News

A new kind of neighborhood: Weyerhaeuser blends homes and harvest

MCKENNA, Pierce County — Weyerhaeuser is best known around the Puget Sound area for logging forests and turning other land into massive housing developments.

By Bradley Meacham
Seattle Times business reporter

But here, in rolling Douglas-fir-covered foothills near Mount Rainier, it has a project that fits somewhere in between.

Weyerhaeuser is dividing a 4,400-acre section of its 103-year-old Vail Tree Farm into 20-acre plots and selling them to individuals — with the option that the buyers could continue to harvest trees. Each parcel comes with plans for where to build a house and drill a well, plus plans for how to manage the trees so they can be most profitably harvested over many years.

For some people it’s a way to live in a forest and make a long-term investment. For Weyerhaeuser it’s an opportunity to dispose of land that’s too expensive to manage as timberland or develop more intensively.

"This is the best use for everyone," said Peter Constable, regional head of Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Development, who leads the project. "It just makes sense given the regulatory conditions and market conditions."

GREG GILBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Timber giant Weyerhaeuser is selling 4,400 acres of a tree farm in Pierce County in 20-acre tracts that owners can build homes on — and reap the profit from logging some trees in the future. The bridge spans Tanwax Creek.
The idea to develop the forest into private, working forests — what Weyerhaeuser calls "Forest Reserve Communities" — is relatively new. Weyerhaeuser says it’s the first to try the concept.

The company bought much of its land in Washington over a century ago for pennies an acre. Over decades it cut trees and replanted, but its focus gradually shifted to the Southeast and overseas where wood could be produced more cheaply.

Weyerhaeuser recently sold off most of its timberland in King County. Its Bellevue-based home-building arm, Quadrant, developed other former timberland into huge housing projects such as Snoqualmie Ridge, Redmond Ridge and Northwest Landing in Dupont, southwest of Tacoma.

But development regulations made those projects expensive and time-consuming, forcing a rethink. The Redmond Ridge development, for example, took two decades and required expensive infrastructure. Northwest Landing required an interchange onto Interstate 5.

"It’s very difficult to build in the Puget Sound area," said Dan Fulton, head of Weyerhaeuser Real Estate. "There won’t be any more master developments here."

While most of Weyerhaeuser’s remaining 1.2 million acres in Washington remain as timberland, there’s internal pressure to sell assets to help pay corporate debt, Constable said. For smaller parcels of several hundred acres — which may not generate much interest from developers — the idea was to use company forestry expertise to add value.

Smaller test developments have been done in Snohomish, Thurston and Cowlitz counties, and the plan could be used eventually for thousands of acres of isolated timberland tracts throughout Western Washington.

At $100,000 to $190,000 per plot, the sales at the latest project would generate up to $38 million for Weyerhaeuser. In exchange, Weyerhaeuser improves the gravel roads, sets up power and phone lines, and provides community amenities such as trails and community picnic areas. It also sets strict standards for building design, fences and limits on motorized off-road vehicles. Owners have to hire their own loggers — and follow state logging regulations.

Most of the trees are 15 to 20 years old, with some areas cut and replanted as recently as six years ago. Though the trees could be worth an average of $5,000 an acre if cut now, they could be worth much more in the future.

"If we’ve done our job right," Constable said, "there will be a community of like-minded people with the best interests of this land in mind."

Bradley Meacham: 206-515-5066 or at [email protected]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001798287_weyco220.html

Sorry, we couldn't find any posts. Please try a different search.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.