Learning.com Leads Flying Rhino Lease Up

PORTLAND-Learning.com moved into the so-called Flying Rhino building at 1440 NW Overton in recent weeks after signing a three-year, 10,000-sf lease for the entire top floor of the two, story, 20,000-sf building. The deal, which included fully furnished space, was done for right around the listing price for the space, which was $11 per sf NNN. Include about $5 for services and the aggregate deal value comes close to $500,000.

The space was occupied by Flying Rhino, which master leased the entire building for five years a couple of years back before scaling back to 3,000 sf on the first floor this fall and assigning sublease duties to Mike Holzgang and Brad Christiansen with Colliers International, who leased it up in 45 days thanks to a lease rate that was a couple of bucks below market and a space already built out especially for high-tech, creative uses. Acuity, a graphics and design firm, also leased space in the building.

Christiansen tells GlobeSt.com that the cut asking rate was thanks to Flying Rhino coming to the Pearl District in early 1999, at the beginning of the former warehouse district’s rise as opposed to the middle of it. “We had a couple of organizations that had basically decided not to make a move because of the economy, but because of the opportunity almost came to bat after all,” says Christiansen. “We almost had three different companies competing at the same time.”

Learning.com, a rapidly-growing provider of online products and service for K-12 educators, relocated from 2,200 sf on North Russell that was being shared by 27 employees, chairman, CEO and founder Bill Kelly tells GlobeSt.com. Now, instead of a Lilliputian-like 81 sf each, employees have more like 350 sf, a move that has already begun paying dividends.

“Everybody was used to it, so nobody was complaining,” says Kelly, whose firm was represented by Cushman & Wakefield’s Scott Madsen. “It took actually moving over here before people realized how much productivity was being hampered by our physical circumstances.”

As well, says Kelly, the plug-and-play nature of the space — with modular office furniture in place, a furnished kitchen and even reception-area furniture — made for an easy transition. The employees packed up the office the Wednesday right before Thanksgiving and came to work at the new place on Friday.

“The movers showed up with the boxes at noon and everybody had their stuff on their desks and was working productively by the end of the day,” says Kelly, making sure to credit his office manager, Rosalie McDonald.

If as Kelly said the company can be much more productive in the larger space, watch out for this company. Learning.com has seen its software and ASP services picked up in 493 schools across 18 states, and signed licensing agreements for the product’s distribution to Japan, Thailand, India and Australia. “Our cumulative revenue 12 months ago was zero,” says Kelly.