A hotbed of commercial development activity is happening on the West Plains this year, including plans for new manufacturing plants, distribution centers, lodging options, and industrial facilities.

In Airway Heights, about 1,100 feet south of the intersection at U.S. 2 and Hayford Road, another commercial development, dubbed the KW Distribution Center, is added to the list of current and future projects. 

The project involves development of distribution facility with 41,800 square feet of space on nearly 30 acres of vacant land south of Cyrus O'Leary's Pies production plant, located at 1528 S. Hayford Road, in Airway Heights, according to planning documents on file with the Washington State Environmental Policy Act Register.

KW Distribution Center, as it's called in public documents, is slated for development this year. As planned, the proposed cross-dock facility will have a 24,500-square-foot, 52-door service center, featuring room for expansion, along with a 9,600-square-foot maintenance shop with two bays for truck maintenance, a 1,900-square-foot fuel canopy, and 5,800 square feet of office space, SEPA checklist information shows.

Cross-docking is a shipping term used to describe a process in which incoming shipments are unloaded at a logistics facility and transferred to vehicles handling outbound shipments that require little to no storage time in between.

Outside the facility, over 240 parking stalls are proposed. Additionally, the property will have equipment staging areas with enough room for 261 pup trailers, which are shorter semitrailers; 65 vans; 110 semitractors; and 29 relay spaces, for handing over shipments between drivers.

Other site improvements include paved drive aisles and parking areas, walkways, utilities, drainage facilities, and landscaping. Frontage road widening also is planned along South Hayford and South Hayden roads to improve access to the property, along with a new sidewalk and bicycle lane.

The property is expected to be occupied by next year. Future development at the site is also planned to add a 16-door service center that likely will occur sometime in the next five years, according to information on file with the city of Airway Heights.

An estimated cost for the project is not available.

Dave Black, CEO of Spokane-based commercial real estate brokerage NAI Black, says the 28-acre property is currently under contract with a development company that works with national-caliber tenants. He declines to disclose the name of the tenant due to a nondisclosure agreement, he says.

The number of employees expected to work at the completed property will fluctuate throughout the year, with a peak of 200 anticipated, according to a traffic impact study for the project by Meridian, Idaho-based civil engineering company J-U-B Engineers Inc.

Greyson Zehnder, director of entitlements at KW Projects #2 LLC, of Telluride, Colorado, is listed as the project applicant. Zehnder also is director of entitlements at Kiernan West, a Telluride, Colorado-based real estate development and acquisition company that provides build-to-suit services for commercial tenants in the U.S. and Canada, according to the company's website.

Some of Kiernan West's national clients include Walgreen Co., Verizon Communications Inc., Ulta Beauty Inc., and Total Wine & More, among others, its website shows.

Spencer, Indiana-based real property investment company Siwah LLC owns the land.

Representatives of both Siwah LLC and Kiernan West couldn't immediately be reached for comment.