Wal-Mart distribution center to be built in Yakima County

YAKIMA — Discount retail giant Wal-Mart will build an 18-acre Northwest food-distribution center in Grandview, bringing about 600 jobs to the Yakima Valley community.

The company likely will be Yakima County's largest private employer when the distribution center is fully staffed and two stores in Yakima and Sunnyside are expanded. The total number of employees will be about 1,500, said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Amy Hill.

Tree Top, the Selah-based apple-juice cooperative, is currently the biggest employer with 1,300 workers.

Wal-Mart will begin hiring about 400 workers in the summer of 2003, and it plans to open the warehouse in the fall of 2003.

Construction of the $40 million warehouse will begin this fall.

The decision by the world's largest retailer to put the distribution center in the Yakima Valley is an economic plum for this agriculturally dependent region, which routinely reports some of the state's highest unemployment rates.

"As the company searched the West for an appropriate site, it recognized that this area of Central Washington was ideally suited for a distribution center," Gov. Gary Locke said yesterday.

In Washington, Wal-Mart employs more than 9,600 people and operates 29 discount stores, four supercenters, which include grocery stores, and two Sam's Clubs, which are membership stores. It also has a distribution center in the Tacoma area for Sam's Clubs.

In Oregon, Wal-Mart has 23 discount stores and three supercenters. The chain opened a 21-acre distribution center for clothing, hardware and household items in Hermiston in 1996, employing about 1,000 people. Wal-Mart's wages are based on the local market. In Hermiston, hourly wages range from about $12 to $15.

Wal-Mart selected Grandview over Pasco for the food-distribution center, but Grandview Mayor Mike Bren says the project will "have a positive impact from here to the Tri-Cities."

Wal-Mart operates more than 2,740 stores in the United States.