PORT ANGELES — Port of Port Angeles commissioners have approved a contract for a maximum of $190,000 to design the interior of a composites technology recycling center.
Commissioners Jim Hallett, Jim Calhoun and Colleen McAleer gave a unanimous thumbs-up Tuesday to a professional services agreement with Mount Vernon-based Carletti Architects.
They said the firm was the most qualified of 20 applicants to complete what is now a shell of a building.
Carletti will design the interior for the 25,000-square-foot building, which now has a dirt floor and electricity.
Carletti originally designed the vacant structure, located just north of the port’s William R. Fairchild International Airport.
The port is making the building ready for occupancy as part of a $4 million project.
The building could be ready for use by December, Jennifer States, the port’s business development director, said Wednesday.
The building stands next to an identical building designed by Carletti that is occupied by Angeles Composite Technologies Inc., which manufactures aircraft parts and assemblies.
The port’s recycling center workers would prepare composite scrap in the form of rolls and sheets for manufacturers and also manufacture composite products on-site.
An estimated 10 workers would be employed the first year. That would increase to 105 after five years, according to a study by Olympus Consulting of Port Angeles.
The building also would house Peninsula College classrooms where students would be taught composites technology.
“Completing this building will give us a return in job creation and revenues eventually,” McAleer said.
The port has set aside up to $1.5 million to develop the recycling center and had planned to use it to match a $1.5 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA).
At Tuesday’s meeting, States told commissioners there was an additional $500,000 in EDA money available.
That would raise the grant application to $2 million and require another $500,000 match.
The port has applied for matching funds from the state Department of Commerce’s Clean Energy Fund Match Program.
Application for the entire $2 million federal grant will be made next week, States said.
The port also hopes to attract a $1 million Opportunity Fund grant from Clallam County, though port officials have not yet applied for the funding, which consists of sales tax revenues.
“As we go ahead, the idea is to leverage as much external funding as possible for our community,” Calhoun said Tuesday at the commissioners’ meeting.
With the additional funding, such features as dividable walls and natural lighting will be added, States said.
States acknowledge the possibility that the port would not get the $2 million grant.
If so, the port will explore other grant opportunities, she said.
“But I am very confident of the EDA grant opportunity,” States said.
“We’ve been given very encouraging signs from them.”
Karen Goschen, port deputy executive director-finance director, said Wednesday that the port also has $12 million in capital reserves that must also pay for pending and extensive environmental cleanup.
Reserves may be used for the project if grant funding fails, she said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.