LONGVIEW — A Kelso industrial complex described as “the largest speculative development in the Pacific Northwest” is complete. Now developers are searching for who will occupy the facility roughly the size of 17 football fields near the Longview Wye.
Mid I-5 Industrial Park — a 1,185,327-square-foot warehouse located at 2700 Talley Way in Kelso — finished construction last month, according to Kirk Olsen, a principal with Trammell Crow Company. The building is now “shell complete,” meaning it is ready to accommodate an occupant’s finishing touches.
Trammell Crow describes the building as the largest “speculative industrial facility” — meaning that it was designed and constructed without a signed tenant — ever built in the Pacific Northwest.
Olsen said he has reasons to be bullish on building the massive facility without having a specific occupant or buyer in mind. For starters, the new structure offers numbers that few properties in the area can match.
“Our analysis is it will be in demand,” Olsen said.
Who would use the space?
The massive single-story building is 650 feet deep, 1,824 feet long, and is situated on 82 acres, according to the release and a property listing on its parent company website.
Olsen further noted the building’s ceilings have a 40-foot clearance height, giving potential warehouse use plenty of stacking height.
“If it’s a distributor, the volume inside the building is very great,” Olsen said.
“We tried to make it as functional as possible for the widest range of users,” he added.
According to an earlier news report, the property near Exit 36 and State Route 432 was owned by the Seagle family for decades. Kelso City Council authorized the property to be rezoned in 2022 in order for the proposed warehouse to be built, and construction began in August 2023.
Warehouse
The new million square foot warehouse at Mid I-5 Industrial Park in Kelso features 219 dock doors and four drive-in doors that are 12 feet wide and 14 feet high.
The facility features include 219 dock doors and four drive-in doors. A Trammell Crow news release also highlights that the property contains 427 car parking spaces and a 135 foot truck court with 348 trailer parking stalls. Adjacent property is large enough to accommodate either 225,000 square feet of added building or another 475 trailer stalls.
“There will be a need out there that we’ll be able to meet,” Olsen said.
The developers state its location gives it access to a strong labor force of 331,000 workers within a 45-minute drive of Kelso. They also report the facility is capable of accommodating a manufacturing operation of up to 600 workers.
Warehouse
The warehouse ceiling at the 1.18 million square foot Mid I-5 Industrial Park warehouse have a clear height of 40 feet.
The listing highlights the warehouse’s close proximity to signaled intersections off Exit 36, putting it about 131 miles from Seattle, 36 miles from Portland and within 11 hours from West Coast cities including San Francisco, Sacramento, Reno, Boise and Vancouver, British Columbia.
The building is designed to potentially be walled-off or “demised” to accommodate as many as four separate segments or occupants.
“We feel that at least initially it will go to one large user or perhaps two large users,” Olsen said.
