Warden finalizes $1 million land sale to port

WARDEN — The city of Warden finalized the purchase of 69 acres of industrial land on the north edge of the city to the Port of Warden for approximately $1 million Monday, according to Grant County records.

“We've been working on it for years and the city just didn't want to sell,” said Pat Millard, the port’s executive director. “But finally, we sent them an offer and they responded and said they would sell it.”

Port representative Patrick Boss said that it made more sense for the port to own industrial land next to other industrial properties because the port is better suited for industrial developments compared to the city, which is better suited for residential developments.

“I think the reason it worked out well was because we already had some industrial property right next to it,” Boss said. “That property that the city owned is sort of surrounded by a canal and it was kind of by itself, but then our industrial property was on Road U, so now our industrial property connects with all that property. Now it's one big contiguous piece.”

Boss and Millard said that their future plans for the land are at least partially covered by one or more non-disclosure agreements, but Boss said that there are multiple companies interested in the property and that it will most likely be some sort of food processing or food warehousing project.

“That's very likely what will happen,” Boss said. “I wouldn’t say it’s 100% but it's definitely a good probability that something like that will happen in the next couple of years. These things take time, these projects, there's permitting and there's a lot of due diligence, and maybe at some point along the line something doesn't work out. But, we hope that it does work out.”

Warden City Administrator Kriss Shuler explained why the city finally decided to sell the land.

“The city had used that property as a wastewater property when we were in the industrial wastewater business,” Shuler said. “The city is no longer in industrial wastewater, so that was surplus property.”

Shuler said the city wanted to support the port’s projects.

“When the port had approached us, they had had a number of developers look at some projects in Warden but they didn't have enough property to be able to accommodate these types of projects that were being looked at here. So the city felt that it was in the best interest with property that was not being used to be able to put it to a good development use,” Shuler said.

The benefit to the city from a development includes more than just the profit of the sale.

“Now that we sold that…if the Port of Warden finds a prospective developer or builder or something, that wants to purchase that property for an industry, then that property would go back and become taxable property and then all of the taxing districts within the Warden area would benefit from that,” Shuler said.

The city also hopes the industrial development will bring more jobs into town, Shuler said, which would in turn bring more housing developments and enhance the Warden community in all aspects.

“We always are happy to work with the port,” Shuler said. “We think we do a really good job working together, promoting Warden and trying to do the best for the community. We’re really thankful for all that activity that they do and the developments that they try to bring here.”

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android.