Battery manufacturer listed as new owner of Xyleco building

MOSES LAKE — Battery maker Sila Nanotechnologies appears to be the new owner of the long-empty Xyleco Building at 3741 Road N NE, right across the road from REC Silicon.

In a filing with the Washington Secretary of State’s office and available on the office’s website, Alameda, Californium-based Sila has listed the address as a principal office — the only one the company has under its name in Washington state.

Sila Nanotechnologies makes silicon anodes for rechargeable batteries based on a process developed at Georgia Tech, according to the company’s website. The building on Road N NE has been for sale for a number of years and was formerly owned by Massachusetts-based Xyleco for large-scale tests of the company’s process to make ethanol out of plant cellulose.

According to data available from the Grant County Assessor’s web site, the facility and the 66 acres it sits on are valued at roughly $49 million. Xyleco is also the current listed owner of an additional roughly 96 acres around the facility valued at a total of $320,000, according to county tax rolls.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.