Clover Island says goodbye to old office building

Demolition of a vacant office building on Clover Island last week will make it easier for the Army Corps of Engineers to move on with a shoreline improvement program in the coming year.

The Port of Kennewick demolished its long-vacant home on Jan. 25. Removing the long-empty building frees up space for the Corps to pursue its project from dry land.

The 2,200-square-foot building was constructed in 1969 and expanded in 1987. It served as the port’s administrative offices until 2006, when it moved into a new building on the opposite side of the island. The Clover Island Yacht Club briefly used the space during construction of its own new building, but the obsolete structure was largely vacant during the past decade.

Tana Bader Inglima, deputy CEO for the port, said the demolition was long planned and in time will create space for future development on Clover Island. But first, it is finalizing a contract with the Army Corps to extend the same shoreline updates that begin to the land side of the island’s lighthouse to the stretch facing the Columbia River.

The shoreline work will replace rip-rap, concrete and other hard structures in the water with fish-friendly material as well as a walkway for humans.

When those projects are done, the parcel will be available for commercial development.

Big D’s Construction of Pasco was the demolition contractor.

This story was originally published January 28, 2017 at 3:51 PM with the headline "Clover Island says goodbye to old office building."