Setbacks don’t deter big plans for Pasco’s Osprey Pointe Marketplace

By Laura Kostad for

Four years ago, plans to develop Osprey Pointe Marketplace were announced.

When Eaty Gourmet couldn’t deliver, JMS Construction stepped up with a goal of breaking ground in 2020.

Then Covid-19 upended the project.

Once the dust had largely settled, the opening was revised to summer 2022.

Then the 2021 Washington State Energy Strategy mandated that new and existing buildings transition to high-efficiency electric space and water heating.

Then there was proposed legislation to ban natural gas altogether as a heat source in new commercial construction and residential projects four stories and taller.

The series of setbacks posed major problems for James and Meredith Sexton, owners of JMS Construction, who have been in the process of master planning and engineering the Port of Pasco’s 55-acre parcel at Osprey Pointe.

Slow-going process are excited about the location and about seeing what’s to come.”

The homebuilders’ vision includes more than just a housing development.

And they’re not giving up.

They want to convert the vacant waterfront property into a mixed-use development with commercial space.

Plans call for 1,063 homes consisting of apartments, condominiums and detached condos, a 350-room hotel and the centerpiece: a 9,400-square-foot indoor marketplace, event facility and an outdoor amphitheater bigger than the Gorge in Quincy. The snag? The Sextons had planned to heat the marketplace with four gas furnaces.

The proposed bill ended up dying, but in an unexpected move, the Washington State Building Code Council passed a similar ban in spring 2022. It goes into effect this July.

Changes to the state building code were made in the interest of reducing the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Vision for busy corridor

Fronting busy George Washington Way, Park Place sees more than 33,000 vehicles drive by the location every day.

In addition to the retail space, the development rents studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, with many residents still working from home, offering the nearby shops a built-in customer base, Villa and Soto said. The city of Richland always had a vision for this highly visible area.

“Overall our strategy is a vibrant, walk-