Wanapum Village sold to Selah company

EPHRATA — Grant County PUD commissioners have approved the sale of Wanapum Village to Zirkle Fruit Company, headquartered in Selah. Purchase price was $4,005,000.

The company has apple and cherry orchards near Desert Aire, Royal City and Wahluke. In a memo to commissioners, PUD land specialist Blair Fuglie said the PUD received four offers for the land and houses when the property went on the market in June. Agreement was reached in August, according to Fuglie's memo.

The property dates back to the 1950s and 1960s, the construction and early years of operation for Wanapum and Priest Rapids dams. It’s located about 50 miles southwest of Moses Lake, about two miles south of Wanapum Dam itself.

Commissioners declared the property surplus in January. The sale includes the original 56 acres with another 20 purchased from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, where the reservoir for the development’s water system is located. The development includes 30 houses, a building with office space and a commons, along with a park. About 20 acres of the original property is vacant. There’s also a water and wastewater treatment system, although PUD officials have said during previous discussions that the sewer system would have to be replaced.

The office building was used until 2014, when the PUD opened a new office complex at the base of Wanapum Dam. The houses were rented to workers in the days when local housing was hard to find. But “transportation and housing improvements have diminished the need of providing workforce housing,” Fuglie wrote in a memo in January.

During their winter discussions commissioners decided against breaking the property up into individual units, a process known as platting.

The declaration of the property as surplus must be approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Fuglie wrote. That request is still pending, he wrote.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.