PORT ANGELES — The large blue wood chip loader once owned by the Port of Port Angeles is still waiting for its new owner to pick it up.
The chip loader was sold in August 2006 for $123,000, and the original contract sale asked the new owners — Chinook Ventures in Longview — to remove it within 90 days.
After expenses
After auction expenses, the port netted $74,000 on the loader, port interim Executive Director Bill James said.
Chinook has been working for the past two years to get the proper permits for building a new dock to support the loader, said David Hagiwara, director of trade and economic development.
After the three months, Chinook Ventures negotiated to pay rent until all the proper permits and arrangements could be made, he said.
“They pay $5,000 in rent every month, and they have continued to do that,” he said.
Once the dock is ready for the loader, it will be dismantled and transported by barge.
“Chinook Ventures is in the process of doing remediation on a property in Longview of the old Alcoa aluminum mill,” Hagiwara said.
“As part of that remediation, they wanted this tower because it was ideal for some of that work.”
Optimistic
He said that the company has been optimistic about being able to move the chip loader.
“For now, they are paying rent, so unless they stopped paying, we just call them every couple of months to see how things are going,” he said.
“We remind them that we’d really like them to move that chip loader.
“We don’t really have an immediate need for that space or we might have had a different strategy, but this is working for now.”
The former Daishowa America Ltd., later acquired by Nippon Paper Industries USA Co. Ltd., once used the property to pile and export wood chips.
Daishowa shuttered the chip plant in December 2001.
The port bought the property in May 2004 for $5.4 million, intending to use it to consolidate its log-handling operations, which were being conducted in two locations.
The sale included the 18 acres plus all the site improvements, buildings, docks and harbor area.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladaily news.com.
