Story updated
This story was updated at 4:06 p.m. Aug. 19 with information on the company that purchased Interfor's property and assets.
Interfor Corp.’s exit from its former Philomath sawmill operation is now complete with the Canadian-based company’s sale of the land and assets to Timberlab Property, a Portland-based mass timber provider owned by Swinerton, a builder out of Concord, California.
Rick Pozzebon, Interfor’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, mentioned the sale during a company earnings call this month following the release of financial results from the second fiscal quarter.
During the call, Pozzebon said Interfor’s financial position was supported by $48 million of operating cash flows in the quarter, driven by the release of $72 million of working capital.
“This working capital improvement is attributable in part to our active management of log and lumber inventories,” Pozzebon said, the transcript of the call published on Investing.com. “Also supporting the financial position was $21 million of cash generated from asset sales, including assets of the former sawmill in Philomath, Oregon.”
Market Screener and Lumber Blue Book both published brief information on the Philomath sale.
“An undisclosed buyer acquired Philomath sawmill from Interfor Corporation for $15 million,” Market Screener reported.
“On June 27, 2024, the company sold property and assets of the former Philomath, Oregon, sawmill for cash consideration of $15 million,” Lumber Blue Book wrote.
Benton County property tax records show Timberlab Property LLC as the owner of Interfor’s former properties.
Interfor started laying off employees at the Philomath operation back in February — more than half of the workforce losing their jobs on Feb. 15 as “part of the indefinite curtailment of the operation,” according to a company spokesperson.
Production stopped immediately in mid-February and the shipping, kiln and planer parts of the operation slowed until reaching a complete shutdown by the end of March.
The Philomath sawmill produced a mix of kiln-dried and green hemlock and Douglas fir dimensional lumber and timbers with an annual capacity of 220 million board feet, according to information released by the company.
Interfor acquired the sawmill formerly owned by Georgia-Pacific in 2021. The company owned a little more than 80 acres with facilities on Industrial Way and near the intersection of Highway 20 and Highway 34.
2. Temp job 20 years later
The city of Philomath recognized the contributions of 20-year employee Mike Vencill, a Public Works utility maintenance worker, during the Aug. 12 City Council meeting. With his family in the audience, Vencill received a plaque and handshake from Mayor Chas Jones along with kind words from Philomath Public Works Director Kevin Fear.
“It’s been great working with him,” Fear said, attending the meeting through Zoom. “Mike’s one of most reliable employees. He gets stuck with kind of the little oddball projects and stuff that — I don’t know if anyone else wants to do them — but we can depend on Mike to pull through and do whatever needs to be done to get them completed, and completed well and correctly.”
Vencill shared an interesting story about how he came to work for the city.
“I got hired and it was meant to be an 18-month temporary thing while Garry Black was serving in Iraq,” Vencill said about the city’s Public Works operations supervisor who served in the Oregon Army National Guard for 26 years. “Eighteen months in, he was home but he hadn’t started back at work yet and one of the other guys left and I slid into that job because I didn’t have anything lined up.”
Vencill recalled telling Public Works that he’d stick around a little longer and figure out what he wants to do.
“Eighteen and a half years later, here I am,” he said. “This is what I wanted to do and it’s a great city to work for, a great place to raise a family and all the co-workers I work with and management … it’s really good-working relationships.”
On a side note, Vencill’s connection to Philomath Public Works runs deep. His late father, Beau Vencill, worked for the department for 27 years, including several years as the Public Works director. The Public Works building is named in his memory.
“It’s an honor and really great to have him with us,” Fear said about Mike Vencill during his comments. “We hope to get another 20 years from him.”
3. New wildlife refuge in region
Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced the establishment of a new wildlife refuge area in the Willamette Valley. The 600-acre parcel of land in the Diamond Hill wetlands just south of Brownsville is part of a 10-year effort to protect oak and prairie habitat used by several endangered and threatened species.
This spot is located roughly 35 miles from Philomath.
Officials said it is the 15th conservation area in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Wildlife Refuge System, which has 571 other units across the nation.
“The National Wildlife Refuge System plays an invaluable role in providing vital landscapes for wildlife species, offering outdoor recreation and bolstering climate resilience across the country,” U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said through a press release. “In communities across the nation, the Biden-Harris administration is investing resources and bringing together local, state, tribal and conservation partners to protect treasured outdoor spaces for current and future generations to enjoy.”
The acquisition of the Diamond Hill wetlands is the first purchase of the Willamette Valley Conservation Area. Among the endangered and threatened species are the Western monarch butterfly, Western meadowlark and Oregon white oak. The conservation area will also provide habitat for migratory waterfowl, shorebirds and neotropical songbirds.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).