PORT ANGELES — From a 25,000-square-foot dirt floor, the Port of Port Angeles hopes 340 jobs will grow.
Dignitaries tossed some of that dirt ceremoniously into the air Monday as the port broke ground on its Composites Recycling Technology Center, 2220 W. 18th St.
Gov. Jay Inslee — who wielded a shovel made of carbon-fiber composite material — called the composites center an example of “thinking two steps ahead because we know that composites are going to grow like topsy in the world economy.”
U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, echoed the governor.
“We know that composites materials are where things are headed,” said Kilmer, a Port Angeles native who attended nearby Hamilton Elementary and Stevens Middle schools.
“Having a focus on where industry is headed is a really big deal.”
Kilmer represents the 6th Congressional District, which includes the North Olympic Peninsula.
About 100 government officials attended Tuesday’s ceremony in a still-vacant shell building where an independent nonprofit corporation will operate the center. Completion of the estimated $6.5 million facility is set for early next year.
It will house recycling equipment, labs and classrooms for Peninsula College’s Advanced Materials-Composites, plus startup space for firms making new merchandise from the recycled material.
Some of that will come from Toray Composites (America), Inc;, in Tacoma, which makes all the carbon-fiber material for Boeing airplanes. Toray and Janicki Industries of Sedro-Woolley, a composites engineering, manufacturing and tooling company, let drop their “do-not-disclose” agreements with the CRTC on Monday.
Timothy Kirk, a Toray vice president, touted carbon-fiber composite’s strength and ease of fabrication.
The mostly-metal Boeing 747 requires 1.5 million fasteners to hold it together, he said. The 787 Dreamliner, extensively made of composites, needs only 200,000.
Partnering with the composite center, Kirk said, “not only makes economic sense; it fits our corporate vision, and it’s the right thing to do.”
Besides the Peninsula College facilities, the center will collaborate with Washington State University under a memorandum of understanding signed Monday.
WSU plans to test and evaluate recycled products and merchandise from the center.
The project attracted $2 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce, $1 million from the state’s Clean Air Fund, and $1 million from Clallam County’s Opportunity Fund.
“The coolest place to be in the whole state of Washington is in Port Angeles at the Composites Technology Recycling Center,” Inslee said.
The governor said backers of the center hope to employ 340 people in family-wage jobs at the center and its spinoffs.
Kilmer lauded both the center’s future employment and its education partnerships.
“We want to make sure that there are jobs available for young people,” the congressman said.
“Nobody wants to see this community’s biggest export be its kids.”
Other speakers included Jim Hallett, president of Port of Port Angeles commissioners; Luke Robins, president of Peninsula College; Christopher Keane, vice president of WSU; Rosa McLeod, South Sound and Olympic Peninsula outreach director for U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell; and Jennifer States, the port’s director of business development and the chief promoter of the composites center.
“We’ve put Port Angeles on the global map,” she said just before dignitaries took up their ceremonial shovels.
“Now let’s go break some new ground.”
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
