Rusty Morse has been a part of the Tri-City commercial real estate scene for 25 years, and while he’s seen plenty of growth in the area, he said the last five to 10 years have been phenomenal.“It just continues to grow,” said Morse, managing broker at Coldwell Banker Commercial. “I...

The Tri-City area’s population grew by 1.7 percent over last year to 283,830 people.That’s up from 279,170 last year, according to the state Office of Financial Management’s data released June 30, 2017.Since 2000, the population of the Tri-Cities metropolitan area — which includes all of Benton and Franklin counties —jumped...