Port industrial park will be in hospital district

The Port of Whitman County agreed April 21 to have its new industrial park annexed into the Pullman Regional Hospital District. Port commissioners had delayed a decision after receiving the annexation request from the hospital district April 7. At the time, they said they wanted input from Executive Director Joe Poire and from neighboring landowners.

The decision means tenants in the new industrial park will have to pay the hospital’s tax levy.

The only levy currently charged property owners in the hospital district is $.49 per $1,000 charge to pay off $8.2 million in bonds approved in 2001 to build the new hospital.

Tenants at port sites actually pay a leasehold tax which is equivalent to tax levies on the property.

Poire said he felt the hospital levy would have little impact on attracting tenants.

The port’s 35-acre industrial park is at the southwest corner of Highway 27 and the Pullman-Albion Road north of Pullman. It was annexed into Pullman city limits with neighboring parcels last year.

Poire noted the neighboring landowners have agreed to the annexation into the hospital district.

The port purchased the property for $330,000 with a portion of a $1 million Innovation Partnership Zone it received from the state in 2007.