PORT ANGELES — The beginning of the end is closing in on the defunct Peninsula Plywood manufacturing plant.
Equipment at the mill was auctioned off Thursday, port Executive Director Jeff Robb said Monday.
“It was fairly well-attended with fairly good numbers coming out of the equipment,” Robb told port commissioners Monday at their regular meeting, adding that money from the auction has not been added up yet.
The auction was conducted by Craft3, a nonprofit community development financial institution with an office in Port Angeles.
In addition, the Port — which owns the PenPly land on Marine Drive on the western edge of downtown — is getting specifications for building demolition, Robb said.
That could begin within four months, port Director of Engineering Gary Wiggins said.
Robb said a few pieces of equipment remain at the shuttered site.
The plant closed Dec. 20 after producing plywood under the latest ownership for nearly two years — and owing the port, city of Port Angeles and the state Department of Labor & Industries $2.4 million.
PenPly still owes the city of Port Angeles $297,432, interim City Manager Dan McKeen said Monday.
After 60 days, the remaining assets become the property of the port, which has filed suit in Clallam County Superior Court to collect $1.6 million from the company for allegedly breaching agreements that covered leasing, licensing and equipment rental.
“This is just a march toward the large objective of demolition and redevelopment of that site,” Port Commission President John Calhoun said.
Robb said demolition will likely be the fate of the 19-acre PenPly site’s signature feature: a 350-foot smokestack with the letters “K Ply” on the side.
Commissioners must still approve a contract to dismantle the site.
“The skyline of our harbor is scheduled to change,” Calhoun said.
The mill first opened in 1941 as Peninsula Plywood and later became Kply, which shut down in November 2007.
The plant reopened as Peninsula Plywood on March 1, 2010.
It closed in November after employing up to 159 workers and generating about $10 million in payroll.
The land is now being leased to Munro LLC for log storage under a lease that runs through March 2013, company owner and PenPly co-investor and co-owner Grant Munro said Monday, adding that the logs are bound for China.
Munro has contracted with Hermann Brothers Logging & Construction of Port Angeles to run the log yard, Munro said.
Munro attended part of last week’s auction, calling it “a sad day.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
