PORT TOWNSEND — Fort Worden Public Development Authority leaders who want to take the management reins of Fort Worden State Park and redevelop it as a lifelong learning center and economic development hub said the proposal represents growth potential for tourism, education and culture in a new setting.
Monday’s presentation was the PDA’s first pitch to the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, and at least 100 turned out to hear it at the chamber luncheon at the Elks Lodge.
PDA board Vice Chairman Scott Wilson, publisher of The Leader weekly newspaper, called the process at this time “extremely fragile.”
The state Parks and Recreation Commission is now considering handing ownership and management of the 434-acre state park to the PDA.
“The whole thing could walk away” in the next few months,” Wilson said.
“So the support of the chamber and the support of business leader is necessary for this to happen.”
The board, which is hiring Kate Burke, former Fort Worden State Park manager, to assist in a business plan, is expecting a decision from the state commission when it meets at Fort Worden State Park Commons at 9 a.m. March 28.
Burke lost the job she held since 2002 overseeing Fort Worden, Fort Townsend and the Rothschild House state parks after she was displaced by a new manager, Allison Alderman, a 21-year State Parks employee.
Alderman, who takes over as manager Thursday, “bumped” Burke because of her greater seniority after losing her job as region operations manager in the State Parks Northwest Region Office.
Meanwhile, the PDA will conduct an open house and public meeting on its proposal at 7 p.m. Thursday at Fort Worden State Park Commons where Burke is expected to go into detail about running the park as a lifelong learning center.
The lifelong learning center, which has been planned for eight years, is a concept envisioned to provide space for a variety of recreational and educational opportunities.
The focus is to develop destination learning programs at Fort Worden, along with retreats, conference development, events, and recreational experiences on the park overlooking Admiralty Inlet.
PDA interim manager Dave Robison described it as “creative cluster of industry, of art, or culture and education.”
“What the PDA’s charge is, is to help the park grow,” Robison said.
A $700,000 a year funding gap must be closed, with money raised through investors and other revenue sources, Robison said.
Under the local proposal, Fort Worden would remain a park but would no longer be called a state park.
It would likely take on the name, Fort Worden Lifelong Learning Center, and the PDA would have to keep it open and accessible to the public, just as it is today.
The PDA plan for the learning center would be geared toward creating jobs and economic development opportunities based on education, the arts and culture, and tourism, Robison said, which would spur more activity in those sectors.
The park has 68,000 square feet of meeting and events space with 10 buildings ripe for redevelopment, Robison said.
Building 202 of the former military installation is used only 8 percent to 10 percent of the year, he said, and at 19,000 square feet is in spartan condition, with Peninsula College and Goddard College to become its anchor tenants.
Up to $5 million has been secured for its renovation.
“I think we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Robison said.
With the PDA as a local institution supervised by a board of local business and education leaders, Robison said the nonprofit could work “more nimbly than a state agency or city could.”
Robison said the PDA’s operations committee has been crunching numbers to put together a draft budget to sustain the park.
The local group of volunteer park supporters known as Friends of Fort Worden has reformed as the Fort Worden Conservancy and cannot help with fund-raising for the park.
Robison said the PDA takeover of the park is the best option to attract bank investment and lodging establishments.
He gave as an example the city of Vancouver’s effort as a PDA, which has led to the renovation of officers row at Fort Vancouver for leasing back to businesses, including a restaurant.
“It’s one of the models we’re looking at,” Robison said.
Under PDA ownership and management, Robison said, there is an ability to seek loans and earn historic tax credits that can be sold to developers for re-investment in other historic re-development.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
