The 130-year-old West Linn paper mill is getting an unexpected revival, with dramatic market changes prompting a famously contrarian investor to make a “multimillion-dollar” bet on its future.

The plant abruptly closed in 2017, throwing 250 millworkers onto the streets after its pulp supplies dried up. Today, though, pulp prices have fallen while the number of suppliers of the coated paper West Linn turns out have fallen dramatically.

So Clark County investor Ken Peterson, whose eclectic portfolio includes everything from pulp mills to augmented reality technology, said he saw an opportunity.

“I’m not saying it will be another 130 years and there will be ups and downs,” Peterson said. “But at least for the foreseeable future this seems to be pretty bright.”

Plans call to restart one paper machine with 85 employees by the end of summer, according to Peterson. He said he met with about 80 former employees and their families last week to discuss the prospect, and said the availability of workers familiar with the site was a key factor in deciding to restart.

“That changes the dynamic considerably and shortens the lead time because you have skilled people who are intimately acquainted with papermaking,” Peterson said.

Formerly the West Linn Paper Co., the plant will now be the Willamette Falls Paper Co. It will be a subsidiary of Peterson’s firm, Columbia Ventures, and Brian Konen, who had been chief operating officer of West Linn Paper, will be president of the new company.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reported last week that Columbia Ventures was working to restart the plant and had reached a deal to lease the land and property from owner Portland General Electric for at least five years.

The papermaking equipment had been scheduled to go up for auction a week ago, but Peterson said he reached a deal to buy it just one day before the auction.

Columbia Ventures had been meeting with Business Oregon, the state’s economic development arm, about public incentives to promote the project. Peterson said the tight timetable for the auction meant he had to make a decision to proceed before arranging any support, but state officials said this week talks are continuing.

While Peterson wouldn’t say how much his firm is investing in the project, he described his commitment as “multimillion dollars.” Columbia Ventures said it owns three machines on the site altogether, with a potential capacity of 260,000 tons.

A former Hermiston attorney, Peterson became a prominent regional investor in 1987 when he reopened the shuttered aluminum smelter in Goldendale, Washington. Peterson later sold that project but has made a series of other investments in the Northwest and around the world – often in sectors that other investors had discounted.

Columbia Ventures’ portfolio will soon include a pulp mill in Dayton, Washington, that will use wheat farmers’ waste straw instead of hardwood. Peterson said he expects the Dayton mill will eventually supply West Linn and said he hopes to use regionally recycled paper to provide additional pulp.

Changing market conditions, federal tax cuts and other factors went into the decision to reopen, Peterson said. Other companies in Oregon’s forest products industry have expressed concern about a pending business tax hike and prospective caps on carbon emissions – now on hold.

While Peterson said he shares those concerns, he said they didn’t outweigh the factors working in favor of the West Linn mill. And he said the opportunity to use wheat straw that would otherwise be burned, along with regionally recycled paper, gives it an environmental component that may work in the plant’s favor.

“I hope the Legislature in Oregon will, as time goes on, be amenable to science and how this actually works out,” Peterson said.

-- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; 503-294-7699