Gary PetersenA coalition of high-profile Tri-City business and civic leaders is pushing Hanford managers and regulators to encapsulate low-level tank waste in grout rather than glass, calling grout a better, faster and cheaper approach to cleaning up the nuclear reservation.Northwest Energy Associates, a nonprofit formed in 2020, is led by...
Long before the 580-acre Hanford site became a recognizable nuclear reservation and beating heart of the Manhattan Project, a unique combination of lava flows, ice age floods, tectonic rotation and wind acted to form the landscape. Bruce BjornstadAbout 17 million years before government scouts landed on it, to be precise.The...
Nearly 5,000 new and existing homes sold in the Tri-Cities in 2021.While most would be considered midrange, a small but growing number carried seven-figure price tags.The top tier of the housing market tends to get overlooked in an economy where midrange homes – currently considered those in the $300,000-$500,000-plus range...
Local Bounti Corp., the Montana ag startup behind one of the biggest economic development wins in 2021, has “paused” construction of its $40 million greenhouse complex in east Pasco.The Pasco facility was supposed to be the second in a network of high-tech complexes where Local Bounti planned to cultivate lettuce,...
The city of Pasco will raze the Thunderbird Motel and turn the site into a parking lot after reaching a $1.2 million deal to buy the “nuisance” property.The deal is expected to close by late April, with the city set to take possession by May 25.The city will demolish the...
A young relative asked Jeff Losey if he should wait for the housing market to cool down before purchasing his first home.Losey, executive director of the Home Builders Association of Tri-Cities, said he advised against waiting.“The water level is what it is,” he said, referring to current home prices. “It’s...
Ben Franklin Transit is embedding a transit hub into the heart of a future development in one of the most prominent retail corridors in south Richland.The transit agency will build its hub on a strip of land bordering the Southwest Richland Park & Ride, off Columbia Park Trail near the...
Great Floors, the Coeur d’Alene, Idaho-based flooring chain, sold five locations in a $33 million sale-leaseback deal that includes its Kennewick location.The portfolio also included Great Floors stores in Coeur d’Alene, Spokane Valley, Lacey and Yakima.The buyers were mostly 1031-exchange investors from California and Western Washington – meaning they were...
Bookwalter Winery is expanding its dining business in service of a lofty goal.Owner John Bookwalter wants to transform the Richland winery’s Fiction restaurant into a top-drawer establishment worthy of the industry’s highest honor. To do it, he’s opening a new restaurant in the former R.F. McDougall’s Irish Pub & Eatery...
There have been plenty of efforts to bring a public market to the Tri-Cities. But after years of talk, an all-private effort with 70 vendors, including Ice Harbor Brewery and Columbia Industries’ Opportunity Kitchen, is about to open in Kennewick.The Public Market @ Columbia River Warehouse is set to debut...
