Clark County has landed a plastic bottle manufacturer from Portland, adding to a growing list of companies that plan to cross the state line.
Owners of Evergreen Plastic Container say they were drawn to the county by their new site at Northeast 47th Avenue and 68th Street, which gives them room to expand operations. The company’s husband-and-wife owners Helen Nguwen and Vincent Do also were attracted by cheaper power rates and the absence of a state income tax on the Washington side of the Columbia River. The couple purchased their 5.2-acre industrial site for $1.24 million.
They expect to start constructing a 50,000-square-foot building next month and open the facility by the end of the year. Evergreen Plastic Container, with 30 employees, manufactures bottles for water, soft drinks, milk and juice. ?The site, within Vancouver’s growth boundary but considered part of unincorporated Clark County, was already approved for development, said Eric Fuller, president of Eric Fuller & Associates Inc. commercial real estate firm, which represented the buyers.
“It will take less time to develop than a green-field site,” Fuller said.
Nguwen and Do bought the tract from husband-and-wife business partners Marty Rifkin and Kate Jones, former owners of gummy vitamin maker Northwest Natural Products, which Princeton, N.J.-based Church & Dwight Co. acquired in 2012. The parcel and an additional 5-acre tract were originally planned as a development called Parkside Commerce Center to serve as a campus for Northwest Natural Products.