September 2017
Volume 16 • Issue 9
Richland to break ground on $18.5 million new city hall this month BY KRISTINA LORD editor@tcjournal.biz
Education & Training
MSA’s Synergy Network offers professional growth for women Page 13
Real Estate & Construction
Bids for 6,000-acre farm outside Touchet draw nationwide interest Page 25
Science & Technology
Businesses continue to be vulnerable to cyberattacks page 43
he Said It
“I have faith in the Tri-Cities and I have faith in Vista Field.” - Tom O’Brien, owner of O’Brien Construction Page 29
The deal to close on 1.8 acres to build a new Richland City Hall was 15 years in the making. “It took an act of Congress. Literally,” said Joe Schiessl, the city’s director of parks and public facilities. The city sealed the deal with the federal government Aug. 25 and plans to start a two-year construction project this month to build a new $18.5 million city hall at 625 Swift Blvd. The total cost includes all expenses, from sales tax and furniture, to land and architect fees. The city plans to demolish the 59-yearold city hall on George Washington Way and sell the land for commercial development. The “oversized parking lot” serving the Federal Building on Jadwin Avenue was too big to serve the building, so the city worked with the federal government and divvied it up with Columbia Basin College through a complicated, lengthy bureaucratic process. “We had some obligation and one of those was to acquire and create a parking lot for an undeveloped piece of property next to the Federal Building. We built a 50-space lot to serve the Federal Building and Veterans Administration,” Schiessl said. It’s been completed for a couple of months. Work is underway now to renovate the large parking lot serving the Federal Building to increase capacity and safety for city hall and federal workers. CBC’s Health Science Center students and staff will be able to use up to 50 parking spaces by using a window hanger pass system. Now that the city’s cleared the parking lot hurdles, it can focus on the city hall construction project, which should be complete for staff to occupy by spring 2019. The project won’t cost taxpayers anything additional, Schiessl said. uRICHLAND, Page 37
Deb LaVelle, resident manager for the Kennewick Garden Apartments, stands inside the common area at the affordable senior housing complex on West Fifth Avenue. The complex is undergoing an extensive remodel requiring residents to stay temporarily at a hotel for five days. The common area will be remodeled first and include more seating so residents can stay there during the day when work is happening in their apartments.
Seniors temporarily displaced during extensive remodeling project BY ROBIN WOJTANIK
for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business
An extensive remodel is underway at an affordable senior housing complex in east Kennewick that’s requiring residents to be temporarily relocated and their belongings packed up. The lengthy list of improvements coming to the Kennewick Garden Apartments on West Fifth Avenue includes new flooring, lighting, millwork, doors, appliances and landscaping. Lorna Davis, 77, said she is most looking forward to “the whole thing being done.” Davis has lived in the complex for three
years and has already been through one remodel in 2015. The current construction project will be even more intrusive than the last, requiring every resident to pack all their belongings, except for what’s in their kitchen cupboards and under the bathroom sink. Totes are provided to tenants to temporarily store their household goods, with help provided to those needing assistance packing. Each resident will have to temporarily move into a hotel for five days once work begins on their building. All costs associated with the hotel stay will be covered by the complex’s owners, including meals. uREMODEL, Page 41
French company eyes Richland for solar farm as energy costs remain uncertain BY JOHN STANG
for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business
While a proposed Richland solar power project would be the biggest in the state, the economic future of this source of electricity in Washington is not yet written in stone. This will be the first American venture for the French solar power company Neoen. As Neoen studies the potential installation of a 20-megawatt solar farm in northern Richland, several factors are in play. Producing solar power has become cheaper, but still not as much as hydropower or natural gas — the figures on all three sources constantly fluctuate. And the American Southwest is still a more desirable solar power region than the Northwest. The sun’s rays hit solar panels at much better angles at the lower latitudes to create more electricity.
“The efficiency on a solar project in the Mojave Desert is going to be much higher,” said Steve Simmons, senior economist in the energy division of the Northwest Power & Conservation Council. That is why Oregon and California are swamped with solar power projects, while Neoen is only the second utility-scale project in Washington Neoen’s proposed project, scheduled for completion in 2019, is on a 300-acre piece of former federal Hanford land just northwest of the 300 Area. The federal Department of Energy transferred that land to the Tri-Cities Development Council. TRIDEC then transferred control to Energy Northwest with the understanding that at least 100 acres would be used for solar power. Neoen obtained an option on 150 acres earlier this year. uSOLAR, Page 4
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