The Cubes at Tumwater – Costco

CRG, Lamar Johnson Collaborative and Clayco are the develop-design-build team for this 1,098,800-square-foot distribution center.
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Located on an 80-acres site in Tumwater, Washington, this new 1,098,800-square-foot distribution center will facilitate the shipping of products to customers throughout the Northeast. Construction on this pre-engineered metal building began in August 2022 and is scheduled for substantial completion by November 2022. The client is pursuing LEED certification for this project.

This project includes a number of forward-thinking sustainable initiatives. Highlights include the following:

Stormwater Management: The project’s stormwater system was designed to retain all stormwater onsite. Stormwater is collected, conveyed, and stored in a series of ponds around the site’s perimeter and then released at a controlled rate to stormwater infiltration galleries. These infiltration galleries are located under the building slab. The system ensures groundwater levels at all property lines do not rise more than 6″.  This is to prevent surface water flooding onto neighboring properties.

Tree Preservation:  5.81 acres of the site was preserved as “Tree Tracts.” Within those tracts – 305 existing trees were retained, and 1,423 new trees were added. In addition, 524 trees were planted in other areas onsite – for a total of 1,947 new trees. These additional trees are well above the normal Tumwater landscaping requirements.

Solar Readiness:  The Project is designed to allow for the future addition of a “Solar Farm.” This can be accomplished by converting a portion of the trailer parking area into a solar farm. The electrical conduit could connect the solar farm to the building’s electrical room. The project’s electrical panels are designed to accommodate this future conversion.

Habitat Preservation for Mazama Pocket Gophers:  A portion of the site was occupied by Federally protected Mazama Pocket Gophers. The Project was part of a complicated and lengthy mitigation process that required processing of a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) overseen by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the State SEPA process.  In essence, the seller set aside a nearby 65-acre site as Mazama Pocket Gopher habitat and transferred mitigations credits to the project to allow the removal of the gopher habitat at the subject site. The seller was financially committed to the long-term preservation and management of the habitat mitigation site, which CRG honored.