Plans Unfold to Make Weyerhaeuser Campus an Industrial Zone
As TCLF previously reported, the Weyerhaeuser Company sold its historic campus to Industrial Realty Group (IRG) in February 2016 for $70.5 million. While IRG, operating as Federal Way Campus LLC, plans to leave the exterior of the Modernist headquarters building untouched, it is now taking steps to subdivide the large parcel for redevelopment. An IRG spokesperson said plans call for developing 110 acres of the site, including significant swaths of the character-defining forests and nature trails that have been used by the public for nearly five decades.
The original project proposed in August 2016—a 314,000-square-foot fish-processing plant and freezer warehouse—was withdrawn in December 2016. The city reviewed more than 300 comments submitted during the public comment period and had required the developer to produce extensive studies to address the issues raised, including clear-cutting and infilling wetlands.
In place of the fish-processing facility, IRG has proposed Warehouse A, a 225,950 square-foot-building standing 42 feet high. In September 2017, IRG proposed the adjoining Warehouse B, a 217,300-square-foot structure of similar design. These two warehouses would bring nearly 400 semi-truck trips to the campus each day, along with more than 1,500 passenger vehicle trips.
In addition, IRG has tentatively proposed the Greenline Business Park, 146 acres with three more warehouses totaling 1.1 million square feet; the largest warehouse would be 638,000 square feet. The project would include nearly 1,500 parking stalls and 111 semi-trailer stalls. An earlier version of the proposal for the largest warehouse estimated that that building alone would generate more than 1,200 vehicle trips per day.
