Thursday, November 6, 2025
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The Port of Olympia Commission approved a lease agreement with Panattoni Development Company for 29 acres of land on Center Street in Tumwater on Monday, April 28.
Panattoni intends to use the site for a building it is calling the South Sound Commerce Center, a warehouse distribution center, according to plans it has submitted to Tumwater.
The parcel is the first property to be officially leased by the port within a larger 200-acre site, known as the New Market Industrial Campus, which Panattoni holds exclusive rights to potentially develop.
The lease is for up to 75 years and initially costs $50,994 per month, with periodic increases specified in the contract.
The lease agreement was initially placed on the commission’s agenda as a consent item, meaning it could have been approved without further discussion. Commissioner Sarah Montano motioned to drop it off the consent agenda, which other commissioners agreed to do.
The lease was approved by a 4-0-1 vote with Commissioner Amy Evans Harding abstaining. She said in previous meetings she was abstaining due to perceived conflict of interest as she works with real estate firm Kidder Matthews, which brokered the deal between the port and Panattoni.
Before voting on the lease, nine individuals spoke against the proposed lease during the public comment segment of the meeting, citing concerns about the State Environmental Policy Act process and the project’s impact on groundwater supplies.
The commissioners acknowledged the comments, but argued the agreement was legal.
“I'm really grateful for all the public comment we received and the research that went into that public comment, but it does seem that this decision is legal,” Montano said.
For Evans Harding, she said, “I really believe in consistent, predictable application of the laws that are in place. I believe in deferring to experts and governing in a way that reflects that. I think that we have done that, and Panattoni has done that.”
Commissioner Jasmine Vasavada welcomed further conversations about the community's concerns regarding the environment, but took umbrage with the comments.
“I really welcome members of the public who have strong environmental values to engage with us on the merits of those issues. I will find it easier to engage in those conversations when I feel like they're not just based on allegations of false procedure or legal procedure,” Vasavada said.
As some of the individuals had threatened litigation during public comments, Vasavada acknowledged their right to sue but said that as part of the local government, they must weigh broader trade-offs.
“Any community group, any activist, has a right to bring lawsuits and to allege wrong, but I do think there's a lot more trade-offs that we're working on as local governments,” Vasavada said.
As part of the SEPA process, Tumwater issued a mitigated determination of non-significance for the project on Nov. 28, 2022, meaning the project would no have adverse impacts on the environment due to proposed mitigations the developer has in place. The determination also means the project would not need to undergo a full SEPA review.
People who spoke against the project, however, believed the port should not rely on the 2022 assessment and conduct its own SEPA review.
Resident Carla Wulfsburg argued that the 2022 assessment is out of date as it fails to consider the current lease agreement. Also, an online participant named JJ claimed the 2022 assessment did not include an evaluation of climate impacts.
Commissioner Maggie Sanders asked staff for clarification whether the determination being made in 2022 has any effect in the lease agreement.
Chris Pierce-Wright, the port’s legal counsel, said the lease agreements were not subject to SEPA process.
“A lease isn't itself subject to SEPA. There's an exemption for entry into leases. It's the activity that occurs within the leasehold parcel,” Pierce-Wright said.
He added the port is not the appropriate agency to conduct the SEPA process, as an interlocal agreement between the port and Tumwater designated the city as the responsible agency for the process.
Responding to a similar question by another commissioner, Warren Hendrickson, the port’s director of operations, said all SEPA requirements have been “met 100% in full.”
Sean Gilbertson, the port’s director of environmental programs, agreed that there is no new information to be considered as part of the SEPA process simply because the lease is just being finalized now.
“They did their SEPA analysis based on what we know right now, so there's really no new information. They knew what the structure of the building was going to look like and the size of the building and the location” Gilbertson said.
The second major concern of the public was the project's impact on groundwater quality and supply.
Resident Ronda Larson Kramer criticized Panattoni’s plan to inject stormwater runoff underground into the aquifer zone, saying it would lead to untreated contaminants going into the Deschutes River.
