Gresham’s inventive 66-day land-use review process and rapid response team continues to attract major industry to the city. Element Six, a synthetic diamond manufacturer and member of the De Beers group of companies, plans to build a $94 million advanced manufacturing facility in Gresham Vista Business Park. The Gresham facility will initially create about 60 new full-time positions for engineers, technicians and other employees.
UK-based Element Six chose Gresham to expand due to the proximity to power, availability of a highly skilled workforce, and the City’s commitment to partner with them and meet their aggressive timeline.
“We’re very excited to welcome Element Six to our Gresham,” said Gresham Mayor Shane Bemis. “Gresham is becoming a hub for advanced industries, and we’re happy to welcome the new jobs and investment. The City of Gresham has the fastest guaranteed land-use review process in the region, which makes us especially attractive to prospective companies.”
Construction on the roughly 100,000-square-foot building is expected to begin spring of 2018. Once complete, Element Six laboratories will produce synthetic diamonds that are chemically identical to mined diamonds.
“We selected the Portland region based on critical success factors such as competitive power distribution, access to a high-quality talent pool and strong support from the City of Gresham and other local partners,” said Ken Sullivan, Element Six’s Global Operations Director.
Gresham Vista Business Park, owned by the Port of Portland, is located next to the ON Semiconductor campus in Gresham, and is less than a mile from I-84. The City of Gresham has partnered with the Port to establish it as a thriving jobs center for clean tech, manufacturing and other traded-sector companies. Other tenants include Subaru, which recently opened its master distribution center for auto parts logistics.
YouTube video below is from another Element Six operation and explains how the process works.