Tri-Cities headquarters for National Guard Stryker unit about to begin
Work is starting on a $15 million Washington Army National Guard facility in Richland.
The Richland center will be the headquarters for a Stryker company in the National Guard’s 81st Brigade Combat Team. It’s one of two brigades for the eight-wheeled armored vehicles in the National Guard.
When finished the center will have space for 150 soldiers to drill each month, and a permanent staff of about three to four full-time soldiers.
They plan to use the facility for training on how to respond to natural disasters and other civil responses, Richland officials said. This year, Gov. Jay Inslee activated the National Guard to help at food bank distributions because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
City officials are reviewing the plans for the 40,000-square-foot training center on 40 acres at the Horn Rapids Industrial Park.
“I’m personally very excited to get a new facility in the Tri-Cities area,” said Col. Adam Iwaszuk, the National Guard’s construction and facilities management officer.
“We hope that the community embraces us like we will embrace and support them,” said Iwaszuk, who started working on the project more than seven years ago.
Readiness centers are the modern version of armories. They bring a host of additional amenities as classrooms, a kitchen, a fitness room and a spot for recruiters.
The facilities will be available to rent when they aren’t being used.
Richland’s Fowler Construction is 70 percent finished with designing the building, and is leading the construction as well. Work is expected to start at the end of December or early 2021, with plans to finish in early 2022.
The center replaces a facility that closed in Bellingham in 2012, after the department failed to get an extension on a lease.
About 75 percent of the $15.3 million cost will come from the Department of Defense and the rest from the state capital budget.
The state National Guard has more than 8,000 soldiers and airmen.
Other National Guard projects in the state include a 3-story barracks at the Yakima Training Center and a Tumwater readiness center.