Kramer said though the Department of Ecology regulates such activity, enforcement of the regulations has been “spotty” and even with pretreatment, pollutants may reach the groundwater.
“In practice, many systems do only basic pretreatment, like allowing some settling of sediments, and they do not comprehensively remove all contaminants. It's common for a significant amount of pollutants to remain in the water before injected,” Kramer said.
Gilbertson said Panattoni will have a “very efficient” filtration system before injecting stormwater runoff into the aquifer, and the filtration process will remove hydrocarbons, as well as other pollutants from the runoff.
He also mentioned there will be extensive ground monitoring to check groundwater quality and depth.
Other concerns raised by the public were Panattoni’s plans to remove all the trees in the property, as well as the possible harm to salmon runs due to reduced water flow into Deschutes River caused by the increase of paved surfaces in the area.
11 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
Southsoundguy
More useless warehouses. Yay.
Wednesday, April 30 Report this
JulesJames
Sure would be nice for some architectural accents added to those giant tilt-up warehouses. Painted-on columns, balconies and windows? Murals. Hues of colors. Anything but massive walls of plain ugly.
Wednesday, April 30 Report this
johnvaneenwyk
Nothing like a warehouse to plummet property values and quality of life. It certainly is the Port's misson.
Wednesday, April 30 Report this
RondaLarsonKramer
The Port’s SEPA policy (i.e., its environmental review policy) expressly requires SEPA reviews (i.e., environmental reviews) to consider climate change. Yet the words “climate change” are not even mentioned in the SEPA review that Tumwater did in 2022. Commissioners erred in not scheduling a work session to investigate the numerous issues that the public commenters brought to their attention. If that had happened here, the flaws in the SEPA review would have been spotted and the commissioners would have sent the documents back to Tumwater for a fix. The decision-making process in this meeting did not appear geared toward getting at the truth.
Additionally, it felt pretty awful to be criticized on our word choices. The public commenters are a valuable source of information without a vested interest. Staff, by contrast, have a vested interest and sometimes give misleading information. Good governance means listening to public commenters to discover problems that staff missed or intentionally misstated.
Being an elected official is hard. The port commissioners are public servants and I have gratitude for them taking on this job. But gratitude should go both ways because being a public commenter is hard too. We don’t do it for fun. We do it because we care about this community too. We would all spend our time doing other things if we were not so worried by what we see going on in this particular local government entity.
Thursday, May 1 Report this
RondaLarsonKramer
Here are the links to the documents I referred to in my prior comment.
The Panattoni environmental review documents that fail to address climate change are here:
https://www.ci.tumwater.wa.us/home/showpublisheddocument/26836/638756522273200000?fbclid=IwY2xjawKAArFleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFTbUh6ZzA0Yk5IQnVYTFgxAR4sY_Dm3WyejyXvKXbGPv9wcOfRz_ByLRGrfqAKVMidWev4PIwXECw_Ntdnew_aem_YAAGYdTziy3wCLZISVVb_A
https://www.ci.tumwater.wa.us/home/showpublisheddocument/26838/638756522280170000?fbclid=IwY2xjawKAAqxleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFTbUh6ZzA0Yk5IQnVYTFgxAR7ADHvsZxhRhE1wKjvVNtAFjupOebdKYdL8tXgifgMbC4o8Y5HAvCo1-gjVAg_aem_Or-opk9FUrt9ScG-XubK7Q
The Port's SEPA policy that requires the above documents to address climate change is at page 14 here:
https://portolympia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2015-12-SEPA.pdf?fbclid=IwY2xjawKAArdleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFTbUh6ZzA0Yk5IQnVYTFgxAR4-ArQ3Cdfg15YPXAqBAwmKUTKlqq3N3beLHHv-oZXnE6wTAN9cJ2AcujCiQQ_aem_12jThkthLDDDsvMuW4Y07Q
Thursday, May 1 Report this
BevBassett
Thank you Rhonda Larson Kramer for what you did to try and stop a horrible environmental travesty that we will pay for big time as climate chaos worsens: As the Earth Burns. Our water, air, and so much more will all be harmed by this big giveaway to private profiters. Nobody does a better job of moving public assets into private hands than the POO. And God knows they've perfected the art over many decades largely in the shadows--thanks to the Sins of Omission of The Daily Zero. The bureaucracy is downright evil in the way they go after people who watch the Port. And it doesn't seem to matter who we get elected that we think can or might bring some integrity to the cesspool of corruption--they are all molded into sycophants or run off using evil and immoral methods.
