Wilbert Precast Moving To New North Side Site

A Spokane company with a long history of building burial vaults will reopen in a new North Spokane location this fall.

Wilbert Precast, now located at 1323 N. Cedar Street, is finalizing financing details to build a new manufacturing plant at 2215 E. Brooklyn Ave. The site was formerly occupied by Waste Management.

The Washington Economic Development Finance Authority is issuing $2.4 million in bonds to finance Wilbert Precast’s new facility and its purchase of property in the Wenatchee area, where the company bought an existing precast business last year. The bonds will be purchased by Washington Trust Bank.

Dan Houk, president and CEO of Wilbert Precast, said the Washington Economic Development Finance Authority has made financing the new facility more cost effective, because the bonds are tax-exempt. Although some may wonder whether a government agency would create a lot of red tape, Houk said, “It’s really a very simple process.”

The company was started as a burial vault manufacturer in 1906 by Houk’s great-great grandfather. In 1977 the product line was expanded. Now Wilbert Precast constructs septic tanks, water storage vaults, manholes and concrete steps. It operates plants in Yakima, Lewiston and Wenatchee. Burial vaults now account for just 25 percent of the company’s business.

The move to the new manufacturing plant this fall will give Wilbert Precast more space, said Houk. Its current facility is 15,000 square feet; the new plant will be 27,000 square feet. It will also include crane-ways that can support the heavier concrete products Wilbert Precast is constructing.

“It’s almost like we’re a brand-new start-up business,” he said, “but with a lot more money.”

Wilbert Precast is only the third Spokane company to benefit under the Washington Economic Development and Finance Authority. In 1996, Bayou Brewing Co. was the first business to be issued bonds by the state agency - in the amount of $600,000. In 1997, Lyn-Tron was issued $3.78 million in bonds.

WEDFA executive director Jonathan Hayes said the agency was designed to assist small- to medium-sized manufacturing and processing companies in accessing funds for capital projects. Though it is a state agency, the WEDFA is funded solely through fees it charges when the bonds are issued. No taxpayer dollars are used.

The Wilbert Precast project is estimated to have a 13-job impact, bringing the total number of jobs the WEDFA has contributed to Spokane to 45. Statewide, companies the agency has issued bonds to have contributed 1,780 jobs through 1999.

“We’ve been more active in the western side of the state than the East, so far,” said Hayes. “We’d like to change that.”