The Port of Woodland celebrated Rose Way Industrial Park’s first milestone with the completion of its first two buildings, last week.
When filled, the buildings are expected to generate 50 to 100 jobs, and port officials believe the completed site will provide an estimated 450 jobs once all six buildings are finished.
The port celebrated last week with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that was also attended by 20th District state Reps. Peter Abbarno and Ed Orcutt. Rose Way Industrial Park is a long-term effort by the Port to bring industrial or warehouse employment to Woodland. Port of Woodland Executive Director Jennifer Wray-Keene said that, although the project broke ground in June 2021, the industrial park’s idea has been in the making for 10 years.
The two industrial buildings are 16,500 and 23,000 square feet respectively and are ready to be leased for manufacturing or warehousing purposes. Both buildings include loading zones for trucks. Wray-Keene said the port prefers industrial businesses to open because they create more jobs. She believes the industrial park will serve Woodland by en- ticing new businesses and jobs to stay or open in the town.
“We cannot rely on people having jobs outside of our community. So many of our [residents] travel to Longview and Portland, and we want people to be able to work and live here and have fam- ily-wage jobs,” Wray-Keene said.
The Port of Woodland wants to complete the 12-acre industrial park expected to supply over 350 jobs within the next 10 years. All six buildings will range from 15,000 to 25,000 square feet. The current buildings are ready for lease, and the Port is reviewing one possible agreement.
“The buildings were not supposed to be [in] our possession until the end of August, and we got keys on June 6,” Wray-Keene said. “We’ve been gearing up very quickly, working with companies to get them slated. We are moving a lot of companies around right now, so we are looking at one company going in here.”
The entire project, including preliminary studies and construction, is expected to cost around $10 million. The 16,500 and 23,000 square foot buildings cost the Port $2.1 and $2.8 million, respectively. Wray-Keene said the port received $8 million in state and federal grant funds for the industrial park project.
“We just really appreciate the community’s support,” Wray-Keene said. “We know a lot of this is tax dollars, and we want [residents] to understand that we take that seriously. We pledge to use that wisely. We want to make sure that they’re proud to have the port in their community, and we appreciate their support for this.”
Following the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the 20th district Port of Woodland’s commissioners joined Abbarno and Orcutt — who secured state legislative funding for the project — in planting roses in the site’s local flower bed.
“[Port] staff worked their a** off to make this happen,” Port Commissioner Robert Wile said. “This [site] used to be a rose farm where I, my mother and my grandmother worked as teenagers. It’s been vacant for the last 30 years, [and] now it can be put to good use again.”
