PORT ANGELES — The Port of Port Angeles must plug a $222,660 hole in annual income — plus 100,000 square feet of vacant space — when Westport Shipyard leaves William R. Fairchild International Airport industrial park.
That doesn’t count $308,000 the port recently approved to improve the heating/ventilation/air conditioning (HVAC) system in the building at 2138 W. 18th St. that Westport LLC will vacate.
Westport plans to move its cabinet shop into the former Walmart in east Port Angeles, which it bought for a reported $2.3 million, according to deeds recorded by the Clallam County Auditor’s Office.
Real estate excise taxes on the transaction that closed July 29 totaled $40,945. The sale comprised 13 separate tax parcels.
Westport will take several months to remodel the 130,000-square-foot former retail space at 3500 E. U.S. Highway 101 for its shop that makes wood furnishings for the 164-foot yachts it builds at 637 Marine Drive, said David Hagiwara, Westport general manager.
The shop fashions tables, bed frames, countertops and doors from exotic woods using computer-programmed cutters and sanders, plus highly skilled handwork.
Hagiwara said the boatbuilder hopes to employ up to 150 workers in its new cabinet shop.
The size of the workforce at the current quarters was unclear, although eight openings at the shop are advertised on the company’s website, along with 20 positions in the Port Angeles boatyard and eight more at Westport facilities in Westport and Hoquiam.
The present cabinet shop, engineering department and administration office at the airport could become space for manufacturers attracted to the proposed Composite Recycling Technology Center nearby, said Tanya Kerr, the port’s property manager.
The HVAC system was failing in the part of the building Westport has used for offices, Kerr said, and “wasn’t suitable for an office atmosphere.
“We knew that there were issues there. Anybody going into that space would need office space.”
Groundbreaking for the recycling center is tentatively scheduled for next month, with completion as early as January, on a shell at 2220 W. 18th St.
The port hopes the center — which will recycle carbon-fiber scrap shipped from Puget Sound-area aerospace factories — will spin off manufacturers of items such as snowboards and fishing rods.
“A manufacturing business of sorts would be ideal,” said Kerr about a new tenant for the airport space, “but we would open it up for anybody who might be interested.”
The port likely will advertise the building in periodicals devoted to composites manufacturing, she said.
Westport pays $18,555 a month to lease the port space under a “blended rate,” Kerr said, for renting building space built by the port plus 30,000 square feet Westport added for more than $2.3 million and rents as a ground lease.
The port made no announcement of the sale, which was revealed Sunday in the Peninsula Daily News’ “On the Waterfront” column, written by Dave Sellars.
Port Commissioner Colleen McAleer said Tuesday day-to-day affairs at the port were the concern of port staff and said she had not been kept informed about Westport’s long-rumored departure, speculation about which sharpened in February.
That’s when Clallam County issued a conditional-use permit to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to house a cabinet-making operation that could support up to 200 jobs.
McAleer said she also had not been informed of the lack of a long-term lease on the airport property when commissioners were asked to improve its HVAC system.
She added, “The port team needs to create a very robust marketing program to get a tenant into that building.”
As for the recycling center, it “may very well be a factor as an asset that a company considers when they choose their location,” McAleer said.
The old Walmart building, vacant since 2010, sits on 24.3 acres.
In issuing the conditional-use permit Feb. 2, Hearing Examiner Pro Tem Lauren Erickson ruled that the cabinet shop must install a four-story-tall dust collector system and storage building.
State law also requires that noise from a manufacturing business not exceed 57 decibels at nearby residential areas or 60 decibels at businesses.
No new outside lighting will be added.
Hours of manufacturing would be between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m., with 200 employees working at full production, according to the permit.
_______
Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
