WARRENTON — The Port of Astoria narrowly avoided an opt-out deadline by JBT Lektro as it negotiates a new lease with the electric airplane tug manufacturer at the Astoria Regional Airport.

Will Isom, executive director of the Port, said negotiations with JBT Lektro started about two months ago. There is no indication the company plans to leave, he said, but the two sides needed more time to iron out issues in a renewed lease. Company representatives were not available for comment.

“These things take time, and their lease is more complicated than most,” Isom said.

Lektro, one of the region’s few high-tech manufacturers, signed a 10-year lease with the Port in 2000, including a 10-year extension option. In 2005, the lease was extended to 2030 while giving Lektro the right in to opt out in May 2015, 2020 or 2025.

The extension of time required the sign-off of Business Oregon, which loaned the Port $2.6 million in the early 2000s to facilitate improvements at the hangar. Lektro had also received a $440,000 job-creation grant from the state for the project.

This is the first lease negotiation since Chicago-based JBT Corp. acquired Lektro earlier this year for $48 million and renamed it JBT Lektro, keeping former CEO Eric Paulson and most of the staff in place. The company has mostly been mum about its plans for the future at the airport.

A year ago, Lektro sent a tort notice, the precursor to a lawsuit, to the Port claiming it could be held liable for undisclosed soil defects under the hangar, which has experienced issues with settling. The notice called on the Port to share equally in the cost of geotechnical and engineering studies of the issue and reimburse Lektro if the soils underneath the hangar are shown to be defective.

The Port and Lektro have also at odds about who would be responsible for any necessary repairs under Lektro’s lease, which states the “tenant shall maintain the leased premises and make all repairs necessary for maintaining the property.” The Port has said Lektro is responsible for repairs to the hangar, while Lektro’s notice claimed the Port is responsible for any pre-existing construction defects or soil issues.

Rumors have long swirled that Lektro could move operations elsewhere. The manufacturer faces a competitive disadvantage being located far from urban markets and infrastructure. It has remained competitive in part because of trademarks on its unique towbarless airplane tugs, used by commercial and government customers in more than 80 countries.

“Warrenton as a geographic location couldn’t be much worse,” Paulson said in 2005. “Most of our product goes east of the Rockies.”