By Erica Bullock
Spokane Journal of Business 

King Beverage Inc., a Spokane Valley-based wholesale beverage distributor which has a distribution facility in Benton City, is brewing up plans for a 205,000-square-foot distribution center near Spokane International Airport.

It is expected to increase capacity and improve storage efficiency and delivery, said company President and CEO Peter Rusnak. The company's new warehouse will be at 3520 S. Geiger Blvd., south of Spokane's Waste to Energy Facility.

Rusnak declined to disclose construction costs for the West Plains facility, but a pre-development application on file with the city of Spokane shows an estimated construction value of $8 million.

As planned, the West Plains facility will be over 120% larger than King Beverage's current warehouse at 6715 E. Mission, in Spokane Valley, where the company has been operating out of a 92,000-square-foot distribution plant for the last 30 years.

"We are definitely bulging at the seams here," said Rusnak of the Mission warehouse. "It was getting to a tipping point."

Spokane Valley-based manufacturer Hotstart Inc., which does business as Hotstart Thermal Management, has agreed to buy the Mission Avenue warehouse property, said Rusnak, adding that King Beverage will lease the space from Hotstart until the Geiger facility is complete – about 24 months after construction is expected to begin this spring.

At present, Hotsart occupies a 140,000-square-foot manufacturing center at 5723 E. Alki, in Spokane Valley, where the company is headquartered. It manufactures engine heaters for backup generators to maintain temperatures for immediate startup during power outages. For 40 years, the company has been making the heaters to sell to original equipment manufacturers such as Caterpillar Inc. and Cummins Inc. 

The design-build team for the new King Beverage facility consists of two Spokane Valley-based companies, contractor Divcon Inc. and architect Ron Mackie, owner of Architectural Ventures.

Plans call for the construction of a 144,000-square-foot, temperature-controlled storage warehouse together with a 24,000-square-foot, two-story office space. The office area will have a training room and what Rusnak describes as a private hospitality room with a bar area to showcase and sample products with retailers.

Inside the warehouse, an automated storage system manufactured by Cirrus Tech Inc., of Kearney, Nebraska, will be installed to provide King Beverage with increased storage capacity and improved product accessibility through a mechanical lift that works like what he describes as an elevator/vending machine.

"It's a crane system that assists our labor to help us store at an extended height," Rusnak explained. "We're going to be able to carry a lot more product, which will allow us to reroute that (product) throughout Washington state in a more efficient capacity." 

Overall storage capacity at the new facility is about 8 million cases, he said.

Preliminary design plans call for over 130 parking spaces. Electric-vehicle charging infrastructure is planned throughout the site to help support King Beverage's growing fleet of electric vehicles, including vans and trucks. Currently, about 40% of the company's fleet in Spokane is comprised of electric vehicles, Rusnak said.

Pivo LLC, a separate Rusnak-owned company, purchased the property from Spokane Airport for $1.9 million in 2021, according to Washington state tax information.

King Beverage intends to submit building permit applications to the city of Spokane by early February, Rusnak said.

Rusnak is a second-generation leader of the Spokane beverage distributor. His father, Ted Rusnak, purchased B&B Distributors Inc. and renamed the company in 1980.

Rusnak declined to disclose the company's annual revenue.

"We definitely anticipate to grow revenue, job opportunities, (and) efficiencies to the bottom line," he said.

King Beverage serves more than half of all counties in Washington state, including Spokane County, as an exclusive Anheuser-Busch distributor of beer, wine, water, energy drinks and spirits. 

The company has more 100 Spokane-area employees and operates distribution facilities in Benton City, Union Gap and Centralia, with another facility currently under construction in Moses Lake.