A regional manufacturer has purchased the former Safran building in the Barkley district
A major regional manufacturer has purchased the former Safran building in the Barkley district.
According to a real estate transaction posted on Whatcom County Treasurer & Assessor website, Janicki Industries has purchased the 251,000-square-foot facility at 3225 Woburn St. for $25 million.
Messages were left for Janicki Industries on Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 5, requesting comment on their plans for the facility.
Janicki, based in Sedro-Woolley, is a privately owned engineering and manufacturing company that specializes in advanced composite materials and exotic metals, according to its website.
The company has been a supplier for Boeing for more than 20 years, employing 890 people in Sedro-Woolley and in Layton, Utah, according to a post about the company on the Boeing website.
While it hasn’t immediately been announced what Janicki Industries plans to do with the building, the possibility of a manufacturer moving into that space could be a big boost to the local economy. The previous tenant made a variety of products for the airline industry, including overhead stowage compartments and ceiling panels.
Known by a variety of names over the years, including Heath Tecna and Zodiac Aerospace, the building at various times employed more than 600 people.
As Safran Cabins, the company continued to make products for the airline industry. In September 2020, citing the pandemic as impacting the company, it announced that it would wind down operations in Bellingham, closing it at the end of 2021. The property was put up for sale with an original asking price of $30 million.
The relatively quick sale of such a large building points to the demand for quality industrial buildings, said Don Goldberg, the Port of Bellingham’s director for economic development. Goldberg was also excited to hear that the sale went to Janicki Industries.
“They are a class act with technology based manufacturing which is exactly what we are interested in pursuing for the region,” Goldberg said in an email.
Available industrial buildings are in very short supply in Bellingham and Whatcom County. A new report about vacancy space put together by Ryan Martin of Pacific Continental Realty indicates the current vacancy rate for industrial space in Bellingham fell from 0.9% in the third quarter to 0.4% in the fourth quarter.
This story was originally published January 5, 2022 at 1:15 PM.
