Deal announced for future of former Weyerhaeuser headquarters. Here’s what is proposed
The owner of the former Weyerhaeuser campus in Federal Way has announced that the state will start evaluating potential options for purchasing or leasing the former Weyerhaeuser headquarters building in Federal Way.
The headquarters plans were announced as work begins on industrial redevelopment elsewhere on the site.
The hope is to “repurpose the building into a public innovation and education resource center,” according to a news release from Industrial Realty Group of Los Angeles, which owns the property.
IRG said funding has been approved in the state’s Supplemental Capital Budget to identify options “to transform the iconic 340,000-square-foot office building into a dedicated space for learning, workforce training, and economic development to support businesses, residents, and community organizations of South King County and Northeast Pierce County.”
It noted, “The goal is to integrate and streamline services to expand innovation and education opportunities across the south Puget Sound region.”
Dana Ostenson, IRG executive vice president, spoke to The News Tribune in a phone interview Monday.
“We’re very excited about working with the state to create the shared vision that that we all seem to have,” he said. “Ours is job creation and economic value. And the state’s is community services and education. And I think both of us have the shared vision of preservation.”
The $300,000 allocated will fund architectural renderings, cost estimates “and a comprehensive plan to repurpose the interior of the building to co-locate businesses, educational institutions, government agencies, and nonprofit service providers,” according to IRG.
IRG purchased the iconic, forested campus from Weyerhaeuser for $70.5 million in 2016 and has sought to bring new industry there after Weyerhaeuser moved its operations to Seattle.
According to IRG: “The idea builds on the ongoing collaborations between the property owner and the State Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation to preserve the exterior of the headquarters building, which is internationally renowned for its architectural significance.“
In addition to the headquarters news, current plans continue for redevelopment elsewhere onsite with new multiuse industrial buildings.
Clearing and grading for industrial Buildings A and B has started, according to IRG: “The limited forestry activities, which retain forest buffers around the buildings, will take place over the next several weeks before ground-up construction of two new sophisticated industrial buildings begins later this spring.”
Ostenson told The News Tribune, “We continue to follow through with our commitment to create thousands of jobs on the campus and at the same time to preserve the very important parts of the campus and to do all the building behind tree buffers. And we’re continuing to move forward with that.“
No word yet on potential new tenants, though IRG in a release said its new buildings could serve a “wide range of potential tenants, including industrial, life science, biomedical, tech,” and research and development.
Initial plans for a fish-processing plant at the site were scrapped in 2016 after strong opposition from neighbors.
Development permits and applications for the rebranded Woodbridge Corporate Park cover approximately 63 acres of the 400-acre campus.
The headquarters update was welcome news to the main challenger of site redevelopment, the Federal Way group Save Weyerhaeuser Campus.
Laurie Brown, board member of the group, told The News Tribune on Monday, “Saving Weyerhaeuser Campus is 100 percent supportive of this effort. The vision is in complete alignment with what our community nonprofit organization has been advocating for six years.”
Brown said the group had “exhausted all of our legal remedies, filed the appeals that we could. ... And, we did not prevail on preserving the campus as we had wished. So we’re happy to see something positive happening on the campus.”
She added: “We are deeply appreciative of (state) Sen. Claire Wilson’s work on this.”
Wilson, credited by IRG representatives as having the inspiration for the plan, agreed it was good news.
“This project is a huge and historic investment that will reimagine our local workforce, economy, and community and provide valuable opportunities for youth,” said Wilson, D-Federal Way, said in a statement. “I’m thrilled to see this collaborative, transformative project funded in our budget and passed with bipartisan support to help our community flourish. I’m excited for the tremendous resources and support it’ll bring to local businesses, young people, and families throughout our district.”
Brown noted the preservationist group remained concerned about building construction but wanted to focus on the positive with the headquarters news and the fact that the group has pivoted to North Lake shoreline protection on the property.
Brown said the group is working with Seattle-based Forterra to preserve more than 50 acres of shoreline, with $4 million in funding collected for that effort so far.
“We’re making efforts to get IRG to the table to negotiate the sale of that property. So it would become basically public land that’s conserved for the community and maybe we could tie in with this new educational center that’s being explored,” she said.
“We remain hopeful that they’ll find a way to making this happen,” she added.
Ostenson told The News Tribune the shoreline property isn’t up for negotiations.
“Whatever that group is doing I think is their business,” he said. “The area around North Lake is not for sale.”
This story was originally published May 17, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
