Mineral wool insulation. Sustainable aviation fuel. Big data.

The Port of Walla Walla’s Wallula Gap Business Park, just southeast of Pasco, is on the cusp of bringing new industries and jobs to the region. One industrial partner awaits final state permits to begin construction while another recently cleared a state regulatory hurdle.

Those projects could be joined in less than two years by crews working on the next phase expanding Highway 12 between the business park and Walla Walla, improving safety and travel times.

Rockwool

The North American division of a Danish company that makes stone wool insulation from volcanic rock is still awaiting state permits to build its planned $175 million manufacturing plant. However, a company spokesman told the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business in mid-September the company hopes to begin construction in October or November.

Rockwool North America announced in 2024 that it had signed a deal with the port for 250 acres at Wallula Gap Business Park for $8.75 million. The company uses a proprietary electric melting process to produce an environmentally-friendly material used in commercial, residential and industrial settings.

Rockwool has already graded the site ahead of construction. The company has said construction is expected to take two years once it begins and will employ 600 workers to complete the facility.

In the spring and summer of 2025, owner representative PCL Construction held informational sessions and one-on-one meetings with contractors interested in helping build the facility.

“Our goal is to utilize as many local contractors from the Tri-Cities and Walla Walla as possible,” said Rockwool spokesperson Paul Espinosa at the time of the information sessions.

Once operational, the plant itself will employ 125 people, many of whom the company intends to hire locally.

SkyNRG’s planned sustainable aviation fuel production facility south of Burbank has cleared a regulatory hurdle with the state. Once built and operating, it will produce an estimated 50 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel annually.

| Courtesy SkyNRG

SkyNRG

A Dutch company planning a sustainable aviation fuel production facility has cleared a regulatory hurdle for the project.

State Department of Ecology officials in early September determined that SkyNRG’s facility would not create significant environmental impacts. According to state documents, SkyNRG moved the project to a different area of the business park than originally planned. The new site, located farther from the Columbia River, will have fewer environmental impacts.

The agency’s determination still set requirements for the company and project, from air and water quality precautions and mitigating reduction of habitat for ferruginous hawks. It also requires SkyNRG to make improvements to the intersection of Boise Cascade Road and Highway 12 if current state plans to widen and realign the highway don’t proceed.

SkyNRG’s facility will convert gaseous feedstocks into sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel using chemical processes. 

Once operating, the facility will produce an estimated 50 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel annually and it has agreements already in place to sell the fuel.

SkyNRG has not released details about construction costs for the facility. Company officials have said construction will create up to 600 jobs and the facility itself about 100 jobs once production begins in 2029. 

It’s a project the state has signaled it wants to see happen. It received a $1.5 million grant from the state Department of Commerce, as part of the Governor’s Economic Development Strategic Reserve Fund.

“This project aligns with our strategic growth priorities around clean technology and innovation,” said Joe Nguyen, director of the state Department of Commerce, said in the statement announcing the grant. “In addition to furthering Washington’s leadership in clean energy and sustainable aviation, it creates family-wage manufacturing jobs that strengthen the local economy and community.” 

Data center

There are still scant details regarding a proposed data center campus at the port’s business park that officials have described as transformative.

Advance Phase LLC signed a letter of intent with the port in November 2024 for up to 500 acres at a price of $32.5 million. Port documents said the buyer is a holding company for an “American multinational technology company, engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming and artificial intelligence (AI) services.”

Its deal with the port included a non-disclosure agreement until later in the purchase process.

The company is looking to build a data center campus over four phases, with each phase encompassing about 125 acres, according to information from the port. Each phase will involve constructing four buildings, each about 215,000 square feet.

“Each development phase will have approximately 80 to 100 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees and approximately 100 FTE vendor positions such as data center technicians, utility tradespersons, building maintenance, equipment repair and security,” the information said, adding that, “the estimated private capital investment for each development phase is approximately $1.2 billion, which can scale up to $2 billion over 15 years.”

The total private capital investment is estimated at $4.8 billion. Port officials have said the project would grow the tax base by 50%.

The letter of intent gave the company up to a year for due diligence on the project’s feasibility, port officials said. The port did not respond to requests for comment from the Journal on the status of the project.

State transportation and Walla Walla County officials are proposing breaking up a planned expansion of U.S. Highway 12 to address the lack of funds to fully complete the project.

| Courtesy Port of Walla Walla

Highway 12

The pending slew of construction and development at the business park is expected to add even more traffic to the Highway 12 corridor. That’s part of the impetus behind port leaders along with state transportation officials and lawmakers and county representatives pushing for the next phase of widening and realignment of the highway.

“We have pretty significant projects that are really looking forward to this access,” Commissioner Amy Scwab said during a port meeting in April.

Phase 8 of the Highway 12 expansion would expand the last remaining two-lane undivided stretch of the highway into a four-lane divided roadway with wider medians and shoulders. It would also reroute the highway, cutting across the hills and agricultural fields to the north of the Walla Walla River before creating a new three-way interchange near the Packaging Corporation of America plant.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has allocated $108.5 million from a Rural Surface Transportation grant to the project. The state’s 2025-27 transportation budget provides $40 million in funding, though it also calls on the port to contribute the right of way needed for the project, tentatively as much as 200 acres.

Even with those secured funds, more is needed to cover the overall estimated project cost of $351 million. That is why state transportation and county officials, in a September meeting with Federal Highway Administration officials, recently discussed breaking up the project further, according to Randy Giles, assistant region administrator for the state Department of Transportation. Details about what that revised build-out could look like were not provided.

In the meantime, the transportation officials are preparing for hearings next summer regarding limited access to the new roadway before acquiring the right of way needed for the project. The department has identified spring 2027 as when construction could begin.