[MarkDaMan]

^if they left:

The company signed a 40-year lease with the Port of Portland last fall. The agreement consolidated leases on three Freightliner locations on 27.6 acres on Swan Island.

That deal, however, included a one-time exit opportunity that could be exercised in 2013, an oddity in commercial leases.

"A normal lease doesn't have a buyout opportunity," says Mark Childs, managing member of Integrated Corporate Property Services, a Portland commercial real estate firm that counts Freightliner as one of its clients. "Landlords hate those clauses. You can only assume the worst-case scenario."

The lease requires Freightliner to notify the Port of Portland between June 30, 2011, and July 1, 2013, if it plans to terminate the agreement. It can vacate the lease no sooner than 270 days later.

Freightliner would then pay a one-time early termination fee of $8.45 million.

If Freightliner leaves early, it also forfeits its assets on Swan Island. Although the company leases its land from the Port of Portland, it owns its 215,000-square-foot corporate headquarters and a research and development facility there.

County tax records estimate the value of the headquarters building at $13 million.

The company also spent $5 million to build the research facility in 2004, putting the total cost of leaving Portland at more than $26 million.

Freightliner can't sublease any of the property without the consent of the Port of Portland.

http://www.al.com/business/ambizdail...0806132580.xml