Sharp selling its last building in Camas

Sharp Electronics is selling off its last major property in Camas.

The Sharp Microelectronics building, listed by Jones Lang LaSalle Brokerage in Portland, is the second of the company’s two large properties on the original Sharp campus — the first was sold to the Camas School District in July 2016 for $12.5 million and is now occupied by Odyssey Middle School.

Sharp sold another property on campus to the city of Vancouver for a water reservoir and has two others under contract.

The recently listed microelectronics facility at 5700 N.W. Pacific Rim Blvd. is nearly 165,000 square feet on a 21-acre property. The research and development facility is offered at $17.95 million.

Before condensing staff into the Microelectronics building in 2013, and selling to the Camas School District in 2016, the 118-acre Sharp campus was a model of how much Camas had moved away from its 1980s reputation as a one-paper-mill town.

Original plans called for the 118-acre light industrial campus to house a 250,000-square-foot semiconductor fabrication lab. That deal fell through in the mid-1980s, and Sharp took over the campus in the mid-1990s, building the two facilities that now house Odyssey Middle School and the Sharp Microelectronics research and development lab.

Because of the proximity to the Camas schools — the new Discovery High School was built adjacent to Odyssey Middle — Camas School District Superintendent Jeff Snell said the district has a vested interest in the future of the property. However, the school district has no plans to buy the building.

“Unfortunately, the price tag on that property is beyond our means,” Snell said.

He noted the district held a meeting to gauge interest of potential buyers and discuss partnerships. Odyssey and Discovery are project-based learning institutions that, among other things, seek to connect students with professionals in STEM fields. Having some of those professionals working next door would be ideal.

“There’s an interest in who our neighbors are,” Snell said. “We are trying (at Odyssey and Discovery) to have a lot of give and take with the community. That property would be key.”