Word on Hawkins loan set next week

An indication of whether Whitman County will receive loan funding from the state to build infrastructure at Hawkins Companies long-proposed stateline strip mall will come next Friday, Aug. 17.

The state’s Public Works Trust Fund’s board of directors will rank projects for funding from a pool of hundreds of millions of dollars. Infrastructure at the 714,000-square-foot shopping center is one of those projects.

County Administrat-or Gary Petrovich reported Monday that staff in the Public Works Trust Fund have advanced the county’s application for $13 million through the first two rounds of cuts. Another application for $2 million for improvements to the county’s solid waste facility was also submitted to the trust fund and remains in contention.

Entities could apply for a maximum $15 million.

“I think making this cut is huge,” said Commissioner Greg Partch.

Partch and Commissioner Pat O’Neill voted to increase the county’s share of infrastructure costs from $9.1 million to $15 million in January. They have spent the past eight months looking for funding sources on the project, which has been the controversial centerpiece issue of both their re-election campaigns.

“This thing pencils out really well for the county,” said Partch Tuesday.

This is the county’s first application for funding from the trust fund, which has previously lent money to various towns in Whitman County for infrastructure.

O’Neill said Whitman County’s project should score well because of its projected capacity for dozens of construction jobs and hundreds of retail jobs when it is up and running.

“It’s all about putting people to work,” said O’Neill. “That’s the key - jobs.”

Commissioner Michael Largent last Jan. 3 voted against the increase in the county’s commitment to Hawkins.

The increase to $15 million also prompted a lawsuit from the citizen Organization to Void Illegal Conduct.

Members of OVIC have been key contributors to the campaigns of the opponents of both Partch and O’Neill. Hawkins executives have been some of Partch’s biggest backers in the primary race.

The county applied for a 20-year loan from the Trust Fund with the aim of paying off the loan from property and sales tax revenue generated from the shopping center.

Commissioners plan to repay the loan at approximately $700,000 a year from the center’s proceeds.

Petrovich said staff from the trust fund advised the county to change its application to a 25-year loan because tax revenue would be low during the project’s initial years.

Both Partch and O’Neill believe the taxes should more than cover the loan repayment costs.

“I think it will be more than adequate to pay it off,” said O’Neill. “All the figures I’ve seen in the spreadsheets and everything; we were looking at 3.5, 4 percent interest and still being paying it off with two superstores.”

If the county does not receive funding from the state, it will most likely have to issue bonds to cover the cost of construction. Those bonds will come at higher interest rates than a trust fund loan, said Petrovich.

Hawkins project manager Jeff DeVoe told citizens of Whitman County in a hearing last April that the center will generate $1.2 million in annual sales taxes to various taxing districts and $624,000 in property taxes.

Lowe’s home improvement stores is the only firm to commit to attaching its name to the project, but both commissioners Partch and O’Neill noted Hawkins has been working with Target to site a store at the shopping center.

“They’re working very hard for Target,” said O’Neill. “That’s been said in the public forums.”

Aside from the funding, the injunction suit from OVIC may stand in the shopping center’s way.

OVIC charges the deal should be nullified because Hawkins is not licensed to act as a contractor in Washington, county money would be paid for private infrastructure and commissioners agreed on the increased funding outside of a legal public meeting.

Petrovich said he told the trust fund staff about the pending lawsuit before the county application advanced to the fund’s board second round for consideration.

“They wanted to have full disclosure on any obstacles that may interfere with a timely completion,” Petrovich told commissioners in a workshop session Monday.

The board will rank projects and pass its funding list to the governor’s office who will pass the list onto the legislature next session for final approval. Projects will be ranked and the funds will be distributed down the list until the available funds have been assigned.