Genie plans site improvements

MOSES LAKE - Genie Industries is moving forward with plans to improve their Moses Lake site.

The company wants to construct a new shipping dock facility and upgrade and expand their existing parking lot, among other projects, according to a building permit application recently submitted to the county.

The new shipping dock facility will consist of two covered container loading docks, two covered flat/stepped deck loading docks and one open-air dock. The facility will also include an office, restroom and compressor room, according to county documents.

The new shipping docks are part of the company's overall site improvement plan, Genie spokesperson Melinda Zimmerman-Smith said. The new facility will consolidate the three existing docks at the plant and add a fourth, she said.

Parking lot improvements at the plant include expanding the parking area, applying new asphalt to the existing lot, re-striping, adding landscaping and making changes to isle-way circulation.

The two projects are part of the first of four phases of the company's overall site improvement plan, Zimmerman-Smith said. She said they are approved for the first phase, which will address traffic flow and logistics at the plant, but have not set a construction start date for those projects yet.

County documents also included Genie's future plans to add metal canopies to each of their high-bay door sections and construct a New Product Development building with a test track and associated equipment.

Zimmerman-Smith said the projects are part of the other phases of the site improvement plan.

The new building is still in the planning phase.

Genie signed a two-year lease with the Port of Moses Lake last June for a 33,000 square-foot building off Randolph Road. Director of Operations Glenn Gere announced at the time they would be using that building for Genie's product development team.

The company had plans to build a structure on site within the next few years and bring the development team back to that building, he said.

Gere said Genie decided to build the new structure to increase manufacturing space inside their current building. Genie currently occupies a 500,000 square foot facility at the Port of Moses Lake where they manufacture about 16 different models of machines, including the new SX-180 boom lift.

Gere previously said the company increased manufacturing space at the plant to handle production of the SX-180 line, which started rolling off the assembly lines earlier this year.

Preparations for the line also included a $6 million investment in a new paint system. And retrofitting an area of the plant to handle production of the SX-180 line was an estimated $2 million investment, he said.

Zimmerman-Smith said this week that production rates at the plant are steady and stable, with a good customer backlog of orders.