Isabelle Na says she moved to the Tri-Cities four years ago and loves the community. However, she misses the variety of cuisine she used to enjoy when living in Seattle. Then, one day, she had an idea.

“I said to my husband, ‘How about we just open our own restaurant to share what we like?’” she said. 

Na and her husband BK Hong are making that idea a reality. In November, she broke ground on Kuki Izakaya Japanese restaurant at Vista Field.

The event also marked a milestone for the port’s yearslong effort to redevelop the former airfield.

“This is a really happy moment for all of us, not only the port but in the community because this is the first groundbreaking of a number of projects that will be coming out of the ground in the next few months,” said Tim Arntzen, the port’s CEO, during a ceremony to celebrate the start of the restaurant’s construction.

Kuki Izakaya will be built on a corner lot with frontage on Crosswind Boulevard. The 3,500-square-foot restaurant will serve sushi rolls, sashimi, other Japanese cuisine, local wines and drinks, including Japanese sakis. It will be the third restaurant owned by Na’s Kuki LLC, which also operates Ara Sushi & Grill and Chicken & Bowl in Richland.

Construction Services of Washington LLC is the general contractor.

The port closed the former municipal airport at the end of 2013 due to costs and lack of federal funding. The town center plan developed in a series of public meetings to assess the highest and best use of the property where Navy pilots once practiced landing on a simulated aircraft carrier deck.

Richland-based Total Site Services LLC completed the $4.9 million first phase of the development during the pandemic. The work included streets, sidewalks, benches, lights and stream.

Jersey barriers came down in 2022 and the public now can drive through the property on Crosswind Boulevard, which connects West Grandridge Boulevard and West Deschutes Avenue in the area east of the Three Rivers Convention Center.

A pair of unused aircraft hangars on the south side of the 103-acre site were recently refashioned into a set of pavilions positioned around a courtyard. They are located on Crosswind Boulevard near Kuki Izakaya’s future location.

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 the Camas, Washington-based Akula Group.

The proposed $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.