The Ashley Furniture Distribution Center in the Spanaway-Frederickson area is growing to more than a million square feet upon completion of a new addition.
On Tuesday, Alston Construction said construction is under way for Phase 2 at the center, 20623 34th Ave. E., which will add 395,000 square feet, 252 parking stalls, 58 dock doors and 471 trailer parking spots.
The site is next to Best Buy’s regional warehouse.
Phase 1 construction of the Ashley facility, the company’s first Pacific Northwest distribution center, started in 2021, a 715,000-square-foot warehouse site with three-story office mezzanines on two separate building corners, as well as 119 dock doors and 319 car parking stalls.
The center, which opened last summer, is owned by Arcadia, Wisconsin-based Ashley Furniture Industries, Inc. In August, the company said that the “multi-million-dollar investment will employ more than 250 associates across Ashley’s distribution operations, as well as its affiliated brokerage (Ashley Pacific Northwest, LLC) and retail (Ashley Global Retail, LLC) businesses.”
The site receives inventory from the Port of Tacoma and distributes to other distribution centers. It also processes home-delivery orders and pick-up for store purchases made at Ashley Furniture stores in the region.
In addition to the new site in Pierce County, the company has eight distribution centers to serve the United States and more than 20,000 storefronts in 155 countries.
The project has been listed in permitting documents with an “executive priority” designation, given to certain projects as part of the County Executive’s strategic plan for jobs and development.
Pierce County has seen growth in warehouse development in the Frederickson-Spanaway area in the past few years, including the redevelopment of a nearly 310-acre parcel in Frederickson for FRED310, on land previously owned by The Boeing Co. The project website says that more than 3.4 million square feet of space is under construction near the intersection of Canyon Road East and East 176th Street.
CBRE’s most recent industrial real estate data, released in October, said, “The tenant demand for space in the Tacoma area submarket continues to outpace supply.”
CBRE noted that the “development pipeline is healthy with 5.9 million square feet under way, along with 13 million square feet in the planning stage.”
Sources: AOL, Tacoma News Tribune