The Hermiston City Council awarded a contract for a project that it hopes will spur more economic development in the Hermiston South Industrial Park.
The council awarded a contract for $1,614,161 to Tapani, Inc.
The work will include paving several undeveloped streets in the area of S.E. Campbell Drive and S.E. 10th Street, as well as installing a water and sewer main in S.E. 10th. The area is part of Local Improvement District #322 formed last year to help pay for the project. Property owners in the LID will pay about 40 percent of the total cost estimated to be around $2.3 million. Part of that cost estimate includes budgeting for potential material cost increases.
A federal Economic Development Association grant will pay for about half and the city of Hermiston and Umatilla County will make up the remaining 10 percent.
“This is a project we’ve been working on for several years,” said Assistant City Manager Mark Morgan.
Morgan said the goal of the project is to have an adequate supply of “shovel ready” smaller-acreage industrial parcels available for small businesses to locate or expand in Hermiston.
The existing supply of parcels five acres or smaller in the South Hermiston Industrial Park along Kelli Boulevard and Campbell Drive has been experiencing development of about one parcel every two or three years and is now approximately 80 percent full. Morgan said by installing paving and utilities past several existing parcels and extending them in to a 40-acre parcel owned by the Port of Umatilla, the project will result in approximately 16 new “shovel ready” parcels which are ready to accept a building.
Morgan said work should begin on July 1 and wrap up by the end of October, about the same time that Meyer Distributing, an auto parts warehouse, will complete work on its building at the industrial park. The business is expected to employee as many as 100 people.
The target market for the new parcels is similar to what exists in that area already, said Morgan. Those are primarily small manufacturers, building trades warehousing, and other employers with less than 50 employees.
