Newspapers love to compile their end-of-the-year top story lists, and we’re no exception.

We had plenty of big headlines in 2021 about multimillion-dollar developments coming to our community.

It’s been a bright spot for our economy after weathering so much uncertainty in 2020.

Our annual list of the most-read stories on the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business’ website included a list of topics always popular with our readers: new developments and new restaurants.

Let’s take a look at the top news stories of 2021, according to tcjournal.biz readers:

1. New restaurant to take flight in Richland (bit.ly/Flight-Tap-Table): A long-empty restaurant at a high-profile Richland corner will be home in 2022 to a family-friendly sit-down restaurant and sports bar featuring beers on tap plus wine and cider. Flight Tap and Table’s flight theme will extend to the menu, offering flights of sliders, wings, tacos and more. The creation is the brain child of husband-and-wife team of Amanda Thavone and Joey Casados, who own Teahaus. We reported that the couple signed a lease for the former Dupus Boomer’s Downtown restaurant at 530 Swift Blvd. in October.
2. Costco-anchored Broadmoor helps Pasco boom (bit.ly/Costco-Broadmoor): Pasco confirms in August that Costco is expected to occupy the northwest corner of Broadmoor Boulevard and the future extension of Sandifur Parkway, in the area along Road 100.
3. Massive warehouses to bring 1,200 jobs to east Pasco (bit.ly/Amazon-warehouses): Two industrial distribution centers, each more than 1 million square feet, are planned near Sacajawea State Park in Pasco. The Ryan Companies of Bellevue submitted plans for Project Oyster and Project Pearl under the Washington State Environmental Protection Act. Amazon Inc. later confirmed it was the tenant for the project and upped the job count to 1,500.
4. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen’s menu coming to Kennewick (bit.ly/popeyes-Kenn): The Louisiana-based franchise known for its chicken will open a 2,333-square-foot fast-casual restaurant at 240 N. Ely St. in Kennewick, its first Tri-City location. The car dealership that occupied the site will be demolished.
5. Darigold picks Pasco for $500M protein and butter plant (bit.ly/Darigold-Pasco): Darigold Inc., a Seattle-based dairy cooperative, will build its largest ever milk drying plant in Pasco, cementing the region’s status as one of the Northwest’s leading centers for food processing. The project will create more than 1,000 jobs and will be built after Darigold evaluates how the state’s new carbon rates affect its operations.
6. Ex-Tri-Cities Fever duo heating up stretch of Richland waterfront (bit.ly/vertiseeTC): Lionell Singleton and Houston Lillard were fierce competitors when they played for the Tri-Cities Fever, an indoor football league. Now, they’re launching one of the more intriguing apartment projects in the Tri-Cities. Vertisee is a 24-unit loft-style apartment complex in the 1100 block of Columbia Park Trail, a waterfront neighborhood currently dotted with modest homes and businesses.
7. Old Sports Authority near Columbia Center to reopen as veteran-focused thrift shop (bit.ly/veterans-thrift): Thelbert “Thadd” Lawson Jr., a veteran who pledged to help fellow veterans while serving a lengthy prison term, converted the former Sports Authority store at Kennewick’s Columbia Center into Veterans Warehouse Thrift Store, the second outpost for his Wenatchee nonprofit. The space was empty for more than five years.
8. Entrepreneurial teacher opens gourmet cookie shop in Richland (bit.ly/Crumbl-Richland): The Tri-Cities likes its sugary sweets judging by the popularity of this March story. Richland teacher Kevin Hatch and his business partner Ian Taylor of Utah opened this cookie shop franchise featuring a weekly rotating menu of more than 120 specialty flavors. The small retail store is at 2665 Queensgate Blvd. in Richland in a strip mall anchored by Five Guys and Maurices, near Target. The Target mom is the gourmet cookie chain’s demographic.
9. Pole buildings get new life as unique, affordable homes (bit.ly/barndosTC): The Tri-Cities is becoming a center for Instagram-worthy barn-style homes (“barndominiums”) after a pair of Tri-City entrepreneurs with a big social media following built one for themselves. Olivia “Liv” and Tanner Berg created Back Forty Building Co. to support the people who are interested in building the lower-cost homes in rural settings.
10. Vancouver developer raises its local profile with $50M project at Hansen Park (bit.ly/HansenPark) Carmen Villarma and husband Dennis Pavlina, Vancouver developers who have built apartments in the Tri-Cities, began work on The Resort at Hansen Park, a $50 million mixed-use development at Columbia Center Boulevard and West 10th Avenue in Kennewick. The project includes three different types of rental homes and 21,000 square feet of office space. They have the rights to develop neighboring properties as well.

Our Building Tri-Cities section also proved popular with online readers. It’s an advertising feature highlighting new construction projects and the contractors who work on them. Check them out at: bit.ly/Buildingtc.