PORT TOWNSEND — The Port of Port Townsend and the Northwest Maritime Center are considering a lease that would allow the maritime center to manage the adjacent Point Hudson.
Following an executive session Wednesday, commissioners approved a financial analysis on the maritime center’s Point Hudson proposal to determine whether it is a good deal for the port, Commissioner Steve Tucker said.
“The proposal is to do a master lease with them taking over [Point Hudson] either incrementally or all at once,” Tucker said.
“We would then be able to turn our attentions to the rest of the facilities we have.”
He said it’s not a done deal and that the port and Northwest Maritime Center still need to hammer out the details, but he’s optimistic about it.
Because of ongoing negotiations, he said he couldn’t provide much detail on the proposal.
Jake Beattie, executive director of the Northwest Maritime Center, said he has delivered a proposal for a long-term lease with the port, though he wouldn’t provide much detail.
“They’d like to think about it internally before it gets out,” he said.
Last year, the maritime center asked a group of community leaders, the Your Point Advisory Committee, to help in crafting a proposal to the Port of Port Townsend for the management and development of Point Hudson, the center says on a website devoted to the idea at yourpointhudson.org.
Point Hudson serves as the hub of the maritime center’s biggest annual events, such as the Wooden Boat Festival and Race to Alaska, which bring in tourists and community members.
Point Hudson has operated in the red since the Port of Port Townsend acquired it in the early 2000s, the website says.
It is now in need of $6 million in repairs, including the north and south breakwaters, which are at risk of failing.
The proposal is the result of about a year of conversations, Beattie said. He said the notion came up as port staff showed him around Point Hudson in fall 2016, talking about challenges in infrastructure investments and the business model for the area.
“It’s had robust internal vetting at this point,” he said. “They are doing some financial due diligence about what the money part of our proposal would mean to the port. We’ll go from there.”
He said the proposal fits in perfectly with the Northwest Maritime Center’s goals.
“It’s in this organization’s DNA to help save land for public access,” he said. “Point Hudson is clearly near and dear to the community.
“The proposal would lesson the pressure of development at Point Hudson while keeping it open to the public,” he said.
During the meeting Wednesday, Tucker said the maritime center proposal and lease negotiations are two topics that are “paralyzing” the port, and suggested the port put all other issues aside until those are resolved.
Commissioners Pete Hanke and Bill Putney disagreed.
Putney said he wants to spend time understanding the proposal and wouldn’t want a deal finalized until the end of summer.
“I think the maritime center proposal could be transformative,” he said. “It’s a shiny object that maybe we’re paying more attention to than we should.”
Putney said he wouldn’t want to put all of the port’s focus on the proposal.
“If we bet an awful lot on that, if our entire business plan turns on that single point, I think we’re putting ourselves at risk,” Putney said.
More information on the Northwest Maritime Center’s work can be found at yourpointhudson.org, and the port’s Point Hudson Development Strategy can be found at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-portpointhudson.
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.
