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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Schweitzer to add two new buildings

From staff reports

Fast-growing Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories said Friday it will add two more buildings to its Pullman campus — space that’s needed in part to accommodate some of the 250 people the company has hired this year alone.

Schweitzer Engineering said it’s planning an 86,000-square-foot building that will serve as its “new front door,” which will house executive offices and the main reception area, said Susan Fagan, director of government relations.

The other, 20,000-square-foot building will be an event center for use by Schweitzer Engineering and the Pullman community, company founder and president Ed Schweitzer said in a press release.

“Large meeting and event space is lacking in Pullman, and we will address that need with our new event center,” he said.

Schweitzer Engineering also said the Pullman Planning Commission has approved the creation of 30 home sites on land the company bought next to its campus. Ed Schweitzer said in an interview earlier this year that he wanted to add apartments and homes there to help ease a severe housing shortage in Pullman, plus other space for restaurants, entertainment and commercial businesses. The lack of available housing makes it hard to recruit workers to Pullman, he said earlier this year.

The office building and event center will be started in November and should ready by October 2006, Fagan said. When they’re finished, the company will have 11 buildings with about 400,000 square feet of space in Pullman.

Schweitzer Engineering is getting ready to move into two buildings it broke ground on earlier this year, a 22,000-square-foot research and development facility and a 10,000-square-foot facilities building.

The company currently has about 800 workers in Pullman, and 1,100 companywide.

Fagan said Schweitzer hasn’t projected how many people it will hire next year, but its work force has grown 20 percent a year for some time. The company currently has about 100 open positions, she said.