By Karen Robes Meeks
The Port of Portland-owned Gresham Vista Business Park has announced a new tenant. U.K. synthetic diamond manufacturer Element Six, which is part of The De Beers Group, will begin building a $94-million advanced manufacturing facility this summer, with hopes to be fully operational by 2020.
“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.
This comes on the heels of news that De Beers plans to debut Lightbox Jewelry, a line of affordable diamond fashion jewelry.
The 60,000-square-foot facility located east of Portland will initially house about 60 full-time engineers, technicians and other employees related to synthetic diamond production. Once at full scale, the plant will be able to make up to 500,000 rough carats of lab-grown diamonds annually.
“We’re very excited to welcome Element Six to our Gresham,” said Gresham, Oregon, Mayor Shane Bemis. “Gresham is becoming a hub for advanced industries, and we’re happy to welcome the new job 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.”
