King Beverage Inc., a Spokane Valley-based wholesale beverage distributor, is brewing up plans for a 205,000-square-foot distribution center near Spokane International Airport that's expected to increase capacity and improve storage efficiency and delivery, says company President and CEO Peter Rusnak.

King Beverage's new warehouse will be located at 3520 S. Geiger Blvd., south of Spokane's Waste to Energy Facility.

Rusnak declines to disclose construction costs for the West Plains facility, but a pre-development application on file with the city of Spokane shows an estimated construction value of $8 million.

As planned, the West Plains facility will be over 120% larger than King Beverage's current warehouse at 6715 E. Mission, in Spokane Valley, where the company has been operating out of a 92,000-square-foot distribution plant for the last 30 years.

"We are definitely bulging at the seams here," says Rusnak of the Mission warehouse. "It was getting to a tipping point."

Spokane Valley-based manufacturer Hotstart Inc., which does business as Hotstart Thermal Management, has agreed to purchase the Mission Avenue warehouse property, says Rusnak, adding that King Beverage will lease the space from Hotstart until the Geiger facility is complete—about 24 months after construction is expected to begin this spring.

Hotstart President Terry Judge says a three-year lease back will benefit both companies.

"They need time to build their new facility," says Judge. "For us... it's attractive that it's only three minutes from our facility."

At present, Hotsart occupies a 140,000-square-foot manufacturing center at 5723 E. Alki, in Spokane Valley, where the company is headquartered. Last July, Hotstart purchased a 6,000-square-foot building across the street, and the company also leases a 10,000-square-foot warehouse near Avista Stadium, says Judge.

Hotstart manufactures engine heaters for backup generators to maintain temperatures for immediate startup during power outages. For 40 years, the company has been making the heaters to sell to original equipment manufacturers such as Caterpillar Inc. and Cummins Inc. 

Hotstart's new product line is a heat pump retrofit designed to improve energy efficiency and reduce power consumption by up to 75% for clients that occupy critical infrastructure such as hospitals, data centers, and airports, says Judge.

"Our business has been growing so much. We grew from $68 million to $79 million last year," explains Judge. "In three years, we're going to need more space."

On the West Plains, the design-build team for the new King Beverage facility consists of two Spokane Valley-based companies, contractor Divcon Inc. and architect Ron Mackie, owner of Architectural Ventures.

Plans call for the construction of a 144,000-square-foot, temperature-controlled storage warehouse together with a 24,000-square-foot, two-story office space. The office area will have a training room and what Rusnak describes as a private hospitality room with a bar area to showcase and sample products with retailers.

Inside the warehouse, an automated storage system manufactured by Cirrus Tech Inc., of Kearney, Nebraska, will be installed to provide King Beverage with increased storage capacity and improved product accessibility through a mechanical lift that works like what he describes as an elevator/vending machine.

"It's a crane system that assists our labor to help us store at an extended height," Rusnak explains. "We're going to be able to carry a lot more product, which will allow us to reroute that (product) throughout Washington state in a more efficient capacity." 

Overall storage capacity at the new facility is about 8 million cases, he says.

Outside the structure, preliminary design plans call for over 130 parking spaces. Electric-vehicle charging infrastructure is planned throughout the site to help support King Beverage's growing fleet of electric vehicles, including vans and trucks. Currently, about 40% of the company's fleet in Spokane is comprised of electric vehicles, says Rusnak.

Pivo LLC, a separate Rusnak-owned company, purchased the property from Spokane Airport for $1.9 million in 2021, according to Washington state tax information.

King Beverage intends to submit building permit applications to the city of Spokane by early February, says Rusnak.

Rusnak is a second-generation leader of the Spokane beverage distributor. His father, Ted Rusnak, purchased B&B Distributors Inc. and renamed the company in 1980.

Rusnak declines to disclose the company's annual revenue.

"We definitely anticipate to grow revenue, job opportunities, (and) efficiencies to the bottom line," he says.

King Beverage serves more than half of all counties in Washington state, including Spokane County, as an exclusive Anheuser-Busch distributor of beer, wine, water, energy drinks, and spirits. 

The company has over 100 Spokane-area employees and operates distribution facilities in the Washington cities of Benton City, Union Gap, and Centralia, with another facility currently under construction in Moses Lake. 

Moving to the company to the West Plains, "feels like it could be a bit of a spark to really enhance new growth within the Spokane Airport Business Park," says Rusnak.