Going down Old Highway 99 from Olympia, travelers will eventually pass through the City of Tenino and come up on a wide prairie. On the left is new construction and empty lots that hold a lot of promise for the region.
The site is called the Agriculture Innovation Park, a years-in-the-making and still in-progress complex designed to support the local farming industry and create new economic opportunities.
As of April, just two red buildings stand on the property. The north building opened in January and now houses two businesses. Construction on the south building is expected to be completed in May. Land also has been set aside for a planned meat processing facility and more new development.
Thurston County Commissioner Wayne Fournier said he and Tenino city leaders first envisioned the park back when he was mayor of Tenino. He said the city saw an opportunity to revitalize its rural economy while helping small and mid-sized producers overcome challenges identified through local studies and surveys.
“It became evident that as government regulations have increased over the years, and economic and development pressures have changed their business environment, what we needed to do was create an opportunity to put in public infrastructure to support local farms,” Fournier said.
Among those challenges are market access and infrastructure gaps for small-to-medium producers, according to Aslan Meade, director of strategic alliances for the Thurston County Economic Development Council Center for Business and Innovation.
What’s present at the park so far is the result of a collaborative effort between Tenino, the Center for Business and Innovation and private investor Dragonwheel Investment Group.
However, Meade said several other partners contributed to the project along the way, such as the Port of Olympia, which helped pay for master planning, and Washington State University, which conducted much of the research local officials relied on.
“We looked at lots of different models, a lot went into this, but the EDC really did have this almost mandate from the research and from the community partners that we need to find a way to support agriculture,” Meade said.
This private-public partnership has cost a total of $9.8 million so far. On March 28, The Olympian toured the park with Meade to get an inside look of the new building.
New café, catering spot, event center now open
The Tenino-owned north building cost about $3.4 million to construct and opened in January. It currently houses Simply Organic, a local café and catering spot that opened on March 14.
“We put a lot of love into what we do, just in terms of food production and that encompasses catering,” said Katie Stann, owner of Simply Organic. “That’s kind of our bread and butter.”
Simply Organic has a large kitchen in the north building as well as indoor and outdoor seating for customers. The menu currently includes a variety of burgers, sandwiches, soups, dips and desserts.
Stann said she first learned about the park about four years ago and it seemed like a good fit for her business, which prioritizes using ingredients from local farmers.
“Just to be able to be centrally located in this incredible facility and have that (agriculture) development incorporated in here, that speaks so much to our heart and our vision and our passion,” Stann said.
Right next door is a new business called Stone City Event Center, a large space that people can book for weddings, private gatherings, entertainment and more.
Stann is also managing member of Stone City Event Center. She said the interior event space can hold up to 264 occupants. There’s also space just outside for potentially hundreds more people.
“We have an amazing, state-of-the-art audio, visual system,” Stann said. “It’s basically plug and play. You can connect to it in a multitude of different ways.”
Local ranch, hot sauce company move into park
The still-under-construction south building is privately funded by Dragonwheel Investment Group. Meade said it cost about $3 million to build. Once completed, it will house several businesses.
One of them will be Colvin Ranch Provisions, a new storefront that will offer a meat counter and an assortment of locally sourced foods for customers, said owner Jennifer Colvin.
“It’s not the kind of place where you’re going to do your weekly grocery shopping, but if you really want access to all of the best locally produced foods, this is going to be your destination,” Colvin said.
The store is a new place for Colvin Ranch to sell its products. This family-owned-and-operated, grass-fed cattle ranch is based just down the road from the agriculture park.
Additionally, the ranch intends to open a new meat processing facility at the park that should help relieve a bottleneck in their production.
Currently, the ranch hauls its animals east to Pure Country Harvest, another family-run business in Moses Lake, for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved meat processing.
“We have a great partnership with them, and they do an incredible job,” Colvin said. “But it would be nice to not have to haul our animals across the state and to pay then to have our finished product shipped back.”
This challenge is not unique to Colvin Ranch. A 2023 study prepared for Pierce and Thurston counties found a need for increased meat processing capacity in the region.
Colvin said their meat processing facility will be open for business to other local ranchers in the region and have a capacity of around 100 head a week.
“If we can build more of this infrastructure locally, that’s what our farmers and ranchers need to have sustainable, viable businesses,” Colvin said.
The ranch has conducted a feasibility study for the facility and hopes to open it in the next few years, she added.
Another business coming to the south building is a Caribbean style hot sauce producer called HotBabe HotSauce.
Sandra Bocas, who hails from Trinidad and Tobago, said she founded the company in 2013 and partnered with Fiona Douglas-Hamilton in 2017.
“We use authentic peppers that are grown for us in Washington state … and authentic recipes as well, some from my family,” Bocas said.
The hot sauce duo are opening a production kitchen at the building, so it will not be public facing. However, interested customers can purchase their products online or at local food stores and farmers markets, including the Olympia Farmers Market.
What else is moving into the south building?
Dragonwheel Investment Group and Gondola Ventures will open headquarter offices at the south building as well.
Perry Shea, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dragonwheel, said he co-founded Gondola Ventures about four years ago. The company builds and operates cable car gondola systems around the world but will be based in Tenino. Shea said he chose Tenino because he and his wife grew up there.
“We wanted to come back and do something here, and to make this our home, and to really help put Tenino on the map on a global stage,” Shea said. “And we think our company will do that.”
Shea said his company has already worked on gondola projects in Australia, Hawaii and Colorado. There are more projects in the works, he said, but not one near Tenino for now.
“You have to find the right location and also what I call acceptance in communities, both politically and socially,” Shea said. “Do people want that type of thing? Once they learn more about it and we tell our story, I think there’s great opportunity here locally to do something.”
Lastly, Thurston EDC plans to open an office at the south building where staff can provide technical assistance to rural businesses. The organization also is responsible for managing the park as well as marketing and recruiting new tenants.
“Even to this day, while there’s private investment and public investment … it is the EDC’s role to make sure all the ‘t’s are being crossed and all the ‘i’s are being dotted,” Meade said. “There really is no one else that’s paying attention to the project overall as a whole.”
Dave Watterson, mayor of Tenino, called the park a “huge” development for the local community. He said he hopes the park will draw visitors to the city.
“We’re going to remain a small city with slower growth, I think,” Watterson said. “But I think what this does, projects like this, is bring out people from outside our community to support our small businesses.”
People interested in leasing space at the park can contact Aslan Meade at ameade@thurstonedc.com.
