Today the Washington State Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB) conditionally approved an $800,000 loan and $200,000 grant for the Port of Walla Walla to be used to make public infrastructure improvements to port-owned property so a new Washington business, RailEx, LLC, can move in and open a state-of-the-art produce packing and distribution facility.

The port will use the state funds to construct an access road and make drainage improvements to the property adjacent to Highway 12 in Walla Walla County. RailEx will then construct a $10 million facility and $2.5 million rail "loop track" around port property. Once up and running, RailEx estimates its operation will create 148 full-time jobs at wages that exceed the average annual Walla Walla County salary.

The Port of Walla Walla and other sources will match the state investment with slightly more than $1 million for additional public project costs.

"This project solves a major transportation problem that has plagued the Washington state fresh produce industry for years,” said Port of Walla Walla Commission President Ken Jantz. “It will give growers in our state a consistent transportation supply option to get their fresh produce to East Coast customers."

RailEx is the newest member of a 50-year-old group of providers of produce from Maine to Florida. The group provides fresh produce to the largest grocery chain stores in the eastern United States. RailEx will use new high-efficiency refrigerated boxcars to ship produce from Washington to a planned distribution facility in Albany, N.Y. The company estimates these non-stop trips will deliver produce from coast to coast in as little as five days, cutting the typical rail time by more than half.

"These state funds will have a significant impact," said Juli Wilkerson, director of the Washington Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development. "Along with the RailEx jobs, the new facility will also create more work for area trucking companies. It will take more than 150 truck loads of produce to fill a train for its cross-country journey."