Final spots filling in at Port of Kennewick business park

Spaulding Business Park has taken time to grow roots, but the development has sprouted with seven finished medical and professional buildings in the past six years -- and more are on the way.

Only a 1.4-acre slice of land remains unspoken for in the Port of Kennewick's 30-acre business park off of Columbia Park Trail in Richland.

Although two buildings still are rising and some lots wait to be filled, port and city officials already are seeing signs that the Spaulding Business Park is providing the tipping point they all hoped for in the 150-acre Island View neighborhood.

"This is one of the most successful projects that the Port of Kennewick has undertaken in a long time -- maybe ever," said Skip Novakovich, port commission president.

The port's upfront investment of about $2.6 million in land and roads so far has brought in about $26.6 million in investment in the business park alone, said Larry Peterson, the port's director of planning and development.

A vacant 5-acre lot near Highway 240 provides an illusion the Spaulding Business Park has a long way to go.

But even that piece of ground is spoken for and may become a new outpatient surgery center with office space. Dr. Blair Sampson has a $1 million purchase and sale agreement for the property that is expected to close in August.

Sampson, who specializes in upper extremity surgery at Northwest Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine in Richland, said he liked the location because the business park includes other medical providers and is in a highly traveled area of the community.

"Everybody knows where it is," he said "It's easy to get to for practically the entire Tri-Cities population."

It's difficult to picture the area as it used to look with such businesses as Vista Engineering, New Edge, the Chaplaincy and Arc of Tri-Cities now there.

When the Port of Kennewick bought the property in 1999, the 30 acres were home only to a single-family house and a shed, as well as whatever people had dumped on the property, including a truck cover, Peterson said.

Novakovich remembers driving past the area known as the Richland Y. "It was a cluttered mess," he said.

Now, when he drives by the business park, he sees buildings rising.

Being noticed from the freeway is part of what Kishore Varada, chairman for the Reliance Medical Clinic and Eden Medical Clinic, likes about the park.

Varada opened the Reliance Medical Center about 41/2 years ago. Varada, a physician assistant certified in psychiatry, practices there, and the center includes internal medicine, pediatrics and psychiatry practices.

Varada said Reliance has grown since opening at the Spaulding Business Park, reaching about 32 employees.

And when the four-story Eden Medical Center opens in May, he expects there will be about 60 employees added there. The $4.5 million center will include Eden Care, an urgent-care clinic, and Eden Program, a psychiatry practice. Varada will practice in both locations but said the projects are separate.

Pinnacle Sleep & Wake Disorders Center will move to the building, and it will also include Lazuli Blue, a plastic surgery and medical spa and Java Du Monde, a coffee shop, he said.

Varada and attorney Craig Walker of Walker, Heye & Meehan were among the first to invest in the business park. The law office's building opened in 2007.

Varada said the park has become what he hoped for. For example, a new skin care center for DermaHealth Dermatology & Dermasurgery and DermaCare of Tri-Cities recently was finished next to Reliance Medical Center and is expected to be open for business soon.

And construction is beginning on a 14,000-square-foot building for Willamette Dental next to Eden Medical Center.

John Skourtes, who oversees property acquisition and construction for the Hillsboro, Ore.-based company, said it plans to consolidate the Kennewick and Richland clinics, and is planning for 20-year growth.

Skourtes said it hope to be in the $1.3 million clinic by Oct. 1.

A 7,800-square-foot office for law firm Telquist, Ziobro & McMillen is expected to break ground in May or June. It's being built on the same property as the Walker, Heye & Meehan building, where Telquist, Ziobro & McMillen lease office space, and may be done by December, Peterson said.

Peterson calls the park a "resounding success."

He points to the estimated number of jobs at businesses in the park -- 210 -- and the $13 million added to the tax rolls so far from development at Spaulding Business Park.

Some of the jobs already existed, but the total is expected to reach around 390 after current projects are finished, he said.

Adding to the tax rolls means more property tax revenue that can go to local schools, the city and the port, Peterson said.

And the port already has received about $3.2 million in land sales, he said.

Now, businesses have opened near the Spaulding Business Park. Brutzman's Office Solutions is moving near the park on Columbia Center Boulevard, and there have been some new offices in the area, said Gary Ballew, Richland's economic development manager.

And existing businesses have spruced up, including the Sage Port Grille, Ballew said. An old motel on the corner of Columbia Center Boulevard and Columbia Park Trail has been razed to make way for future development, he said.

What was a drive-in theater has become Island View Apartments, a $13.4 million project that officials say may have chosen to locate elsewhere if the area looked like it did prior to the business park's creation. The 228-unit apartment complex recently was completed.

Ballew said he hopes to see the redevelopment spark continue in the area.

"Something has to change for people to see an area in a different light," Peterson said.

This story was originally published April 22, 2012 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Final spots filling in at Port of Kennewick business park ."