New port building filling up

A California medical devices manufacturer and a Washougal machine shop will be among the tenants of a new 49,500-square-foot building in Washougal when it opens this summer. Therasigma LLC President Jim Klett has signed a lease for 13,200 square feet, and Josh Swift, owner of Swift Machining, Inc., has signed a lease for 3,300 square feet, both in the Port of Camas-Washougal Building 18, 460 S. Grant St., in the Steigerwald Commerce Center. The Port of Camas-Washougal Commission approved both leases during its April 2 regular meetingTherasigma will relocate its company headquarters from Orange, California, to Washougal, by May 31. There are seven Therasigma employees currently in California. Three of them -- Klett and his son and daughter -- will relocate to Washougal, so the company will need to hire four new employees this year. Klett, founder of Therasigma in 2012, said he expects to double the employee count in 2019, and he hopes to provide semi-technical training and possibly a work program for local high school students. Therasigma manufactures devices for the relief and management of chronic pain. Klett, who has previously traveled to Washougal for business and recreation, met Greg Goforth, a commercial and residential real estate broker with Windermere Crest, of Camas, in January of 2017. Goforth facilitated the lease agreement. "Jim was walking by the office, and I convinced him to look at the C-W Port space," Goforth said. Klett said he and his family are looking forward to relocating to the Washougal/Camas area, getting involved with the community and meeting new colleagues and friends. "We have picked a beautiful place on earth to work and live," he said. Swift Machining to expand in Washougal Swift Machining's relocation from a 1,400-square-foot space at 1414 "E" St., in Washougal, to the Steigerwald Commerce Center will more than double the size of its current operations. Josh Swift, a 1994 Washougal High School graduate, founded Swift Machining, a vertical computer numerical control machine shop, in 2000. There are seven employees including Swift, and he plans to hire one more worker after the relocation to the larger space. Swift employees manufacture parts for uses in the high tech, drone and lumber industries. Customers include Miller Manufacturing, a Port of Camas-Washougal Industrial Park tenant, in Washougal. David Ripp, executive director of the Port of Camas-Washougal, said he will request approval during the Port Commission's next meeting on April 16 for a lease signed Tuesday by Logsdon Farmhouse Ales for a 3,300-square-foot bay in Building 18. Logsdon, of Hood River, Oregon, will expand its operations to the former Amnesia Brewing location in downtown Washougal, and use some of the space in Building 18 for warehousing and bottling its beers.

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