Yakima Valley

BUSINESS TIMES
Serving Yakima County's Business Community
Vol. XVI, Issue 15 August 9 - 23, 2013
Inside: Produce in the Valley pg. 3

By Randy Luvaas Managing Editor CubCrafters has purchased a big land parcel beside Yakimas airport where it plans a new manufacturing facility. The local aircraft company expects to start work soon on a 12,000-square-foot building just to the south of the airport, said CEO Jim Richmond. CubCrafters recently bought 23 acres of empty land from a business park owned by the Schultz family on Ahtanum Road, according to Bill Almon Jr. of Almon Commercial Real Estate in Yakima, who represented the sellers. The deal closed for a reported $900,000. Paul Stelzer of Neil Walter Co. in Yakima represented CubCrafters. Stelzer noted that recently many of the areas existing large industrial buildings have been sold, which could mean more companies following CubCrafters lead buying

CubCrafters Buys Land For New Building By Airport

CubCrafters of Yakima is expanding with the purchase of land for a new manufacturing facility by the airport.

land and building new. I think one reason Jim purchased his land is that he couldnt find other property that made sense for him. He was out there looking at other buildings but nothing really fit. I think were starting to see

people looking at land again. A lot of the large buildings have been sold lately, and the day of getting bottom-of-the-barrel prices on

warehousing seems to be gone. The market is starting to correct itself. I think well start to see people building again in the foreseeable future.
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The lot at the corner of South First and Walnut Streets in Yakima has been vacant as long as most people can remember. That might change soon. Its been sitting empty since it used to be a mini-mart/gas station about 35 years ago from what they tell me, said Keith Taylor, who is planning to build a small

Retail Building Planned At Busy Intersection In Yakima

Volution Fitness Gets New, Larger Facility Into Shape

By Dujie Tahat Warmoth from the beginning. Volution Fitness has finished Last November Yakima Pediatrenovations on its new facility rics secured an $11,000 grant from where South 11th Avenue meets Yakima Valley Community FoundaTieton Drive in Yakima. It is hard tion to help offset Volutions costs. to miss with its spanning storefront For months Warmoth offered the windows, wide-open space, and the service out-of-pocket. dozens of children and young teens Recently the Centers of Disease running around the weight room Control announced that Washington twice a week. is one of 19 states Unlike most that have reduced gyms, Volution the rate of obewelcomes kids sity in low-income into its facilities. children ages 2 Owner and Trainer to 4, reversing a James Warmoth decades-old trend. created the VoluThis is thanks to tion Kids program grassroots proin partnership with grams around the Yakima Pediatrics state that make for children facing health more achealth risks in and cessible, said around Yakima. Maxwell, as well Volution proas the willingness vides the twice-a- Trainer Zack Gonzales instructs a of small business week service at no Volution Kid at a workout station. owners, like Jim, cost, putting kids to take a hit for the through baseline testing, determinbenefit of the community. ing each childs capabilities and Most children Maxwell refers range of functional movement, come from low-income households, then crafting a two-month workout are in foster care or are living in schedule that gets their bodies pullshelters, so finding a gym is out of ing, pushing, squatting. the question. Mary Virginia Maxwell, behavBeing overweight is only one ioral health consultant at Yakima factor of these kids health, said Pediatrics and child mental health Maxwell. Addressing childhood therapist at Catholic Family and obesity affects all aspects, social, Child Services, has worked with
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commercial center there. It has been vacant so long, he said, because there were contamination issues from the propertys days as a gas station. But Taylor bought the lot more than a year ago and discovered it had been OKd for use by the state Department of Ecology. I found out I could proceed and build there. Im pretty excited. Taylor owns the Java Heaven espresso stand a few blocks west on Walnut. One reason I bought it was to prevent someone else from putting in another coffee place there. I didnt want somebody coming along and doing another drive-through just three blocks from my place. He plans a 4,000-square-foot retail building with room for three tenants. The building will sit toward the rear of the lot facing south, he noted. It has great visibility from both Walnut and First. I dont have any tenants lined up yet but its such a good spot I think it will be a build it and they will come kind of thing. He hopes to have the building permit soon and start excavation work immediately. Contractor RLR Construction expects to have the building completed by November, he said. Taylor opened Java Heaven in 2001, but said he first got into the coffee business with another stand in 1995.

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