Jul. 7--Richland and ConAgra Foods have signed a $1.4 million agreement for the city to sell land at Columbia Point to the company to build an administrative campus.

ConAgra is buying 8.61 acres to the north and east of Bradley Boulevard near the intersection of Comstock Street. Closing for the land sale is expected in the next three to nine months.

The company plans to build a $28 million building at the site to house 300 employees of Lamb Weston, a ConAgra subsidiary focused on potato processing. Most of those employees would come from the Lamb Weston headquarters the company says it has outgrown on Gage Boulevard in Kennewick.

Richland and ConAgra in 2007 reached an option agreement for the land transaction. The deal sparked a public debate about riverfront development and open space.

Mayor John Fox said in a statement Monday the deal is good for the community.

"We are excited that we are retaining these good paying, non-Hanford jobs in the Tri-Cities," he said. "We are also honored that Lamb Weston will call Richland home."

As part of the purchase and land sale agreement signed last week, Lamb Weston will pay to move about 1,500 feet of Bradley Boulevard to the other side of the proposed company campus, to run between the campus and the Columbia River shoreline.

The city agreed to seek grant opportunities to help the company pay for the road realignment, which is expected to cost about $500,000.

Lamb Weston also will pay to develop a 4-acre park between the realigned street and the shoreline. The road realignment and the park will preserve public access to the shoreline.

"That was one of the issues folks brought up ... that they felt maybe the public was getting cut off from the river," said Gary Ballew, economic development manager for Richland. "In part in response to that was the idea of taking the road to separate out the private land from the public land."

The company will maintain the park, which will be open to the public. And the company will pay for construction of a parking lot that will be available to the public after business hours.

A ConAgra spokeswoman didn't return requests for comment Monday afternoon.

-- Joe Chapman: 582-1512; jchapman@tricityherald.com

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