Many projects at work in Mattawa industrial park

Outlook bright for 'under utilized area'

Things are happening in Mattawa.

Mike Conley, manager of the Port of Mattawa, said that several projects affecting the Port's industrial park are getting under way this year.

Those projects include plans for a recreational vehicle (RV) park; one of the contractors located within the park is working on building the Bonneville transmission line over the next few years and tying together the Port's well and the town's water system, Conley said.

The Port also recently added 2,000 square feet of building for the expanding business Mattawa Wood Products Corporation, another building located on the industrial park property, and brought in sewer and water lines to serve several of the newer buildings on the property.

"We've got this whole property engineered for sewer and water end roads, the road right of ways are dedicated," Conley said.

The Port is working on a feasibility study grant with state river boards to determine if it makes sense to complete the sewer, water and roads in the south half of the industrial park, Conley said.

"If that comes back like it's supposed to, we'll have a Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB) application at the September meeting to finish the sewer, water and roads in the south half of the property," he said.

The Bonneville transmission line is being expanded to double its size and capacity to deal with a bottleneck in the area for Bonneville transmission, Conley said. The Port itself is not directing the project.

"They're setting a bunch of new towers," Conley said. "It's coming actually from Kittitas to the Sunnyside area. We're a beneficiary of them doing that because of the contractor. We're located about halfway on that line, so it made sense for them to come here, locate and stage here. That isn't something we were planning on when we went the building last year."

At another Port industrial park, Conley said the Port still owns four of 10 lots, and has a project going in three of those.

"We are working on a fire flow system for that park," he said. "(One of the lot buyers) is building a grape processing facility and maybe eventually a winery; he needed fire flow."

Funding is in place for the fire flow system, but the Port had to ask for a six-month extension from the CERB board because the facility is not moving as fast as they had hoped, Conley said. He estimated that the project would be done by next winter.

In addition, 20 acres of land are in the PUD relicensing recreation plan to be developed as an RV park, Conley said.

"We don't have much in the way of RV facilities down here at the south end of the county," he said. "It is also designed to handle some picker tenting or some kind of place for the pickers to go with cherries and apples, in addition to a place for RVs to hook up, on a very limited basis …"

So the Port has something going on in pretty much all of its landholdings, Conley affirmed, pointing at the Mattawa Wood Products Corporation as a good indicator of job creation in Mattawa.

Terry Roller, owner of the business, agreed and said that, in comparison, a visitor to the Mattawa industrial park four and a half years ago would have found a desert. The Mattawa Wood Products Corporation moved into the industrial park in July 2001.

In addition to produce crates and decorative boxes, the Mattawa Wood Products Corporation recently acquired another company to manufacture the screen assembly used in screen printing, Roller said.

"The industrial park is part of the economics structure driving this area," he said. "(The outlook) is very bright. I think it's an under utilized area. If large companies were to identify the available workforce here, the people, and the economics benefits of doing business here, I think they'd give it serious consideration."

Mattawa Port commissioner Wayne Sahli said that the city is doing an assessment.

"A lot of people are looking in this direction that never did before," Sahli said. "Businesses and the opportunities that have come up in south Grant County are better than it's ever been. I think (the outlook on the industrial park) is real progressive and we're going to see a lot of change within the next five years."