PORT ANGELES — Since late April, some 37 businesses have opened, expanded, remodeled or relocated to Port Angeles.
Westport LLC is now No. 38.
It was announced over the weekend that the company, which makes 164-foot luxury yachts at its Port Angeles waterfront shipyard, is expanding and has bought the old Walmart building on the east side of the city.
Empty since 2010, the 130,000-square-foot building on 24 acres off U.S. Highway 101 was acquired for an undisclosed price to be the new home for Westport’s cabinet-making operations, including the engineering department and administrative staff.
The operations will be moved in a few months from leased facilities in the Port of Port Angeles’ industrial park near the airport; Westport has built wood cabinets for its yachts there for almost 15 years.
After the move, the old Walmart building is expected to house as many as 150 workers, according to Westport General Manager David Hagiwara.
But it wasn’t clear from Hagiwara how many employees Westport now has in the industrial park, or whether Westport planned to hire additional staff for its new facility.
Hagiwara revealed the purchase and move in an interview with Peninsula Daily News maritime columnist David Sellars which was published in Sunday’s PDN.
Hagiwara did not reveal what Westport paid for the building and acreage. The property had been for sale for almost $3 million.
It had been rumored for months that Westport was going to purchase the Walmart building. But neither Westport nor Wal-Mart Stores Inc. would confirm the rumors.
There was no announcement by the port about Westport’s move.
In a written statement released by Hagiwara, Westport President Daryl Wakefield thanked the port “for our long relationship and [its] support” and said the old Walmart building “allows us to meet our anticipated growth.”
Hagiwara said Westport has 160 employees at its Port Angeles waterfront yacht plant and another 260 employees at its two other Washington state facilities in the Grays Harbor County towns of Westport and Hoquiam and in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
The PDN profiled Port Angeles’ new surge in business and construction in a front-page story Aug. 9.
In addition to the 38 businesses that have opened, expanded, remodeled or relocated to the city since late April, there has been more than $8.8 million in commercial construction and city projects through June of this year — and that’s nearly double the value of construction in the last six months of 2014, according to permits listed by the city’s Building Division.
And awaiting groundbreaking are Peninsula College’s Allied Health and Early Childhood Development Center ($23.8 million), Olympic Medical Center’s new medical office building at Race and Caroline streets ($15.6 million) and the Port of Port Angeles’ Composite Recycling Technology Center at William R. Fairchild International Airport ($4.3 million).
Also in the wings are millions of dollars of state-funded capital projects including new lighting at Civic Field ($453,000) and environmental cleanup of the former KPly mill site on port property west of downtown ($5.4 million).
Even when awarded to lowest-bidder out-of-town contractors, these projects generate jobs and revenue for local subcontractors and suppliers and fill hotels and restaurants.
Final design and alterations to the old Walmart building will take time, Hagiwara told the PDN’s Sellars, adding that it will be several months before the Westport will move into the new location.
The huge building at 3500 E. U.S. Highway 101 has been empty since the company opened the 181,000-square-foot Walmart Supercenter across the highway at 3471 E. Kolonels Way in October 2010.
In his statement, Wakefield said:
“The [old] Walmart building represents an opportunity for Westport to expand its cabinet operations and place the company in a good position to service the increased demands of not only our yacht business, but also that of the cabinets for our partner Edison Chouest Offshore.
“We want to recognize and thank the Port of Port Angeles for our long relationship and support it has given during our time at the port’s Airport Industrial Park.
“We were not dissatisfied with our previous location. The Walmart building allows us to meet our anticipated growth in the near future while continuing to invest in the Port Angeles community.”
Arkansas-based Wal-Mart had been trying to sell the building and land for $2.95 million.
The 24.3 acres of land and the building are valued at $3.8 million for 2015 taxes.
Sales tax generated from the cabinet manufacturing business would be split evenly between Clallam County and the city of Port Angeles because the building is located within the city’s urban growth area.
Founded in 1964 as Westport Shipyard Inc., Westport LLC has been a division of Edison Chouest LLC of Cut Off, La., since June 2014.
The company owns its 3-acre plant on Marine Drive across from Tumwater Truck Route in Port Angeles, where it builds its 164-foot tri-deck yachts, the largest in the Westport catalog.
The company builds yachts from 85 feet to 130 feet at other facilities.
Last February, Clallam County Hearing Examiner Pro-Tem Lauren Erickson issued a conditional-use permit to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that approved the building to house “a wood cabinet manufacturing business” that, according to the paperwork, would support up to 200 jobs.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Delia Garcia said in an interview: “There is a potential sale. We don’t have a time frame.” She declined further comment.
According to the conditional-use permit, the wood cabinet manufacturing business would modify the interior of the building and install a dust collector system and small storage facility on the 24-acre parcel.
The dust collector would be about 300 feet from the Dollar Store and about 550 feet from the View Vista mobile home park.
“There is already a buffer between the mobile home park and the building,” Erickson wrote in her Feb. 2 decision.
“The primary issue will be noise, but noise levels are regulated by state law and can be mitigated to appropriate levels for residential areas,” she said.
State law requires that noise from the manufacturing business not exceed 57 decibels at residential developments and 60 decibels at commercial properties.
To meet the conditions of approval, the noise from the dust collector must stay within that range.
“If the sound levels are found to be too high, there is sufficient space around the dust collector to install additional sound mitigating techniques,” Erickson wrote.
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.
In addition to the noise restrictions, Erickson said Wal-Mart must obtain a commercial building permit for the 46-foot-tall dust collector system and the storage building.
The storage building will stock solvents and other finish materials.
The conditional-use permit also noted that a state air quality permit was needed from the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency. It is not immediately known whether that permit and the commercial building permit have been acquired.
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John Brewer is PDN publisher and editor. He can be reached at 360-417-3500 or at jbrewer@peninsuladailynews.com.