New complex in Moses Lake ready to rent
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 12 months AGO
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | October 17, 2025 3:30 AM
MOSES LAKE — The Modern Heights apartments, located smack in the middle of Moses Lake, are almost finished.
“We have about half of them ready to go,” said Doug Robins, development coordinator for the project and the designer of the complex. “We have people moving in right now.”
When it’s finished, the complex will have 96 units, with one, two or three bedrooms. The one-bedroom apartments are on the third floor, and each has a covered extended living space about the same size as the bedroom.
“You have a beautiful veranda view of the area,” Robins said. “You can see the lake, you can see the townscape, everything from there. That was one of the features I wanted to add. So many of your one-bedrooms end up in a corner where nobody can really enjoy what they have to offer.”
The rest of the apartments have balconies, and some of the three-bedroom units have dual balconies, Robins said.
The apartments are all designed with 9-foot ceilings to give them a more spacious feel, Robins said. The kitchens come with stainless steel appliances and quartz countertops, and every unit has a washer and dryer hookup.
“If they request it, then we can put in washers and dryers for them,” Robins said. “But most people want their own stuff.”
They also come with free basic cable and Wi-Fi, Robins said, and at the center of the complex is a community building with a theater room and a workout room.
The project has been a long time in the making. Vijay Suglani, with Robins as his agent, purchased the property on Crouse Street in Moses Lake in March 2021, according to county records. Robins then contacted The DOH Associates, a Wenatchee architectural firm, to share his design ideas. Suglani and Reza Firouzi of Firouzi Development formed ML Vision LLC a few months later, and construction began in November 2023 with Priest River Construction as the general contractor.
There were hiccups along the way, mostly involving threading the maze of city and state regulations.
“The city is going through a lot of growing pains as far as planning and development,” Robins said. “We have a new city manager who's working with the council and trying to take us different places than we've been before. It’s all positive, but it still takes time to implement those ideas and those plans, and so the process can be very slow with everybody trying to get stuff through the system. There may not be enough staff, or the procedures are being refined to help make the process easier for all of us to deal with.”
Modern Heights will have an open house from noon to 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday to show off the apartments and take applications. The complex is located at 1701 West Crouse St., Moses Lake. More information is available at www.modernheightsml.com or by calling 509-765-8288.
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Endless battle
Noxious Weed Control Board works to keep invasive plants under control
MOSES LAKE — Some of the nastiest plants in Grant County were the topic of a class led by Jay Johnson, a consultant with the Grant County Noxious Weed Control Board, Tuesday. The Noxious Weed Control Board, as its name would suggest, is tasked with keeping weeds under control in Grant County. That’s not a small job; the board’s website lists 129 species of noxious weeds that are found around Grant County. A noxious weed is defined as an invasive, non-native plant that threatens agricultural crops, local ecosystems or fish and wildlife habitat, according to the Noxious Weed Control Board. Washington state law requires that these weeds be identified and their spread kept to a minimum, if not completely eradicated. “We’re one of those agencies a lot of people don’t really understand,” Johnson said. “We’re a county office and … our funding is tax-based assessment. When you get your tax bill and you look down at all the expenses that you pay for, there we are.”
BASIN EVENTS: Oct. 16-24
COLUMBIA BASIN — Whether you feel like shopping, crafting, learning or seeing a show, there’s something happening for you this week in the Basin. Oct. 16 ‘My Family (Mi Familia)’ screening Spanning three generations, “My Family (Mi Familia)” is a heartfelt drama that follows the Sánchez family as they build their lives in East Los Angeles. Through love, hardship, triumph, and sacrifice, the film explores the immigrant experience, the strength of family bonds, and the traditions that connect one generation to the next. Lowrider show and taco truck before the screening. Sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts, EDUBS C/S and the Moses Lake Creative District. $12 per person. Doors open at 6 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m. at the Moses Lake Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St. Tickets and info: www.cba-arts.org.
Moses Lake author encourages women to look beyond church culture norms
MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake author’s book, “A Christian Woman Striving to Live Her Faith in a Man-Controlled World,” takes aim at the role to which many churches relegate the female half of their congregations. “It’s to encourage women in the faith,” Linda Curran said. “A lot of churches say, ‘Teach Sunday school, do this, do that, but don’t (evangelize.)’" In her book, Curran recounts a time when she moved to a new community and joined a church there. She was surprised to learn that, as a new female member, she had been automatically assigned church cleaning duties. When she questioned it, she wrote, she was met with condescension and her objections were brushed aside. In other churches, she said, women who were capable of teaching were relegated to “women’s ministry.”

