A more than 70-year-old tank manufacturing company with Alaska roots has expanded to the Tri-Cities to meet demand.

Greer Tank LLC specializes in American-made septic tanks, water tanks and fuel tanks, which can be used at agricultural, industrial and homebuilding sites. 

The company was founded in 1952 in Fairbanks, Alaska, where the community needed small heating oil tanks. Greer operated out of a one-car garage and made each tank as it was needed, said David Kapla, Greer’s president.

From there, the company has grown, opening in Anchorage in the ’70s and then launching the current Fairbanks facility in the ’80s.

To access the southeastern parts of Alaska and some of its coast, it’s easier to send a barge from Seattle rather than traveling from Anchorage, Kapla said. So, to better serve those areas, Greer expanded to Washington in the ’90s with a location in Tacoma. Currently, Greer’s Washington manufacturing facility is based in Lakewood. 

While it may be easy to ship from Lakewood to Alaska, it’s expensive to transport tanks to the Tri-Cities, where Greer has been seeing customer demand for small tanks. So instead, Greer decided to open up a store locally to better serve those customers. The company has signed a three-year lease for a Pasco shop off Highway 395.

The store at 2901 Rainier Place opened Oct. 1, with a grand opening slated for Oct. 21. The store stocks storage tanks of varying sizes from as small as perhaps 15 gallons up to as large as 2,000 gallons. Some are metal, while others are plastic, and the tanks can be used to store fuel, water or waste. 

The plastic storage tanks are made in Fairbanks, while the metal tanks are manufactured in Lakewood and will be shipped to the Tri-Cities in weekly runs. 

The Pasco store is currently only retail, but if business in the Tri-Cities takes off, Greer will need to begin manufacturing locally to keep up with demand.

That’s what the company would love to have happen, Kapla said, but first Greer needs to make sure that the Tri-Cities market will do well.

The Pasco store won’t stock structural components, like handrails, ladders, staircases or catwalks, but if customers need something custom built, Greer can have it manufactured in Lakewood and shipped over. 

Currently, the store has three employees, all local to the Tri-Cities area, said Jocelyn Giles, branch manager. The store also boasts a truck and trailer to run tanks to customers.

Overall, Greer has 122 employees. 

“The nice thing about Greer is that we were born in a small town, and we still think that way,” Kapla said. “You know, for us, yeah it’s a business, we have to make money of course. But it’s more about helping the communities that we operate in than anything. We love to solve problems for people … I think we’ll be a good fit over there.”