Article by Jonathan Bach at the Portland Business Journal.
Capstone Partners teamed up with Premium Property USA to buy the former Custom Stamping & Manufacturing plant for $9 million in 2017.
Steelhead Surgical has agreed to lease 18,000 square feet for its new headquarters in the Central Eastside Industrial District, one in a small stack of local office deals inked during the pandemic.
The Portland-based medical company no longer fits in the office where it opened in 2014, as it grows at a rate of 15 percent a year, said Anita Hettum, Steelhead’s vice president of finance and human resources.
Office agreements have been slow to appear in recent months. Leasing volume in the Portland area since March stood at about half the average of the last three years, according to commercial real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle. The year’s biggest deal so far was Oregon Employment Department officials’ lease of 120,000 square feet at Five South near Interstate 5.
The Custom Blocks creative offices, where Steelhead will move, covers two city blocks and 72,000 square feet. It is a renovated Class A office space, according to Capstone Partners LLC, which co-owns the two-building development with partner Premium Property USA. The office buildings have hand-washing stations inside corridors and touchless door-opening tech in common spaces.
The deal was signed on June 23, Capstone Partners Principal Chris Nelson told the Business Journal. It was announced in July.
The company’s new space will be four times the size of where it now operates. The company plans to be moved into the Custom Blocks building before the year is out, Hettum said in an email.
“We know the current pandemic is temporary. In order to grow our business, we need to stay focused on the future,” Hettum said.
Steelhead, an orthopedic product distributor, among other functions, has nearly 70 people spread through five states, including Montana, Idaho and California. The Custom Blocks headquarters will have workspace for 25 people, Hettum said. That’s nearly half the workforce.
Lauren Jones, senior development manager at Capstone Partners, praised the move in a press release, saying Steelhead’s “innovative spirit” will complement the tenant mix at Custom Blocks. Creative agency Roundhouse holds about 16,000 square feet in the development’s northern building, while Mahlum Architects has roughly 9,000 square feet in the southern building, online leasing materials show.