West Plains construction picking up

WEST PLAINS – Construction is alive and well on the West Plains.

That was the verdict at a May 28 West Plains Chamber of Commerce virtual meeting on the state of economic development — and continues to show evidence of validity in mid-June.

Al French, Spokane County Commissioner and board chair of S3R3 Solutions, told the meeting that several developers filed plan reviews for projects, mostly Airway Heights and Spokane International Airport. That work has taken place even in the face of ongoing restrictions and limitations in place due to attempts to slow the spread of coronavirus.

“We continue to have folks express interest in the West Plains,” French said. “There are a number of developers in the permitting process now for new construction, new capacity out on the West Plains.”

That process has picked up over the past 30 days, S3R3 executive director Todd Coleman said. S3R3 is the public development authority (PDA) managing the West Plains/Spokane International Airport area development.

Several projects are looking to break ground possibly as early as this month. Spokane Valley-based AT Acquisitions LLC, which does business as AT Industrial, is planning a 187,000-square-foot industrial building in the new McFarland Industrial Park at 12315 W. McFarland Road, west of the airport and east of Exotic Metals Forming Company.

The $15 million facility would be capable of housing up to 12 tenants at 15,000 square feet each or one tenant leasing the entire building. AT Industrial is finalizing purchase of the property, which has capacity to support an additional 250,000 square feet of warehouse space, and has retained Architectural Ventures to design the building and Divcon, Inc. as general contractor.

Another possible tenant for the West Plains is Puget Sound Pipe & Supply out of Kent, Wash., which has filed a preliminary application for a two-story, 18,000-square-foot industrial warehouse on four acres of land between Hazelwood and Flint roads in Airway Heights. The project is valued at $2.5 million, with Spokane’s Fusion Architecture serving as project architect.

Not far away on Flint Road and 21st Avenue, Seattle-based engineering firm McKinstry Company is planning an industrial warehouse on five acres of land. The 67,500-square-foot, $5 million project could also begin as early as this month.

Finally, Spokane Developer Harlan Douglass is proceeding with plans for Douglass Commerce Park, a development that will eventually be home to 19 commercial warehouse, manufacturing, distribution and office buildings consisting of 1.4 million square feet on 12 acres of land at 5010 S. Thomas Mallen Road north of the Amazon Fulfillment Center. A state environmental review of the first two warehouse buildings, totaling 176,000 square feet, is under way.

Coleman said they are also focused on infrastructure projects in the area. One of those is an agreement between the cities of Airway Heights and Spokane and contract with Geo Engineers for development of the 6th – 10th – 12th Avenue Corridor project that would provide an alternative route to U.S. Highway 2.

“We are pushing ahead full steam with that project,” Coleman said. “Our goal is by mid-August to have a package that’s available to submit for grants and hopefully we can get some state funding, if there’s any funding left, but also for federal stimulus packages to get those projects moving forward.”

Coleman said they are also moving forward with regional stormwater facilities, doing a feasibility analysis to see how the improvements can be funded. The facility, which would be located in the Highway 2 area, is critical to managing stormwater in the area, particularly with development.

“What we’ve seen in some of the preliminary analysis is that if we continue to do stormwater on a site-by-site basis you’re taking about 20 percent of the land and likely costing those developers somewhere between $300 million -- $350 million on stormwater facilities,” Coleman said. “We can get about a four-to-one benefit to cost ratio on that and reduce the cost to developers.”

Coleman also said that plans to look at wetlands mitigation in the area in April fell through due to the coronavirus pandemic measures, but hoped to get representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers and other experts back onsite this fall to explore those needs.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].