Bouten Construction Co., of Spokane, says it will open an office in the Tri-Cities area of Central Washington Dec. 1.

The new office will be in south Richland near the Columbia Point Golf Course, about 150 miles southwest of Spokane.

President Bill Bouten says the company's work there dates back to 1969, beginning with construction of a surgery wing at Lourdes Medical Center, in Pasco.

"The opening of our new office in the Tri-Cities will allow us to continue building our local relationships with both our clients and the community," Bouten says.

Bouten Construction's recent projects there include a $7.4 million pediatric center, which opened this month at Kadlec Regional Medical Center, in Richland. The center is on the fifth floor of the hospital's River Pavilion tower, which Bouten Construction erected in 2007 and 2008 at a cost of about $72 million.

Bouten Construction recently completed work on two other medical facilities in Kennewick—the Tri-Cities Laboratory and the Tri-Cities Cancer Center—together worth a total of $9.8 million. Last year, the company also completed the $24.8 million Bioproducts, Sciences, and Engineering Laboratory at Washington State University's Tri-Cities Campus.

Bouten Construction was founded here in 1944. The company specializes in construction of health-care, higher-education, community, cultural, laboratory, research, and commercial facilities.