Post merger, AgWest Farm Credit embraces change

Karina Elias Spokane Journal of Business

AgWest Farm Credit, the newly formed agricultural lending association, plans to focus its resources to enhancing its agricultural customer-owners’ access to technology.

This will enable it to modernize its growing methods and deliver efficient and sustainable products, said Mark Littlefield, president and chief executive officer.

Spokane-based Northwest Farm Credit Services and Rocklin, California-based Farm Credit West completed a merger on

Jan. 1 to form AgWest Farm Credit.

AgWest will serve 22,000 customers throughout 59 locations in seven western states consisting of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, California, Arizona and Alaska.

It has a branch at 9915 Saint Thomas Drive in Pasco.

The combined organization had $30 billion in assets as of Jan. 1, Littlefield said.

Northwest Farm Credit’s assets totaled $15 billion on Sept. 30, up from $13.9 billion a year earlier, according to the most recent call report filed with the federal Farm Credit Administration. Northwest

FCS’s net income was $88 million for the third quarter of 2022, up from $86.8 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Farm Credit West’s assets totaled $14.1 billion on Sept. 30, up from $12.6 billion a year earlier, and its net income was $86 million for the third quarter, up from $76 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Littlefield sees the merger as a forward-looking joining of resources rather than financial need.

Nate Riggers, a farmer in Nez Perce, Idaho, and board chair for Northwest Farm Credit Service, said that while mergers are typically seen as one strong institution acquiring a smaller institution, that’s not the case with AgWest.

“This is really a merger of equals,” he said. “Both institutions are similar in size, and we saw it as an opportunity to pull our resources and make ourselves more resilient for the future.”

Littlefield said the agricultural industry that AgWest serves has been changing dramatically for decades, mostly centered around agricultural consolidation. As the organization’s customers continue to consolidate and grow larger, so do their needs, Littlefield said.

“It was clear that the trajectory we were on, we would be able to serve more customers as a combined organization than either one of us will be able to do 10 years from now,” he said.

Agricultural technology – GPS technology, heat and moisture sensors, and robots – is changing rapidly, and the cost of that change is expensive, Littlefield said. Being able to finance that technology as a larger organization gives AgWest more capability that Northwest FCS and Farm Credit West would have been able to deliver independently, he said.

“(Farmers) need us to be there for them not only to understand why they need the technology, but also to help them access it, implement it, and understand the risks associated for their business,” he said.

AgWest is a mission-based lender that provides financing and related services to ranchers, agribusinesses, commercial fishermen and timber producers.

Riggers said AgWest’s customers range from a small organic produce farm outside of Seattle to some of the largest seafood processors on the West Coast.

“We needed this merger in order to better serve all our customers, from the smallest to the largest,” he said.

By combining the two institutions, AgWest is better prepared to overcome challenges that it foresees impacting farmers and customer-owners, he said. For example, farmers are confronted with the need to modernize their methods to grow products more efficiently and sustainably, Littlefield said.

The organization also hopes to improve its ability to attract, develop, and retain high quality employees and meet their needs, he said.

AgWest has 1,058 employees, 315 of whom are based at the Spokane headquarters. Littlefield is the former president and CEO of Farm Credit West and recently bought a home in Spokane. He will be transitioning there over the next 90 days to lead AgWest.

Littlefield, who has a background in finance and economics, said he joined the farm credit industry by accident. He hadn’t planned to stay long-term, but after working with farmers and the association’s employees who are committed to ensuring those farmers have what they need in order to grow food, he saw working in farm credit financing as a purposedriven life rather than a career.

“It was an opportunity to be part of something bigger than just what I wanted to do,” he said. “We take our lead from our customer-owners and the fact that that

Fowler lands $8.9M contract for Hanford work

By Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

Washington River Protection Solutions recently awarded a $8.9 million subcontract to Fowler General Construction to install an interim surface barrier over the U Tank Farm.

This is the fourth time the Richland firm has been tapped to build such a barrier over the underground waste tanks.

The tank farm is a group of underground waste storage tanks that contain radiological and chemical waste generated during past plutonium production at the Hanford site.

The 144,100-square-foot interim asphalt barrier Fowler is to build will help prevent rainwater and snowmelt pushing existing contaminants in the soil closer to groundwater. there is purpose in it for them. It’s something you have to know and love.”

Hanford’s U Tank Farm has 12 tanks, each with a capacity to hold 530,000 gallons, and four tanks each able to hold 55,000 gallons.

WRPS is the Hanford site’s tank farm contractor.

Since its contract with the Department of Energy began in 2008, WRPS has awarded nearly 68% of its subcontracts to small businesses like Fowler Construction, exceeding its overall small-business subcontracting goal of 58%.

“WRPS has long supported local small businesses,” said Gregg Crockett, WRPS business operations manager. “We want to find companies that can effectively and safely complete this critical work.” Construction is expected to wrap in late 2023.

