With Costco Distribution Center Going to Tumwater, Port of Chehalis Narrows Talks With New Tenant for Rush Road Property

Posted

With the possibility of a Costco distribution center in the rearview mirror, the Port of Chehalis is in talks with an unnamed tenant to occupy and construct a project on the 100 acres the port shares with Puget Western Inc.

Port of Chehalis CEO Randy Mueller said the port and Puget Western have been “courted” by interested tenants and they’re expecting to come to the authority board with a proposal at a future meeting.

“We have another potential tenant that’s looking at the property across the street. It’s a warehouse-distribution, industrial operation that’s proposing a smaller building — we’re thinking about half-a-million square feet and the rest of it would be more outdoor storage,” Mueller told the board Thursday.

The port is still looking at how many jobs it would bring to the area and what the economic benefit of the tenant might look like.



Of note, Mueller said, the tenant would need to extend rail service southeast to the property.

Not many other details were given on the identity of the interested tenant. The Port of Chehalis owns 35 acres of the property and Puget Western owns the other 65 acres; both parties would need to come to an agreement on the tenant in order to leverage a sale.

Mueller said Puget Western did close on a sale of a separate property off of 93rd Avenue in Tumwater for the Costco distribution center project, noting that it’s going to be a “much different footprint than what they looked at here.”

Costco was previously announced as a possible tenant of the property, but the company’s interest eroded when it learned of significant costs associated with leveling out the property.