Sweeping $48 million Richland apartment project aims to cut Hanford commute

The Horn Rapids area in Richland is hopping with development, and a $48 million apartment complex project is the latest to break ground.

Horn Rapids Apartments at 2665 Kingsgate Way are nestled on about 15 acres between the Horn Rapids RV Resort and the Babe Ruth Sports Complex, just across the road from the Horn Rapids Golf Course.

Lee Petty, the owner of LCR Construction bought the undeveloped land from Sun Pacific Energy in early 2019 and recently poured the foundation for two of the buildings.

The housing project was part of Sun Pacific Company’s larger vision when the company bought 24 acres five years ago.

“We wanted to bring all the things that are needed to the area,” said Jarrod Franson, operations manager of Sun Pacific.

He said his intent is to develop the area with housing and associated facilities to tap into the large number of Hanford workers who commute but want to live closer.

“We made a big play buying the land,” Franson told the Herald. “But it’s going to work out well.”

288 apartments

The apartments will have 288 total units when completed next fall, said Petty, who also is the project’s general contractor.

“It is going to be a very nice facility,” he said.

While the project is about a year out from finishing, some units may start to be available as early as April and reservations for units will be accepted starting in January.

Units will range from 800-square-foot studios up to 1,250-square-foot three-bedroom units.

Petty said that he expects the apartments will be most attractive to those who work at Hanford and related contractors.

The apartments are being built at a time when only 297 homes were on the market in the entire Tri-Cities area — which included single-family houses, as well as condos and mobile homes. Of those, just 73 were priced at under $300,000.

The apartment market fares no better for those looking for a place to lay their head at night in Tri-Cities.

Of 10,918 units surveyed in the Tri-Cities last fall, 212 had vacancies, according to the Fall 2019 Apartment Market Report released by the The Washington Center for Real Estate Research at University Washington.

The center says that anything below a 5 percent vacancy rate in apartments is typically considered a tight market. Last fall, Tri-Cities had a 1.9 percent vacancy rate.

“There is an enormous employment base up there, but not a lot of housing,” developer Dave Gintz previously told the Herald. Gintz is spending $6 million to build luxury apartments in North Richland along the Columbia River.

Petty said that the Horn Rapids Apartments project will boast of extras that will appeal to families, too.

The complex will have a lot of green areas, multiple gazebos to grill and have picnics, a dog park and a splash pad for children next to a full-size swimming pool.

Storage units

LCR Construction also picked up a parcel of four acres from Sun Pacific several years ago to build Home Run Self-Storage next door at 2701 Kingsgate.

The 156-unit, $2.5 million facility was finished in fall of 2018.

In anticipation of the apartment complex opening, Petty said that a new phase is in the works with expansion of the storage units sometime next year.

Convenience store

With the greater land purchase in 2015, Sun Pacific got the ball rolling on the overall development plan for the area, and is adding its own mark.

The company hired Petty as the general contractor on a new $1.5 million Sun Market at the corner of that complex on 2706 Kingsgate Way.

Sun Pacific is the developer of the Sun Market franchise. The company sold nearly 30 of the locations to Circle K in 2012, but still retains eight — including two in Kennewick. The Horn Rapids location will be the company’s ninth.

The gas station and convenience store also will include a Firehouse Subs national chain sandwich shop — of which Sun Market has the franchise rights for Tri-Cities, Yakima and Walla Walla.

The Horn Rapids Sun Market will be the largest of its brand, Franson told the Herald.

“It will have a very large feeling,” he said.

Franson said that the full-service gas station set to be finished in October will cater to the Horn Rapids Motor Sports Complex ORV park and be spacious enough for semi-trucks and RVs to fill up with fuel and park. It also will have four electric vehicle charging stations and is wired to create more in the future.

With just four acres left of the original plot, Franson told the Herald that there still is more amenities to come in the area.

They are working to secure a car wash and give nearby residents a caffeine fix by bringing in a coffee shop — either through a sale or lease, yet to be determined.

This story was originally published August 29, 2020 at 10:57 AM.