Hermiston city officials are inviting the community to see how an industrial park is contributing to the city’s growth and what may lie in store for the future. 

The city will host an open house at 9 a.m. June 23 at the corner of Ninth Street and Penney Avenue in the South Hermiston Industrial Park, or SHIP, according to a release. The open house will include an overview of the industrial park’s ongoing projects and businesses and an opportunity to see the work in progress on an aquifer storage project. 

“The SHIP is out of sight and out of mind for most folks, but it has been a growing economic engine for the region for many years,” said assistant city manager Mark Morgan in a statement. “The city and all of our public and private partners have invested heavily in the basic infrastructure and the business community has responded by building, adding jobs and growing the tax base.” 

Private business has invested $4.5 billion in planned and in progress projects across multiple businesses in information, transportation, warehousing and utility sectors at the industrial park since 2021. 

The next big project for the park is the Aquifer Storage & Recovery, which will pump water from the Columbia River during low-demand months and store it underground in the aquifer for use in the high-demand months.  

Amazon Web Services is covering construction costs, including drilling the wells and installing pipes and pumps.