OR officials "scrambled" Monday to "placate" Nike execs
who were "unhappy over their treatment by local and state
governments," according to Jeff Manning of the Portland
OREGONIAN. The state's "fast action" comes two days after
Nike officials sent letters to governors of six western
states and British Columbia asking if they were interested
in "having a 5,000-employee Nike office campus." Nike is
"angry" over a zoning "flap" with the town of Beaverton over
land planned for future headquarters expansion. Manning
notes Nike's "zoning tiff ... remains a flash point." The
city and Nike have negotiated 38 of 40 points of contention,
but "neither side will give" (Portland OREGONIAN, 3/11).
BUILDING BOOM: As part of Nike's planned expansion, it
will build a 180,000-square-foot conference center on the
new campus, according to the PORTLAND BUSINESS JOURNAL. To
get the space, Nike had to "relocate two tenants," but
people close to the project said that Nike "paid to move the
businesses and paid generously so the tenants could remodel
new space to be as similar as possible" to their old space
(PORTLAND BUSINESS JOURNAL, 3/10).
SHARE THE SWOOSH: Insiders at Fallon McElligott tell AD
AGE that Nike has "talked" with the agency about taking on
some advertising projects (ADVERTISING AGE, 3/10).
