Washington Fruit buys 41 acres at failed Riverpointe Landing site

 

YAKIMA, Wash. — A longtime fruit company continues to be the benefactor of the inactive Riverpointe Landing shopping center project.

Washington Fruit and Produce Co. has purchased nearly 41 acres at 1820 N. Sixth Ave. from Riverpointe Landing LLC for more than $3.2 million.

This is Washington Fruit‘s second purchase from Riverpointe Landing LLC. In May 2009, it spent $2.78 million to purchase 25 acres at 621 River Road. The property was the site of a new 227,934-square-foot, $30 million packing line, cold storage and shipping facility, which has been in operation since last November.

The company is among the largest fruit packers in the state, selling about 12 million boxes of fruit annually. Washington Fruit ships apples, pears and cherries.

With the 95-year-old company continuing to plant more orchards, it’s necessary to have sufficient resources to pack and store that fruit, said Tommy Hanses, Washington Fruit’s operations manager.

While the property will likely be used for new packing lines and storage facilities, the company does not yet have a firm plan for the property, Hanses said.

“It’s just an important location for us because it’s in Yakima and close to our main offices,” he said. “It’s got great access from the freeway.”

Bellevue-based Northward Real Estate Group purchased 95 acres for $6.2 million in 2006 from the Irwin family to develop Riverpointe Landing.

The project envisioned a $120 million, 806,000-square-foot shopping center at the corner of U.S. Highway 12 and 16th Avenue.

City and business officials had high hopes for the project, which would have been the largest shopping center within Yakima city limits.

But by late 2008, Riverpointe Landing was stalled when Home Depot, which was to be the first anchor tenant, pulled out.

Developers put most of the property on the market in June 2009. The listed property did not include the 25 acres purchased by Washington Fruit a month earlier.

Now that it has purchased more than 60 acres in the last two years, Washington Fruit has no plans to purchase additional property, Hanses said.

“I think 60 acres will fulfill our needs for a period of time to come,” he said.

* Mai Hoang can be reached at 509-577-7685 or [email protected].

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