Wilsonville takes up urban renewal plan for SoloPower

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SoloPower's move to Wilsonville has prompted the city to create a one-building urban renewal zone.

Update: Wilsonville City Council delayed a vote on the plan, calling SoloPower's plans to come to Wilsonville into question.

The Wilsonville City Council meets Monday night and will take up an ordinance that would create an urban renewal district surrounding the former Nike distribution center that's been identified by SoloPower Inc. as the site of its first manufacturing facility in Oregon.

The plan, called the S.W. 95th Avenue Urban Renewal Plan, addresses the 26-acre parcel, home to a warehouse that has been vacant since 2008. It will provide SoloPower redevelopment assistance for the site worth $11 million.

San Jose-based SoloPower will also receive a $4 million incentive package as part of the plan, of which 50 percent could be reimbursed to the city by Clackamas County should anticipated tax revenues not exceed the advance.

The ordinance points out that Wilsonville was in competition with sites in California, Arizona and Portland for the SoloPower plant, which the city says will generate a $250 million capital investment in the community and more than 400 family-wage jobs.

SoloPower, which is venture-backed with a total raised of $110 million, also secured a $197 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to support the building of the plant.

SoloPower makes flexible thin-film solar panels using a technology known as Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenide, or CIGS.

The company projected earlier this year that it would invest about $340 million in the Wilsonville plant.

The urban renewal plan was deemed by the Wilsonville Planning Commission as fitting within the city's comprehensive plan.

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