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Details Category: Top Stories Published on Friday, 06 June 2014 01:00 Written by Nicholas Shanmac

2014 has been a busy year for the Port of Kalama, and the Cowlitz County hub is showing no signs of slowing down.

Currently under construction at the port is an impressive new administrative office building and Transportation Interpretive Center. The 13,500-square-foot building will not only house the ports administrative offices, but will also celebrate the citys place in Pacific Northwest history.

Olympia-based Berschauer Group is the general contractor for the center. The building was designed to resemble a traditional waterfront warehouse of the 1800s and should be complete by this fall.

A new administrative office enables us to provide even more efficient services to our port businesses, and the Interpretive Center offers the community and visitors a quality destination to explore, said Troy Stariha, Port of Kalama commission president.

Meanwhile, Chehalis-based Railworks Corporation is wrapping up work on a rail improvement/relocation project for port tenant Temco LLC, a grain company. Construction on the project began earlier this year with a $5.9 million investment by the port, coupled with an investment by Temco. Officials said the project will double the rail capacity and triple product throughput capacity at the site.

Rail expansion and track relocation significantly enhances our clients transportation efficiency and doubles the firms rail capacity to move grain which enables them to remain competitive in the global export market, said Stariha. These are the kinds of partnerships on projects we can offer our clients while making a positive impact on the regions economic health.

More growth is anticipated at the port as the commission recently approved the annexation of 260 acres at East Port for the development of mixed-use business center to attract new business and family-wage jobs. At full build-out, the multi-use business property is slated to bring in an estimated $184 million in commercial and industrial business each year.

Finally, NW Innovation Works is proposing to construct a two-phase $1.8 billion manufacturing plant on port property that would produce methanol from natural gas.

Though the project has yet to receive environmental and regulatory approvals, officials said it represents 1,000 jobs during construction and 200 permanent family-wage jobs during operations.

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