As development picks up in West Richland, one intersection has seen a growing commercial interest as the city’s land is snapped up for new buildings.

Commercial buildings have cropped up on the corners of Belmont Boulevard and Keene Road in recent years, near the city’s main offices at 3100 Belmont Blvd. and Leona Libby Middle School.

Retail interest in the area has especially picked up since Dutch Bros Coffee opened at 6429 Keene Road in early 2025, said Rob Ellsworth, senior advisor with SVN Retter & Company and West Richland’s commercial real estate broker. 

The intersection is also home to a gas station, HAPO Community Credit Union branch, and the second location of Richland’s Miss Tamale restaurant, all of which opened in the last five years.

The intersection was once made up of just four city-owned parcels, which now have been split into about 12 different parcels. Only three are left for sale. There’s been a strong interest since the fall and several parcels are already sold or under contract. 

For all land purchased from the city of West Richland, there’s a three-year performance agreement, said Eric Mendenhall, the city’s community development director. That means those who buy the land have three years to close on the property and design, construct and occupy their building. 

That ensures that the land will be developed, rather than selling to someone who only wants to speculate, Mendenhall said. 

Incoming businesses

Work has already started at a few locations. 

A new building for the Benton County Conservation District is well underway at 3131 Belmont Blvd. The 2,200-square-foot facility will support the district’s growing programs and staff, the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business reported in a January 2025 story. 

Just up the street to the north, ground has been broken across from Kona Drive for the Copper View Apartments. That project will include 264 units across 11 apartment buildings and a clubhouse and pool.

Since that land wasn’t owned by the city of West Richland, the project doesn’t have to follow the same three-year timeline as the city-owned properties.

Nearby the growing commercial development at Belmont Boulevard and Keene Road is the start of a new apartment complex, Copper View Apartments, across from Kona Drive.

| Photo by Nathan Finke

Just south and east of Kona Drive, the owners of La Bella Vita Kitchen and Bar, an Italian-American restaurant at 1515 George Washington Way, bought a parcel of land off Belmont Boulevard in May 2025. 

Just south of it, two parcels are planned to be a future 30,000-square-foot Planet Fitness building. That land sale hasn’t yet closed, but the parcels are under contract and set to be sold within the month, Mendenhall said. 

On the other side of the intersection, land has been sold at 6397 Keene Road for a State Farm insurance business, Scott Smith Insurance Agency. The agency already has offices in Kennewick and Yakima. 

One parcel over, at 6363 Keene Road, land was sold to V3RD LLC in October 2025, but it is unclear what will be developed on that site. 

Mendenhall said there has been lots of interest and plenty of people calling about West Richland’s last three properties at the Belmont-Keene intersection. 

Ellsworth said the interest has been from a variety of different users, and not just local companies, either. 

“I tell people all the time: I think West Richland is primed to have the most growth of all of our cities in the next five to 10 years,” he said.

Residential construction has always been strong in the city, Ellsworth said, and “now the commercial and retail side is starting to wake up and become very strong, too.”