PORT TOWNSEND — A private $4 million grant for capital improvements at Fort Worden gave the public development authority that manages the campus portion of the state park an unexpected boost.
“This is a game changer for all of us at Fort Worden,” said Dave Robison, executive director of the Fort Worden Lifelong Learning Center Public Development Authority.
“You don’t hear about grants this large very often, and it will allow us to take care of many of our deferred needs.”
The Sage Foundation of Arlington, which is directed by philanthropist and musician Edmund W. Littlefield Jr., will award $3 million of its grant to renovate Building 305, now a maintenance building, into an arts and classroom facility.
The remaining $1 million of the grant is unrestricted and can be used for any capital project, Robison said.
Littlefield, who plays steel guitar in Marley’s Ghost, was in Port Townsend last week to perform at Fiddle Tunes and at the Concerts on the Dock.
He has been a long-term Centrum supporter and is on the board of that organization, Robison said.
“This will fulfill one of our biggest needs for additional classroom space for arts education,” Robison said.
“It will be an anchor building that will revitalize that whole area.”
The renovated building will become part of the “entertainment district,” the west end of the campus, which includes the Joseph F. Wheeler Theater, the McCurdy Pavilion, an “Officers’ Club” in the USO Building and a new restaurant and pub to be called Taps at the Guardhouse in the building that was once the visitors center and gift shop.
In May 2014, the public development authority (PDA) took over management of the campus portion of the park with the intention of developing a lifelong learning center, leaving the park portion under the management of State Parks.
Since that time, construction has begun on a branch of Peninsula College while the PDA recruits new partners and programs.
The three-floor Building 305, with 18,700 square feet of usable space, is to be renovated into classrooms for use by any partner or program that requires the space, Robison said.
Built in 1904, it is the largest building on the western side of the campus that can be renovated, with plans to do so in the proposal stage for several years, Robison said.
It currently contains all park maintenance operations, including a wood shop and an electrical shop that serves all the needs of the campus.
The seven members of the maintenance staff are parks employees, but that will change by 2018, when the PDA will assume maintenance responsibilities for the campus buildings.
The process is part of what Robison calls “a domino effect” among the various buildings in the park.
The state Legislature allocated $4 million to replace failing electrical power, preserve World War I-era facilities at Fort Flagler, and improve building exteriors, replace failing sewer lines and relocate a maintenance shop at Fort Worden, which dovetails into the renovation of the current maintenance facility.
Construction of the new maintenance shop will begin this fall, Robison said.
At the same time, the PDA will develop a design plan and put the Building 305 project out to bid, with construction to begin after the maintenance operation is relocated.
Part of the design phase is developing a cost estimate, which could exceed the $3 million grant and require additional fundraising, Robison said.
The entire process could take two or three years, so the earliest completion date is 2018, Robison said.
Once the building is complete, other programs housed in buildings in need of repair will temporarily relocate there during renovation.
The $1 million will be available immediately, with some of the funds allocated to the improvement of overnight allocations and to the Guardhouse restaurant.
Robison said bids for the project “will go out very soon,” with construction to begin in the fall.
The new restaurant will not open on a full-time schedule until 2016 but could open for weekends later this year, he said.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
