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moved its office from its former Beaverton location into the downtown Portland KOIN Center this week. After a 3-month renovation, employees moved into the office on Nov. 14.

In August of this year, Skanska was named as a potential tenant for the prospective building, for which Skanska is the general contractor. At the time, Skanska representatives would not comment on the rumor, which was also found in documents submitted by the sustainability center team to the Oregon Legislature.

This week, Skanska general manager Ross Vroman said that the company was 鈥渘ever going in there,鈥� and when that rumor was circulating in August, Skanska had already signed a lease for the KOIN center space.

鈥淭he Sustainability Center has a long way to go,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e had expressed interest in being a possible tenant, but there’s no timetable. The building’s not ready to go.鈥�

At the KOIN Center, Skanska rents 17,000 square feet on the building’s third floor. It will be the company’s only Portland office and will have 80 seats. Though Skanska has 175 salaried employees in the USA branch, many work out of the office, Vroman said.

The new office is smaller than the building Skanska formerly occupied in Beaverton, Vroman said.

鈥淲e actually became more efficient and downsized,鈥� he said.

Skanska has wanted to move from its downtown office since 2008 and actually planned to move into the Meier and Frank building, Vroman said.

鈥淭hen the economy happened,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut there was still a desire to be (downtown) for employee satisfaction. Our clients and customers are downtown, as well as a lot of our partners in the industry.鈥�

When asked why the KOIN Center was the home Skanska chose, Vroman cited the building’s LEED existing building status and a 鈥渃ost-competitive lease.鈥�

鈥淲e’ll be here for a while,鈥� Vroman said.

courtesy of Curtis Gregory Perry via Flickr