The Port of Kennewick teamed up with the city of Richland to create the Spaulding Business Park, a 30-acre industrial park that opened about 218,000 square feet of private sector buildings worth about $53 million in assessed value. The investment brought development of housing and nearly 500 local jobs to the area.
Courtesy photo/Port of Kennewick
February 20, 2025
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Port of Kennewick celebrates 110
Port officials focus on eliminating duplicated effort to improve quality of life in South Central Washington
KENNEWICK — Tim Arntzen, CEO at the Port of Kennewick, said he’s excited for March 2025 when the port celebrates its 110th anniversary. He said the port he leads is not just an economic stimulator for Kennewick, but a place with a long heritage of innovation and community service. “When we started, when this port started, it was meant to simply provide water access to Kennewick for the shipping of goods, so it stayed real close to the original mission of ports,” Arntzen said. The port was founded March 6, 1915, according to its history website. At the time, 282 of the area’s 379 voters – it was a much smaller population back then – voted in favor of the formation of the port. The port allowed Kennewick and the surrounding area to leverage the then-recently-completed Celilo Falls Canal to access other canals and West Coast ports in and around Portland. By the summer of that same year, cargo and passengers were passing through the port’s docks.