Illinois-based Packaging Corporation of America has built a $26 million cardboard box manufacturing plant on a 42-acre site it purchased from the city of Richland for $1.7 million. 

The project involved 160,000 cubic yards of grading and filling, which set the stage to construct a 222,500-square-foot warehouse, 12,250-square-foot open-sided lean-to, 10,000-square-foot office space and other amenities, including re-routing and installation of 2,200 lineal feet of railroad track and construction of Battelle Boulevard over the northern portion of the property. 

The plant is constructed with a steel frame and opened with an estimated 65 workers. The workforce is projected to expand to 100 to 150 when it is fully operational. 

Fisher Construction Group of Burlington, Washington, was the general contractor.  

Packaging Corporation of America is parent to Boise Paper, which operates a paper mill and full-line manufacturing plant in Wallula. 

The Richland plant differs from its Wallula cousins in that it forms corrugated boxes from rolls of paper.