December 2022 Volume 21 | Issue 1
Inslee seeks $10 million for energy institute at WSU Tri-Cities By Wendy Culverwell editor@tcjournal.biz
Energy
A specialty publication of the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business Page C1
Local News
Christmas Carol Lane came back, thanks to business-savvy neighbors Page A3
Real Estate & Construction
The Falls to showcase mixed uses at Southridge Page B1
NOTEWORTHY
“The more the community supports PSC and chooses to use it, the more it makes the airlines want to add seats, add routes, or entice new airlines to serve our region. The busier we are, the easier it is for me to recruit new services to the market.” - Buck Taft, Tri-Cities Airport manager
Page A25
Gov. Jay Inslee will seek $10 million in 2023 to establish the Institute for Northwest Energy Futures at Washington State University Tri-Cities. The move fulfills the dream of the late Bob Ferguson, an influential U.S. Department of Energy and Energy Northwest executive who endowed the institute’s first chair with a $500,000 gift shortly before his death in August. Inslee announced his intent to fund the institute at a press conference in Richland on Dec. 12, where he was Gov. Jay Inslee flanked by Kirk Schultz, president of WSU, Sandra Haynes, chancellor of WSU Tri-Cities, and Sen.-elect Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick. The governor called the institute one of the state’s most important undertakings. “We understand in the state of Washington and WSU and the Tri-Cities a fundamental precept of energy. The No. 1 source of renewable energy is not below our feet. It’s not buried in the ground as fossil fuels,” he said. The No. 1 resource, he went on, is the human capacity to innovate. “The Tri-Cities is the center of capability as far as per capita engineers,” he said. “I could not be more excited about anything going on in the state of Washington. The sky is the limit.” Inslee’s announcement coincided with the U.S. Department Energy’s announcement that scientists conducted fusion experiments that generated more power than they consumed on Dec. 5 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory near San Francisco, a groundbreaking development with vast potential to transform how humans generate and use energy. Inslee said fusion research is the kind of work that could – should – happen in Washington state. uENERGY, Page A17
Photo by Wendy Culverwell Michel Gabbud, the new general manager of The Lodge at Columbia Point, is overseeing a $1.5 million renovation that will install a restaurant and sweeping food program at the boutique wine-focused property.
The Lodge at Columbia Point is adding a proper restaurant By Wendy Culverwell editor@tcjournal.biz
The Lodge at Columbia Point is sacrificing two guest rooms to make space for a proper kitchen for its Drumheller’s restaurant. The wine-themed boutique hotel opened with 82 rooms and no restaurant in 2017. It initially offered wine tastings and bar service on the first floor, with event space on the second. It added Drumheller’s Wine & Food – named for The Lodge’s late founder Tom Drumheller – in a second-floor meeting space a year later, served from a small kitchen next door. The small kitchen sup-
ported room service and dinner but prevented The Lodge from providing a full food program. Michel Gabbud, who was named general manager five months ago, said the commercial kitchen and full restaurant space in the former ground floor lobby will allow The Lodge to serve food from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., whether it is through the guest room menu or walk-in customers. With the support of its Cannon Beach, Oregon, owners, Escape Lodging, The Lodge is pressing ahead with the $1.5 million renovation, while promising to minimize the impact on its overnight guests. uDRUMHELLER’S, Page A8
Housing market slowdown means more inventory for buyers By Wendy Culverwell editor@tcjournal.biz
Brett Lott’s entry in the 2022 Parade of Homes was everything a move-up buyer in the Tri-Cities could want. Upscale south Richland address? Check. Comfortable home office? Check. Wellappointed kitchen overlooking an elegant living room with coffered ceiling and a custom-built mantle over the fireplace? Check, check and check. But four months after the Home Builders Association of Tri-Cities held its annual new home showcase, the entry by Brett Lott Homes was on the market, with an asking price of $730,000. Lott was optimistic enough that his com-
pany continues to build homes. But its unsold house was symbolic of a slowdown in home sales in the Tri-Cities, particularly at the upper end of the market. “It’s a completely different market than it was four months ago,” said Ron Almberg, designated broker with Keller Williams TriCities and the 2022 president of the Tri-City Association of Realtors. “It’s like someone slammed on the brakes.” The number of homes listed on the market rose by 54% in November, while the number of closed and pending sales fell 41% and 46%, respectively, compared to the same month in 2021, according to the figures released Dec. 13 by the Realtors association. uHOUSING MARKET, Page A4
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