It’s been a busy year for the Port of Kennewick, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be slowing down anytime soon.

The commission and port team have been working through five letters of intent on lots located in their Vista Field mixed-use redevelopment area, a 103-acre former municipal airport adjacent to the Toyota Center that the port has master planned with guidance from the Tri-City community.

Port CEO Tim Arntzen has said in the past that it would just take one developer to open the door, and then the proposals would start streaming in. His prediction, it seems, is playing out now.

“It’s taken a little bit longer than I would have wanted, but with the proposals we have gotten in, we’re in the right place,” he said. “We have the right interest but we’re not overwhelmed. We’re a very small staff, and the last thing I want is for the proposals to be stacked up and not be able to manage them efficiently.”

The port has an operating budget of $4.5 million, non-operating budget of $2.1 million, capital budget of $4.7 million and collects $5.06 million from property tax revenue.

Small entrepreneurs

The port approved its first land sale in July 2023 to Amber Keller, owner of Blueberry Bridal Boutique in Kennewick, who is excited to own her own building. The port is still helping to shepherd Keller, who has struggled to secure funding for the 5,000-square-foot building despite an “awesome balance sheet and money in the bank,” according to Arntzen.

Arntzen and Keller recently sat down with a local bank that prides itself on working with small entrepreneurs with the hope that it will take another look at her proposal. He hopes they will have good news soon about the project moving forward.

The first to make it to the closing table is a 3,500-square-foot upscale restaurant, Kuki Izakaya Japanese Bar & Grill, which is being launched by Isabelle Yuri Na and BK Hong, who own two other restaurants in Richland.

“Their intention is to get cracking this fall before the weather sets in. We’re hoping to get materials on-site soon,” Arntzen said.

Columbia Point Eye Care is interested in expanding and building a new optometry office, as well as some attached rental suites, at Vista Field. The building will total 7,000 square feet.

“Typically, the port tries to throw the seeds out, so to speak, and build space for businesses to rent, but that takes public money. It’s great to see the private sector stepping up and filling the role the port would do so that small business people can come rent and those who can’t build their own,” Arntzen said.

Vista Field is a mixed-use redevelopment area at the 103-acre former municipal airport adjacent to the Toyota Center in Kennewick.

| Courtesy Port of Kennewick

Mixed-use projects

Vista Field’s first mixed commercial and residential building is also in the works with the purchase of a 13,077-square-foot lot by investor Ryan Foster and Vatik Dulo of the Camas, Washington-based Akula Group.

The $8 million, 40,000-square-foot building will offer space for retail and eateries on the first floor, two floors of apartments in the middle and two-story townhome-style condos at the top.

“We were told by master planners that you really have to start small and they were surprised that this early on we were getting folks who want to go five stories. They said that sometimes it takes the first decade to get that kind of traction,” Arntzen said.

Bookending the commercial developments coming to Vista Field, the port also is working with BlueChart Homes – a joint venture led by Levi Holmes of Chartwell Land Company in Silverdale and Benjamin Paulus of Blue Fern and Teak Construction in Redmond – to build about 300 homes over 10 years in multiple phases. 

A design library will be created by the builder with a variety of new urbanism and traditional single-family residential designs for attached, detached, row houses and townhomes, according to information provided to commissioners with the company’s proposal.

“These are not tract homes by any stretch of the imagination,” Arntzen said. “These are purpose-built homes that would lend an interesting architectural style, similar to the 1920s and 1930s.”

He added that the BlueChart development “is the gift that keeps on giving. We do the deal with them, and that’s sustained measurable development over the next decade.”

Arntzen said the port is structuring its budget and efforts around the first two phases, as it will continue building out the infrastructure at Vista Field to support the new development.

Arntzen said there are a couple of other proposals the port has received that have yet to be officially presented to the commission.

Meanwhile, the Port of Kennewick is looking to wrap up its southern gateway project by the end of the year which stripped down two former airplane hangars to serve as open air pavilions connected by a sheltered courtyard and stage, restrooms, landscaping and metal sculpture of a paper airplane.

Columbia Gardens Urban Wine & Artisan Village is a pedestrian-friendly waterfront area where visitors can stroll between tasting rooms, food trucks, craft breweries, restaurants and boutique shops while enjoying outdoor concerts, public art and wildlife along a scenic nature trail.

| Courtesy Port of Kennewick

Other port properties

The port completed a $5 million shoreline restoration project in collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, making shovel-ready parcels the port has available for lease on the island more attractive to developers.

The Clover Island Inn was sold by its previous local ownership to a hotel group from Reno, Nevada, which is vying to turn it into a Hilton branded hotel with the help of $2 million to $3 million’s worth of updates. The hotel’s signature summer concert series will continue.

Plenty of lots are still available at Columbia Gardens, The Willows and Cable Greens properties off Columbia Drive, though Arntzen acknowledged they aren’t the primary focus presently with so many things in motion at Vista Field.

“Long-term investment is the toughest game in community revitalization because it takes the longest,” he said. “We have to be patient with the Columbia Drive properties. Like Vista Field, we have to get the right person down there to develop and make sure we get the right mix.”