CMI Orchards Moving Into Old Yahoo Space At CTC In Wenatchee

Wenatchee based fruit company CMI Orchards is moving into the old Yahoo data center space in the Confluence Technology Center. 

The Chelan Douglas Port Authority owns the property and approved a lease agreement with CMI at their most recent meeting. 

Port Authority Director of Economic Development & Capital Projects Stacie de Mestre says the fruit company is partnering with another firm and needs more office space. 

"They actually just recently merged with Starr Ranch (Growers), and so they have, I believe, 20 to 30 more employees that they were needing to house," said de Mestre. "And they wanted to put everyone together in one facility, so that's why they were looking for a new office location." 

Rivercom emergency dispatch was considering a move into the space, but backed out because the building did not meet structural requirements necessary for its function as an essential agency. 

The offices fell short on seismic and wind load requirements for operations that must function during natural disasters, such as hospitals, fire stations and police stations. 

The old Yahoo data center operated in the space from 2006 to 2014 using up to five megawatts of power. 

There have been massive changes in the technology of data center since the early 2000s, as most operations are now in 100,000-200,000 square foot buildings using 50 megawatts of power. 

Yahoo has since built a large data center on land near Pangborn Airport. 

While the space in the Confluence Technology Center cannot house current day data centers, it’s still a large office footprint for the Wenatchee area at 20,000 square feet. 

de Mestre says it fits the needs of CMI’s expansion.  

"They looked throughout the community and evaluated different options," de Mestre said. "It's really hard to come by 20,000 feet of office space, so they looked at a lot of private sector options. They even looked at building their own facility, and they ultimately just decided to go into the Confluence Technology Center." 

CMI is moving into the third floor of the Technology Center in Olds Station from offices close by in North Wenatchee on Euclid Avenue. 

The current agreement includes a 10-year term with two additional five-year extensions as well as a 3% annual rent adjustment that would begin September 2025.  

The monthly rent for the 21,617 square foot space will be $43,234. 

The lease agreement with CMI Orchards calls for the Port Authority to make up to $1.5 million in interior improvements with CMI matching half of the cost. CMI would be responsible for any improvement beyond that point. 

de Mestre said CMI has already moved about 20 employees into a temporary space at the Technology Center. The rest of the workers will join those employees on the third floor once the improvements have been made, which de Mestre said would likely be in the fall of 2024.