HERMISTON, Ore.-The City of Hermiston held an open house at the South Hermiston Industrial Park (SHIP) on June 23.
Hermiston’s Assistant City Manager, Mark Morgan provided updates on industrial projects to representatives from the City, Umatilla County, Umatilla Electric Cooperative (UEC) and community members at the site, located at 9th and Penny Avenue, in the south of Hermiston.
“This doesn’t happen overnight,” said Morgan. “We’re able to do this because of the dedication of the City of Hermiston, the commitment of the City Council, and the collaboration of our public and private partners.”
In 2017, the city developed a master plan for development of the roughly 930-acre industrial park, that included both small industrial buildings, as well as large-scale industrial development.
“Our plan was to have big anchor tenants here, as well as smaller, light industrial projects,” said Morgan.
One or two light industrial buildings have been built each year and projects, such as water and sewage facilities and street infrastructure, have been completed with funding from the City’s private partners and with grants, including from the Oregon Department of Transportation and Business Oregon, according to Morgan.
Significant transmission line and substation enhancements have also been completed by Umatilla Electric in the area along Feedville Road.
Over $4.5 billion in private investments from the information, transportation, warehousing and utility industries have been committed to various projects at the SHIP since 2018, according to the City of Hermiston.
Hermiston is currently partnering with Amazon Web Services (AWS) on an Aquifer Storage and Recovery Project that involves pumping water from the Columbia River and storing it underground for use by Hermiston residents during peak water demand months, while allowing AWS access to some of the stored water to cool its data centers.
The City is also looking into expanding its urban growth boundary project, which currently ends at Feedville Road, south by about 1,000 acres to the mainline of the railroad. Hearings on the expansion are planned soon and the project is expected to be completed in the fall, according to Morgan.
“Expanding the urban growth boundary would be specific to data center usage,” said Morgan. “We’re experiencing a lot of growth from data centers.”
Two AWS data center campuses are currently under construction at the SHIP, with even more possible in the future.
About 3,000 jobs were added to the regional economy between 2018 and 2024, according to Morgan, driven by the information industry, including data center technician jobs, which are expected to grow with increased development.
“This economic development is for the community,” said Morgan. “Jobs are why we’re here and why we’re doing this.”
Community members had the opportunity to ask questions about projects at the industrial park at the open house, and queries ranged from project timelines to future endeavors, and the amount of electricity needed to run data centers.
UEC representatives at the open house reported that the cooperative foresees no issues related to power availability for customers due to the data centers for at least the next decade.
