motion guru
Diamond
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2003
- Location
- Yacolt, WA
Friday my business partner and I signed papers on the purchase of light industrial land after a 1 year 9 day process. Building in the city has given me an education in land development that I never expected. Lets just say that it took roughly $600k to get to the point where we could close on the property with the confidence that we can go forward with building the facility we need.
Light Industrial Land with sewer, power, and decent freeway access is unobtainium in our county. This particular piece of property was in a perfect location, the right size, with a $1.00, indefinite lease of an additional 3 acres adjacent to it (BPA land under power lines). But . . . it had street access challenges (280 feet of street frontage with a signalized intersection on one corner and utilities at the other corner and a city code that states that our driveway needs to be 250 feet away from any signalized intersection). This along with neighborhood CC&R's related to building aesthetics, land use, etc. made for a few challenges. Traffic studies, concurrence fees, and a number of engineering studies combined with numerous efforts to get easements from adjacent property owners which were rebuffed . . . we put food on the table for a number of attorneys, certified arborists, architects, city planners, engineers, etc. before getting a variance from the city allowing full access from a secondary arterial within the city limits.
We worked through all the issues (like I said, 1 year 9 days + $600k) and we will turn the first shovels of dirt on Monday. I took my Kubota and brush hog out today and mowed a swath of land from the adjacent Park and Ride facility across the BPA land to the back of the property to make an easy path for people to walk. Monday we will close our business for a few hours so all the employees can drive over for a ground breaking ceremony. We will set up a coffee and pastry cabana, take photos, etc. Should be a good event that will boost morale for everyone as we get ready for construction and eventual move to the new building.
This building will double our size to roughly 50,000 square feet and allow us planned future expansion. We can grow to roughly 100 - 125 employees at this location and easily handle machines in 30 ton segments with the new cranes with a designed hook height to 25 ft. We will also have a 2000A 480V 3-phase service for testing systems as well as two 55 ft x 175 foot machine assembly bays with aforementioned crane coverage.
We moved into our existing 25,000 square foot facility 16 years ago with 8 employees and I thought we would never run out of room. I am hoping this new facility will last until I retire. (and I am hoping business remains strong to allow us to make the mortgage!) We got word this last week that our company was selected as the standard for drive systems for a large glass container manufacturer (displacing their own wholly owned division [our competitor] from this position). We have also recently achieved DPD compliance for Boeing in addition to having an approved quality program which has opened the door to a lot more business. And we have been working on a nice LIGO project as well as beginning to work with a local large rocket company as new business ventures for 2017 so our customer base is broadening as well.
I have hesitated to post about this because the process of getting to the point where we are has taken roughly 3x longer than I thought it would and it seemed things would fall through at any time. But perseverance and patience has paid off and the Logger will begin taking out 200+ 2nd growth Fir trees next week. We are excited to finally be kicking this project off. We should be moving by November 2018 if all goes well.
Sometimes I think about how what started as a way for an introverted engineer to work by himself in his garage in Yacolt has evolved and I am humbled by the scope of the work we get to do, the companies that have entrusted us with their production lines, the people who have cast their lot with me, and the things we have accomplished in the last 20 years.
I guess if this building project ends up being too much to bite off for us we will go out big!!
Light Industrial Land with sewer, power, and decent freeway access is unobtainium in our county. This particular piece of property was in a perfect location, the right size, with a $1.00, indefinite lease of an additional 3 acres adjacent to it (BPA land under power lines). But . . . it had street access challenges (280 feet of street frontage with a signalized intersection on one corner and utilities at the other corner and a city code that states that our driveway needs to be 250 feet away from any signalized intersection). This along with neighborhood CC&R's related to building aesthetics, land use, etc. made for a few challenges. Traffic studies, concurrence fees, and a number of engineering studies combined with numerous efforts to get easements from adjacent property owners which were rebuffed . . . we put food on the table for a number of attorneys, certified arborists, architects, city planners, engineers, etc. before getting a variance from the city allowing full access from a secondary arterial within the city limits.
We worked through all the issues (like I said, 1 year 9 days + $600k) and we will turn the first shovels of dirt on Monday. I took my Kubota and brush hog out today and mowed a swath of land from the adjacent Park and Ride facility across the BPA land to the back of the property to make an easy path for people to walk. Monday we will close our business for a few hours so all the employees can drive over for a ground breaking ceremony. We will set up a coffee and pastry cabana, take photos, etc. Should be a good event that will boost morale for everyone as we get ready for construction and eventual move to the new building.
This building will double our size to roughly 50,000 square feet and allow us planned future expansion. We can grow to roughly 100 - 125 employees at this location and easily handle machines in 30 ton segments with the new cranes with a designed hook height to 25 ft. We will also have a 2000A 480V 3-phase service for testing systems as well as two 55 ft x 175 foot machine assembly bays with aforementioned crane coverage.
We moved into our existing 25,000 square foot facility 16 years ago with 8 employees and I thought we would never run out of room. I am hoping this new facility will last until I retire. (and I am hoping business remains strong to allow us to make the mortgage!) We got word this last week that our company was selected as the standard for drive systems for a large glass container manufacturer (displacing their own wholly owned division [our competitor] from this position). We have also recently achieved DPD compliance for Boeing in addition to having an approved quality program which has opened the door to a lot more business. And we have been working on a nice LIGO project as well as beginning to work with a local large rocket company as new business ventures for 2017 so our customer base is broadening as well.
I have hesitated to post about this because the process of getting to the point where we are has taken roughly 3x longer than I thought it would and it seemed things would fall through at any time. But perseverance and patience has paid off and the Logger will begin taking out 200+ 2nd growth Fir trees next week. We are excited to finally be kicking this project off. We should be moving by November 2018 if all goes well.
Sometimes I think about how what started as a way for an introverted engineer to work by himself in his garage in Yacolt has evolved and I am humbled by the scope of the work we get to do, the companies that have entrusted us with their production lines, the people who have cast their lot with me, and the things we have accomplished in the last 20 years.
I guess if this building project ends up being too much to bite off for us we will go out big!!