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PORT ANGELES — The Jamestown S’Klallam tribe remains interested in pursuing the redevelopment of Rayonier’s former mill site despite deadlocked negotiations between the company and Harbor-Works.
Tribal Chairman Ron Allen said the Blyn-based tribe, which has developed 7 Cedars Casino and the Cedars at the Dungeness Golf Course, is still hopeful that it will be the lead agency for redevelopment of the fallow property — considered the largest undeveloped land on the North Olympic Peninsula — and become the eventual owner of most, if not all, of the 75-acre site.
In fact, he said, the tribe is preparing to release a conceptual drawing of a Native American cultural center that it wants to build on the eastern edge of the waterfront property.
“We have an idea on what that site can look like,” Allen said. “We intend on rolling that out” in about a week.
The tribe first approached Harbor-Works Development Authority about being involved in the property’s redevelopment in June 2009.
It reaffirmed its position in a letter to Gov. Chris Gregoire on Aug. 3, the same day representatives of the public development authority, city and Port of Port Angeles met with the governor’s chief of staff about the property.
Jeff Lincoln, Harbor-Works executive director, and Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers have both welcomed the tribe’s interest in help making the redevelopment of the property, left fallow since the mill closed in 1997, a reality.
“They obviously are very capable and demonstrate their business capabilities,” Lincoln said.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for a Native American group like the Jamestown to do some good things for the whole community.”
“I think they have a lot of expertise, and they have a lot of knowledge,” Myers said. “And I think they can be a critical player in the ultimate redevelopment of the site.”
The chairman said the cultural center, an idea promoted by the Harbor-Works for the past year, would help spur development on the rest of the property, including a conference center that the Jamestown also wants to build.
The cultural center, which would include a “world-class interpretive museum,” would be located near the site of the former Klallam village, Y’Innis, he said.
Allen said it would be a joint venture with the Lower Elwha Klallam, located west of Port Angeles, and the Port Gamble S’Klallam, located in North Kitsap County.
The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, which is a partner with the state Department of Ecology in overseeing the environmental cleanup of the property, remains interested in the Jamestowns proposals, said tribal Chairwoman Frances Charles, but she stopped short of committing the tribe to any of it.
“Ron has had some discussions with us, and we were looking at preliminary designs and concepts, of course,” she said.
“We’re still talking. We’ve had a lot of discussions,” Charles said, adding that it requires more “in-house” discussions before the tribe commits itself.
Allen said that the cultural center also would likely replace the Lower Elwha Klallam’s plans to build a tribal museum at the Tse-whit-zen village site on the other end of Port Angeles Harbor.
Charles couldn’t be reached for further comment Tuesday.
The cultural and conference centers both depend on Harbor-Works acquiring the property from Rayonier, which hit a brick wall late last month when the company sent a letter saying it was no longer interested in negotiations.
But Allen said the tribe remains committed to working with the public development authority to acquire the property.
“We’ll see how it unfolds,” he said, referring to the stalled negotiations.
“There’s still a lot of discussions to be had,” he said, adding that he thinks Rayonier’s letter was “more posturing” than anything.
While the Jamestown is interested in developing the site and buying it from Harbor-Works once its environmental cleanup is finished, the tribe is not considering taking on cleanup liability, he said.
That would happen if the tribe bought the land straight from Rayonier.
Asked if the tribe is considering contributing to the cleanup of the property, he said, “We will cross that bridge when we come to it.
“We are very interested in being a partner of that solution.”
Lincoln said negotiations remain stalled after the meeting with Gregoire’s chief of staff, Jay Manning, and two Ecology representatives last week.
Ecology agreed at that meeting to help commit funding for Harbor-Works before it acquires the property, in hopes to attract Rayonier back to the bargaining table.
Lincoln said he expects to hear back from the state agency in a week or two.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
