June 2023 Volume 22 | Issue 6
Auto dealership to get new $5M home, new name By Sara Schilling sara@tcjournal.biz
Inside
Focus Magazine: Agriculture + Viticulture in the Columbia Basin
Manufacturing
Label maker manufacturer finds its niche in wine country Page A23
Real Estate & Construction
New Beginnings to forge new start in old store Page B1
NOTEWORTHY “I never would have thought we would buy our own location.” - Paulina Perez, Hot Tamales
Page B1
Sergio Alvarez was selling real estate in Portland in 2008 when the economy crashed. “The phone stopped ringing one day,” he said, and he knew he needed to find another line of work. He’d always wanted to go into business for himself, so he moved to the Tri-Cities – not far from where he grew up in Hermiston – and began selling appliances. He started out with $200 in his pocket. Alvarez put in the work to make his appliance business grow, taking only a single day off in his first year. Eventually, he found his best fit in the auto industry and opened Alvarez Auto Sales at 5225 W. Canal Drive in Kennewick. Now, more than a decade on, he’s set to expand the used car business with a new $5 million location at 3809 Plaza Way, south of The Original Pancake House in the Southridge area. He’s also changing the dealership’s name to The Auto Lot. “I’m super excited about the new location, the new name, being able to provide more choices,” he said. The current location on Canal Drive sits on less than an acre and can accommodate about 75 cars. With the new space, “we’ll be able to almost double the inventory,” Alvarez said. He also plans a 5,000-square-foot showroom and office building on the 4-acre property. The showroom will have space inside to park and showcase vehicles. “It’s very modern and very unique,” Alvarez said, noting that the building on the Canal Drive property doesn’t have room for vehicles inside and is about half the size of the new space. Construction on the new location is underway. Alvarez expects to begin operating there this summer while building construction wraps up. The project is scheduled to be completely done this fall. uALVAREZ AUTO, Page A4
Photo by Ryan Jackman Alexandra RoseLee, owner of White Glove Weddings, recently bought the 106-yearold brick building at 114 W. Kennewick Ave. in downtown Kennewick and plans to turn it into an intimate event center.
Historic downtown buildings poised to change hands By Laura Kostad
for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business
A 106-year-old building in downtown Kennewick and its 84-year-old neighbor will change hands after more than two decades. The sale will be another chapter in the buildings’ long, storied history. For the past 23 years, the two buildings next door to Players Sports Bar &
Grill have been owned and extensively renovated by Cheri Manley, a business owner and downtown Kennewick advocate. Now 70 and “tired of being a landlord,” she’s found new owners for both. Alexandra RoseLee, owner of White Glove Weddings, is excited to turn the uKENNEWICK, Page A16
State confirms Costco is negotiating land lease in Richland By Sara Schilling sara@tcjournal.biz
Costco is eyeing Richland for a possible second Tri-Cities location. The retail giant has submitted a letter of interest for about 28 acres of state trust land in the Queensgate area, and negotiations for a potential lease are underway, a spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) confirmed. That doesn’t mean a Costco is certain to be built on the former orchard property near
Target – far from it. However, it does seem to indicate that it’s at least a possibility. Costco itself isn’t sharing details about its plans for the Tri-Cities. Asked about a potential new Costco in Richland or Pasco, a spokesman for the retail giant said the company had no information to provide. A second Tri-City store isn’t on Costco’s list of locations coming soon. Hollie Alexander, Richland’s communiuCOSTCO, Page A4
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