Chelan Douglas Port Moving Forward On More Property For Microsoft Plant

The Chelan Douglas Regional Port Authority is moving forward with the purchase of 23 acres on Malaga Alcoa Highway, with the purpose of selling it to Microsoft.

It's one of at least three pieces of land the port is buying to re-sell to the tech giant for its planned cloud storage data center.

The new purchase is a parcel at 5101 Malaga Alcoa Highway (pictured below), which includes a mobile home that the current occupants could lease for up to two years.

The property is across the street from existing tracts meant for the Microsoft plant. It's owned by Marsha Hays, who also owns the mobile home that sits on it.

The port is purchasing the property for $35,000 per usable acre for a total of $650,000, plus $35,000 for the mobile home. The deal includes a $34,000 non-refundable deposit.

Port CEO Jim Kuntz indicated the property could be used for future expansion of the Microsoft plant during the port's Tuesday meeting.

He also said the property is competitively priced and had the approval of Microsoft. "I think the pricing is very fair, based on what we're seeing in the neighborhood," said Kuntz. "I've communicated with our client, and they would like us to proceed with this."

Microsoft could build six buildings to in the area to house its cloud storage system.

The two pieces of land already in the works for the project include 72.5 acres (Lojo Property) at 5375 Malaga Alcoa Highway, which was purchased on June 24 for $6.6 million, and about 30 acres (Curtis and Torres properties) on the highway set to be purchased in September for roughly $2.6 million.

Microsoft will pay roughly $9 million for those properties.

The port is buying another nearby 70-acre property where it likely will operate a wastewater facility for Microsoft. The data centers use water to cool equipment.

The port has also agreed to upgrade and install additional water wells for the plant.

The overall project budget to extend water infrastructure improvements to the Microsoft site is $9.5 million, which will be compensated by tech giant. The port has until the end of September 2023 to get water to the property.