A five-year effort to improve aquatic habitat around Kennewick’s Clover Island is a go after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $4 million contract to Alaska-based TDX Power Services LLC to complete the work.The Corps’ Walla Walla District and the Port of Kennewick, which owns the 16-acre island,...
Darigold Inc. will build its largest ever milk drying plant in Pasco, cementing the region’s status as one of the Northwest’s leading centers for food processing.The Seattle-based dairy cooperative intends to build a $500 million, 400,000-square-foot protein and butter plant packed with carbon-reducing features on 150 acres at the Port...
A Montana startup that raises lettuce and herbs in high-tech greenhouses is coming to the Tri-Cities on the heels of a merger that will take the company public with a valuation of $1.1 billion.Local Bounti, launched in Hamilton, Montana, in 2018 by a pair of former energy industry executives, will...
A Portland food manufacturer known for its potato salad is expanding in the Mid-Columbia with a new processing plant in Franklin County, just north of the Pasco city border.Reser’s Fine Foods broke ground on a 250,000-square-foot plant on North Capital Avenue, east of Highway 395, shortly after it closed a...
In pandemic year 2020, the population in the greater Tri-Cities grew among the fastest of all metro areas in Washington state. For Benton County, state Office of Financial Management (OFM) pegged the count at 209,300 residents; for Franklin County, at 99,500. That’s a gain of over 6,300 in 12 months.These...
Visit Tri-Cities, the tax- and fee- funded agency responsible for putting heads in hotel beds, is dropping its paid membership model in favor of a storytelling approach that includes high-quality videos and images.The shift away from the $250 “basic” membership program ($185 for nonprofits) began before the Covid-19 pandemic knocked...
Corvettes on the Columbia, a long-running celebration of all things Corvette and a major fundraiser for Make-A-Wish Alaska & Washington, returns in September after organizers were forced to cancel the 2020 event because of the Covid-19 pandemic.The 3 Rivers Corvette Club will hold the 2021 edition – its 11th –...
Washington’s 19th American Viticultural Area becomes official on Aug. 2.Goose Gap AVA, which lies within Benton County and two existing AVAs, offers winemakers the opportunity to identify it as the source of their grapes on labels under federal rules.The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau approved the newest AVA...
For 28 years, Paleteria La Jalpita has been handcrafting icy Mexican treats on a stick in downtown Pasco.“We have six pots a day, with each pot producing 800 paletas, for 4,800 total paletas a day,” said Rom Romero, whose dad, Jesus Romero, owns the shop.Paletas are Mexican ice pops that...
Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, Washington’s largest winery by far, will join a corporate stable that includes consumer-focused brands such as Ann Taylor Loft, Torrid and Hot Topic under a $1.2 billion deal announced July 9.Altria Group Inc., parent to the Woodinville-based winery, said it had reached an agreement to sell...
