A long-discussed vision of developing a business and industrial park in Deer Park, about 15 miles north of Spokane, has moved another step closer to becoming a reality.

The Deer Park City Council voted unanimously last week to accept the donation of right-of-way land needed to construct about a mile of road and put in other infrastructure improvements to serve the planned 140-acre first phase of the Deer Park Business & Industrial Park.

The land was donated by the five property owners who collectively own the 14 parcels on which that portion of the business park is to be developed.

"It's huge," says Deer Park Mayor Robert Whisman, of the significance of the council's decision in helping clear the way for the project just west of the Deer Park Airport to proceed. It comes more than 30 years after an early failed attempt by the city to prep that site for business-development activity, and stymied efforts since then, he says.

At last week's meeting where the action was taken, he says, "It was pretty emotional—a lot of hugs, almost tears."

A $1.8 million federal grant that the Deer Park City Council accepted last August, plus that much more in local matching money, will be used to develop the infrastructure. Site work possibly could begin late this year, but more likely will get under way in the spring of 2014, Whisman says.

The business and industrial park eventually could include more than 400 acres of land west of the airport that's zoned for such uses. Two manufacturing-warehouse companies already have committed to building facilities in the proposed business park that each would employ about 30 people, project representatives say.

The City Council's acceptance last year of the grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration gave project proponents 24 months to arrange the rest of the financing and begin construction, or risk losing the federal funding.

Since then, the owners of the property on which that initial phase of the business and industrial park is to be developed have committed to participate in a local improvement district that will provide $1.2 million of the needed local match. The city has agreed to provide the other $600,000. A loan from the Washington State Public Works Trust Fund, payable over 20 years, will cover both of those commitments.

The overall, mostly improved site that the business park is expected to occupy is bounded by Cedar Road on the east, the Deer Park Golf & Country Club housing development on the west, Enoch Road on the north, and Crawford Street, which turns into Deer Park-Milan Road, on the south.

Plans call for the lower third of the overall site to be bisected by an eastward extension of 6th Street from the housing development that surrounds the golf course. The portion of the development site south of that alignment is zoned for less-intensive business uses, while the northern portion is intended for light-industrial uses. The initial infrastructure project also will include creating a new southern extension of Cedar Road to tie into Crawford, the main east-west thoroughfare serving that area south of the development site and airport.

Joe Tortorelli, an economic development consultant who provides business development services to the cities of Deer Park and Cheney, will be among those seeking to help attract business tenants there once the infrastructure is in place, Whisman says.

Of how long it will take for the business and industrial park to fully develop, Whisman told the Journal in an interview last August, "We don't expect it to happen overnight. We look at the long-term aspects," such as increased building permit activity and a boost to the tax base.

He added, "In the long run, it will benefit the airport out there, which is right next door to the property. We've lost a number of companies that would have went in out there if we'd had the infrastructure."

The city-operated Deer Park Airport, located on 1,800 acres of land, has two paved runways, one measuring 6,100 feet long and the other 3,200 feet. Built during World War II, it saw little activity during the years after the war and gained a strong reputation for its use as a drag strip. Its aviation uses grew gradually, though, through the latter decades, and it now boasts about 76 hangars, privately owned but located on leased land, and is home base for about 100 aircraft.

It's managed by Partner Enterprises LLC, a Deer Park-based contract management company owned by Airport Manager Penni Loomis and her husband that has been associated with the facility since 1993. A seven-member advisory board helps guide Deer Park City Council decisions about development and policies at the airport.

Loomis was involved in seeking out funding for the business and industrial park infrastructure work and says she believes the proximity of the airport to the planned development area will help make it more attractive to prospective business tenants.

"We do have ample runway to be able to handle business jets," she says.

Tortorelli says he has been working with the city for about six years to try to get the business and industrial project rolling, but had been told that efforts to bring such development to that area dated back at least 30 years. A key obstacle, Tortorelli says, has been coming up with the money for the needed road and other infrastructure improvements.

"We've lost four industrial clients. They ended up going somewhere else because we didn't have a final plan for putting in the infrastructure," so there's been interest in that location over the years, he says.

An $8.4 million proposal that preceded the one that now has come together would have extended Cedar Road farther north and encompassed about 80 percent of the overall 440 acres of developable land there, but state and federal funding sources balked at committing to that large of a project, Tortorelli says.

He says Deer Park-area residents have been supportive of the latest business and industrial park proposal, partly because of the potential for it to bring added jobs to a rural community that's hungry for them.

Other than for a couple of fabrication or manufacturing operations, Deer Park doesn't have much in the way of base industries, Tortorelli says. A large sawmill once operated there, but shut down in the late 1960s, he says, adding that in recent years, a hospital and a supermarket there have closed, as have other retail businesses, although there also have been some gains.

An economic development advisory committee that is part of the Deer Park Chamber of Commerce has worked closely with Greater Spokane Incorporated to try to keep a high profile in seeking out development-assistance funds, he says.

Looking to the future, Tortorelli says he believes Deer Park is in "the path of growth," with work on the North Spokane Corridor and improvements to nearby U.S. 395 likely to improve accessibility and spur more development activity northward from Spokane.

As mayor, Whisman says he's hopeful that businesses attracted to the business and industrial park ultimately "will open up a lot of well-paying jobs for the area and help keep kids around, kids graduating from our schools. It will give them a place to work without having to move away. That's been a huge issue in Deer Park forever."