Key points: 

• Development district will include entire Port of Moses Lake district. 
• Will allow additional partnerships between the port and private industry. 

MOSES LAKE — Port of Moses Lake commissioners voted unanimously Monday to establish a district designed to give port officials more flexibility when working on development projects. Commissioner Kent Jones said the new Industrial Development District will help meet the demands of current and future development in the district. 

“We’ve had enough success that we’re spending most of our resources now trying to provide the support (and) the infrastructure that all of these businesses are going to have to have, because we don’t have it now,” Jones said. “If we can add another (option) to that tool chest for our staff and the county and the city to work with us, we’ve got to have it. Because that’s where we are right now, and I think we’re going to be there for the foreseeable future.” 

Port Director of Business Development Richard Hanover said the district would make it easier for the port to work with partners in private industry. The added flexibility will be important, he said – there are some challenges that port officials are working to solve, and private partners can help. 

“We’ve got a lot of these partnerships already in place, so we’re working forward to landing more companies and finding unique ways to work with those private partners to be able to bring in infrastructure,” Hanover said. 

He estimated it would take two and a half to five years for those projects to come to fruition.   

The boundaries of the industrial development district will be the same as the port district boundaries. The Port of Moses Lake extends to the Grant-Adams county line to the east, west to the area of Hiawatha Road, south to the Potholes Reservoir and north along a section of Stratford Road. 

“As a port district, we’ve really struggled with our lack of infrastructure in Moses Lake to be able to support continued growth on the industrial side,” Hanover said.  

Chuck Sutton, president of the Grant County Industrial Alliance, said growth in Grant County is starting to run up against the limits of some of the infrastructure, electric availability among them. The additional flexibility should make it easier to address some of those challenges, he said. 

Sutton is the vice president for polysilicon sales and government relations for REC, which ceased operation at its Moses Lake facility in January. 

“As we go forward through our next challenges, we also see this as helping,” Sutton said.