Another delay in land deal for $1.5B Richland fertilizer plant

Atlas Agro North America has secured an additional delay to close on a deal to buy 150 acres in Richland for its Pacific Green Fertilizer Plant.

The Port of Benton agreed at this week’s meeting to extend the deadline to July 31, 2027, with a requirement that the company give a status report on the $1.5 billion project by Jan. 31, 2027.

Commissioners acknowledged that complicated projects take time and treated it as a routine request.

The new delay is the latest extension of the original 2023 agreement. Atlas Agro agreed to purchase the port-owned property near the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for $9 million.

It plans to produce low-carbon fertilizer in Richland and is touted as a major green initiative.

The current delay echoes one granted in 2025: Atlas cited regulatory issues, tariffs, access to utility equipment and its effort to secure a 1,300 megawatt intertie with the Bonneville Power Administration to power the projects.

The fertilizer plant would require more than 300 megawatts of power. Atlas Agro has not identified a source for the power, which represents three times the electricity consumed by the city.

Atlast Agro has a separate but related deal with the city of Richland to pay $250,000 an acre for 275 acres of city owned land next to the fertilizer plant site.

Atlas plans to develop a data center complex on the land, saying the two projects will make the future intertie more economically feasible.

The city has earmarked the $24 million proceeds from the pending deal to support costs to turn an old office building on Jadwin Avenue into its new police headquarters.