Tri-Cities apartment construction is booming. Great news for renters. Will it last?
In what promises to be good news for Tri-Citians who rent apartments, construction is booming in the Tri-Cities.
There are more than 1,500 new units under construction or being contemplated at more than a dozen sites in the region. Altogether, they will boost the supply of rental units by 10% as building gives way to leasing in the coming year.
New construction is good for renters because a new supply meets the demand from the area’s population and job growth.
Benton and Franklin counties are home to about 315,000, and the community has long been among Washington’s fastest growing.
Roughly 30% of residents live in rental homes, prompting builders to add more than 2,000 new units in recent years as jobs bring newcomers to this region in Southeast Washington.
New development has helped curb pandemic-era rent hikes that saw rates soar. That has eased in the past year with vacancy rates hovering at 8%, keeping rents relatively flat.
The moderate vacancy rate means there are enough empty apartments that landlords are motivated to compete for tenants by offering move-in specials and limiting rent increases.
Local rents increased 0.6% in the past year, according to the most recent Multifamily Market report for the Tri-Cities, released last fall by one of the market’s more active builders, The Management Group (TMG).
Construction Coverage, which analyzes housing trends for building professionals, said the median rent in the Tri-Cities is about $1,760 a month, ranging from $1,200 for a studio unit to $2,220 for three bedrooms.
With more than 1,500 apartment units in construction at the moment, the 2025-26 building cycle is one of the busiest of recent memory.
But that could change quickly. Local planning departments have few future projects under review, though that doesn’t mean they aren’t needed.
“The Growth Management Act says we need more,” notes Mike Stevens, Richland’s planning manger.
Anthony Muai, Kennewick’s community planning director, confirmed a slowdown, but said several are in review and the city is taking steps to increase the supply of land zoned for apartments.
The Tri-Cities’ current crop includes live/work townhomes in downtown Kennewick, a garden-style complex near the Steptoe roundabout, urban lofts near the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland and a Kennewick Housing Authority project offering homes for 58 low- and moderate income families.
If history is a guide, demand will rise to match new supply.
New development added 732 new apartments in 2025, according to the CoStar report. Over the same period, demand rose by 664, a figure the industry refers to as “absorption.”
Under construction
Kennewick
- The Towns on Elm, 212 N. Elm St. The 22-unit project consists of townhomes with attached garages and living quarters above commercial space. It is being built by PMI and will open to renters this spring. Rents start at $2,250 a month for two bedrooms.
- Bubble on Gum Sunset Ridge Townhomes is a 58-unit project on a four-acre site at East 13th Avenue and South Gum Street in East Kennewick. It is being built by the Kennewick Housing Authority at a cost of about $19 million.
- Resort at Hansen Park, 10th and Columbia Center Boulevard. The 20-acre rental campus has eight apartment projects organized around a three-story recreation complex. When complete, the Resort will have about 600 units in a mix of triplexes, garden style buildings and multistory urban buildings. The final three residential projects are in development and will add about 200 units. Encore, a 98-unit project catering to seniors, opens April 1. Hansen Park is being developed by Vancouver-based TMG.
Pasco
- Rio Vida Apartments, 909 N. Third Ave. The 82-unit project will consist of three buildings with three stories each. An environmental review was approved in late 2025.
Richland
- The Bob, 703 Columbia Park Trail, Columbia Park Trail, is a 192-unit complex near the Steptoe Roundabout in south Richland. Young & Associates, a long-time Tri-Cities builder, and its partner, SRM of Spokane, are building the garden-style complex on a 7.2-acre former manufactured home tucked behind railroad tracks. The first phase will be ready around Thanksgiving. Rents have not been published.
- Jadwin Apartments, 1866 Jadwin Ave. Jadwin Spokane LLC is building a 114-unit garden-style complex.
- Innovation Center Apartments, 2940-3940 Sale Ave. Construction began a year ago on the 144-unit complex, contained in seven buildings on a site near the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The project is sometimes called “The Helix.”
West Richland
- Copper View Apartments, Belmont Boulevard south of Desert Sky Elementary, is the largest apartment development currently in construction. The 264-unit complex is being built by Inland Group of Spokane. It will feature in 11 buildings on an 12-acre site.
In the pipeline
The pipeline of future projects isn’t empty, but it isn’t particularly full either. With relatively few projects being reviewed by building agencies, the current mania for new construction could be followed by a lull.
That said, planners expect developers will submit new projects for permits this year, so conditions could change.
Stevens said development in Richland tends to go in phases. The city is hamstrung by limited land already zoned for apartments.
While there aren’t major developments in review, Stevens said preliminary discussions indicate several smaller projects could begin later this year.
“I think we’ll probably have a few more. It just depends on when they figure out their financing and the last iteration of what they want to do,” he said.
Kennewick has at least two major projects in review., according to Muai. Like Richland, Kennewick has a shortage of undeveloped land zoned for high-density residential. The city is updating plans to accommodate the need for housing.
The two projects include the Arrive complex, which would bring 300 units to 8224 Bob Olson Parkway, and an unnamed project that would bring 195 units to 4303 Zintel Way.
An additional project has been mentioned for West Clearwater Avenue, but the city has received no applications.
Pasco is reviewing Chapel Hill Apartments, a 204-unit project slated for a 10-acre site former farm circle southwest of the Interstate 182/Road 68 interchange.
Too, the developer behind the Columbia River Walk Complex has indicated a desire to extend the 288-unit complex on West “A” Street, though there has been no visible development there.
In West Richland, the planning department is reviewing a 180-unit project at 455 Belmont Boulevard called Belmont Meadows.
Carmen Villarma, president and CEO of TMG Inc., the firm behind the ambitious Resort at Hansen park project, said her company was drawn to the Tri-Cities for its stable economy.
As it wraps up the residential component of the project, it is readying several projects that will include commercial space on the same property.
“We are all in,” she said.