PORT ANGELES — The Port of Port Angeles is $712,000 closer to making its proposed Composites Recycling Technology Center a reality.
The port received Gov. Jay Inslee’s promise of that sum in state Department of Commerce funds if it wins a $2 million federal grant for which it has applied, according to Jennifer States, port director of business development.
Federal officials are considering the request this week, she said, adding that the carbon-fiber composites center has received a priority rating for the federal funds from the Puget Sound Regional Council of Governments.
States also said she’d briefed Jay Williams, U.S. assistant secretary of commerce for economic development, during his April 1 visit to Seattle
Besides the state and federal grants, the port seeks $1 million from the Clallam County Opportunity Fund. The Clallam County Opportunity Fund Advisory Board will consider the request April 23 before making a recommendation to Clallam County commissioners who control the fund.
The port has committed $1.5 million of its own money to the project at William R. Fairchild International Airport on Port Angeles’ west side.
More money could come from the port’s other partners in advancing a composites industry: Peninsula College and the city of Port Angeles.
The total cost of the center is estimated at $5.3 million.
The center’s 25,000-square-foot building at 2220 W. 18th St. would recycle excess carbon-fiber composite material from, among other sources, Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner plant in Everett.
It also would house the college’s composite-technology classrooms plus start-up space for possible manufacturers of composite products.
Those manufacturers could turn the recycled material, States said, into merchandise for water sports, recreation and food storage.
The center’s shell stands next to an identical building that is occupied by Angeles Composite Technologies Inc., which manufactures aircraft parts and assemblies.
Although the center would produce rolls and sheets of carbon-fiber composite material, the recycled product could not be used by ACTI or other aerospace manufacturers for structural components, but it could be made into interior parts.
States said the port would need to subsidize the center for its first two years but did not give an estimate of the cost before its operational revenue would make it self-sustaining.
If all the hoped-for funds arrive, the center could open as soon as January and provide six family-wage jobs immediately.
States predicted that the center would provide 111 family-wage jobs by its fifth year of operation and 200 jobs by its ninth year.
Related enterprises could employ 340 more people by its sixth year, she said.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
