PORT ANGELES — The Black Ball Ferry Line, which owns the MV Coho ferry to Victoria, will begin replacing its deteriorating wooden western dock with a concrete structure this fall to kick off a four-year face-lift of the Port Angeles ferry terminal, company officials said Monday.
“We basically want to give it an overhaul,” Black Ball District Manager Rian Anderson told the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce luncheon Monday in a warmly received presentation by the company’s top officials.
The western dock replacement includes a sweetener for the Port of Port Angeles, which leases the waterfront property to Black Ball: new landscaping at the port’s Port Angeles Boat Haven.
Anderson told an audience of about 100 that in order for the company to get a state Department of Ecology permit, Black Ball had to add landscaping to the Boat Haven as a mitigation measure.
“We’ll be making it more aesthetically pleasing,” Anderson said.
The Black Ball project reflects the U.S.-based company’s commitment to keep its ferry route from Port Angeles to Victoria vital, and goes hand-in-hand with keeping the 53-year-old, 1,000-passenger vessel in top shape for decades to come, company President Ryan Burles said.
“We are looking at maintaining her,” said Burles of the Coho.
“We know we have 25 years, if not longer. We are saying we are here to stay.”
Black Ball last year negotiated a 30-year lease with a renewal option for the waterfront parcel the company rents from the Port of Port Angeles, Anderson said.
The company continues to negotiate for a long-term lease at its Inner Harbour terminal in Victoria, Burles added.
Anderson said Black Ball is funding the entire project to replace the western dock in Port Angeles at a cost of up to $4 million.
On the dock sits U.S. Customs stations with agents that monitor and inspect southbound traffic from Victoria.
“We want a concrete dock that can last us at least 50 more years,” Anderson said.
Without a new dock there, “we’d have to find a new home,” Anderson said, adding that the construction project “will have no impact on traffic.”
The city is coordinating with Black Ball a waterfront beautification project in the dock area that begins in late summer or early fall with hopes of minimizing conflicts with vehicle and pedestrian traffic, city Planning Manager Sue Roberds said later Monday.
The ferry makes 1,770 crossings a year, the bulk of them during the summer.
The western dock will be completed by about February 2013, followed by repair or replacement of the dock’s “turning knuckle,” which helps the boat dock, and the addition of lighting and a fence that will shelter waiting ferry passengers from the wind.
In 2016, the ferry terminal building at the foot of Laurel Street will be replaced, Anderson said.
Black Ball Director of Marketing Ryan Malane said ferry-related tourism to Victoria “is projected at zero growth.”
But the company is attempting to increase annual passenger traffic on the Coho that’s estimated at about 400,000 people and 120,000 vehicles, Malane said.
The Coho’s overall impact on the North Olympic Peninsula is about $41 million generated by ferry passengers, while in Victoria it’s three times that — or $120 million, Anderson said.
Efforts to increase ferry traffic include expanded publication of the company’s MV Coho magazine, stepped-up company advertising campaigns in Seattle, Portland, Ore., and Victoria and free placement of advertising brochures from tourism-related North Olympic Peninsula businesses at the Victoria terminal.
“Bring it on down to the dock, and we’ll take it and rack it up for free in Victoria,” Malane said.
A future relaxation of Canadian duty-free rules also should help spur traffic to the North Olympic Peninsula, he added.
On June 1, the duty-free allowance will quadruple to $200 for trips of between 24 hours and 48 hours.
For trips longer than 48 hours, the allowance will double, to $800.
The company’s executive management team — Burles, Anderson, Malane, CEO Capt. John Cox of Seattle and Senior Vice President of Finance David Booth of Seattle — bought Black Ball on Jan. 5 from the Oregon State University Foundation.
“As we grow, maybe we’ll look at another vessel and another route,” Burles said.
“We want to make sure we’re making money.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
