Water bottling plant taps Centralia

McAllister leaders halt plans to locate in Lacey

SCOTT WYLAND THE OLYMPIAN

LACEY -- A start-up water-bottling company has abandoned plans to operate in Hawks Prairie and will instead open its taps in Centralia.

McAllister Bottling Co. has signed a lease agreement with the Port of Centralia for an 11,600-square-foot space at the port's industrial site, a couple of miles west of Interstate 5.

McAllister's owners chose the Centralia site because it had the needed infrastructure in place, saving the company money and hassles with permitting, said Steve Noel, the company's operations manager.

"It was a tremendous savings for us, which, for a start-up business, is good," Noel said.

McAllister will filter and bottle water for various vendors, Noel said. Unlike most bottled-water suppliers, the company won't stamp its name on the products. Instead, the vendors buying the water will attach their own labels, Noel said.

The company originally planned to build a bottling plant on a 4.5-acre property east of Hogum Bay Road and north of I-5.

McAllister then considered leasing a 30,000-square-foot space at the Kaufman Brothers Building on Marvin Road near 26th Avenue.

In either case, McAllister would have had to install water lines, electrical systems and drains at a cost of about $100,000, Noel said.

By contrast, the Centralia site originally housed a water-bottling business, so it has all these amenities built in, Noel said.

McAllister spent about a year trying to obtain permits through the city of Lacey for the Hawks Prairie site, longer than the owners would have liked, Noel said.

In Centralia, the company made it through permitting in three months, he said, partly because the necessary infrastructure already existed.

"Permitting is much more streamlined here," said Kyle Heaton, executive director of the Centralia port. "Certainly Centralia is a business-friendly environment."

Jerry Litt, Lacey community development director, said he took offense to the suggestion the city is unfriendly toward businesses.

McAllister obtained land-use approval in 90 days and could have received building permits 30 days after that if the company hadn't changed its plans several times, Litt said.

"We kept waiting for them to submit something because we thought they were in a hurry," Litt said.

The city streamlines permitting as much as it can while still complying with all the codes, Litt said. Home Depot received land-use approval in two months for a 500,000-square-foot distribution center, he said.

In Centralia, the timing for McAllister was good, Heaton said.

I.P. Callison & Sons, a mint-processing company, agreed to vacate the space a couple of months early and move to the Chehalis Industrial Park.

McAllister will be a welcome addition to the Centralia park, Heaton said.

"We're hopeful they'll be a good employer and an asset to our community," he said.

The site will put McAllister close to the freeway and centered between Seattle and Portland -- two attributes the owners sought in Thurston County, Noel said.

McAllister will pipe in city well water and truck in artesian water, Noel said. The water will be stored in tanks on site, then run through microfilters and other purification systems, he said.

To start, McAllister will employ 15 people and bottle 28,000 gallons of water per shift, Noel said. The water will be packed in bottles ranging in size from 16 ounces to 1.5 liters.

The company will probably hire a few workers from Thurston County, he said, adding that he and another manager live in the county. McAllister also will buy all of its shipping cardboard and plastic bottles from South Sound suppliers, he said.

Noel said he would have liked to run the business in Thurston County. When the project stalled, the owners felt compelled to look elsewhere, he said.

Scott Wyland is a business reporter for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-357-0748 or swyland@olympia.gannett.com.

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