Washington State University is hiring a design-build team for new aquaculture facilities at its Puyallup Research and Extension Center, and the first door closes fast: statements of qualifications are due Tuesday, November 10, 2026, before 3:00 p.m. The contract covers both the Puyallup center and the Pullman campus, and its guaranteed maximum price is $25.6 million — design, construction, contingencies, and fees included, with Washington sales tax excluded.
What gets built in Puyallup
The Puyallup half of the project starts with a building that already stands. The center’s Salmon Lab, 4,542 net square feet, will be renovated across roughly 3,000 square feet of it. Alongside it, new construction adds approximately 8,000 to 12,000 square feet — space for fish rearing, quarantine and examination rooms, wet and dry laboratories, and cold storage — plus about 2,000 square feet of secured outdoor area for large fish tanks.
The Pullman half of the same contract renovates aquaculture space in four buildings, including the Carver Farm Fish Vivaria, and adds 7,000 to 10,000 square feet of new construction near Carver Farm. One team takes both campuses: WSU is procuring a single progressive design-build contract, and responding teams are limited to the builder and the prime designer.
The money is federal, and it has rules
The project rides on a National Institute of Standards and Technology grant — award 60NANB26D275 — for what the funding proposal called a Scientific Research Center. At a Puyallup city council meeting in September, university representatives described the planned Puyallup aquaculture center as supported by a $50 million federal appropriation. The $25.6 million in the solicitation is a different and narrower number: the guaranteed maximum price for this design-build contract itself.
Federal money brings federal conditions with it. The Build America, Buy America requirements sit inside the request-for-qualifications package, and the finished buildings must meet Washington’s Clean Buildings Performance Standard. A team that wins this job is signing up for both.
A two-page audition
For a $25.6 million contract, the first audition is strikingly small. The statement of qualifications is capped at two pages — 11-by-17, nothing under 10-point type — plus a single third page for the team’s resumes. WSU states plainly that pages beyond the three will not be reviewed. Shortlisted teams move to a proposal round due December 15; WSU expects to announce the selected team on Friday, December 18, 2026, and execute the agreement by December 29.
The calendar
- Optional Puyallup site walk: Thursday, October 29, 2026, 2:30–4:30 p.m., Allmendinger Building, 2606 W. Pioneer, Puyallup
- Statements of qualifications due: Tuesday, November 10, 2026, before 3:00 p.m., by email in PDF to contracts@wsu.edu, cc carbour@wsu.edu
- Proposals from shortlisted teams: December 15, 2026
- Selected team announced: December 18, 2026
- The long arc after selection: project confirmation in May 2027, detailed design in October 2027, construction documents in January 2028, and substantial completion in March 2029
Questions go to the project manager, Cyndi Arbour, at carbour@wsu.edu or (509) 335-7010. The full solicitation, including the RFQ document itself, is posted on WSU Facilities Services’ alternative public works page, and the state’s Office of Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises carries the advertisement.
What it adds to the town
The Research and Extension Center has been becoming a water campus for years. Its master plan names the direction outright — a leader in water research — and its Salmon Ecology Toxicology Lab already works on the fish this region’s rivers are known for. The city marked the relationship in September, proclaiming September 21–26 as WSU Puyallup Research & Extension Center Appreciation Week, with center director Todd Murray addressing the council.
An aquaculture build of this size makes that identity physical: renovated lab space, up to 12,000 new square feet, outdoor tank yards, and a construction run on West Pioneer that stretches into 2029. It lands in the same season the town’s Opportunity Zone nomination went to Treasury — different money, same direction. Puyallup’s research footprint is compounding, and universities build the kind of institutions that stay for decades.
We will name the selected team here when WSU announces it on December 18.
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