I know. I watched the POO for four years from 2013 to 2017. I attended 90+% of Commission Meetings and Study Sessions. I made comments arguing for the POO to act with integrity in the best interests of the taxpayers and voters, and they went after me with viciousness, malice, malevolence and hatefulness--one and all. I watched what they did to Sue Gunn in those back room unrecorded meetings and it very nearly killed her then--literally. She didn't live many years after they did their job on her. And EJ Zita, who was stronger but still human... There is no depth so low that they will not go low enough down to it to destroy a voice for our environment, our quality of life, or justice. Whatever it takes, they'll do it, and get away with it, in my experience. They will persist in destructive undermining of citizen advocates until they run them off as they did me.
The Port needs to be shut down. It does the taxpayers and the environment of Thurston County massive harm that is unseen by a critical mass of voters that would be needed to vote in real change. The bureaucracy and the private interests make millions and millions and millions of dollars as they steal our tax money and destroy our environment.
Thursday, May 1 Report this
JW
Out of the two mega warehouses by the Pilot only half of one has been leased out in over two years. One and a half are sitting empty. We need more??
Thursday, May 1 Report this
Buffie
Please please please include maps when you report on land use topics.
Thursday, May 1 Report this
Boatyarddog
Beverly Bassett speaks the Truth. The POO has many times LIED to D.O.E. and was Successfully Sued for 1.3 Million in Damages to The Water quality of Our Sound.
Two Commissioners Joe Downing, Bill Mc Gregor, and E.D. Ed Galligan along with syncophat Rachel Jamison, LIED to D.O.E.Officals even Blocked access to the Inspections involving Stormwater Releases for 8 years + and LIED and Manipulated Treatment Numbers, delaying as long as possiable causing over 1000 violations to the Clean Water Act. Sued in Federal District Court in Tacoma, for 1.3 Million.
This Port Continues to Tread a Path of NON compliance and Deceptive Approaches to Its Business Deals.
DO NOT TRUST THEIR WORDS. While there are good Commissioners, there are Deceptive ones as well. INJECTING STORMWATER into our Aquifers is An WOEFUL APPROACH to Water quality.
This PORT is Completly Incompentent in its approach to Development. And Will continue unfettered, unless the PUBLIC OUTCRY is Heard. CLOSE THE MARINE TERMINAL, this will allow Tax Levi income to be used Properly. The Marine Terminal is used To Prop up the Longshore only, at a Loss over many Decades, to Enviroment, and the stake holders ( YOU ), they are Once again MISLEADING THE PUBLIC!
Thursday, May 1 Report this
Yeti1981
https://www.kiteandkeymedia.com/videos/why-cant-build-anything-nepa-red-tape-contruction-permitting-reform/
Thursday, May 1 Report this
JanWitt
Dear Jeti1981,
https://www.eli.org/research-report/nepa-success-stories-celebrating-40-years-transparency-and-open-government
https://www.energy.gov/nepa/articles/quiet-success-stories-illustrate-nepas-value
https://blog.nwf.org/2020/02/5-wildlife-wins-delivered-by-the-national-environmental-policy-act/
https://earthjustice.org/feature/national-environmental-policy-act-nepa-successes
Jan Witt
Tuesday, May 6 Report this