Lewiston port commissioners approve sale of land for physical therapy clinic, Lewiston Tribune, August 13, 2015

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]By ELAINE WILLIAMS of the Tribune

An in-patient physical therapy clinic is moving forward with a new location near Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories at the Port of Lewiston’s Business and Technology Park.

Lewiston port commissioners approved an agreement Wednesday to sell 2 1/2 acres to Advanced Health Care for $4.73 per square foot. The land is adjacent to a site where a building is under construction by ClearView Eye Clinic on the 2800 block of Juniper Drive.

Advanced Health Care has 90 days to complete due diligence on the sale before it is finalized. The port sold the land for ClearView Eye Clinic for $4 per square foot.

Advanced Health Care caters to patients recovering from knee, hip and shoulder replacements. Patients stay two to three weeks and have two one-on-one sessions each day with the same physical therapist.

The company, which was founded by two brothers in Fruitland, Idaho, expects it will have a 28-bed, 20,000-square-foot complex. The staff will include more than 35 full- and part-time employees. It will join others already in operation in places such as Denver, Meridian, Idaho, and Albuquerque, N.M.

The deal was the most significant of three land transactions the commissioners approved Wednesday. Clearwater Seed Co. is going to lease about half of an 11,000-square-foot warehouse that is part of the port’s mothballed container facilities.

Executing the agreement with Clearwater Seed fills all of the warehouse space that was opened for rent because container barges stopped calling on the Port of Lewiston in the spring. Clearwater Seed will pay 25 cents a square foot per month, the same rate as K&G Construction, another tenant in the container warehouse space. The remainder of the space is being used by Clearwater Paper to store pulp.

Commissioner Mary Hasenoehrl abstained from voting on the Clearwater Seed matter because she is a partner in the company, which has arrangements with regional farmers to grow native grass seed. Clearwater Seed cleans the seed and distributes it.

Port commissioners also gave the nod to doubling the amount of land Carlton Construction leases on the corner of Seventh Avenue North and 12th Street North. The monthly lease rate will now be $625. Carlton Construction has a business at the site where it leases containers for storage.

In other business, port commissioners discussed compensation the city of Lewiston is seeking for the fiber-optic network the Port of Lewiston is developing.

The city would like a fee or free services from the network, said Port Manager David Doeringsfeld. That’s something that communities in Asotin and Whitman counties haven’t sought from similar infrastructure developed by ports in those two counties.

The Port of Lewiston is becoming a wholesaler and will lease space on the network at a standard rate to companies that offer cellphone service, Internet and cable television.

Williams may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 848-2261.

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