Port of Chehalis Commission Approves $200K Toward McBride Court Building

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The Port of Chehalis Commission this week approved $200,000 — previously set aside for a regional telecommunications project — toward a new building at 105 McBride Court.

“As we spoke about last time, we have been working with the contractor, going over some alternatives as far as the construction of the building, how many walls, how many bathrooms, things like that,” said Chief Executive Officer Randy Mueller.

Mueller gave an update on project budget at the Port of Chehalis Commission’s regular meeting Thursday. He estimates the entire project will cost $1,816,537.

For the last three years, the Port of Chehalis has been at full occupancy, but is currently working to construct a 20,000 square-foot building that can be divided into smaller, leasable spaces for businesses.

“For about three years we’ve been full and haven’t had any space,” Mueller said. “So we have been gathering the information from those callers and telling them, when we would be building something, soon we would get in touch. … Probably over last year since we’ve known we would be building the building we have been talking to potential clients or tenants. So we got their information and have been staying in touch.”

At the Thursday meeting, Mueller said the current plan is to divide the building into four spaces — a 2,500 square-foot space, two 5,000 square-foot spaces and one 7,500 square-foot space.

“It’s really about the number of walls and bathrooms,” Mueller said. “... As we get closer and start telling them where to put the walls, that will be based more on what interest we have and who is maybe signing up for a lease.”



There was previously $1.65 million earmarked in the 2019 budget for the new building. The port commission approved allocating the additional $200,000 at its regular meeting Thursday, which brings the entire budget up to $1.85 million.

“That gives us a little money for contingency, which I think is an appropriate amount,” Mueller said.

Mueller said he anticipates the port will hold a budget hearing in late April, before moving the funds.

The most recently proposal from Kaufman Construction & Development estimates construction will cost $1,585,350, and the design will cost nearly $66,000.

“We dropped a couple walls and a couple bathrooms,” Mueller said.

Mueller first proposed the commission consider re-allocating the funds at the port’s last meeting. At the time, the commission asked for more information about items that were not yet budgeted for the project. The $200,000 was previously earmarked for a multi-port project to acquire and rehabilitate fiber optic internet connections from Portland to Seattle along the I-5 corridor.