Blue Mountain Station Filling Fast

DAYTON-Five small food processing businesses are expected to be up and running when Blue Mountain Station opens its first building in Dayton later this year. Gypsy Girl Granola, Big Kahuna Hot Sauce, Grass Roots Goats (cheese and yogurt), Roubideau Artisan Cheese and Mace Mead Works (wine and mead) have all signed leases for the building.

With those tenants in place, all of the leasable space in the Building 1 at the Port of Columbia's new artisan food processing facil- ity is spoken for. "We're very excited to have these people on board so early," said Port Manager Jennie Dickinson.

Besides the tenant space, the building will include a 1,000 square foot shared commercial kitchen, for use by tenants as well as for rental by community members. The building will also include a small retail space to allow tenants to sell their products.

Dickinson says the busi- nesses operating at Blue Mountain Station will mostly sell through wholesalers and outside retail outlets. Regarding the building's retail space, she said, "Even though the focus of the project is wholesale food manufacturing, it's important for the public to be able to come and take part in what's happening here and for the tenants to add the additional retail revenue to their bottom line."

According to Dickinson, the building was designed so that additional space could be added to its west end at a later date as more potential tenants show interest. The Port is also looking into other types of food processing that could operate at Blue Mountain Station. They might include food co- packing and a flour mill.

In fact, discussions are under way with a private entity that may be interested in establishing a mill on the site.

"The mill would benefit existing brands by re-estab- lishing local processing as well as encourage value- added product development and support for sustainable farming operations in our area," Dickinson said.

Construction of Building 1 is expected to begin in April. It is being funded by a grant of $750,000 approved by the state legislature last year. The Port is contributing $200,000 in matching funds.

"We asked for this grant because we were approached by several small businesses that didn't have the means to build their own facility," said Dickinson.

Blue Mountain Station has been five years in the making. "This has been a long process in a struggling economy," said Dickinson, "but it was important that we be ready as the economy picks up."

The project was the out- come of a study commissioned by Dickinson shortly after she joined the Port in 2007. In 2009, the Port received a $1 million grant and loan package from the Washington State Commu- nity Economic Revitaliza- tion Board to purchase land and develop infrastructure for the project. The Port and several local government and business entities went together to put up $100,000 in matching funds.

The Port purchased 28 acres of land just west of Dayton in late 2009. In 2011, eight acres were developed with infrastructure and parking facilities. Last fall, landscaping of the de- veloped portion of Blue Mountain Station was com- pleted.