Logo for the Richland H.S. Bombers

The Tri-Cities grew to prominence in the 1940s and 1950s with the founding of Hanford, which produced the plutonium used in the first nuclear bomb. Now, two former wireless executives are hoping to help transform the Tri-Cities into a hotbed of innovative technologies that could actually help save the planet.

Former McCaw Cellular executives Wayne Perry and Cal Cannon are spending about $10 million of their own money to build a new Innovation Center for emerging companies in the clean tech sector, reports The Puget Sound Business Journal's Steve Wilhelm. [Subscription required]. The Richland facility, which could welcome the first tenants in the next 12 months and span some 7.9 acres, is located next to the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

“We think this area is going to be one of the leading places in the United States for green technology,” Perry tells the PSBJ. “We expect a lot of companies, working with the Department of Energy, to want to locate at the Tri-Cities Research District.”

Perry is the former general counsel and president at McCaw Cellular, while Cannon served as a vice president at the company. Cannon tells the PSBJ that the project eventually could grow into one that costs several hundred million dollars.

And they aren't the only ones in the state who think there's an opportunity to create a high-tech incubator around clean tech and green energy startups. Seattle construction giant McKinstry is spending $5 million to build out a new innovation center at its headquarters in south Seattle.