Richland Real Estate Blog

Lots of Richland business stuff going on lately. Check this out:

• ConAgra Lamb Weston is getting all kinds of TV attention lately. Just this week, crews from The Food Network were at the Richland potato processing plant to tape a segment about the technology used to make french fries. Earlier this month, The History Channel taped something similar with ConAgra Lamb Weston for a new food program. No idea when either program will air.
• Richland city officials are hoping to create a new mixed use business district to revitalize the heart of the downtown area. Some zoning would have to be changed to make it happen. Here’s a Tri-City Herald article about it.
• The IRS is now in Richland. They’ve closed shop on their old Kennewick location, and can now be found in the Richland Federal building at 825 Jadwin Avenue.
• And the bad business news last: Richland’s Bounce Arena, a fun place for birthday parties and such, recently closed its doors.

If you have any Richland business news or announcements to pass along, feel free to contact us!

For a lot of locals, this weekend means Boat Races/Water Follies. For me it means the Allied Arts Show over at Howard Amon Park.

It’s an annual event that takes place during Boat Race weekend. And it’s fantastic - food, paintings, photography, pottery, jewelry, home furnishings, knick knacks and do-dads. Parking is extremely difficult to find, but the bus has scheduled stops there and if you don’t mind stretching your legs, you can park at surrounding businesses and take a stroll to get there.

I took a ton of pictures, but they didn’t all come out - here’s a little peak, though -

there were a TON of booths - I only got through about half of them before I had to leave -

It runs through tomorrow, so there is still time to run out and see what they have to offer!

Here are some interesting stats from the City of Richland about real estate, construction, and population:

Building permits at all-time highs: The city’s revenue from building permits continues very strong through the first half of the year. The current workload in Development Services seems to indicate that it will remain strong for the rest of the year. Plan reviews, new commercial construction and total construction valuation are at all-time highs. Through June, the city had collected $986,014 in revenue from building permit sources, which is 86% of the total projected for 2008.

Commercial development value is up: Commercial construction increased for the first half of this year, setting a six-month record of $67.41 million, based on 46 permits. Actual number of permits for commercial construction have been higher in half of the previous eight years, but this year’s high value can be attributed in large part to PNNL’s new Biological and Computational Sciences Laboratory, a $47 million dollar project. The total value of all construction also set a record for the first six months of 2008 at $128.41 million, surpassing the six-month mark of $99.75 million, set in 2006.

Richland population is rising: Richland’s population grew by 2.24%, or 1,010 people, from 2007 to 2008, according to statistics provided by the Washington State Office of Financial Management. The state estimates Richland’s 2008 population at 46,080.

Just updating the blog post from last week about Hanford’s B-Reactor…. the National Park Service advisory board voted unanimously this week to recommend that the site be declared a National Historic Landmark. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne will make the final decision.

Local officials say the NHL status would give the Tri-Cities more exposure on the national level as a tourist attraction, and that would pump some more money into the local economy as people visit Richland to see a major piece of the country’s nuclear history.

The City of Richland is working on Van Giesen Avenue and if you drive along the road frequently, you may want to find a detour from now through mid-August. Here are the details from the city’s news release:

PROJECT WILL RESTRICT VAN GIESEN TRAFFIC

Traffic will be disrupted through July as the city contractor work on the Van Giesen Avenue overlay project.

Lane restrictions are in place on Van Giesen from Jadwin Avenue to George Washington Way. Contract crews are repairing curbs, gutters and driveway entrances and installing intersection warning strips, designed for the visually impaired.

From July 28 through August 15, the same section of Van Giesen will be closed as crews complete repairs to drainage structures, install new grates and repave the surface.

Temporary traffic controls are in place at various locations. The City of Richland and its general contractor, Inland Paving Inc., are making every effort to keep businesses within the project construction accessible.

Van Giesen’s intersections with Jadwin Avenue and George Washington Way will remain open.

Project questions may be addressed to the City’s Project Engineer, Jack Arnold, at 942-7791.

That’s what Sen. Patty Murray is asking the National Park System to consider. In a letter to the NPS advisory board considering the designation, Murray said, “The B Reactor and the people who made it a reality have played an indelible role in our nation’s history.”

It’s the first full-size reactor in the world, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. The B-reactor is where they made the plutonium that was used in the Nagasaki atomic bomb.

The National Park System’s advisory board will meet next week to consider making the B-reactor a National Historic Landmark.

More info. about the B-reactor:

Hanford.gov
Atomic Archive (source of the photo above)
B-Reactor Museum Association