Deal for 300 homes at Vista Field is biggest in 110-year history of Eastern WA port
BlueChart Homes, a Western Washington development firm focused on urban housing, will build 300 homes at a former municipal airport in the heart of Kennewick under an agreement approved Tuesday.
The Port of Kennewick agreed to sell most if not all home sites in its Vista Field redevelopment site near Columbia Center to BlueChart.
The deal caps more than a year of negotiations since BlueChart first expressed interest in being the port’s designated home builder in late 2023.
The port’s three elected commissioners embraced BlueChart as its biggest partner at Vista Field, calling it one of the most important deals in the agency’s 110-year history.
The agreement gives BlueChart time to complete due diligence. It spells out the port’s obligation to have infrastructure in place and BlueChart’s responsibility to buy individual lots, apply for building permits and begin building.
The pace of the project will depend on how well the homes sell.
Both sides agreed to cooperate on community amenities such as parks as the development moves ahead.
BlueChart has the exclusive right to develop the first five phases at Vista Field and retains the first right of refusal to complete the final three. The port agreed to stop marketing the first phases to give BlueChart a chance to gain traction.
It will pay the port about $80,000 for each lot in the initial phase. That will rise to $82,500 in the second, with the option to set new prices for subsequent phases.
BlueChart is a collaboration between Levi Holmes of Chartwell Land Co. and Ben Pauluis of BlueFern Development.
As part of the project, they will offer homebuyers a choice of at least a dozen different home styles, with 36 variations.
Designs will comply with the standards the port adopted to preserve the look and feel of its prized development property. the neighborhoods will contain a mix single-family attached and detached homes, including row houses.
Former airport
The port closed Vista Field to airplanes at the end of 2013 over the rising cost to operate the property, which wasn’t eligible for Federal Aviation Administration funding.
It held a public review process that showed Kennewick residents wanted it redeveloped with restaurants, boutiques, businesses, homes, condos, offices, parks and other venues.
The port invested $4.9 million in utilities, including roads and a series of water features, starting in 2019, then listed the initial parcels for sale to developers willing to build.
Sales have steadily picked up in the past 18 months.
Isabelle Yoori Na of Kuki LLC is the first private developer to physically break ground at Vista Field. She is building Kuki Izakaha Japanese Bar & Grill after breaking ground last fall.
Next up is Columbia PointEyecare. Drs. Brandon Furness and Royce Barney closed a deal for a lot at Vista Field on March 12, the same day the city of Kennewick issued a building permit for their 7,000-square-foot clinic and retail space.
Go to vistafield.com.