PORT ANGELES — With flips of a few golden shovels, the work on buildings to allow for the expansion of Angeles Composites Technologies Inc. began Tuesday.
“The first step is right here, right now,” said President Mike Rauch, speaking to a crowd of about 200 at the groundbreaking ceremony for the port’s composites “campus.”
“We’ll move some dirt and begin our plans.”
The Port of Port Angeles contracted with 2 Grade LLC of Port Angeles to do the site preparation work for $737,009.
Once completed, three building pads will be ready for metal structures.
A meeting Thursday will kick off the plans, and the grading should be finished by July 1, said port Executive Director Jeff Robb.
“We have the culture to pull together, and history has shown us that when we work together, we can accomplish our objectives,” Robb said.
New development
Calling City Manager Kent Myers his “wingman” in his mission to make Port Angeles the center of composites for the state and nation, Robb said Tuesday was a kickoff not only for construction of new buildings, but for a new era of economic development for Port Angeles.
The port has been recruiting composites manufacturing and already has ACTI and Westport Shipyard, he said.
The contractors will prepare three foundations for 25,000-square-foot buildings. The first building is expected to be completed by Jan. 1.
In addition to Port of Port Angeles and city of Port Angeles officials, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks and representatives of the offices of Sen. Maria Cantwell and Gov. Chris Gregoire helped celebrate the beginning of the construction.
Dicks: This is about jobs
“This is all really about jobs, jobs, jobs,” said Dicks, D-Belfair, who represents the 6th Congressional District, which includes the North Olympic Peninsula.
“That is the No. 1 concern in the country right now, and with 15 or 16 million people without jobs, creating some in this community is very important.”
Dicks also indicated he was a supporter in Congress of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which provided the funds that are being used to construct the buildings.
The Port of Port Angeles is using $4 million in bonds from the federal act — and which will be paid back through rent revenues — to pay for construction of the first building and the three building pads.
The three buildings, along with the current 120,000 square feet of buildings at the industrial complex, are set up to be what the port is calling its “composites campus.”
The complex consists of 6.5 acres of the 123 acres of Airport Industrial Park the port owns.
It eventually will have three large buildings appropriate for both hot and cold composites-manufacturing processes, port officials said.
The city of Port Angeles committed $540,000 in infrastructure for the complex, Deputy Mayor Don Perry said.
“The city is very excited and very proud to be a part of this,” he said.
“We have very high expectations for return on investments on this complex.”
__________
Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
