Bridge Industrial has acquired the 13-acre former Malarco Aluminum property in Kent for $8.5 million. The property, which has been under the ownership of a California-based family trust since at least 2001, includes a 45,000 square foot building that will be demolished as part of Bridge’s development plans, according to a report from the Puget Sound Business Journal. The company’s vision for the site involves constructing a cutting-edge industrial facility named Bridge Point Kent 180, covering 180,000 square feet. The facility will boast features such as 36-foot clear heights, 27 dock-high doors, 12 trailer parking spots and 219 vehicle parking spots.
The Washington State Department of Ecology has investigated the site periodically since the late 1980s when the property served as an aluminum smelter between 1980 and 1986. Before commencing construction in the first quarter of 2024, Bridge will conduct extensive environmental remediation to transform the land from its current blighted and unsafe state into a thriving and productive job site.
“Transforming this blighted, unsafe and unproductive piece of land into an active, healthy job site is a key part of Bridge’s core strategy — and we are eager to continue our stewardship of both an improved environment and a strong local economy,” Justin Carlucci, partner in Bridge’s Northwest region, said in the report.
With a growing demand for state-of-the-art industrial facilities exceeding 150,000 square feet, Bridge seeks to attract tenants in industries such as e-commerce, logistics and cold storage.
The Kent project is not Bridge’s only industrial proposal in the works.
Earlier this year, the firm received conditional approval from the City of Tacoma for a four-building, 2.5 million-square-foot industrial campus on former BNSF Railway Co. property in South Tacoma’s Nalley Valley. The company’s plans include building sizes ranging from 320,000 to nearly 1 million square feet
The Puget Sound region has seen other industrial projects moving forward recently.
Vector Development Company, a Pacific Northwest commercial real estate development, investment and asset management firm, earlier this year announced that construction has begun on Twin Lakes Logistics, a 204,000 square foot warehouse and distribution center in Marysville, according to The Registry’s previous reporting. Located at 4050 160th Street NE, the project features bay depths to accommodate users as small as 20,000 square feet or up to the entire facility. The building has 44 dock doors, eight grade-level loading doors, 36-foot clear height inside the warehouse and more than 74,000 square feet of storage yard.