Littlefield said he looks forward to training and development services AgWest will have the capability to offer.

In addition, he looks forward to helping customers support the communities they live in. AgWest makes contributions into donor-advised funds for customers to support needs in their communities, such as new hoses for a fire department or resources for a school district.

“(Customers) get to be the ones to engage those resources into their communities,” he said.

AgWest is part of the Farm Credit System, a network of borrower-owned agricultural lending institutions that was created by Congress in 1916 and charged with financing agriculture, he said. about 36 acres in Pasco west of Venture Road and south of Pasco-Kahlotus Road. The project will include a portable concrete plant, stockpiles of raw gravel and sand products trucked and stored for plant use and a concrete washdown containment area.

Littlefield explained that agriculture is cyclical and experiences boom-and-bust periods, and farmers 100 years ago had trouble financing their business because banks would pull out during bust cycles, leaving farmers without credit.

Littlefield added that at the time the Farm Credit System was created, the U.S. had recently entered World War I, and farmers had a difficult time finding financial resources; long-term lending in agriculture was considered risky. Congress evaluated the importance of having a stable food supply, especially in the midst of global war activity and founded the Farm Credit System.

“They recognize that if they could feed their own population even through war time … it was a critical component of national security,” Littlefield said.

Hogback Starbucks

Pasco

Hogback Development LLC has submitted plans for a 1,100-square-foot building to be used as a Starbucks coffee shop with a drive-thru window.

The undeveloped property is at Three Rivers Drive and Road 68 in Pasco.

McCurley Subaru Quick-Lube

Pasco

Mason McCurley has submitted plans for a 9,000-square-foot addition to the existing McCurley Subaru at 9620 Sandifur Parkway to provide car maintenance services.

Baker Produce storage building Pasco

Evolv Design Collective LLC has submitted plans to build a 6,400-square-foot addition to the existing Baker Produce facility at 1505 E. Foster Wells Road, Pasco.

The addition will be used to store cardboard boxes and pallets.

USPO – Project North Star Pasco

Syngenta has submitted plans to construct a 22,000-square-foot building to expand the company’s seed processing operations at 5516 Industrial Way in Pasco.

Jefferson Landing Pasco

Lewis Place LLC has submitted plans to rezone an undeveloped parcel on Heritage Boulevard between East Helena Street and East Lewis Street in Pasco to allow for mixed-use residential/commercial for future higher-density residential land use and development.

Pasco High School 3 Pasco

Knutzen Engineering, on behalf of the Pasco School District, has submitted plans to build a new high school on about 65 acres northwest of the Burns Road and Road 60 intersection.

The two-story, roughly 300,000-squarefoot building would hold 2,000 students in grades 9-12.

Old Dominion Freight Line Transfer Terminal Pasco

Old Dominion Freight Line has submitted plans for a 63-door freight transfer terminal and drop yard on the 5800 block of North Capitol Avenue in Pasco.

The building will be 32,000 square feet. Construction is proposed to start in spring 2023 and finish in spring 2024.

Midland South

Pasco

Haven Capital LLC has submitted plans for a 27-unit, single-story apartment complex at Sandifur Parkway and Midland Lane.

Each unit will have two bedrooms, one bathroom and 782 square feet of space.

Reservations are being accepted for ABC Mini Storage’s new facility at 302 Wellsian Way in Richland.

The project includes 526 single-story units and 63,000 square feet of rentable space.

The facility features LED lighting, insulated buildings, vapor barrier in the concrete, wide-drive aisles and hallways, and 33 cameras throughout facility.

The facility offers a bluetooth-enabled site access system, so customers can enter and exit without rolling down their window.

Ryan Daley, president of ABC Mini Storage, said online rentals are going to be streamlined, so customers can rent 24/7 from their phone.

The facility will sell a wide range of packing and moving supplies and will offer new customers free local use of a moving truck.

Construction was $5 million; the land cost $600,000. The project included helping to build a section of Comstock Street, so it will connect George Washington Way to Wellsian Way.

Bruce Baker designed the project.

Mike Holstein of MH Construction was the general contractor.

Jeremy Filbert is the storage facility manager. He can be reached at 509-800-7189.

The 12,000-square-foot project can accommodate one to three tenants. Each suite features heated and insulated warehouse space, as well as a finished office/showroom, depending on tenants’ needs.

The shell is complete, and the interiors will be finished once leased.

The building is suited to tenants seeking a mix of warehouse and office space, such as smaller distribution and contractor businesses.

The project will help to fill the need for warehouse space in the market. Rents will start at $11 per square foot, plus triple net. Ivy, an investor from western Washington, owns several commercial real estate investments on the west side of the state, as well as four commercial sites in the Tri-Cities. The property is just off North Kellogg Street and behind the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant.

Bruce Baker designed the project.

Hummel Construction is the general contractor

For leasing information, contact Rob Ellsworth with SVN | Retter & Company at 509-430-2378.