up to 12 weeks of paid family
leave, the maximum benefit set
at $1,215 per week.
Oregon’s program is more
generous than a proposal by
President Joe Biden for a fed-
eral program, which would
offer up to $4,000 per month.
Congress has not acted on the
federal program, which is part
of Biden’s American Families
Plan.
Acting Director David
Gerstenfeld said the Oregon
Employment Department
sought the delay because it in-
tends to integrate collections of
employer and employee contri-
butions into its computer mod-
ernization project, which starts
its long-awaited first phase in
July. The first phase also in-
volves updating the collection
of payroll taxes that employers
pay into the state unemploy-
ment trust fund for benefits.
Employees do not pay into that
fund.
Though preparations for the
new program have proceeded
since the Legislature passed it
in 2019, Gerstenfeld said staff
— including himself — were
diverted to handle new and ex-
panded federal unemployment
benefit programs since the
onset of the coronavirus pan-
demic in March 2020.