Cashmere awarded nearly a quarter million for business park upgrades

CASHMERE — On August 7, Chelan County commissioners allocated $1,120,754 to six initiatives, encompassing projects from infrastructure enhancements at the Cashmere Mill Site business park to improvements at a Leavenworth apartment complex offering affordable workforce housing.

Now in its third year, the grant program, known as CPIF, was established to help fund public projects that promote the creation or retention of businesses and jobs or offer permanent affordable housing opportunities within the county. Administered by the Chelan County Economic Services department, the CPIF awarded nearly $589,200 to five local agencies in 2021. Last year, commissioners granted $923,200 to four agencies.

Ron Cridlebaugh, Chelan County Economic Services director, stated, “With each year, these monies are making a greater impact in our community. In three years, we will have invested more than $2.6 million into a variety of projects that will either create or retain jobs or create more affordable housing — two top priorities for Chelan County.”

Almost a quarter of that money is going to Cashmere: Infrastructural improvements totaling $244,600 are planned for the Cashmere Mill Site, a property owned by the Chelan-Douglas Regional Port Authority (CDRPA). These essential upgrades, encompassing waterline, stormwater drainage, and road enhancements, aim to attract new businesses to the park.

The CDRPA has been especially active in that arena lately. Their proposed Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district in Malaga would give the Port more than $50 million dollars to attract businesses to an area that already includes the old Alcoa plant, the Microsoft data center and the site of the new Helion nuclear fusion power plant.

The Port also just approved a downtown mural contest to select a representative piece of giant art to decorate a wall along the row of buildings on Columbia Street in Wenatchee that the Port has owned since 2019, in an effort to attract businesses to an area they plan to make into a “craft district,” with breweries, restaurants, shops, and possibly even performance venues.

Throwing the leverage of the CDRPA behind the business park in Cashmere may be just the ticket for incentivizing companies to occupy the empty spaces there along Sunset Highway. The campus is beautiful and with the proposed upgrades, businesses could hang a sign there sooner rather than later.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media