Nike in Talks With States for ‘Campus’

Sports marketing giant Nike Inc. is in discussions with officials of four Western states and British Columbia over plans to develop a corporate campus that could employ more than 5,000 people, a spokesman said. The site, which could be open by 2003, would be the company’s largest outside its headquarters campus in Beaverton, Ore., where about 5,000 of the company’s 16,000 employees are based. Nike spokesman Lee Weinstein said that chances are “very good” the company will go forward with plans to build a new campus that would include space for offices and possibly light manufacturing and distribution. Published reports have indicated Nike decided to look beyond Oregon as a result of land-use disputes with local and state officials. Weinstein said the states under consideration are New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Washington, and said Nike may narrow the list to one or two states by Dec. 15. Construction could begin early next decade. Nike’s Class B stock fell 56 cents to close at $54.94 on the NYSE.