BENTON CITY, Wash. - Three west-side businessmen were the top bidders to lease 404 acres on Red Mountain, where they plan to grow grapes and build a Tuscan-style complex with 12 wineries and two dozen guest rooms.

Developing the vineyards and building an Italian-style piazza will cost about $50 million, said Doug Long of Gig Harbor, a principal in Vintage Partners, the group awarded the 55-year lease.

This isn't the first venture for the group, which also includes Dick Shaw, who grows grapes and apples on about 1,300 acres in the state, and Paul Kaltinick, a Gig Harbor-based CPA and a former CFO for JCPenney.

They are partners in apple orchard operations and signed a lease for 30 acres of state Department of Natural Resources land in 2005, which they planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec grapes in 2006.

"We pulled 20 tons off the vineyard last year," Long said.

Shaw farms vineyards on the Wahluke Slope in Mattawa and many of those grapes are under contract to Ste. Michelle Wine Estates.

The partners say they have been planning and looking forward to this new opportunity for several years, waiting for the DNR to offer up the land that borders Col Solare winery on the northwest corner and crosses Highway 224 to abut Kennewick Irrigation District land and some private property on the south end.

Milt Johnson, DNR's assistant region manager based in Ellensburg, said two other bidders sought the lease but the plan brought forward by Vintage Partners was the best deal for the state agency.

"These folks have a proven track record and strong vision," Johnson said.

The state will receive about $500,000 a year for the Common School Trust from the 55-year lease. The trust provides money to build public K-12 schools throughout the state.

In return, the partners get a prime piece of Red Mountain real estate that has something most other undeveloped areas on the mountain do not -- water.

"The water was key," Long said.

The KID is working on a plan to pump water to the mountain from the Yakima River, but the plan is contingent on swapping a portion of its Yakima River water right for water from the Columbia River.

In a meeting last week, KID Manager Doug Grover said if everything went smoothly -- which includes landowners signing onto the plan and agreeing to pay for the improvements -- it would still take at least three years before irrigation water began trickling on the mountain's vineyards. And the project would have to be done in phases, so not everyone who wanted water would get it initially.

The DNR spent about $500,000 building a well on the property and also worked with Col Solare and Benton County to build the $950,000 Antinori Road.

That road also will be the main pathway to the piazza that will sit on the hillside overlooking the 300 acres of vineyards the trio will plant.

The two-story piazza, which will reach a height of 37 feet, will cover 75,000 square feet, surrounding a 10,000-square-foot interior courtyard.

Long said the complex's ground floor will include a dozen tasting rooms, each about 1,800 square feet.

"All of the tasting rooms are in a sense their own wineries," he said.

The winery owners will lease the space and will be able to blend their wines on site. Long said the partnership will provide a state-of-the-art production facility with an experienced wine-making staff and recognized winemaker.

The second floor will feature guest rooms, each with a balcony overlooking the courtyard.

Long said the piazza will feature a meeting room big enough to handle about 130 people and a small market, where visitors can purchase the wines made in the complex, cheeses, sandwiches, bread and other deli-type offerings, so they can picnic in the courtyard.

"We'll have music on the weekends and eventually we'd like to have a commercial kitchen, so we can pair the wines made by the wineries with food," he said.

Dick Shaw said the partners' goal is to offer an opportunity to those new to the wine business to participate in the growing of grapes and the production of premium wines.

Long said the partners won't start developing the new vineyards until 2009, when they plan to plant about 80 acres of vineyards.

"The first 80 will be Cabernet, but down the road we hope to have a much more diverse mix," he said. "We would love to see wineries doing Sangiovese and trying different grapes that would do well in that environment."