Lewis County officials including Commissioners Edna Fund and Gary Stamper, left, meet with Winlock Mayor Don Bradshaw (green shirt) about the Benaroya development.
The long-running saga of the Benaroya Pacific Northwest Regional Logistics Center, a planned 320-acre industrial park in Winlock, appears to be reaching critical mass. Winlock Mayor Don Bradshaw told the Lewis County Board of County Commissioners and other county officials Monday that if a road through the property is not built this year, the city will walk away from the project.
“If we can’t do it this year, I’m going to walk away from it, because I have other things I could be doing,” Bradshaw said. “… Benaroya’s obligations are not our obligations. If I have to wait for that obligation, we won’t be able to build it this year. If we don’t build it this year, we’re not going to build it, because we have one Michelsen who is going to throw a monkey wrench into this.”
Bradshaw and Winlock city staff members met with the county Monday in search of a way to expedite the construction of Michelsen Parkway, which is intended to connect state Route 505 to the industrial property.
Michelsen Parkway would be an extension of Knowles Road intended to connect truck traffic from the site to state Route 505. The Benaroya Company owns the site. The city has a deed agreement with the Michelsen family to build the road, but the work must be completed by March 13, 2020.
Winlock has requested $1.125 million from Lewis County’s distressed counties fund, commonly referred to as the .09 fund — made up of money collected from the state sales tax set asside for rural economic development projects. The entire project is estimated to cost about $3 million.
The county committee responsible for making recommendations on how to use the .09 funds granted Winlock’s request with the caveat that it work with the county to create a standardized plan for not only how to build the road but also for developing the property.
The potential for hundreds of jobs and extensive economic development in south Lewis County hinges on the industrial park, but county officials aren’t optimistic they’ll be able to meet the March 2020 deadline that Bradshaw said he did not think could be extended any further.
Bradshaw alluded to reasons why he held that belief Monday, but said it was not his place to elaborate publicly, and did not return calls seeking clarification prior to press time. Members of the Michelsen family were not at the meeting.
Lewis County Manager Erik Martin said Monday that while it was not categorically impossible to turn around construction of Michelsen Parkway by March 2020, it would be “extremely out of the ordinary” for it to happen. He explained that getting renovations to Borst Avenue, which bisects the line between the City of Centralia and Lewis County, ready for groundbreaking took more than a year. Outstanding issues such as a gas line that runs through the property and whether or not the county can honor an agreement Bradshaw said he’d obtained from Benaroya to use their contractors without using a standard bidding process create further hurdles.
County workers have already been assigned to capital projects this summer, such as Borst Avenue, some of which have already gotten underway. Martin and Public Works Director Josh Metcalf said they weren’t sure they would be able to commit substantial resources to Michelsen Parkway this summer without pulling people off other work sites, a move they did not recommend to the BOCC.
“When we met with Winlock a few months back, we were looking for plans, a schedule, an estimate, all those things we haven’t seen yet,” Martin said. “I just know how long it typically takes for us to work through the design and permitting process for a road. For us to turn around permits and approve a road design we haven’t seen yet on June 17 and then say we’re going to build it this summer is, from my perspective as a former public works director and engineer, an extremely aggressive timeline.”
It is not clear what the future of the industrial park would be if Winlock fails to fulfill its obligation to the Michelsen family. Lewis County Commissioner Edna Fund, who sits on the .09 committee, said Tuesday that she feels there will probably come a point when Lewis County will have to assume the role of managing the project from Bradshaw. She added that she believes the mayor would be willing to participate as a stakeholder at the table.
Bradshaw asked those in the room Monday how important the potential for economic development was to themselves and to the county as a whole. He received reassurances that everyone held the project in high regard, but the mayor seemed to realize the enormity of the situation.
“I’ll put all my effort and energy into making it happen as I already have, but I can’t do any more,” Bradshaw said. “If I can’t build it, what am I doing, and what have I done all of this for? … It’s way beyond frustrating.”
