Sadly, it makes sense. I'm willing to bet that Starbucks looked at keeping it in Portland, but (a) couldn't find existing manufacturing facilities that could be converted to that use and (b) couldn't build proper facilities at a decent cost. I swear, Portland in 2011 is starting to resemble Chicago in 1973, where every last bit of money had to go through the mayor and his approval, and the mayor is so crooked that he needs four aides to help him screw his pants on every morning.

I'll bet the mayor of Kent, Washington doesn't Tweet.

I think the departure of TAZO probably is a first step to try to gin up the gentrification of the CES. The owners of that property and others next to it were hopeful when the Burnside BridgeHead was supposedly going to have the Home Depot and condos next door that their pretties would be able to ride the wave of bunker development. The trolley tracks are now nearly finished...the fix is in.
And the location! Next to the railroad tracks....and so close to the Hooper House; people will line up to pay a million dollars to live there!
Or so the TIF developers like Homer tell us.

Ooops...."pretties" should be properties....damn spell check!
Actually maybe pretties isn't so off the mark.

But...but...but...bike lanes!

There goes a business that will probably thrive.

Portland Native,
Looked up pretties in the dictionary, may not be so off the mark.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pretties
pretties
[prit-ee]   Origin
Idiom
14.
sitting pretty, Informal .
a.
in an advantageous position.
b.
well-to-do; successful.

Origin:
before 1000; Middle English prati ( e ), pratte, prettie cunning, gallant, fine, handsome, pretty; Old English prættig, prettī cunning, derivative of prǣtt a trick, wile (cognate with Dutch part, pret trick, prank, Old Norse prettr trick, prettugr tricky)

Aren't there pretties who have close ties to city hall? The pretties get the perks?
and so on....

Seattle:

Takes an old Sears warehouse and remodels it into Starbucks' headquarters, a smaller Sears store and an OfficeMax store, plus other various businesses (tax-paying entities).

Portland:

Takes an old Sears store, razes it, and builds Metro's Regional Center there. Then takes six blocks to the west, demolishes anything else there, and builds the Convention Center there. And then take the few blocks to the east of the old Sears and puts more government buildings over there too.

Seattle: They put their Convention Center on top of a freeway (maximizing mixed-use of air rights). Doesn't have a regional government. Doesn't pride itself on endless government buildings.