PORT ANGELES — The Port of Port Angeles’ success in leasing its properties has come with a new set of challenges.
The port’s 96 percent occupancy rate across its improved rental properties in the fourth quarter of 2024 — and probably will be higher in the first quarter of this year — could mean it would need to start thinking about creating more inventory to meet demand, Caleb McMahon, the port’s director of economic development, told commissioners at their regular meeting Tuesday.
“As a staff, we’ve been talking about how we really need to get our get our dirt developed and we have to start looking at building some buildings,” McMahon said. “We’d love to have more space.”
Port Executive Director Paul Jarkiewicz said the agency needs to be prepared to develop more square footage before it moves ahead with a project.
“We want to make sure we have a gameplan put together as to why we’re building something,” Jarkiewicz said.
Chris Hartman, the port’s director of engineering, said having a committed partner is one of the first steps.
“But the thing you run into is it takes so long to get to the finished product that it’s too long for the customer,” he said, when design, planning, permitting and construction for a new building can take up to 18 months.
“Getting that down to 12 months is the next step,” he said.
The port’s recent foreign trade zone (FTZ) designation likely will impact its decision on when, where and what to build, commissioner Steve Burke said.
“Now that we have the FTZ, will those tenants want us to build to suit, or do we build it and they come?” he said.
Jarkiewicz said it would probably be a combination of those two options. He noted that as soon as news about its FTZ designation was released, the port began receiving inquiries about space.
The fourth quarter occupancy rate for Port Angeles Boat Haven was 72 percent, while John Wayne Marina’s occupancy rate was 80 percent.
What Boat Haven’s fourth quarter numbers didn’t reflect, Jarkiewicz said, was that 11 tenants were at least 90 days behind in payment.
“That’s something we need to take a hard look at,” Jarkiewicz said. “It calls into question a larger discussion about what is our agent doing as far as checking the credit worthiness and the ability to pay of tenants.”
PetroCard signed a 12-year contract to manage Boat Haven in 2017; the port manages John Wayne Marina.
“This is very frustrating that this is happening again,” Burke said. “I’m completely fed up with this.”
Jarkiewicz agreed. He said over the past 18 months the port had made a concerted effort to assist PetroCard in marketing Boat Haven to increase the number of tenants, address accounts that were in arrears and complete the improvements to which it had agreed.
The time for talking is over, Burke said.
“Look at our Boat Yard,” Burke said. “It’s a ghost town.”
Commissioners Burke and Connie Beauvais unanimously agreed to approve a resolution to provide $150,000 in matching funds to the Clallam County Economic Development Council for a Public Works and Economic Adjustment Assistance Award of $4.2 million.
The port is among the local beneficiaries of the award, which requires a total match of $1.1 million. The port will receive $300,000 in funding for preliminary engineering and environmental impact report for Terminal 1 and 3 repairs, as well as $200,000 for an Olympic Peninsula logistic improvement study.
Katharine Frazier, the port’s contracts and grants manager, said the agency also would benefit from the other projects funded by the grant, which included feasibility studies for a plywood mill and a publicly owned wood kiln and a workforce development training program at Peninsula College.
Commissioner Colleen McAleer abstained from voting on the resolution. Doing so would be a conflict of interest with her position as executive director of the EDC, she said.
McAleer also said she did not want to be considered for president of the board of commissioners during the election of officers Tuesday; she anticipated other resolutions coming before the board in near the future linked to the EDC and said she thought it best that someone else be president.
With that, Burke was elected president, McAleer vice president and Beauvais as secretary.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com
