In an effort to keep up with its growing demand across the Inland Northwest, Chehalis, Washington-based shipping and storage container company Dry Box Inc. has broken ground on a new location in west Spokane.

Dry Box’s Post Falls-based branch manager Ryan Earle says the company hopes to complete construction and to be operating by October at the new site on 4 acres of land at 8414 W. Geiger Boulevard, immediately north of Interstate 90 and south of the Spokane International Airport on the West Plains.

Airway Heights-based Piersol Construction Inc. is the general contractor for the estimated $1.8 million project, most of which will be dedicated to groundwork and site prep at the location, Earle says. Dry Box employees will operate out of an on-site triple-wide trailer, Earle says.

The company currently has shipping container yards in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and Utah. It provides service to customers in Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. Dry Box rents and sells shipping and storage containers that are 10 to 53 feet in length. Typical Dry Box storage containers are 8 feet wide and 8.5 feet high.

Earle, who has worked at Dry Box’s Post Falls site for the last year, says the company has leased a 2.5-acre lot at 3175 W. Seltice for three years. Including Earle, Dry Box has four employees based at that site. Once finished, the west Spokane site will have at least a half-dozen employees to start, he says.

“Demand for containers is high right now for both purchase and rental,” Earle says. “On average, the Post Falls location sees eight to 10 sales and rentals of containers per week. We’ve more than doubled our business locally in the last year.”