CASCADE LOCKS, Ore. — In October 2023, the port of Cascade Locks’ board of commissioners met to hear about the search for a new tenant for a large industrial space after the original tenet had vacated the premises. Optimism at finding a new company was high - but so was the $6 million debt the company, whose owner sold it to a foreign firm, left the town.
Flex 6, a 43,376 square feet commercial building, was completed in 2021. The port built it for one tenant, The Renewal Workshop, which was co-founded by Nicole Bassett, now the Democratic nominee for Oregon Senate District 26.
The Renewal Workshop was in need of a new home and didn’t have the money to expand, but Cascade Locks was committed to keeping the business in town. So, in May 2020, Business Oregon approved a $6,608,500 Special Public Works Fund loan to the port to build Flex 6 for lease to the company. The fund lends only to public entities, so the port borrowed to fund construction. The company separately took a $257,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan, which was forgiven.
Port Manager Olga Kaganova sold the project to the community in early 2021. “It is exciting that a Cascade Locks-grown business is expanding,” she said. “They will be bringing 75-100 new jobs into the community.”
Bassett never managed to hit those numbers, and now says the company created no more than 45 local jobs.
On March 16, 2022, the logistics firm Bleckmann announced it had bought The Renewal Workshop. “We are thrilled to find a values aligned partner,” Bassett said in the announcement. “Bleckmann has the resources, expertise, and commitment to scale renewal and recommerce for the industry.” Co-founder Jeff Denby said Bleckmann’s global footprint would let it build on what the company started “in Europe and the US.”
Bleckmann is 75 percent owned by Netlog Logistics, an Istanbul-based company that bought Bleckmann in 2014. The Çak family, a Turkish business group, hold the majority share of Netlog. After the sale, control of the business Oregon helped finance sat with a foreign private logistics group.
The effect on Cascade Locks is a familiar story of small towns encountering large multi-national firms. Bassett announced that services provided in Cascade Locks were being set up in Ohio and offshored to European locations The Oregon facility closed, and port records say the buyer opted to leave the port location. Bassett stayed on with Bleckmann as its Circularity Lead, but the other jobs the building was meant to host left Oregon.
Bassett has since been upbeat about how it went. “When I tell people how easy and aligned the acquisition has gone, they say that’s not normal,” she said in a 2023 newsletter Q&A.
Cascade Locks was left with the loan, and the ensuing tax burden. In May 2023 its budget packet listed $5,703,086 still owed on Flex 6 and described the building as “Vacant right now.” The port was paying more than $53,000 a month on its loans and maintenance with no tenant. Port Commission President Brad Lorang said the empty building had cost the port “roughly $300,000 in accrued interest” on the $6 million loan.
The port, which “isn’t sure why the Renewal Workshop’s new owner isn’t responsible for the lease” had to look at other uses for the property. A data center proposal was considered and canceled, but now in the port’s 2025-26 budget Flex 6 is listed as leased.
Bassett is now on the ballot. Her voter-guide statement says she “co-founded a company in Cascade Locks that created local jobs by giving apparel a second life.” It doesn’t mention the closure or the port’s debt. She calls herself “not a career politician” and says she knows “how to build something, make payroll, and read a budget.”
Cascade Locks still budgets $435,500 in debt service on the building they built for Bassett, accounting for over 40% of Cascade Locks’ yearly debt service. The debt is equivalent to over 10% of its discretionary budget.