Contractor builds four-unit complex for multiple uses by a variety of tenants
   “This is the place to be,” says Allen Litzenberger, owner of 4-Point Construction and developer of privately-owned buildings on Port of Walla Walla property.
   Litzenberger has been “watching and waiting” for the right time to begin building in the Walla Walla Regional Airport Industrial Park.
   “The time is now,” he explains.
   “I’ve been watching the airport park development for several years,” Litzenberger said. “We’ve been waiting until the Port’s inventory of vacant buildings on the site had pretty much diminished,” Litzenberger says. “Now, that’s what has happened.”
   No stranger to private ownerships on leased lands, Litzenberger has built on publicly-owned properties throughout the Northwest.
   His Walla Walla Regional Airport site is about an acre on A Street between Boeing and Cessna Avenues. Litzenberger’s “development” includes four buildings, each with 6,000 square feet.
   Two completed structures are already “rented out.” Tenants – all new to the airport neighborhood – include Hidden Valley Bakery, Cindy Mettler’s Bakery Shoppe, Patrick M. Paul and JLC winery tasting rooms, and the winery and tasting room of Patit Creek Cellars.
    With the exception of the Bakery Shoppe, all enjoy “store front exposure” on A Street.
   Litzenberger says yet-to-be-completed structures on the west side of the site will mostly be for storage use, however end spaces will offer customer access options off Boeing and Cessna avenues.
   According to Litzenberger, Port of Walla Walla Executive Jim Kuntz and his staff were “helpful” in negotiating a long-term lease that made the A Street project feasible. The 50-year deal is subject to
periodic five-year reviews of terms and offers guaranteed renewals.
   “It’s the right thing to do,” says Litzenberger, a long-time Walla Walla resident. “I like it here.”

Eleganté joins increasing community of wineries at WW Regional Airport

   When Doug Simmons began making plans for his own winery, one thing he already knew was he wanted to be where others are.
   That led him to the Port of Walla Walla’s Airport Industrial Park.
   Already “home” to as many as 18 wineries, Simmons figured his own airport site would allow him to take advantage of existing tasting room traffic. “Once I got comfortable with the idea of being the owner of my building on publicly-owned leased land, the Port of Walla Walla staff was easy to work with,” Simmons said.
   He ended up with a 50-year lease for a little more than a half-acre of land at 839 C Street. It was perfect. Public access was easy, utilities were already in place and there are lots of wineries across the way and down the road.
   With the location decided, Simmons began designing what was going to be Eleganté Winery.
   “My goal is to make great wine,” says Simmons, a retired DeSales school teacher and graduate of the Walla Walla Community College Enology and Viticulture Program. “I wanted a new building with modern innovations that would contribute to the success of the overall operation.”
   While the handsome structure has a stucco exterior, ownerdesigned production rooms feature inside walls of metal siding, with sloping floors and special “kusel drains” that allow a total water washdown for easy cleaning. And there’s ample room for as many as 140 aging barrels and up to 1,000 cases of wine.
   Even though staging and storage rooms are mostly practical, Simmons allowed for some special touches in the Eleganté tasting room with its stone serving counter and imported Italian tile floor.
   The end result is Simmon’s “dream come true,” thanks in part to his rewarding relationship with the Port of Walla Walla.