The Port of Seattle Commission approved a lease last week granting Puget Sound Energy nearly half of an 89-acre lot the Port has sought to develop since before the recession.

"Obviously as the economy has gotten better this location has gotten more attractive," said Perry Cooper, spokesman for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport said.

PSE is the first tenant of the Des Moines Creek Business Park, on the northwest corner of South 216th Street and 24th Avenue South, near the airport.

The company will eventually close three smaller facilities — in Kent, Renton and SeaTac — and move all work to the new operations center.

PSE spokeswoman Terri-Ann Betancourt said the move will save time and money for the company and its customers. The new facility is expected to create 200 construction jobs and bring to the area 250 permanent jobs, most of them existing PSE workers.

PSE signed a 20-year lease with options to extend 10 years at a time, initially paying around $920,000 a year.

Des Moines will receive around $676,000 in taxes each year. Cooper said construction should begin in July, and Puget Sound Energy hopes to move in during the first quarter of 2014.

Connor Radnovich: 206-464-2718 or cradnovich@seattletimes.com

Information in this article, originally published June 12, 2012, was corrected the next day. A previous version of this story said PSE's move would save time and money for the company and its employees. It should have said the savings would be for the company and its customers.