PORT ANGELES — The plywood mill on Marine Drive that has been shuttered since November 2007 is now in the hands of a group of Port Angeles investors who plan to reopen it and put 172 people to work.
Peninsula Plywood Group LLC has signed a lease for the 19 acres of the former KPly mill property with the Port of Port Angeles, and has acquired its equipment from Sterling Savings Bank, said a prepared statement issued Friday by Josh Renshaw, who has worked for more than a year to take over the mill closed by Klukwan Inc. of Alaska.
Must hire within 90 days
The lease requires the company — which also includes a group of unnamed Port Angeles investors — to hire 45 employees within 90 days of the signing of the lease, which occurred Friday, said John Calhoun, port commission president.
Renshaw, former sales manager of the mill when it was KPly under Klukwan ownership — and one of 132 employees put out of work when Klukwan permanently laid off the workers in April 2008 after closing the mill months earlier — and now president of Peninsula Plywood — declined to provide more details in the statement, and was unavailable for comment by phone.
His statement said that no employment applications were being taken now, and that more details would be released in the next few weeks.
“We’re pleased that the purchase agreement and the lease were concluded today,” Renshaw said in the statement.
“These represent major milestones in creating a significant number of jobs for the community.”
The investors’ plans for the mill — which has had several owners since it first opened in 1941 — are to reopen it under its original name, Peninsula Plywood, with about 172 employees, and produce 5 million board-feet of plywood a month.
“Plywood is a big part of the history of this town,” Renshaw said in the statement. “Now, we can see it in the future as well.”
Begin production?
Calhoun said that he thought that 45 employees should be sufficient to allow the company to begin production.
“The steps now are all up to him,” Calhoun said.
“He has the authority to enter into the property and to begin to get ready to have something up and running with 45 employees.”
Calhoun, contacted Saturday, did not have other details of the lease, such as the length of time the company will lease the property, or its monthly rate. The final version of the lease was not available late Friday or Saturday.
A letter of intent to sign a lease approved by port commissioners July 13 included other conditions, which may have changed in the final version.
They were:
• The port will defer 100 percent of the rent for the first three months of the lease.
• An additional 50 percent will be deferred for the next two years.
• The balance will be made up over the course of the next eight years of the 10-year lease.
• Repair of the mill must start within 45 days of the start of the lease.
Sterling Savings seized the mill’s equipment after KPly failed to repay its loans with the bank.
The port, which owns the property, seized the mill’s buildings after that company failed to pay its outstanding rent.
Calhoun added, “We are pleased that he was able to find the financing to enter into the lease and we hope he is successful.”
Renshaw has said the mill would have a niche market and be less affected by downward trends in home construction than other mills.
Renshaw said in December that a walk-through of the mill showed low-level weather damage to the equipment.
He said then that the mill needed about $500,000 worth of remedial work after it closed.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
