Development across Kennewick continues in leaps and bounds as former empty space between developments rapidly fills in.

The 15th largest city in the state added 650 residents for a total population of 87,120 in 2024.

Kennewick issued 197 permits for single-family homes valued at $66 million through August 2024, compared to 220 permits valued at $74 million for the same period the previous year. It was the only city in Benton and Franklin counties to see a decrease in the number of new permits issued during that period.

Dana Dollarhyde, the city’s lead communications specialist and executive assistant, listed a number of noteworthy developments around the city from the past year.

“Apartments, commercial buildings and gas stations were popping up on every corner throughout the year,” she said.

On the west side of town, the Resort at Hansen Park has nearly completed its latest expansion, which includes multi-space facilities, while Shelby’s Floral, which has been in business in Kennewick for four decades, recently opened a new shop off Clearwater Avenue.

“It’s cool for us to see longstanding businesses grow and thrive and want to stay in business here in the city of Kennewick,” Dollarhyde said.

A Panera Bread restaurant is moving into the former Old Country Buffet on West Canal Drive in Kennewick. The building at 6821 W. Canal Drive is close to the planned Chick-fil-A, also set to open along Canal.

| Photo by Nathan Finke

Meanwhile a highly anticipated Chick-fil-A plans to open at 7009 W. Canal Drive by the end of the year. Panera Bread is renovating the nearby vacant Old Country Buffet restaurant.

Off Edison Street, the 26,000-square-foot Joint Apprenticeship Training Center was completed to support the training of entry-level firefighters.

Site preparation is in progress for residential and commercial construction on the north side of Clearwater Avenue to the west of Commercial Tire and extending nearly to the Leslie Road roundabout.

Dollarhyde and her team also cheered the letters of intent starting to roll in for the Port of Kennewick-owned Vista Field redevelopment near the Toyota Center.

In the Southridge area of the city, Riverwalk Estates Retirement Living has developed its 55+ senior living community off Hildebrand Boulevard near Highway 395 over the past 18 months.

Bookending that development is the 162-unit Argyle at Southridge apartments and 20 adjoining live-work townhomes due to open in summer 2025 with one- to three-bedroom units, an adjacent food truck plaza and other on-site amenities.

On the east side of town, the city of Kennewick was happy to see Swampy’s BBQ move into its new base of operations at the Port of Kennewick’s Columbia Gardens Urban Wine and Artisan Village off Columbia Drive and hopes to see more private investment come to the site soon.

The city celebrated the completion of the $11 million Fire Station #1 rebuild. In addition to housing enhanced living quarters and emergency response operations on the ground floor, the new fire station also has administrative offices, training rooms and conference space upstairs.

Swampy’s BBQ was the first mobile food vendor to locate at the Columbia Gardens Wine & Artisan Village and was the first to expand into a brick-and-mortar building on the site at 215 E. Columbia Drive in Kennewick.

| Courtesy Port of Kennewick

Road projects

To accommodate the ever-increasing traffic volume in and around Columbia Center mall, the city has completed the first of multiple projects that pave the way for the future Columbia Center Boulevard widening project set to begin in early 2026 and estimated to cost $11.4 million.

A new roundabout was installed at the intersection of West Deschutes Avenue and North Colorado Street, just off Columbia Center Boulevard. The $2.1 million project also added a third northbound and southbound turning lanes onto Columbia Center.

Up next, a left turn lane will be added for increased turning capacity at Quinault Avenue for those traveling eastbound. This project is due to go to bid this fall, with construction to kick off in spring 2025. The project received federal funding.

The addition of turn lanes at the West Grandridge Boulevard and West Okanogan Place intersections also will occur prior to widening.

The city is still in pursuit of grant funding for the Deschutes to West Quinault Avenue to Columbia Center widening project.

To the north of the city’s busiest intersection at North Steptoe Street and West Gage Boulevard, which wrapped up widening this past year, the intersection of North Steptoe Street and West Arrowhead Avenue will likewise be receiving some attention.

Right-turn deceleration lanes will be installed as well as a signal at the intersection at a projected cost of $500,000.

“The city will be prepping for this project in the early phases of 2025. It’s a big planning project on the engineering side about how to best look to the future. We’re making sure that we’re not just solving the problem right now, but for the future,” Dollarhyde said.

The city also has been continuing its annual rotation of asphalt overlay projects in summer 2024, this time completing stretches along Canal, Edison, Kellogg and west of Columbia Center, costing the city about $2.5 million.

A large apartment complex, estimated at $1M, being built at 5651 W. 36th Ave. in Kennewick. | Photo by Scott Butner

Utilities

The city largely wrapped up work on its $12.5 million advanced metering infrastructure project, which saw the replacement of all water meters across the city, totaling roughly 11,000 new remote-read meters installed.

Dollarhyde said the contractor will be working through the end of 2024 to wrap up loose ends.

Fall 2024 will see the beginning of a utility project that will run a 16-inch water mainline and 12-inch sewer mainline under Interstate 82 to service the city’s new light industrial area to the south and enhance connectivity to these utilities along Bob Olson Parkway and the Apple Valley neighborhood. The estimated cost is $3.6 million.

Meanwhile, on the east side of town, the $39 million wastewater treatment plant upgrade has been underway since October 2023 and is due to be completed behind schedule in another 18 months due to increases in construction costs.

The project will transform part of the city’s aging wastewater treatment plant into a grade A fertilizer-producing greenhouse facility, which will generate new revenue for the city from the sewage waste it collects, processes and expects to sell to area farmers.

The majority of the funding for the massive improvement was secured through a low-cost loan through the Washington State Department of Ecology for $29 million, $6 million of which is forgivable.

The city of Kennewick noted that its wastewater treatment plant won another award for its operations and standards from Ecology, continuing a several years-running streak.