Drivers passing the intersection of Rush Road and Jackson Highway will likely see major excavation — tons upon tons of soil being moved and graded.
The site, originally owned by the Port of Chehalis and sold to Amazon.com Services LLC at the end of last year, will soon host a “newly constructed distribution facility” with a roughly 1-million-square-foot building surrounded by parking for employees and loading zones for semi-trucks.
Some permits refer to a 2-million-square-foot project, possibly referring to the entire footprint of the site, including parking and driveways.
The cover sheet for permit applications for the site submitted to the City of Chehalis and acquired by The Chronicle describe the project as a multi-level building to include infrastructure and space for robotics and employees.
“A newly constructed distribution facility featuring a full mezzanine, multiple platforms, an unoccupied robotics floor and supporting office, break, locker and meeting spaces, equipped with MHE (material handling equipment), conveyors and systems for general goods distribution,” reads an official project description submitted in May.
As previously reported by The Chronicle, the Port of Chehalis sold the final portion of the property now entirely owned by Amazon in December of last year. The address has been updated from 0 Rush Road to 1630 Rush Road and the entire property is identifiable under Lewis County parcel number 017800001012.
At the time, the port announced that it had sold a 34-acre plot of land to Amazon through CRG Development at a price of $9,320,080.18.
A news release from the Port of Chehalis published around the time of the sale stated that the new development of the property would create between 500 and 1,000 jobs.
“Amazon’s investment in our community represents a transformative opportunity for Lewis County residents, providing access to well-paying jobs with comprehensive benefits and career advancement opportunities,” Mark Anders, port commissioner, said in the news release. “We are proud to facilitate this partnership and look forward to the positive impact it will have on our region.”
A timeline for the development of the site is unavailable. According to Port of Chehalis Executive Director Lindsey Senter, the port was aware of the start of the recent excavation work, but does not have “an affirmative timeline for the remainder of the project.”
Amazon staff declined an opportunity to comment on the ongoing project, instead highlighting the announcement released during the land sale at the end of last year.
According to the permit applications, CRG Development, a real estate development company, and Core States Group, an architecture and engineering firm, and other contract developers including Ware Malcomb out of Colorado and Ryan Companies US out of Bellevue, have submitted most, if not all, of the necessary paperwork for the site on behalf of Amazon.
The developers have submitted building plans and permit applications for excavation work as well as mechanical permits and plumbing permits.
The project received a development permit in May, approving the ongoing fill and grading work and other site preparation work that was addressed in the State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA) process.
As part of that process, the City of Chehalis issued a mitigated determination of non-significance (MDNS) in March of this year and announced that it would maintain that finding in May. The document declares that the site is not expected to negatively impact the surrounding environment if certain mitigation measures are met.
The document requires the developers to seek approval from multiple local, regional and state agencies, including the Southwest Clean Air Agency. It sets a series of conditions to limit erosion, chemical pollution, damage to existing infrastructure and more. To access SEPA documents through the Washington state Department of Ecology, visit https://tinyurl.com/5b8sfvnj.
According to the document, the determination received comments from five organizations — the Washington State Department of Ecology, the Washington State Department of Archeologic and Historic Preservation, Lewis County Public Works, The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation and the Squaxin Island Tribe.
No other documents associated with the State Environmental Protection Act are currently available for the project.
It appears that the now ongoing project is the third to be proposed for the site but the first to follow through on those plans.
The MDNS stipulated that the new project should follow conditions laid out in two previous SEPA processes. According to the cited SEPA submissions, CRG Development and another developer had begun the process twice before, once in 2021 and once in 2023, for different versions of a large warehouse to be built on the same site.
The 2023 application proposed a roughly 550,000-square-foot warehouse, while the earlier proposal showed a 1-million-square-feet warehouse more similar to the one now underway. It appears those two proposals must have been scrapped with the more recent designs appearing to occupy some if not all of the same spaces as the previous proposals.
For previous reporting by The Chronicle on the incoming Chehalis Amazon warehouse, visit https://tinyurl.com/dne257kr.
