A Ribbon Cutting & Grand Opening was held today welcoming Western Distribution Services, LLC at their new 241,140 square foot cold storage facility located in the Northeast Redevelopment Area (NERA) in Burien.

The Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce and the local business community was joined by staff and elected officials from across the region to celebrate and welcome the state of the art facility that that was the first milestone in private sector investment in NERA. NERA is an industrial-zoned segment of land adjacent to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Bridge Development Partners, LLC, A Chicago-based industrial and office developer purchased the 14 acres where the site was developed late last year. They saw the potential value of the site and pursued the opportunity to expand their operations to the Pacific Northwest by constructing the now open and operational 241,140 square foot cold storage. Western Distribution Services, LLC, a Renton-based logistics, cold storage, warehouse provider will operate the logistics of the facility. Kidder Mathews commercial real estate brokers, Dan Mathews and Mike Newton represented both parties for this project.

NERA was created in 1997 as an area impacted by current and future aviation activities at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The City of Burien, in partnership with the Port of Seattle, determined how to respond to regional market and economic realities while adapting to physical and environmental development capacities. The shared goal was to realize the vision for the area as a sustainable airport-compatible redevelopment.

The Port of Seattle’s Century Agenda was initiated in 2012 and aims to add 100,000 jobs through economic growth over the next 25 years, while reducing its environmental footprint. The NERA properties represent a significant opportunity in reaching that goal through partnerships between the public and private sectors. With limited land available for new industrial facilities north of Kent, the NERA, and this new project specifically, offer a benchmark addition to the distribution and warehousing space necessary to support the Century Agenda.

“The results of this ten-year planning effort are the first steps toward making the City of Burien’s and Port of Seattle’s visions a reality. I recognized the synergies between the goals of the public and private sectors, and collaborated with all parties to assemble the land and bring suitable developers and end user options,” said Mathews. “This project will spur economic development to support families in the region for years to come,” he said.

“New cold storage facilities are needed to meet stringent code regulations for food safety, storage, and transportation.” offered Western Distribution Services President, John Naylor. “I believe in the Port’s Century Agenda and the benefit of the Burien site’s proximity to the airport and critical shipping routes. This new facility has created a new cold storage, and warehousing campus to serve the growing needs of an increasingly regulated and growing retail food services sector; along with the imports and exports of seafood and other foods.”

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About the Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce - The Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce is a non-profit business organization that has served the communities of Burien, Des Moines, Normandy Park, SeaTac and Tukwila since 1988. The mission of the Chamber is to be a leader in Southwest King County and a regional voice and resource for building business success. The Chamber focuses on business advancement in the region by helping to build and maintain a strong economic environment.